There is no substitute for this

One of the great things about getting someone elses devotions is knowing when they finish their Bible and start again. My Pastor, Austin Gardner finished his Bible yesterday. I called and emailed him to tell him how proud I was of him! That may sound a little strange, but I am glad to have an example like Brother Austin to follow. I asked him to write about the first time he read the bible through and what motivated him to do it.

Here it is.

“I really do not remember the first time I read my Bible all the way through. I was either 15 or 16. My parents gave me a new Bible and I was very excited about having it. Our pastor was very big on reading the Bible through and I decided to read 3 and 4 chapters a day and read the Bible through. I remember how hard I found it many days because I was reading things that I had really never read but I was learning things all along the way. For me it took lots of discipline. I read many days just because I said that I would.

I did know one thing and that was that I really loved God and the Bible. I wanted to please Him and to know Him. I would make notes in the back of that Bible about things that I was finding. I would mark my place. If I remember right my mother and dad were also reading their Bible through each year at that time as was my pastor and many in my church.

It was then that God began to allow me to teach a Sunday School class every now and then and my pastor allowed me to preach to the entire church when he traveled. I loved it. I wanted more of it. I remember deciding that I would no longer accept what I believed because my parents said it but rather I would study the Bible and find out for myself. I wanted to know that I believed it for my self based on the Word of God.

I have now read my Bible through at least once every year since then for a total of about 37 years except for one year. That was the year I was learning Spanish in Mexico and that year I decided to read the Bible through in Spanish and could not get it done in one year. I love reading the Bible every morning before I start my day.”

I am looking for testimonies of your first reading through of the Bible and what motivated you.

Send your testimony via email and I will post it.

There is no substitute for daily reading and regular reading through of the Bible.

Write it down and send it to someone

Before we started Vision Baptist Church, I began to send a daily prayer to Austin Gardner who would soon by my Pastor. He sent me back his daily devotional writings. I had never seen anything like what he was sending me. It was a series of prayers based on different verses from his daily readings. I was not only inspired by what he wrote, but also how he made the personal application of each verse. I shamelessly copied his method and adopted it as my daily practice.

This morning I read day number 23 in my 170 day reading plan. I read Deuteronomy 2 through 8 and made devotional notes on 9 verses and sent them to Austin, Chris and Tony. I will read 2 chapters in my Spanish Bible later this evening. I am on a 170 day plan to read the Spanish New Testament and Psalms.

Here is an example out of what I wrote today.

Deu 3:24 O Lord GOD, thou hast begun to shew thy servant thy greatness, and thy mighty hand: for what God is there in heaven or in earth, that can do according to thy works, and according to thy might?

I rejoice in these words for I know that there is no God that can do what you do. You are all powerful and all mighty. I pray that you would show your power this week in our church and in our services. Bless our pastor with your power and do great things in and through his ministry. Make your name great in Alpharetta.

I have over 300 pages of devotional notes like these that fuel my Sunday School class, my offering devotions, my Businessmen lessons and career and professional classes.

My top three reasons for starting this today!

1. I want to know as much as I can, for myself, about the God that loves me and died for all mankind.
2. I need accountablility in my life. Actually, I need tons of accountability in my life.
3. I learn so much from the devotions of the other guys that I swap with.

Write it down and send it to someone. Be sure to get one back.

Starting an Epidemic

One of the greatest things my first Pastor, Landy McDaniel taught me to do was to read my Bible every day. Read it through at least every year and study it every week. My second and current Pastor, Austin Gardner, taught me how to write devotions and send them to someone each day. That is a practice i have had now for more than two years. We must become people of the Bible.

This blog is dedicated to Bible reading. This is not a doctrine discussion blog or a forum to argue about Bible versions. This is a blog to start a Bible reading epidemic in our churches.

This is about ideas for reading, exciting things to get your church started on their epidemic and testimonies about how reading the Bible has changed your life.

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