REASONS WHY I LOVE THE BIBLE

I think the Bible is the most wonderful book in the world. I read it every day. Here are some of the reasons why I love the Bible.

The Bible shows me another world and how to get there

The world that we inhabit isn’t doing too well. There are crises on every side, there is much evil, and it all seems to be falling apart. But the Bible promises that the Lord Jesus will come back as the King Messiah to rule the world. Then the world will have good government, sane rulers, prosperity, happiness, and peace. And that’s just the beginning. For he has ages upon ages of development and growth planned for the Earth and for the universe. And the Bible tells me how I can inherit a place and a share in this wonderful world. That gives me unlimited hope for the future. That’s the best news I know.  

The Bible changed my life

Years, back, the Bible changed my life. I was a lost young guy, wasting my life. I couldn’t break free from my vices. I was wondering if I was on the road to suicide, for I felt I was quite out of control. Then I started to read the Book of Genesis. Immediately, I found myself in another world where there was a God in total control. He made everything. The whole world, including me. That meant he could control me too. I read on, until I came to chapter 12, where I read: And the Lord said to Avram. These words struck the depths of my heart. Could the Creator bend down and speak to a man and direct his life? I said, “I wish the Lord would speak to me.” And as I kept reading the Bible, he did speak to me. That changed my life. It wasn’t a single event. Today, more than forty years later, I still read the Bible, and he still speaks to me. He is still changing my life. Day by day, the Bible teaches me to know God better, to be more like him.

The Bible imparts the Spirit of God

Up until the time I began reading the Bible, I felt like I was alone in the world. Yes, I had family. Even friends of a kind. But deep down I was alone. Alone when I walked down the street, alone in the dark. But, after I began reading the Bible, I sensed that I wasn’t alone any more. There was someone with me. I came to see that this someone was the Presence of Jesus, the Holy Spirit sent from God. This Presence did two things to me. First, it kept me from doing wrong. You see, if you feel Jesus is standing beside you, then you think twice before doing some things. Second, the Presence kept me from feeling I was alone. I now had a friend who wanted what was best for me. He was with me all the time. He listened when I spoke to him. When I asked him for things, he quite often did what I asked. This Presence of the Spirit comes from the Bible. When I read the Bible less, I sense the Presence less. When I read the Bible more, I sense the Presence more. This is because the Bible is the words of the Spirit. And the Spirit comes to those who listen to what he says.

The Bible imparts blessing

Another of the reasons I love the Bible is because it brings blessing into the life of those who read it. Blessing is the power of God released into your life to do you good.Blessing brings you health. It brings you enough to live on. It brings you happiness. It brings you to eternal life. Blessing is a shield around you and your family day and night, shielding you from all the evil barbs of an evil world. Blessing is just about the best thing you can get in this world. And blessing comes to those who read the Bible.

The Bible imparts righteousness

Righteousness is the gift and the power to do what is right. It is the ability to be a good citizen in God’s world and to walk clean before his holy law. Righteousness brings blessing now, but it holds greater promise for the age to come. Those who learn to live righteously will have a place in the heavenly kingdom.

There are three ways the Bible imparts righteousness. First, the presence of the Spirit of Jesus works upon us. Our love of Jesus makes us want to do right. Our fear of his displeasure makes us turn from wrong.

Second, the Spirit gives us the power to do right and turn from wrong. For we do not naturally have that power in ourselves.

Third, the Bible teaches us what is actually right and wrong. This is important, because people have twisted ideas about this. Some feel they are righteous when they campaign for “A woman’s right to reproductive health.” But the Bible doesn’t give mothers the right to kill their unborn children. Some feel they are righteous when they agitate for state-funded gender change. But the Bible doesn’t say that is right either. Biblical righteousness begins with the Ten Commandments. Do these things and you will live.

The Holy Spirit and his written word are a lamp to search the heart and mind of a person. Those whom the Spirit searches either become more like Jesus, or else they turn away from the Spirit’s light and dwell in darkness.

The Bible cures my egotism

The Bible tells us the Creator has his own plans for his world, and he has been dealing with his world for thousands of years before we were even born. That comes as quite a shock to most of us. After all, most of us think we are want to be Number One. This is a basic human instinct that we carry from our first years. Babies cry their mummies come running. We think it should remain like that, that the world should revolve around us.
Of course, a few people, like Napoleon,  or Donald Trump, or Elon Musk, do become very important for a little while. Everyone says they are Number One. That makes them feel happy. For a while, it confirms their desire to be the centre of the world. But most of us never become Number Ones. Most people don’t even notice us. And there are two ways we can deal with this. We can either go around trying hard to be more important, puffing ourselves up, fretting and complaining that people don’t recognize our importance. Or we can tell ourselves, “I am not Number One. I will never be Number One, because God is Number One. I am content to be his person that he has made. And I will try to please him day by day.”

