by Stuart Briscoe
Mow io Study YOUR BIBLE W HAT WOULD you think if I told you that while here in Ameri ca, I got a letter from my wife over in England, yet I just didn’t bother to read it? While I was thrilled that she sent it to me, yet for some rea son I couldn’t find the time to open it, much less to find out what she had to say. It is almost too ludicrous even to imagine. If we profess to love someone, as I truly do my wife, then we will want to know immediately what that one has to say to us. It is strange to me to find so many people who tell me that they love God, yet they never take the trouble to read letters the Lord has written to them Does it sound as if their love is very real? The Bible is a personal letter written by God to us personally. We all have access to a copy of the Scriptures. No doubt there may be several in your home, perhaps even various translations. So often we simply give consent to the fact that the Bible is the Word of God. Yet we don’t really believe it, because we never take time to find out what it has to say. A Sunday school teacher asked one of her pupils, “Sweetheart, do you know what’s in the Bible?” The lit tle girl proudly answered, “Oh, yes, I know everything that is in the Bible. Let me see: there’s a list of when we were all born, and the names of those who have already died. There’s a picture of my big sister’s latest boyfriend; a piece of blue ribbon; a lock of my baby hair; a recipe for Mama’s plum pudding; and a pressed wild flower. That’s everything in our Bible.” How mis led she, like a lot of other people, was. People call it “The Holy Bible.” They would never desecrate it by tearing out pages or even setting
Torchbearers’ Fellowship Capemwray Hall, England
anything on top of it. Yet the Scrip ture isn’t read. A student came to me one time, declaring, “The Bible is a lot of rubbish!” I listened to him for about ten minutes and then he left my room. He came back a few minutes later, repeating, “The Bible is a lot of rubbish!” I simply replied, "I heard you the first time.” You know, that boy came every night for about three weeks to say exactly the same thing. Finally I gave him an old copy of the Bible and urged him to take a pair of scissors, and cut out anything he thought was rubbish. I suggested that in finding such a por tion he check the references and rela tive passages in either the Old or New Testament and cut them out as well, and then, when he had some, to bring them back to me. Do you know, he refused! He was actually afraid to cut the paper. That would desecrate it. He argued, “You can’t cut the Bible into pieces.” I replied, just as firmly, “Well, evidently it’s permissible to cut it to pieces with your tongue. I’m afraid I don’t un derstand the way your mind works.” People carry a strange sort of rever ence for the Bible and yet they don’t read or study it. Oh, yes, it is respect able to have a Bible in your home, and even to have it prominently dis played. Do you really know why we have the Bible? As strange as it may seem, Scripture was given that it might be read. Honestly now, is this what you do with it? Do you treat it as if it were a symposium of let ters the Lord has personally written to you ? We want to make a few sugges tions as to how you can study the Bible practically. Many people go to church regularly. They are adept at 9
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