HOW LONG IS IT SINCE YOU READ THROUGH THE BIBLE?

Read The Bible

Yesterday I picked up a new bible. My last one was size 8 font, only one column, and difficult on my eyes while preaching. My new one? It’s amazing. It’s genuine leather. It’s 10.5 font, has two columns, and much better on my eyes.

Whenever I get a new bible, I just want to read it! Is that your experience with a new bible? It’s probably our experience with most new things! We like new things, but quickly forget about them. New toys at Christmas are immediately enjoyed but quickly forgotten into the New Year.

I’ve been slowly reading through J.I. Packer’s classic Knowing God and this morning in his chapter on ‘God’s Wisdom and Ours’, I was struck by this quote:

How long is it since you read right through the Bible? Do you spend as much time with the Bible each day as you do even with the newspaper? What fools some of us are! – and we remain fools all our lives, simply because we will not take the trouble to do what has to be done to receive the wisdom which is God’s free gift.

J.I. Packer – Knowing God

#Boom. The amount of time I spend reading newspapers (online) and social media significantly outweighs my time in God’s word. Australians spend an average of 1.7 hours a day on Facebook. That’s a little scary.

So I stopped reading Packer and picked up my new Bible and started reading using the Daily Lectionary Bible reading plan from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer (you can read it online or follow it in the ESV app). Basically this plan enables you to read the Old Testament once and the New Testament twice each year.

Are you spending deliberate time in the Bible each day?

If not, don’t wait until the New Year to make a resolution to start, do it now! Check these resources if you need help finding a plan.

I’m praying that even when my bible is no longer new, I’d know that God’s mercies are new every morning and that God would give me the attitude of the Psalmist in the stanza below to His Word.

Daleth
My soul clings to the dust;
give me life according to your word!
When I told of my ways, you answered me;
teach me your statutes!
Make me understand the way of your precepts,
and I will meditate on your wondrous works.
My soul melts away for sorrow;
strengthen me according to your word!
Put false ways far from me
and graciously teach me your law!
I have chosen the way of faithfulness;
I set your rules before me.
I cling to your testimonies, O LORD;
let me not be put to shame!
I will run in the way of your commandments
when you enlarge my heart!

(Psalm 119:25-32 ESV)

// THE MAJESTY OF GOD

INSTAGRAM YO

#KnowingGod #Chapter8:

“To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him? says the Holy One.” (Isaiah 40:25 #ESV)

#JIPacker: “This question rebukes wrong thoughts about God. ‘Your thoughts of God are too human,’ said Luther to Erasmus. This is where most of us go astray. Our thoughts of God are not great enough; we fail to reckon with the reality of his limitless wisdom and power. Because we ourselves are limited and weak, we imagine that at some points God is too, and find it hard to believe that he is not. We think of God as too much like what we are. Put this mistake right, says God; learn to acknowledge the full majesty of your incomparable God and Saviour.”

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// GOD UNCHANGING

INSTAGRAM YO

#KnowingGod #JIPacker #Chapter7:

“God does not change…

1. God’s life does not change…

2. God’s character does not change…

3. God’s truth does not change…

4. God’s ways do not change…

5. God’s purposes do not change…

6. God’s Son does not change. Jesus Christ is ‘the same yesterday and today and for ever’ (Heb. 13: 8), and his touch has still its ancient power. It still remains true that ‘he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them’ (Heb. 7: 25). He never changes. This fact is the strong consolation of all God’s people.”

#books #quotes #Melbourne #Christianity #melblyf #melbourneCBD #melbournecity #truth #vsco #theology #socality #gospel #faith #church #flindersstreet #sunset

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// HE SHALL TESTIFY

INSTAGRAM YO

#KnowingGod #JIPacker #Chapter6…

“But is the work of the Holy Spirit really important? Important! Why, were it not for the work of the Holy Spirit there would be no gospel, no faith, no church, no Christianity in the world at all.”

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// GOD INCARNATE

INSTAGRAM YO

#KnowingGod #JIPacker #Chapter5…

“‘The Word became flesh’ (John 1: 14); God became man; the divine Son became a Jew; the Almighty appeared on earth as a helpless human baby, unable to do more than lie and stare and wriggle and make noises, needing to be fed and changed and taught to talk like any other child. And there was no illusion or deception in this: the babyhood of the Son of God was a reality. The more you think about it, the more staggering it gets. Nothing in fiction is so fantastic as is this truth of the incarnation.”

#books #quotes #Melbourne #Christianity #melblyf #camberwell #classiccamberwell #cityhall #bluesky #aussieflag #melbournebuilding #God #GodTheSon #TheSonOfGod #Jesus #incarnation #truth #vsco #theology #socality

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// THE ONLY TRUE GOD

INSTAGRAM YO

#JIPacker #KnowingGod #chapter4…

“God did not show them a visible symbol of himself, but spoke to them; therefore they are not now to seek visible symbols of God, but simply to obey his word.”

#books #quotes #inspiration #theology #Christianity #Melbourne #melbournelaneways #melbournegraffiti #trudat #vsco #blackandwhitephotography

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// PEOPLE WHO KNOW THEIR GOD

INSTAGRAM YO

#KnowingGod #JIPacker #Chapter2…

“One can know a great deal about God without much knowledge of him… One can know a great deal about godliness without much knowledge of God.” “Do we desire such knowledge of God? […] First, we must recognise how much we lack knowledge of God. We must learn to measure ourselves, not by our knowledge about God, not by our gifts and responsibilities in the church, but by how we pray and what goes on in our hearts. […] Second, we must seek the Saviour. When he was on earth, he invited men to company with him; thus they came to know him, and in knowing him to know his Father.”

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