CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – I’ll begin today with a simple question. “Do you believe in God?” 81% of Americans answer ‘yes’. It used to be above 90-percent.
“Are you a Christian?” 63% of Americans say ‘yes’.
“Do you regularly read the bible?” Only 11% said ‘yes’. 23% of Christians never read the bible.
When I go to church, my pastor tells everyone who gathers on Sunday that you must read the bible. If you believe in God, if you identify as a Christian, it’s only logical that you’ll want to know more about God.
I understand. One of the Psalms says that no one can understand His ways. God’s ways are mysterious, but He is not a mystery. The Bible is God’s revelation to us. He is telling us about Himself.
You can decide for yourself if the Bible is the divine, infallible word of God for mankind. Yet this is undeniable: it’s all we’ve got. It’s the tool that God gives us to learn about Him. It is full of timeless teachings. It gives us instructions about how to live our lives and how to deal with each other.
Now, a confession: I know many bible verses from years of Sunday School and some college courses. Yet I have not read the bible cover to cover. I should change that. I should know the holy book of my faith from front to back. And I’m working on it.
I have two tools that I will recommend to you. The first is an app for your phone called Olive Tree. It gives you a short bible verse each day. I usually see it at night before bed, since I often check email and social media on my phone before bed. The other is a website, American Bible Study dot com. Each morning while the bathtub is filling up it gives me a daily chapter from the bible, and a brief commentary and a prompt for daily prayer. If I keep at it, I will have read the entire bible in about two years.
Try them both: Olive Tree and American Bible Study.
God loves you. He wants you and I to know more about him.
Chris Conley
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