11 MARCH
THE SEVEN BIBLES
“This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous and then thou shalt have good success.” (Joshua 1:8, KJV)
Many Christians own at least one Bible but it is said that most American homes have between four to seven. That is approximately one for each day! I have personally found it very useful to meditate and understand the Scriptures more, from reading different versions, as well different commentaries among which I have found the Life Application Study Bible exceedingly useful.
These days, Bibles are downloaded in laptops, tablets and phones. So, we carry them everywhere; but how often do we read them? May our seven Bibles be useful for our Christian growth and not be used in judgement against us!
There are 1,189 chapters in the Holy Bible. If we read only one chapter a day, we will complete the whole Bible in just over three years. You can even read three chapters daily to complete the Bible in one year. There are 31,102 verses in the Bible. If we read twenty or ten verses daily, we will read the whole Bible in just over four or eight years.
Which do you choose? It does not really matter if you set a target and fall short, as long as you read, meditate, understand, learn, and obey to make your way be prosperous and have good success.
I once read somewhere of a home in which a girl child pointed to the Bible on the mantle that was never opened, and said to her mother, “Whose book is that?” Her mother quite startled by her daughters question replied, “Why honey, don’t you know? That is God’s book!” Practically, the child said, “Don’t you think that we had better give it back to him? No one around here ever reads it.”
May our homes and lives not be so negligent of God’s Word.
ACTION: Set your own pace for reading the Bible consistently. Find someone to join you or join a group, so you can encourage one another as iron sharpens iron.
PRAYER: Father God, please give me the grace to read and mediate on your Word more and more, day after day. Holy Spirit, my Teacher, please help me to understand the Word I read, in Jesus’ name.