Take Up and Read

As the summer months ebb away I want to issue a challenge to all in the household of God, take up and read. But my challenge does not embrace the latest blockbusters that enable you talk with relevance at the coffee shop. In fact my challenge may make you irrelevant at the coffee shop, texting with your friends or on my space. I am challenging you to take a book of the Bible and take up and read. Here is how it goes:

- Choose a book of the Bible. (tip: don’t choose Ezekiel or Revelation if you have never read through the whole Bible once, choose 1 John instead.)

- Choose a time to sit and read the book through one time silently. (tip: time is God’s gift given to you to steward.)

- Choose a time to sit and read the book through out loud. (tip: time is created and sustained by God for his glory and your good)

- Choose a time to sit and read the book through prayerfully. (tip: talk with God about his word in thoughts of praise, thanksgiving, confession and supplication; talk about what you understand and what you don’t understand.)

- Write down the main thought of the book, each chapter and each section within those chapters.

- Take the Bible Book Test: tell someone who wrote the book and the main thought of each chapter. (tip: do this in person and give them an opportunity to talk with you about what you are learning.)

- Choose a time to read a good online commentary on the book. (tip: use free commentaries at http://www.monergism.com/directory/link_category/Commentaries/; read one chapter of the book and then the corresponding section of the commentary at a sitting and write your own thoughts in reflection upon reading.

- Send me an email telling me what difference God has made in your life by teaching, reproving, correcting and training you in righteousness with his profitable word. (tip: you can email me at redeemerpres@bellsouth.net

I hope you will take up and read with some time given you this summer. God is concerned with how we conduct our lives as the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of truth (1Tim.3:15). May God grant you the grace of faith to read with a hunger and thirst for tasting and seeing that the Lord is good (Ps.34:8), may he grant you his grace through his Spirit to understand his word that is spiritually discerned (1Cor.2:14), and may he grant you grace to be changed by his word for his glory and yours and your neighbors good.