The Conundrum of Daily Bible Reading (Part 3)

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The Conundrum of Daily Bible Reading (Part Three)

      I have a hopeless sweet tooth.  If I order Italian dressing, I always put a packet or two of sweetener on my salad.  If you are thinking, “Oh gag,” I get it.  What makes us people is that we are people – a lot the same, and lot different.  So, when it comes to daily Bible reading, it is impossible to pour Christians into the mold of one size fits all.

Still, in America we are those “to whom much is given” (Luke 12:48).  Of the 7,378 languages in the world, 3,883 do not have the Scriptures in their own language.1  In contrast, Bible Gateway puts over sixty versions of the Bible in English at our fingertips with a computer keystroke.2  Parts of our world live in biblical poverty; we are wealthy beyond measure.  If we can read, we have a responsibility to get into and stay into God’s word.

What follows are merely suggestions.  Not all of them will apply to everyone, but hopefully some of us will find ideas that motivate us to minimize the conundrum. 

Just do it!  Many of us just need to commit again to daily Bible reading.  Each time we get out of the routine, then recommit, that is a victory.  Focusing on failure rather than grasping the opportunity anew is counterproductive.  Start reading and feel good about it! If you hit a snag, don’t beat yourself up.  Start over again.  Just do it!

Choose a Readable Version.  Some Bible versions are designed to read easier.  A practical guide for determining the reading level of various Bible versions can be found at Christianbook.com.3  Some of the smartest people I know like the New Living Translation, yet it is rated at a 6th grade reading level.  Other versions like the New American Standard are rated at 11th grade, the English Standard at 10th grade, the New International at 8th grade, and the King James at 12th grade.  Regardless of your reading level, pick one that reads easily for you.

Follow a plan.  If you plan to read the whole Bible in a year, there are good plans you can follow for each day’s reading.  A clear direction always helps.  Do an online search or ask a Christian friend to help you find a reading schedule.  However, don’t assume that you must read through the Bible in a year.  That is a great goal, but if you want smaller portions for daily reading, select a Bible book and the number of verses you want to cover daily.  Slow and steady often wins the race.

Remember study is reading. A percentage of Christians prefer to do their own Bible study, digging deeper than a surface read.  That might be as a student learning from a good Bible teacher, as a Bible teacher yourself, or independently for personal benefit.  The vast majority of my own Bible reading has come through Bible study.  One of the conundrums we discussed is the need for someone to guide our understanding.  It is hard to think about reading what we don’t understand.  Sitting at the feet of gifted teachers, like the disciples at Jesus’ feet, still required me to read the Scriptures we were studying.  The same is true if I am preparing to teach.  Some argue that Bible study does not qualify as daily devotion in Bible reading, but I can’t find that verse in Scripture.  It most certainly does.

Stretch it out.  The Psalmist meditated on God’s word day and night (Psalm 119:97,148).  Meditation isn’t moving on to a new passage every day but reading the same Bible passage or Bible truth daily, either literally or in your mind.  To memorize Scripture, we have to read and recite it many times to get it cemented in our minds.  Taking a passage heard in a sermon or class and reading it daily throughout the week, thinking through its implication for life, is still reading and is powerful!

You can read the Scriptures and not know God.  Wrong conclusions drawn from Scripture or a purely academic approach does not lead to knowing God intimately. But for people of faith, we recognize that God speaks directly to us through his word in personal and powerful ways.  Getting into the word is not an intellectual exercise but a personal encounter with the living God in which we get to know him more completely.  Let’s think of ways to do this daily!

1https://wycliffe.net/resources/statistics

2https://www.biblegateway.com

3https://support.biblegateway.com/hc/en-us/articles/360001403747-What-are-the-reading-levels-of-the-Bibles-on-Bible-Gateway-

See also … https://christianbook.com/page/bibles/about/bible-translation-reading-levels

The Conundrum of Daily Bible Reading (Part 2)

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The Conundrum of Daily Bible Reading (Part 2)

I have known him for decades.  He is a dedicated Christian man, loving Christ and the church.  He is also a former minister.  He decided he would read through the Bible entirely in 2021.  And he did!  Many Christians embark on such a journey with varying results.  Some complete it; in fact, some do it annually.  Others begin and get bogged down.  Almost two years ago I told my family I planned to read through the entire Bible in 2020 beginning in January.  By the end of May I reported I had made it through Genesis!  Ugh!

There is no command in Scripture calling us to read through the Bible in a year so failing to do so is not an act of disobedience.  But somehow, when you set such a noble goal and don’t complete it, you feel like you let the Lord, the angels, your best friends and even the dog down.  So, a hearty well-done to my Christian brother who stayed with it.

However, my friend said something that resonated deeply with me.  This seasoned and biblically literate Christian man said, “There were so many places in the Bible that seemed confusing and impossible to understand.”  Because he’s a close friend, he continued, “I told myself repeatedly, ‘Gary I need your help,’ but I couldn’t keep bugging you.” Even this mature Christian needed guidance to understand portions of God’s word.

