“Make this the year!”

This is the title for an article I wrote in January 1987—a how-to for Bible reading and reading partnerships. It’s now a sidebar item on this site. So my question. Is an invitation to bold Bible reading still relevant? Recently two university students made me wonder. After church, I took them to lunch and asked, among other things, what they want from life. They shared a quick and clear answer: money. They’re both chasing careers that promise to make them rich.

Ouch.

This morning I was reading The Watchmaker’s Daughter about Corrie Ten Boom during WWII. One of Ten Boom’s cousins was arrested by the Nazi’s for sedition, and his family smuggled a New Testament to him in prison. There, the Bible came alive to him. Before then it was tedious, but it became powerful as he faced a possible execution.

The cousin wasn’t newly inspired by the Bible because its message had changed. It came alive because questions of life, death, and eternity now had new force. His Nazi jailors didn’t have a happy future in mind for him, so he heard Jesus speaking to real needs. The message changed his life.

Context is everything.

The story took me back to my own first meeting with Jesus after Dave, my sixteen-year-old high school classmate, died in a motorcycle crash. I first realized at the time that life could be short and I wasn’t ready to die. Afterwards I started to look for meaning—a reason to live. I recall asking then, “God, are you there? And if you are, what do you want from me?” Nothing came of it at the time, but the question stayed in the back of my mind.

Months later, at a Montana summer church camp, I was asked to be a spiritual leader to other campers in my age group. I was startled—and I couldn’t take the role with any integrity—but I wondered if God was stirring things. This was just one in a set of improbable events. So I left the campus to chase the question. Sitting on a hillside just above the Boulder River I asked aloud, “God, if you really exist, I need to hear from you! Are you behind this?”

A distinct thought came, “If you want to hear from God, try reading the Bible!” So I took up my Bible, starting in Matthew. There, in the Sermon on the Mount, it came alive, “No one can serve two masters…” This was a challenge from Jesus. Later, in Matthew 6:33, I read, “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” The promise of “all these things” answered my earlier question, “Why am I here?” I was created to seek and respond to God. He could then do whatever he wanted with me! It also dawned on me that God’s stirring in the Bible reflected his love. And my response meant I had a new master.

I remember how, when I first came to faith, my youth pastor, Art, regularly repeated “O taste and see, the LORD is good.” It’s true! And in the article I mentioned Sam, a retired global worker who had been reading through the Bible two or three times a year since he was saved—for fifty years. So with these models to help me I started my own bold Bible reading at age eighteen—with about three circuits a year. And it’s still going. Here’s how: I take thirty to forty minutes each day. No reading schedule! A devoted time slot avoids the guilt-motivation that drives reading plans. And one-year plans are too slow—only about ten minutes a day—so no sense of flow ever develops in the reading. As a nudge, no one reads good books that way! And the Bible is a very good book—even if it’s inscrutable at times. Steady reading always pays off!

Some may wonder if Scriptures can really hold a heart for so many years. With real vitality. Yes! But remember that it’s Jesus who draws us. Appetite is Heart-to-heart—something God stirs. By his Spirit opening the eyes of our hearts. So my aim here is to restate my 1987 article as an invitation to discover the compelling power of regular Bible reading. Jesus, as the central figure, makes it work; not our determination or fortitude. A rich conversation starts as we acknowledge our need and then give thanks throughout the progression.

Let me raise three questions about Bible reading. First, what do we look for as we read? Is it an exercise in treasure-hunting? In theology-building? Or something else? Second, why are so few Christians serious Bible readers? And third, does the Bible really make a difference?

I’ll start with the second question first. As we read the Bible, we discover a God who offers his heart to us. He is a “jealous” God who knows that an enemy is always seeking to steal our affections. I’m now convinced from my reading that the main theme of the Bible is the Father’s aim to draw people to be the eternal “bride of Christ.” Yet too much of our Christian training is focused on God’s “will” and his “plan for the ages”—as if he’s a social engineer who wants an audience and uses education to make it work. But Psalm two says it’s all about the Son—God’s anointed savior—who reveals the Father. And we’re called to “kiss the Son.” Then God pours out his love in our hearts by his Spirit, a love that grows and prospers as a community reality.

So, to answer why so few get this, even in churches, it helps to recognize that our fallen instinct always asks, “What’s in this for me?” In other words, we start with a flawed aim. The sound aim is, instead, “God, how do I walk with you?” And his generous response makes it happen.

The first question, what should we look for in our reading, is again answered by starting with God. “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good” [Ro 8:28]. This life is an adventure in “providence”—God’s amazing engagement with us—even if we go through hard times. Heaven won’t be found in this age; but the God of heaven is always with us. Even in a world tragically broken by sin. So we grow as we seek and find his ways. Then walk with him. Corrie Ten Boom’s sister died in a Nazi concentration camp, but with her faith fully intact.

The third question, about how the Bible makes a difference, has a never-ending answer. The Bible offers a wholly new orientation—with a God whose values are upside-down to ours. His love fills spaces where no love has existed. So, while human love depends on finding lovely things, and then enjoying them; God’s love is poured out into needy voids. And we, who once loved ourselves, and wanted to collect benefits from God, are now captured by his selfless love. We grasp what Paul meant in Galatians 2:20 about being “crucified with Christ” so that we now “live by faith in the Son of God, who loved [us] and gave himself for [us].” It’s radical truth and it takes time to engage and enjoy! We get there by “abiding” in the word—becoming like Jesus.

As I’m typing this in a secular coffee shop a background music track just startled me. It was the melody of an old hymn, “It is well with my soul.” It’s also just the point of this effort. When we have God as our companion, we have a story to tell and a song to sing. Of meaning and joy. He invites us to sing “It is well with my soul” as a way of life. Whether in prison or in prosperity.

So my time in the Bible each morning is a response to Jesus. As Art told our youth group years ago, “O, taste and see…” Yes! Jesus invites his followers to abide in his word, to abide in his love, and to abide in the communion of fellow-believers. This is wealth beyond anything my lunchtime friends grasped. Life in a natural world may still be working for them. But they’re missing the life of love, joy, peace, patience and more—what Christ births in all who know him.

In sum, Bible reading offers life and love. We have the Triune God offering himself through the pages of the Bible in never-ending layers of insight. I’ll go so far as to hope that any skeptical readers, who haven’t yet experienced the Bible as captivating, will experience a real crisis this year. A soul-awakening circumstance that stirs a cry, “God, I need you!” Then, as God becomes a loving master, to begin living a life of profound values. A true wealth that lasts forever.

There’s no better gift in any year! So why not make this the year?