According to a survey done by the Bible Society group, 2.5 billion copies of the Bible were printed between 1815 and 1975, and more recent estimates put that number at more than 5 billion. Calculating exact numbers is impossible, but there is little doubt that the Bible is the world’s best-selling and most widely distributed book of all-time.**
When I was growing up, I don’t remember having a lot of Bible’s around the house…at least not until my teen years when my family started attending church. I went to a vacation bible school one summer when I was a child and received a King James Version translation of the New Testament…something I kept in my sock drawer for many years. Maybe someone reading this blog can relate to that scenario.
In the world today, you don’t even need a physical copy of the Scriptures to be able to read them. You can go to the internet and read the Bible in multiply translations and languages. Studying God’s Word is as simple as digging your phone out of your back pocket and opening an app….or typing in a web address. We truly live in a time when growing in God’s Word is not only possible, but it’s also a blessing so many in the past did not have.
So why don’t we read the Bible more?
Are we lazy? Not interested? Bored? Do we think we know all we need to know already from Scripture?
I think all these things could be a possibility, just like I think there could be a hundred other reasons why we don’t engage in God’s Word. You know why you don’t better than I do, just as I know why I don’t better than you. And I’m not trying to put a guilt trip on anyone for not reading the bible more often, believe me when I say, I fall far too short in my studies. I can tell you from experience though, that my study of the Scriptures (whether consistently or not) usually has some kind of effect on my quality of life and the direction of my faith.
There’s no denying that the Bible is impactful, full of wisdom and truth that guides us along the path of life. The more we study it and take in God’s Message, the more confident we grow in its power and God’s ability to speak to us through His Word. The choice to study and grow in His Word is a decision we all have to make on our own; and that’s truth. It’s not up to our pastor, spouse, friend, or parent whether we crack the pages of the Bible or not. It’s up to us...we just have to be willing to make the time.
So nothing too deep today. Just a reminder that the answer to our life’s difficulties and questions, might be found in that book we’ve got hidden in our sock drawer.
“You will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, constantly nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine which you have been following.”
--1 Timothy 4:6 (NASB)
**“Best-Selling Book of Non-Fiction.” Guinness World Records, www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/best-selling-book-of-non-fiction.
