Consume God’s Word as Never Before!

By David Ettinger

A Great Morning
As far as reading my Bible goes, it was a great morning. I read the final seven chapters of 2 Corinthians followed by the first seven chapters of 1 Samuel. In all the reading took 75 minutes, and it was wonderful!

Now, let me say this: I am 62 years, got divorced 34 years ago and never remarried, and my only child is almost 37 and moved out more than 15 years ago. In other words, I am your quintessential empty-nester with pretty much all the time in the world.  

On the other hand, one of my dear readers is far younger than me, and the mother of four dynamic children. She must fight and claw for every second of Bible time she can squeeze out of her dizzying days.

But I know many of my readers are closer to my situation than hers, and that neither they nor I are doing all we can to devote the time we have to reading our Bibles. And not just reading them, but consuming them!

Church Concerns
With the Covid-19 pandemic wreaking worldwide havoc, it’s incumbent upon Christians to not simply “make do,” but aggressively turn minuses into pluses.

The major area in which Christian lives have been altered is in attending church. Many churches in the U.S. are not meeting in person, worship services relegated to the Internet. And for those of us whose churches are open, fear of contracting the coronavirus is keeping us home anyway.

And there’s one other overarching concern regarding the Church in America. With a number of states mandating their closings, will this be the first step in a much larger strategy to obliterate Christianity from the U.S.? I know that’s quite the jump in logic, but with Satan pulling much of the strings here in post-Christian America, it’s possible.

One thing all the above has in common: It is beyond our control. We can do nothing about any of it. Sure, we can defy local, state, or national mandate by driving to church when they say we can’t, but if they station troops with real guns and bullets at the entrances, I guarantee you’re turning around and going home.

What We CAN Control
However, there is something every Western believer can control right here and now, and that’s  reading their Bibles. And not just reading in small portions, but consuming it like a starving man seated at a king’s table filled with the world’s choicest fare.

We spend way too much of our available time consumed in activities which will burn in the fire. Among these is watching an overabundance of TV news! Yes, tune in for 10 or 15 minutes to get the headlines, but then turn the infernal contraption off! You don’t need hours of analysis.

Rather, take the time you normally spend watching TV reading your Bible, and not just reading it, but consuming it! If you can, set aside three hours and see how far through the Book of Isaiah you can traverse. Or how about committing yourself to reading six or seven of the Minor Prophets in one sitting. Those are really short books, you can knock them off in rapid-fire succession, and you will learn way more from them than from Fox News or CNN.

Resolve to read your Bible as never before! We have no idea what’s coming to the West in these last days, so take advantage of the freedom you have to read your Bible anytime you want and for as long as you want. Swarms of Christians in the persecuted countries must read their Bibles in darkness as possessing Bibles is illegal. They read Scripture in peril of their lives.

Consume Away!
This is not the case here in the West, and it may never be, but Christians should act as though it were. What if we adopt the mindset that beginning January 1, 2021, Bible reading will be banned, and that all violators will be executed?

How would this revolutionize our Bible-reading practices? Drastically, I imagine. It would cause us to consume our Bibles as never before, and if so, why not start now?

Tagged: Christian Responsibility, Churches Closed, Covid-19, Reading the Bible, The Last Days

Posted in: Application, Christian Behavior, Christianity, Commentary, Culture, Current Events, Editorial/Blog, End Times, Practical, The Last Days