We live in a world where large numbers of Bibles are printed every day. New translations appear with some regularity, and each becomes something of a bestseller. It would be interesting to know what use is made of these Bibles. No doubt some of them become dog-eared by zealous readers. No doubt others are assigned to a place of undisturbed rest on a bookshelf. Still others fall into the hands of new owners who read them once in a while at bedtime—just a few verses until they find some helpful thought…or become sleepy.

However, the Bible is not designed to be a sleep-aid. Rather, it is a set of orders for an army on the march—a handbook for people in the trenches. The enemy is the demonic. At stake is eternity itself. Furthermore, the Bible was not written merely for private devotions, and certainly was never meant to be read in snippets of only five or six verses. It does not disclose its meaning to a hasty or superficial skimming. Unfortunately the very familiarity of many of its words sometimes leads to a shallow understanding of their meaning. We moderns do well to remember that those who first spoke the word of the living God to humanity spoke words that endangered their own lives and shook to the depths the lives of those who heard them.

In his insightful study, The Kingdom of God (©1993, Abingdon Press), author John Bright states:

"There has grown up in the Church, alongside a total neglect of the Bible, a dangerous partial use of it. As a Church we declare that the Bible is the Word of God, and we draw no distinctions between its parts. But in practice we confine our use of it almost entirely to selected sections—the Gospels and the Psalms, portions of Paul and the prophets—and ignore the rest as completely as if it had never been written. The result is that we not only neglect much that is valuable but, what is worse, miss the deepest meaning of the very parts we use because we lift them from their larger context."

We ignore what Bright has to say to our peril. If we neglect to do our homework on the biblical text, the Jesus of inspiration soon becomes the Jesus of imagination—and the Church involves itself in the latest issue rather than in the eternal issue.

In my early years in parish ministry, I used to exhort people to read the Bible—and I still do. But these days when I exhort people to read the Bible, I know that many are thinking to themselves, "Show us how, Reverend, show us how!"

The older I get, the more I am convinced that we who are the teachers and leaders in the church have a God-given obligation to show our people how to undertake a meaningful walk through the Bible, and walk through it with them. The walk takes time and effort—for both those who lead and those who follow. However, when it is undertaken, those involved are empowered to see and do things they never dreamt possible.

We encourage you to take the time to make the journey. Crossways International stands ready to help you read and lead others to make it as well. We would love to hear from you.

In Him,

Harry Wendt
President. Crossways International