The Importance of reading the Whole Bible

Towards the end of his life the apostle Paul wrote the following words to Timothy "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." ( 2 Timothy 3: 16-17). I expect if we are being honest many of us probably have whole sections of the Bible which we rarely read. Yet here Paul is saying that all Scripture is God-breathed and useful. Yes that does include the second half of Exodus and the book of Leviticus! To enable us to get the most out of God's word it is important that we read it all. If we only read the New Testament then we are missing out on seeing all God did in the Old Testament with his people Israel. There are so many great and inspiring stories in the Old Testament: Ruth loyalty to her mother-in law Naomi (Ruth 1:16-17); Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego's determination not to compromise their faith (Daniel 3)and David humbling himself before God after his sin with Bathsheba (Psalm 51) to name but three. Although reading the whole Bible can seem a daunting challenge, it is relatively easy to read it all the way through in a year. If you spent 20 minutes a day reading the Scriptures you will read the whole of the Bible in a year. Most of us can find 20 minutes to spare to do this and if that seems too much, how about 10 minutes in the morning and another 10 minutes in the evening? When you think about how long we spend watching television or on the internet surely that is not too difficult to do! There are many different readings plan available to use. I'm currently using one by Rev M'Cheyne, which you can find a link to on my website. Alternatively just go into your favourite search engine and type in "Bible Reading Plans". However, it does not really matter what plan you use the important thing is to get started and discover the benefits of reading the whole Bible!