The Bible itself recognizes this conundrum.  An Ethiopian who was in charge of all the treasury for Candace, the queen of Ethiopia, had gone to Jerusalem to worship and was making his way home.  The Lord sent Philip to meet this man.  As he approached his chariot, Philip overheard him reading from Isaiah.  This was a prominent, well educated, literate man of faith with the means to possess the scroll of Isaiah.  Philip asked him if he understood what he was reading (Acts 8:26-30).

The Ethiopian official’s response is enlightening.  “How can I,” he said, “unless someone guides or instructs me?” (Acts 8:31 ESV, NLT). Philip did not say, “Keep reading the prophecies daily and you will get the hang of it.”  This man needed a teacher.

Everyone’s story is different, so I would never say what works for me is how everyone should grow in God’s word.  But I can say that the greatest stimulus to spiritual growth for me over the years came from teachers who helped me understand the Scriptures.  Classes on Old Testament history, Acts, Romans, the Life of Christ and many more gave me the needed understanding to get so much more out of my reading.

Jesus’ approach with the twelve should not surprise us. Before he turned these men loose on the world, he spent three years pouring his word into them.  Jesus spoke over 31,000 words in the gospels compared to the little more than 1,300 the apostles spoke.  The focus of the gospels is emphatically on Jesus’ in-depth teaching and on-the-job training.  Why? Because like the Ethiopian, like my Christian friend, and like me – they needed a teacher.

Two disciples were on the road to Emmaus.  They had come to believe that Jesus was the Messiah but now he had been crucified.  Following the resurrection they ran into Jesus, did not recognize him, and still believed that he was dead. Their hope had died with him, or so they thought (Luke 24:13-24).

Jesus responded, “’How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken!  Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?’ And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself” (Lk. 24:25-27 NIV). Do you think from that point on those disciples ever read the Scriptures the same again?  It took the Teacher to open their eyes.

So, even the Bible indicates that for most daily Bible reading needs an assist.  That, along with other obstacles we have identified, are some of the problems that make daily Bible reading a “conundrum” for many Christians.  The final post will not offer a magic bullet. There are too many variables among individuals to give a one size fits all response.  However, it will offer some practical suggestions to help us be more consistent in getting into the Bible.  Once again, stay tuned for part three.

The Conundrum of Daily Bible Reading (Part 1)

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The Conundrum of Daily Bible Reading (Part One)

For over four decades I have mustered all of the passion and eloquence I could find to extol the virtues of daily Bible reading (DBR). When given the chance I still do so. DBR is as basic a Christian discipline as you can find. Whether ten minutes or large blocks, allowing the mind of God to invade your own is a key in building the deepest possible relationship with the Lord.

I faced a conundrum, however.  DBR posed a difficult and complex problem for me.  Although I supported it forcefully in preaching, I was never entirely successful in doing it myself.  Hypocrite you say! Not really. I preached the value of DBR; I never said that I was successful in maintaining a program of daily Bible reading personally.

My admiration of those who do goes through the roof.  The most notable example I know of is my former college roommate and current brother-in-law.  In the dorm I watched R. J. start early mornings religiously with daily Bible reading – not for class – but for his own growth.  Decades later it is still his daily regimen.  To know the number of times he has read through the Bible in his adult life would boggle even a Bible reader’s mind.

So, what went wrong with me?  I recently took an online profile from Psychology Today that confirmed what I have known forever.  I am borderline ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). I start a routine, get bored with it or get sidetracked, and I’m on to something else.  I don’t try to be this way – I just am.  So many times I have started a daily regimen of reading only to get a few days under my belt, and then the inevitable – I don’t stay with it.

Some have asked, “How can someone with a doctorate, who has held successful ministries, written books and articles, who teaches in a university struggle with this?” Such people have not seen the number of books I started to write and never finished; the books in my extensive library that are highlighted through only the first 90 pages but not finished; the programs I started at home or on the job and gave up on too quickly; and yes, the times I started a regimen of DBR which lasted only a few days before I moved on.

That’s my story, and as they say, I am sticking to it.  Some who are like me understand how real that struggle is.  But others face DBR as a conundrum as well.  For some, the old duo of “fatigue and time pressure” are not unfounded myths.  That describes their world.  With draining and demanding time-consuming jobs, families that need time and attention, cars and homes that need upkeep, health problems that zap alertness and concentration, relationship crises and more – the right combination of any of these makes the failure to read the Bible daily not an excuse but a valid reason.

Even in America, literacy is no small problem either.  If we have had the good fortune to learn how to read with ease it can be difficult to remember that some have trouble recognizing and pronouncing even simple words.  We can cry “read your Bible” all we want, but it’s like telling  right handed people to write in a journal everyday with their left hand.  It is not going to happen.

I think often of the early church, when people came to Christ and served in newly formed churches before the New Testament Scriptures were even written.  Once written, in the pre-printing press age with scarce writing materials, many had no access to the written word.  How did they possibly come to Christ, growing and maturing in him?

My point is not that we are unreasonable to urge people to develop the discipline of daily Bible reading.  We should do so.  I will continue to lobby for it.  I will keep trying to stay with it, even if I fail again. We should, however, understand that there is a segment of society that needs another route to do what Peter calls us to.  “Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 3:18).  We will tackle some aspects of this conundrum in a few days in parts two and three, so check in soon.