A few years ago an acquaintance recommended I read a book by Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth called Lies Women Believe and the Truth that Sets Them Free. In this book Nancy explains that we believe the lie that “we can live our
daily life without reading the Bible and do a fine job and be happy”. But the truth is that we cannot. We need to read something from the Word of God daily. Once I realized it to be true I decided to make it a priority to read something from the Bible every day. It has made a huge difference in my knowledge and understanding of God, Jesus, and what He came to do. If you are a Christian you need to know what you believe from the source, The Bible itself. Not just what your preacher or your church culture says to do. What if they are wrong? What if they interpreted things differently and it stuck. What if your misunderstand your salvation based on what someone has implied the Bible says. Perhaps the biggest tragedy would be to be at the judgement seat and you were devoutly following the wrong teachings. Do you want to be at the end of your life and discover that you really never knew God on your own?
I am certainly not saying that our preachers are wrong or deliberately misleading us. The Bible does warn us of false teachers.
If someone spreads false teachings and does not agree with sound words (that is, those of our Lord Jesus Christ) and with the teaching that accords with godliness, he is conceited and understands nothing, but has an unhealthy interest in controversies and verbal disputes. This gives rise to envy, dissension, slanders, evil suspicions, and constant bickering by people corrupted in their minds and deprived of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a way of making a profit .
1 Timothy 6:3-5
The only way to know you are on the right track is to read and study the Bible yourself. Only then will you know the truth. Then you will not be able to be deceived.
Look at it like this. We live in a dark world. The news, movies, TV show and the internet give us constant bad news. The year 2020 will go down in history as the year with the most bad news. So how do you expect to get through your day and your life: Antidepressants, other drugs, alcohol, inappropriate relationships? We need something that will make us feel good, feel optimistic, have hope. The word of God gives us direction, literally, a flashlight in this dark word to find our way. Without it, we are lost to the darkness. King David knew it when he wrote the following verse.
“Your word is a lamp to guide my feet
and a light for my path.” Psalms 119:105
Some passages seem new every time I read them. This is what they mean when they say the word of God is alive.
“For the word of God is alive and powerful.”Hebrews 4:12
You may think that the Bible is dry or hard to understand. I used to think that way too when I thought the only translation was the King James Version. Then a discovered the New Living Translation. It still is the inspired word of God but in our current modern English that we understand. Nothing is more sacred because we say it in English that was spoken in the year 1611 when the King James Version was translated. That was 400 hundred years ago. The purpose of the King James Version was to translate the Bible into English so that non priests could read it. Up to that point all the Bibles were in Latin and could be only understood by those who read Latin mainly priests for the Catholic Church or the Church of England.
Have you ever watched an old movie from the 1930s or even the 1960s. Did you notice how differently people spoke back then? Imagine how many of our words and meanings in English has changed over 400 years. Give it another try with a modern translation. If you are as skeptical as I am go on Bible Gateway website and you can read every translation to make sure that you are reading it correctly. You can also learn Hebrew or Greek and translate it yourself. I took a New Testament Greek class in college. It was very enlightening. But for now just read an easy to understand translation like the New Living Translation. You can download it for your kindle or read it on line with Bible Gateway or a number of other sites. With today’s technology you no longer need to lug around a physical Bible. It is right there over the internet on your phone or tablet.
Take a break today from surfing the web or chatting with friends and tune into the words of your one true everlasting friend, God. You will find what you need. If you need guidance read Proverbs. If you need to know about your salvation read Romans and Hebrews. If you need to peace of mind and emotional stability read Philippians. If you are looking for poetic inspiration read a chapter of Psalms.
Maybe you want to make reading the whole Bible your goal. Start at Genesis and Mathew reading some from the Old Testament and the New Testament each day. Just start and do it every day. You will see the difference in your understanding of the world around you, your relationships and your joy. Happy reading!
For the Bible Gateway New Living Translation click on the link below
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+8&version=NLT
