Returning to the Good Book

As a young pastor, I was very ambitious. There’s a publication called Outreach Magazine, and it has a category for the top 100 fastest growing churches in America. When I was early in my work as a pastor, I wanted to be on that list. I wanted to build a megachurch. 

One day, though, I realized that the Bible on my nightstand was underneath a book about how to build a church, which was underneath a book about how to build your staff, which was underneath another book about how to preach great sermons. I’m pretty sure my Bible was still somehow getting dusty underneath all of these other books. 

I’m reminded of the verse that says, “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6, ESV). The glory of God is what should really matter to God’s children. When we see the face of Christ, what else really matters beyond that?

Sometimes the things of this world start to shine a brighter light in our lives, though, than the things of Christ. Look at your nightstand or end table and see where your Bible is. It should have more to say to you than any book on counseling or inspiration or spiritual growth.

The Old Testament commands, “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success” (Joshua 1:8). Hundreds of years later, the Apostle Paul wrote to believers, “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope” (Romans 15:4). 

If your Bible is near the bottom of the pile like mine was, you need to refocus on Jesus. Go after the Bible, and you will help yourself and other people far more than you will with a thousand other books.