The other day I was talking with my daughter about her Bible reading.  She told me how her pastor was talking with his leadership team only to discover there were a number of people who haven't read the Bible within the past year.  Not everyone reads the whole Bible within a years time and there are real distractions that can happen.  The pastor decided this was an important issue for his leaders.  He made it part of the leadership guidelines that every person serving as an example in the church needs to read the Bible every year.  I thought about this.  I've served in different church leadership roles for over twenty years.   Never has this been required of me.   Why NOT?  This shouldn't be a revolutionary thing but it really is.   We take the discipline of Bible reading for granted way too often. We do it but we don't hold ourselves to it.  Yet the Bible is God's primary communication to us.  Every inspiration and revelation has to be tested by the Word to see if it is good.  I'll go so far as to say this, we can't really know God without reading the Bible.   Here's proof.

We read about king Josiah of Judah in the 2 Kings 22 and in 2 Chronicles 34. We're told that he did what was right in the sight of the Lord and walked in the ways of king David.  He did not go astray.   In his eighteenth year he wanted to have the temple cleaned and fixed.  This job was neglected by Josiah's father and grandfather because the were wicked, idol worshiping rulers.  The priests were given this job and in there work they found the scroll of the Law.  Upon reading it they became alarmed and brought it to the king.  When Josiah had read it he wept and anguished.  There was so much about God he did not know.  There were so many of God's laws being broken.  Josiah loved God and had a genuine relationship with God, but the lack of God's Word in his life kept him from really knowing God.

It's a new year.  This is a new blog.  Thank you to all who have encouraged me to start writing again.  Let's get into the Word and take the discipline of it seriously.  I can promise you it will bring times of conviction and remorse but you will never regret it.  It will build your faith.  (Romans 10:17)  It will shed light in dark places (Psalm 119:105),  and you will have a powerful relationship with God.

If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you will ask what you will and it shall be done unto you.   John 15:7