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!