Reading the Bible

Many times, preachers get into the habit of not reading their Bibles.

What?  What do you mean?  I prepare sermons every week from the Bible!

Yes, I understand that.  I do the same thing.  However, this morning a realization hit me.  I’ve been studying specific passages of the Bible in preparation for a certain lesson; but I hadn’t just been reading the Bible.

Many times, preachers kinda know what they want to preach on, or what text they want to bring to light, and then they dig into that text.  They spend so much time doing that, that they trick themselves into thinking that they’ve done enough Bible reading for the week.  I know I’m not alone in this.  I’ve heard other preachers say the same thing.

This morning, I woke up around 2 in the morning (after going to sleep around 11:30), and was wide awake.  After a couple hours in vain of trying to go back to sleep, I got up with a flashlight and began reading Matthew.  So many things were there that I’d just plain forgotten about.  And literally dozens of sermon ideas and articles ideas hit me—and I was tempted to stop and write them down, but I wanted to keep reading.

Reading God’s word was freeing.  It was a great pleasure.  It was instructive.  It was corrective.  It was enlightening.

And I only got through Matthew 12.

It’s no wonder that one of my heroes, Harold Turner, made it a point to read through the New Testament once every month.

I can’t wait to do this again.

–Bradley Cobb

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