Let me tell you a secret. The second way is the way of happiness and peace of mind. It is the way of sanity and mental well-being. But the first way, always seeking to be Number One, makes us continually unhappy with our lot in the world, irritated with people who diss us, moaning about our husband, or wife, or parents, or children, or boss, or secretary, or whoever doesn’t do what we want all the time. We had a neighbour used to live across the road. His wife told us, “J-P is all right as long as he gets his own way all the time.” J-P was cantankerous, always battling with someone, always annoying someone, always seeking his own way. People left the neighbourhood because of J-P. He eventually became mentally ill and died, and everyone else had peace. Reading the Bible cures us of the delusion of our own importance.

The Bible makes me a historian

Another of the reasons I love the Bible is that it makes you a historian. When you open the Bible, you step into a book which was being written while the pyramids were still new. You travel through ancient empires – Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Greece, and Rome. All this opens your eyes to history and, if you want to understand it, you begin to read and study to understand this background of the Bible. You become your own little historian. In doing so, you learn that you and your little modern world are not the centre of anything. There have been hundreds of great civilizations which have come and gone before you even appeared in the world. They had battles and cultures, languages and customs, that are totally different from yours. You learn to judge your own culture and civilization against the backdrop of the history of world civilization. You learn that in some ways our world is better, but in other ways, it is worse.

The Bible sweetens the world

Not so long ago, the world was a much nastier place than it was now. The Assyrian empire went around skinning people alive and impaling them on spikes. The Mongols were still doing stuff like that in the thirteenth century, and the Zulus in the nineteenth. But as the word of God spread around the world, it sweetened the world. Old Eusebius spoke about the “sweet wind of the law of Moses” blowing through all the lands. It made the Greek and Roman empires a little less cruel than the Assyrians. It made medieval Europe a little less crueller still. And in the last three hundred years, it has led to care for children, abolition of slaves, kindness to animals, and concern for the poor. The gospel has spread to all the lands. Neither the Zulus nor the Mongols now recommend impaling people on spikes. In fact, day by day, all round the world, the Bible is touching people’s lives just like it touched mine. And wherever it does that, it makes the world a kinder place.

The Bible is the most precious thing in the world

When they crown the king or queen of Great Britain, they give him or her a copy of the Bible and say, “These are the oracles of the living God. They are the most precious thing on earth.” And he or she, sitting there, with the biggest diamond in the world on his or her head, receives from them the “oracles of the living God”. This isn’t just rhetoric. The Bible really is the most precious thing in the world. Everything else – spouses, children, dynasties, palaces, wealth – will all pass away. But this book will remain. It will remain for ever true. It will forever be our guide to the house of the heavenly Father and the gateway to his power.

The Bible is power

Another of the reasons I love the Bible is that it contains the power of God. This is the same power that formed the heavens and the earth. And when you read the Bible that power is released into your own life. It gives you power to change situations. It gives you power to influence other people. It gives you power to change yourself. If you read the Bible, the holy power of God is released into your life. The ancient Magi of Persia gave us the word “magic”. For them, “magic” was the power of the heavens brought down into human life. The Bible equivalent is the still greater power that we call holiness (qodesh). This is the power of God, creative, blessing, life-affirming, entering into human lives.

The Bible is wisdom

It makes us wise. If we are young, it tells us how to plan the course set before us. If we are a father or mother, it tells us how to manage our family. If we are a manager or a ruler, it tells us how to manage and rule, how to run a city, or a country. The Bible, if we read it, gives us wisdom how to act in each circumstance, how to make our lives better and make the world better at the same time.  

The Bible makes us generous

Another of the reasons I love the Bible is that it makes me more generous, and that is good for me. The Bible teaches us to give money to God’s work and to people in need. When we do that, he helps others and helps us too. This is good for us. The psychiatrist Meninger said, “Generous people are rarely mentally ill.” It’s just another of the blessings the Bible brings into our lives.

The Bible gives me something to sing about

People sing for lots of reasons. Some sing for money. Some sing for their country, or because they have won a battle. Some sing for soccer, especially when they win. Some sing for love. Love for another person they want. Or love for another person who let them down, or whom they let down.

Some people don’t sing. There is no happiness in their heart, no sense of victory, no sense that anything good can or will happen to them.

The Bible tells me that God loves me, that he came into this world to seek me, that he has given our side the victory over evil, and that he has eternal blessings planned for me. And that gives me something to sing about.

The Bible sets my heart at peace

Another of the reasons I love the Bible is that it sets my heart at peace. We can all be afraid. We can be afraid that someone will break into our house while we sleep and attack us and our families. We can be afraid that we will be crushed by a truck on the motorway. We can fear that some cancer or virus will enter our body and sweep us away in the middle of our lives. But in all these things, the Bible assures us that his shield is on those who love him, and that he is working for our good. I may fear that, at the end of my life, God may cast me away and not allow me into his Paradise. But the Bible sets my heart at peace. It tells me that all who call on his name will be saved.

Reasons Why I Love The Bible

So these are some of the reasons why I love the Bible. If you read the Bible, you’ll find that they will be true for you too. Maybe you’ll even find a couple more of your own.