A challenge

The time has come once again for our pastor to challenge us to read our bibles through, cover to cover, in the coming year. I am extending that challenge to all my readers out there.

The Bible is the most important book in the world and holds the key to life. We should read our Bibles more than anything else. How else will we know God and what pleases Him?

Just a little math:

We have 168 hours in every week.

A Tithe on that would be would be 16.8 hours. If you remove two hours on Sunday and one on Wednesday for church you have 13.8 hours left. That leaves about 2 hours per day for you to give to God just to equal a tithe. (And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land, or of the fruit of the tree, is the LORD'S: it is holy unto the LORD. Lev 27:30) Your hours are something God gives to you so they are something you should tithe on.

The average American spends 28 hours/week (more than 4 hours per day) watching TV and 56 hours sleeping, just for perspective.

Now I am not really going to challenge you to spend 2 hours per day in praying and reading your Bible.

I am going to challenge you to do four things.

1) Read two chapters of the Bible to yourself every morning and spend five minutes in prayer. This whole thing should take you a whole 15 minutes. Doesn’t you relationship with God deserve a MINIMUM of 15 minutes every morning?

2) Read one chapter of the Bible with your spouse and pray every day. This activity will draw you closer to each other as it draws you closer to God.

3) Read one chapter to you children and pray every evening. From the founding of this country until the invention of television a family that claimed to be Christian was assumed to be doing this (plus sing a hymn, but I won’t scare you by challenging you to do that.) This was simply what Christians did. We have replaced the “Family Alter” and often the “Family Table” with the “Family Entertainment Center.”

4) Actually go to church every week.

This will get you through the Bible in a year, draw you closer to God, and open up doors you wouldn’t believe to work for Him.

Where do I start?

Start in Genesis with your children, John with your mate and Psalms in your alone time with God. This begins to train your children in a biblical world view; something very few CHRISTIAN children are being trained in. it will also start you and your mate in becoming familiar with the words of Jesus. And what better way to begin the day than with the praises of Psalms?

Just keep reading straight through until you come to a book you have already read. Then pick something you haven’t read this year and read it. Keep a list of each book as you finish it so you know where you stand.

Or the internet has many “read through the Bible in a year” programs and many charts of each chapter where you cross each one off as you read it.

The important thing is to actually read the foundational document of your religion; to actually learn what it is you are saying you believe.