If you have ever eaten at a Cheesecake Factory I’m sure you have noticed the menu is huge. The selection is almost overwhelming. How it is possible for them to have such variety in stock and fresh. Obviously there is no expectation that one eat everything that is listed. So why is it that we sometimes think we have to read the entire Bible from cover to cover? Paul wrote to his friend Timothy, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” The Bible, God’s Word, is given to us to meet our daily needs. Just as we do not eat everything on a menu neither do we on a daily basis need everything that is in our Bibles.
The joy of feeding on God’s Word is absorbing what we need now. “Give us this day our daily bread.” Some days we need poetry. Other days we need the intellectual stimulation of Romans. Some days we need the power of Isaiah.
Please do not misunderstand what I am about to say because I have really good friends who enjoy reading the Bible from cover to cover. It works for them. But it doesn’t work for all of us. I know people who tell me they have read the entire Bible so I ask them to explain Daniel 12 or Leviticus 19 and they are stumped. I would rather read one chapter a year and understand its depths than read all 66 books and not know what I read.
If you are a cover to cover reader, bless you. I am thrilled for you. But for most of us finding what we need whether in I Kings or Ephesians is wonderful.
Written by Roger Bothwell on May 22, 2014
Spring of Life, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwell.org