When I was a kid, and into my teens, one of my best friends was the daughter of a Pentecostal preacher. I was privy to many of the ins and outs of their family life. I saw what went on in their home, behind closed doors-admittedly with company behind those same closed doors. I saw how they were on a 'Church' day and on a regular week day. I heard their conversations, took part in their prayers, went on vacations with them. In many ways I was another member of the family and whether it was my friendship with their daughter or something else, they treated me much as they did their own children.
But there were things in their home that I was not a part of. While they treated me as they did their children while I was with them, whether it was buying something for me that they bought for their own children or getting on to me just as they did their children, I was one of them. Except when it came to certain tasks. I was expected to clean up my messes in their home, right along with their kids, and I was expected to follow the rules in their home, something I was happy to do just to get to be at my friends house, but I was never assigned chores while I was at their house and I was never given the assignments that my friend was.
Whether it was a school day, a Sunday, or summer vacation, my friend was expected to read a certain number of chapters in the Bible each day. Sundays brought the requirement for reading extra chapters too. There were many days that my friend brought her Bible to school to get her required reading for the day completed.
I remember being surprised that she was required to read the Bible. Not only that she had to read it but that she had to read it each and every day. It didn't matter if she had school that day. If she was on vacation. No matter what was happening she had to read her Bible. That was a foreign thought to me. I had seen my grandmother read her Bible from time to time, usually on a Sunday sitting in a 'Church'. I may have seen my mother read her Bible, but as I sit writing this, I cannot recall seeing my mother read a Bible in my childhood. I'm sure that's my own faulty memory though.
And quite honestly, I can't recall seeing anyone else read their Bible outside of a 'church'. Again, it could be my own faulty memory but what I do know is that there was no one in my life that read their Bible regularly enough for it to have made enough of an impression on me for the memory to have stayed with me into adulthood.
But then I became best friends with a preachers daughter. It was a whole new experience for me. And I was the great granddaughter of a preacher, although he died before I was born, I was the granddaughter of the daughter of a preacher. Still, being friends with a preachers daughter opened up a whole new world to me.
I'm sure if I was to have that same inside track to a preachers family today I would see things a bit differently than I did as a child. Back then, though, the main thing I noted was the difference in little things, like requiring their children to read the Bible every day.
I sat with my friend many times as she got her daily reading done. We talked of that reading many times. Sitting here today, I cannot say that what her parents required of her was a bad thing. No reading of Scripture is ever a bad thing. But I can't say it was the good thing they probably thought it was either.
Since that friendship, a friendship long since lost to time and moves, I have met and come across many other people that put great importance on reading the Bible every day. Again, I'm not saying it's a bad thing because reading Scripture is never a bad thing. Even a person that puts no faith in the Lord and believes the Bible to be a bunch of made of fairy tales benefits from reading any portion of Scripture, whether they know it or not. But I cannot say that I see the great importance that some people see in reading Scripture every day.
Now, I know that there are many people that would be shocked to hear me, or anyone, say such a thing. They would splutter and go into a great explanation of why everyone should read their Bible every day. They may give Bible verses to support what they're saying. Don't misunderstand me, reading your Bible is wonderful. Read it everyday, all day long, if you want to. You will never waste your time reading Scripture. I'm not for a single second suggesting that anyone not read their Bible.
What I'm saying is that there are multitudes of people out there that say a person should, even must, read their Bibles every single day. I've heard them say it, seen books written to help a person do just that, even seen them write it on blogs and social media.
The majority of the Bibles I own even have pages dedicated to what they call a 'reading plan'. That plan is there to help you get in the 'habit' of reading your Bible every day. They often have a schedule to help you read through your Bible in a year.
Again, I'm not saying these things are bad.
But...
Remember taking math in high school (or reading, English, science, whatever class you absolutely despised)? Remember the torture of working your way through an assignment, or chapter? Remember how you struggled to get through what you had to do in order to get it behind you and move on to what you wanted to do?
Every so often my husband and I discuss our days in school and the subjects we loved and hated. I eagerly went to English class (although I suffered through sentence structure and verbs and nouns and...whatever else they taught about making proper sentences). I took every reading and writing class I could, even repeating the same class if a new one wasn't offered and the school administration would allow me to. I loved those reading and writing classes. They were fun in a day filled with work and drudgery. I survived every despised math class and suffered through P.E. classes.
My husband, on the other hand, was the opposite. He eagerly went to all P.E. classes, even signing up for extras by joining sports teams, and enjoyed math. But English classes were what he suffered through and he avoided reading and writing classes like the plague.
What makes proponents of daily Bible reading think there's any difference to their instructions to read the Bible?
I can't count the number of times I watched my friend rush through reading her daily assigned Bible chapters so she could set the Bible aside to play or read a book of her choice. In high school, I watched her rush through reading the Bible to set it aside and pick up a contemporary romance novel.
