"Have you not read?" -- the importance of regular Bible reading

Back in October, when I first started up this blog, I posted on Phil. 1:27-28. A conversation with a couple of my readers went on for a week over the next five posts. (They make for very interesting reading, if you've just joined us here recently.) I vividly recall one particular snippet from an early reply... a reader acknowledged, "I admit that I know very little scripture."

This is an unfortunate reality for many people today.

We live in a culture that refuses to accept that there are, in fact, ultimate truths.

We live in a culture that refuses to accept that there are, in fact, ultimate truths - or "true truth" as Francis Schaeffer called it. As a result, it's extremely difficult for that culture to accept a book that claims to consist of nothing but truth about a God who cannot lie or change.

A recent survey by the Barna Group reveals the following:

• Around 45% of Americans claim to have read the Bible at least once in the previous week.
  
• More disturbingly, only two out of three "born-again Christians" have read the Bible in the past seven days.
• The younger the person, the less likely they are to read during a week: nearly 60% of those over 60 read once a week, but just over 30% of those under 25 will read the Bible once during a week.

Our collective knowledge of Scripture is even more embarassing, as other Barna Group surveys reveal:

• 49% of adults believe that the Bible teaches that money is the root of all evil.
• 75% believe that the Bible teaches that God helps those who help themselves.
• 12% believe that Noah's wife was Joan of Arc. (okay, this one's kinda funny!)
  

It is a sad fact that our culture, then, has chosen to become Biblically illiterate.

We who claim to follow Christ ought to be immersed in His word, reading it regularly and studying it diligently.

It's a tragedy of an altogether different nature, however, when professing Christians - like the reader quoted above - admit to a lack of knowledge of the very words of God! We who claim to follow Christ ought to be immersed in His word, reading it regularly and studying it diligently.

I searched for information on daily Bible reading, but couldn't find reliable information. Perhaps it's just as well I couldn't find statistics. After all, if a full one-third of professing Christians don't even read Scripture once a week, how few of us would be able to honestly say we read daily?

Jesus certainly expected people to have read and understood the Scriptures, as He often asked, "Have you not read...?" or "Do you not know...?"

So, it's with all this in mind that I want to encourage my readers to join me (and my wife, and many in our church) in reading through the Bible - cover to cover - during 2009. While it is also important to engage in regular study - where you dig in to a verse or short passage and consider its specific truths and applications - there are huge benefits to the 'big picture' view we get of God and the Bible by reading it this way.

Join me in reading through the Bible - cover to cover - during 2009.

We get a full-orbed understanding of God's character, we see Him working towards the completion of His redemptive plan, we catch glimpses of Christ throughout the OT, and we see God's hand throughout all of human history.

If you don't already have a Bible-in-a-year plan, jump in with us in the one we're using. You can even do it online with us if you'd like. I'll be posting mini-studies once a week or so on passages out of our daily readings, so you'll already be ahead of the game a little if you read with us.