Scriptures - Helpful for Life

How's the Scripture reading going?

Some of you have worked real hard to stay up on the reading each week. Way to go!

Some of you tried, but got behind, stayed too busy, and just haven't been able to get into a weekly rhythm. Maybe you can give it a start again in January.

Some of you decided not to join us in reading through the Scriptures in a year. It's a free country!

This whole spiritual exercise (reading the Scriptures on purpose, and purposefully making time to do so takes discipline, hence Scripture reading is referred to as a Spiritual Discipline) brings to the forefront this question: is reading the Scriptures helpful for life?

There are many resources available to get help for life. If you don't think reading the Scriptures is helpful, or it hasn't proved helpful in the past, or you don't feel like you need that kind of help right now, then the incentive to read it diminishes greatly.

Of course reading the Scriptures can be confusing. It is a series of ancient writings, they are not always easy to understand - harder yet to know how to apply it to our life.

Yet the question remains: what role should Scripture reading play in the life of a regular Christian? How well should a normal Christian know their Bible?

To the degree that you want to know how to act rightly towards the people in your life, how to act wisely towards the people in your life, how to do good and please God, then reading the Scriptures will provide answers.

If you're not really that interested right now, it's not like God is mad at you. Maybe in twenty years you'll be real interested in getting some answers from the Scriptures. God will be ready for you then, just as much as he is ready now.

Of course the murkier you are on what God considers right, wise and good, the more likely you are to muddy up your relationships and make stupid, foolish decisions. But then you'd probably make mistakes anyways...everybody does. Sometimes reading the Scriptures helps you avoid making foolish mistakes, and alot of times they help you learn from your mistakes.

That's my experience.