I have an account on social media and most of my friends on their are 'Christians'. Whether or not they are Christians is between them and the Lord. I have seen these 'Christians' post things about their daily Bible reading, how many chapters they got, how far they are into their goal of Scripture reading, even how many hours they spent reading their Bible. And I have seen those same people post things promoting and endorsing movies and music that do not hold to Scriptural standards. I have seen them post curse words and selfish ambitions.
But even all of that has not led me to write this post. No, what prompted this post is something that goes so far beyond all of that that most people simply would not get it or would deny that they are in that group of people wasting their time by 'assigning' themselves to daily read the Bible. Not that Bible reading is a waste of time.
It's just that when someone reads the Bible and gets it all wrong...does it do them any good to read Scripture?
I know some ladies that are about to have a crochet class. In this class one lady is going to instruct the other ladies on making an afghan. The reason for this class is that the woman giving the instructions made an afghan and gave it to another lady, the other women saw the gifted blanket and loved the pattern, asking the instructor if she would teach them how to make that afghan.
Now most of these ladies already know how to crochet, but some do not. Regardless of the skill level of the women participating in this class, how much good would it do them if the instructor gave the instruction but the women mixed them all up? It might turn out okay if the instructor said to use white yarn and the women used a different color but what would happen if the instructor told them to use white yard and they used brown material instead? What would happen if instead of getting a crochet hook, the women got a chain saw?
Reading the Scriptures is wonderful. It is profitable. Even the most unregenerate person in the world would benefit from reading the Bible. If all a person gets from reading Scripture is how to be a better person...well, think how much better the world would be if every person simply lived according to the laws of the Ten Commandments. So I'm in no way saying a person should not read Scripture. I think it would be great if everyone read Scripture.
But there's a difference in reading Scripture as it is written and in reading Scripture and twisting it to make it into what a person wants it to be.
A while back a reader on my blog left a comment that I very much agree with, they said something to the effect of, if a person reads Scripture from the lens of what they believe, they will see their beliefs in Scripture. I firmly believe that and I agree wholeheartedly. I think that is what allows all the different denominations to use the same Bible and yet believe things totally opposite of each other. I think it is what allows people to say they are 'Christians' but live a life that is far different from what Scripture says a Christian is.
Just this last week a popular 'Christian' author made some statements that caused a popular 'Christian' bookstore to stop selling her books. Now, let me say that I had never heard of this author until I saw the news articles about what she said and that the bookstore would no longer be selling her books. I know nothing about this woman or her beliefs. But I do know that what she said goes against what Scripture teaches. And yet...this woman claims to be a 'Christian'. Her books sold, and probably still sell, in 'Christian' bookstores. There are most likely 'Churches' with her books in their libraries. And this woman, a 'Christian' author, made a statement that defies Scripture.
How did she come to the beliefs she held while claiming to be a 'Christian'? Did she read her Bible every day? Did she go to Bible studies? Did she pray for guidance and understanding, as so many advocate, before reading her Bible? Did she journal in her Bible? Did she set aside the first hour of her day to read in her Bible, 'giving' her day to God? I honestly have no idea. I don't know what this woman did or how she came by her thoughts. I don't even know what she wrote about. All I know is what I saw in news articles.
But from that tiny bit of knowledge I can see in this woman so much of what can clearly be seen in so many 'Christians'.
And I must wonder at the 'Christians' that advocate, even push, daily Bible reading. Bible reading is never bad but...what good does it do a person to approach Scripture when they take from it something that is wrong?
I was in a 'Church' one time where the preacher taught that 1 John is a book to test our faith by. After the service I approached the preacher and thanked him for teaching on that topic. It was the first time I had ever heard a preacher teach that and I knew most people had no idea that they could test their faith with only that single book in Scripture.
That preacher lit up when I thanked him. He not only told me why and how he had decided to preach on that topic but he grabbed his Bible and opened it up to 1 John, setting it before me so that I could see where he had marked and highlighted the verses. He had even numbered the different tests in 1 John.
I enjoyed seeing his Bible. From the distance of sitting in the congregation with this preacher on the stage, and yes, it very much was a stage, that Bible looked new but up close I could clearly see that was far from the case. But for me, there is just something wonderful about looking at, or holding, a Bible that has been read and marked in. I personally enjoy my own Bibles more and more with every note or line I write in them. And I very much enjoyed seeing the notes and marks in this preachers Bible. But...I also knew that this same preacher often preached on things that held not a single spot in Scripture. I knew he weekly advocated the sinners prayer and that his 'church', although nondenominational, had a leaning toward the prosperity gospel. But for that day, on that topic, he got it mostly right.
But what good does mostly, partly, or semi right do anyone when it comes to daily reading of Scripture. They would be better off reading or hearing the truth of Scripture one day a year than reading a garbled up message of Scripture every day.
My husband and I have spoken of this very thing before. And we both had the same thoughts. What is the point of a person reading Scripture every day if they are not reading the Lord's version of Scripture?
