There is no substitute for this
One of the great things about getting someone elses devotions is knowing when they finish their Bible and start again. My Pastor, Austin Gardner finished his Bible yesterday. I called and emailed him to tell him how proud I was of him! That may sound a little strange, but I am glad to have an example like Brother Austin to follow. I asked him to write about the first time he read the bible through and what motivated him to do it.
Here it is.
“I really do not remember the first time I read my Bible all the way through. I was either 15 or 16. My parents gave me a new Bible and I was very excited about having it. Our pastor was very big on reading the Bible through and I decided to read 3 and 4 chapters a day and read the Bible through. I remember how hard I found it many days because I was reading things that I had really never read but I was learning things all along the way. For me it took lots of discipline. I read many days just because I said that I would.
I did know one thing and that was that I really loved God and the Bible. I wanted to please Him and to know Him. I would make notes in the back of that Bible about things that I was finding. I would mark my place. If I remember right my mother and dad were also reading their Bible through each year at that time as was my pastor and many in my church.
It was then that God began to allow me to teach a Sunday School class every now and then and my pastor allowed me to preach to the entire church when he traveled. I loved it. I wanted more of it. I remember deciding that I would no longer accept what I believed because my parents said it but rather I would study the Bible and find out for myself. I wanted to know that I believed it for my self based on the Word of God.
I have now read my Bible through at least once every year since then for a total of about 37 years except for one year. That was the year I was learning Spanish in Mexico and that year I decided to read the Bible through in Spanish and could not get it done in one year. I love reading the Bible every morning before I start my day.”
I am looking for testimonies of your first reading through of the Bible and what motivated you.
Send your testimony via email and I will post it.
There is no substitute for daily reading and regular reading through of the Bible.
I have been reading my Bible for nearly as long as I have been reading. I remember making a ‘decision’ that I wanted to be a Christian when I was a small child, but as I continued to read my bible I noticed a huge disparity between people who followed Christ in the bible and my life.
Fast forward to the time when I was 26 years old and my life had fallen apart due to the effects of years and years of sin and following after my own pleasure under the guise being a good christian lad.
One day I was riding a train to work in Chicago and I don’t remember what prompted the thought but suddenly I became aware of how utterly terrible I was and shockingly aware of how much Jesus loved me inspite of who I was.
That evening when I got home I sat in my bed and picked up my bible and began to read. I started in Matthew and read straight through to 2 Corinthians. The next night I finished the New Testament. Then I completed the Old Testament within the next month or so.
Soon a man showed up in my life and said that he ’sensed a spiritual hunger in my life’ and asked if he could walk through the bible with me, give me a high level over view of the bible and then leave me to fill in the details the rest of my life. We did this for 9 months.
Since that initial night of beginning in Matthew I have had a love affair with God through His word. I am just now (after all these years) beginning to see Bible reading and a prayer life as insperably linked.
While I have my protracted time of bible reading each day, I cut and paste passages from the bible on line and print them off. I keep the piece of paper folded in my pocket and I ‘chew’ on it all day.
Dt 32:47 For it is no empty word for you, it is your very life….