Read the WHOLE Bible

Shortly after joining Steemit I encountered a blogger who calls himself @deathlyhorror. He is a Christian who address some sticky and some difficult issues with great clarity and wisdom. His name did not make sense and I had to ask. There is a great explanation, but I recommend that you ask The Grim Reaper Preacher himself why he chose that name. You can find his latest post Blind and Deaf Servants by clicking on the title.

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The thing I like the most about @deathlyhorror is the way he ends all his posts.

The Grim Reaper Preacher says, "Try reading the Bible from cover to cover - you'll like it."

What a great encouragement! I hope many respond to this invitation!

Years ago (too many to count), as a student at varsity I collected different translations of the Bible. At one stage I had 9 different translations and more than 30 Bibles. My rule was that I had to read every new copy from cover to cover. I stopped counting when I had done that 12 times.

I share this not to impress but to inspire. One of my lecturers knew the whole of the New Testament by heart. A friend read the Gospel of Matthew once a week, every week for three years. The Word of God is sustenance for my soul. Can you imagine someone saying, 'I ate yesterday. No need to eat again. I'm done for this week.'?

My childhood was filled with stories of people like Brother Andrew also known as God's Smuggler. He would smuggle Bibles into Russia at the height of communism and the Iron Curtain. We would hear testimonies of people reading one page of the Bible torn out and smuggled around. And coming to faith in Christ as a result!

The Word of God is powerful. Our salvation is the result of our faith in Jesus and not the result of how many scriptures we can quote. However, we only know who Jesus is because of the Bible.

Is it not true that the better you know someone the more you are able to trust that person?
Is it not true that the more you know about someone to more you have to love about that person?

We should all read the Bible from cover to cover. And get to know the person we need to trust with our eternity as well as possible.
We should all read the Bible from cover to cover. And get to know the person we need to love deeply enough to want to spend an eternity with Him, as well as possible.

I am horrified that we have people preaching who have never read the Bible from cover to cover. I am horrified that people make statements like 'God will never ...' or 'God will ...' without having read the whole Bible.

And I think people do not love Him deeply enough because they do not know Him well enough. They fall away from faith and trusting Him fully because they lack knowledge of who He is and how He works.

We should all read the Bible from cover to cover. Again and again.

The book that helped me to want to read the Bible again and again, never stopping and never getting enough, is called The Divine Romance written by Gene Edwards.

It is described in the following words.

The most beautiful love story ever told!
A book of power, beauty and grandeur. Rarely has a piece of Christian literature combined the simplicity of the storytelling art with the profound depths of the Christian faith.
In this sweeping saga, spanning from eternity to eternity, you will discover some of the deepest riches afforded the believer. Like some mighty symphony, here is a majestic rendition of the love of God.
Behold the story of the Crucifixion and Resurrection as it has never been presented... from the view of angels!
Be there when rising from the dead, the Lord brings forth his beautiful bride. The story concludes at the consummation of the ages, when a victorious Lord takes his bride to himself. This truly is the greatest love story ever told.

If you have read this far, I want to encourage you to read this book. Your reading of the Bible will never be the same. And you will never get enough of the Bible as a result.

Have you read this book already? Please give us your impressions.

If you read this book because of this post, please let me know what you think!

@reonlouw

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