HAPPY NEW YEAR! RESOLUTION ANYONE?

Yea, I know. Most New Year’s resolutions fall by the wayside by February. I’ve done my share of those. But let me strongly encourage you as you are making your New Year’s Resolutions you should add the resolution to read through the entire Bible in 2009—a great habit to start if you haven’t already. As a matter of fact, make this your number one resolution. There is no other that will benefit you more.

Let me first share with you below something funny to hopefully help motivate you. You may have seen this before in a church bulletin or elsewhere.

Top 10 Signs You’re Not Reading Your Bible Enough
10. The preacher announces that the sermon is from Genesis and you check the table of contents.
9. You think Abraham, Isaac and Jacob may have had a few hit songs during the ’60’s.
8. You open to the Psalms and a WWII savings bond falls out.
7. When asked, you say that your favorite Old Testament patriarch is Hercules.
6. Your favorite Bible verse is “cleanliness is next to godliness.”
5. You become frustrated because Charlton Heston isn’t listed in the concordance.
4. Catching the kids reading the Song of Solomon, you demand: “Who gave you this stuff?”
3. You think the Minor Prophets are a Little League team.
2. The kids keep asking too many questions about your usual bedtime story: “Jonah the Shepherd Boy and His Ark of many colors.”
And the #1 sign you may not be reading your Bible enough…
1. You keep falling for it every time the preacher tells you to turn to the book of Hezekiah.

In all seriousness; this year I’m trying to emphasize and encourage the Central church to get into the Word more and I believe the first of the year is a great time for such a re-commitment.

There is no greater activity for our personal satisfaction and spiritual development than meditating on the Word. Jesus’ response to the Devil’s temptations and His ability to sustain Himself in the desert will forever inspire and motivate me in my resolve to feed on His word. But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’” (Matt. 4: 4) According to Jesus, the sustenance and nourishment He truly needed - even after fasting for forty days - came from the Word of God. There’s nothing better than what is written.

Now to accomplish this goal I suggest following a good Bible Reading Schedule (one that contains readings daily from both the Old Testament and New Testament. I’d recommend the ESV.org site has several one-year Bible reading plans to choose from. Most of them can be downloaded as a PDF file and all of them can be subscribed to by Email, RSS, read online in your web browser or read on your mobile device. Many other schedules are available online. Just do an internet search for “Bible reading schedule” and you’ll find plenty to choose from.

Perhaps the task seems daunting to you, but if you’ll follow each day’s reading, you’ll make it by the end of the year!

Happy New Year Reading!

Robert Prater