Recently I challenged the church family to read their Bible completely through during 2022. Many of those in attendance at that service had never read their bible from cover to cover. One of the first goals Christians should seek to accomplish is to read the whole Bible. Today, I want to help you to get more from your reading. If you truly get serious about reading the Bible you will be totally different in the next few months than you are right now. I mean that in a positive way. Your heart will be in better shape and your spirit will have joy, even great joy. James gives us direction on getting more from the Word. Let me share some quick things with you.

  1. Remove the Wax. James 1:21. “…lay apart all the filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness.” The word “filthiness” can be pictured as having wax in your ear. You can hear with wax, but you hear much better without it. “Superfluity” is defined as extreme excess. What would he be referring to with this command? If you look back at 1:19 he is talking about our speech. The admonishment was to stop gossiping and talking constantly and listen more. How often do we grab our Bibles in the morning to start reading and the phone rings, breaking concentration? How often do we start thinking of the agenda for the day only to lay the Bible aside to get going? Sometimes we drag on through the reading without even thinking about what we’ve just read. Intentional commitment would be a great way to approach this morning ritual. An Evangelist from years gone by would say this often, “No Bible, no breakfast.” He would discipline himself to spend time in the word, focusing on the words of scripture before the appointments of the day demanded his attention.
  2. Receive the Word. James 1:21. Look at the latter part of this verse. “Receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.” A couple of thoughts about this phrase may help you picture what needs to happen. Imagine a very dear friend that you have not seen in quite a while shows up at your door. Immediately you see your friend and your eyes light up, a smile beams across your face, and you embrace with a hug. You have received your friend. That is the picture I want you to visualize as you open your Bible. The second thing is how we are to receive it. We are to do it as a humble Christian realizing that what we hold in our hands literally can “save our souls.” I personally think the soul in this verse has a two-fold application. One, it truly does save our soul for eternity. It tells us of the wonderful Gospel. Two, it tells us how to live our life and leads us in the “abundant life” that John’s gospel tells us about. It speaks about the engrafted word. The more we listen and read the more the word becomes a part of us which is wonderful to the child of God.
  3. Respond by being a Doer. James 1:22 tells us just that. When you discipline yourself to read and the sweet Holy Spirit gives you an enlightenment of your soul concerning a verse or passage, decide that you will obey that prompt today. You determine to make it a part of you. How you speak, how you walk, even down to the smile on your face. You have chosen to be a doer of what you have heard.
  4. Remember what you have Heard. There is a warning in 1:22b-24. If we are hearers only and not doers, we deceive ourselves. Self-deception is perhaps the greatest of all deceptions. A great burden that a pastor carries concerning his flock is the lack of change in the lives of the church family. The members come, sit, listen, leave and nothing ever changes. They have heard the word but haven’t become a doer. I find myself, if I’m not careful, doing the exact same thing. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ll start reading only to find my mind wandering to something I need to do or someone I need to see. The remedy is to stop, tell the Lord I am sorry, and start anew. This warning is for us all.

Are you going to take the challenge of reading your Bible this year? We are only 14 days into the new year. You have plenty of time to catch up with the simple plan I mentioned in service. I had one of our men recalculate how many chapters each day to read. I have always said three chapters a day, but he noodled it out and it is 3.2 chapters each day. So, here is the plan for you to get on board. Read four chapters each day. I suggest reading perhaps 3 from the Old Testament and 1 from the New Testament. Why four chapters? By the time the end of 2022 rolls around you may have missed a day or two and reading four chapters will give you a cushion. Let’s truly live up to the description that described our Baptist forefathers. Even those that disagreed with them called them “people of the Book.” Take the challenge and get more from your Bible this year.