Category Archives: Reading

An Everyday Bible

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“Visit many good books, but live in the Bible.” – C. H. Spurgeon

The following is an article “Rambling Reflection on an Everyday Bible” written by Pastor Joel Ellis of Reformation OPC, Apache Junction, AZ:

You may not be a reader–and if this is the case, allow me to express my condolences and encourage you to believe there is still time to learn to love it–but if you are a Christian, there is one book above all others that you will love and to which you must return again and again. My life, thinking, character, vocabulary, and values have been shaped by Lewis, Tolkien, Chesterton, Defoe, Latham, Dickens, Homer, and Heinlein, but the book that has made and remade me more than any other, beyond any comparison, is the Holy Bible.

I never understood how a person’s primary reading and study Bible could be twenty years old and still look almost new. I have some old Bibles, and some of them I still use in various ways. But my everyday Bibles wear out fairly quickly. They go with me all the time. Maybe I am careless, and yes, if I purchased more expensive Bibles, they might last a little longer. But it’s not as though I am buying cheap Bibles or purposefully abusing them. They simply get worn out. They are supposed to. They spend every day in my hands, pocket, or bag. I have Bibles that are in practically new condition. They are the ones that rarely come off the shelf and are never read, only consulted.

I have a pair of dress shoes that I have owned for twenty years. I wear them every Sunday, and only on Sundays unless I officiate a wedding or funeral during the week. I would never dream of putting them on otherwise. They are stiff, uncomfortable, and after wearing them a while, my back begins to hurt. They are very good shoes, depending on your definition of good. They’ve lasted more than twenty years, and I will probably still be wearing them twenty years from now unless I wear out first. Kirstie may even be able to bury me in them! (If so, I’m taking them off as soon as the resurrection occurs.) Can you guess how many pairs of everyday shoes I have worn out in the last twenty years? I rarely replace my everyday shoes until they have holes in them and the soles are completely worn through. And if I had to choose between my worn out daily shoes and my dress shoes, I am wearing the everyday shoes with holes in the soles every time.

This is not to shame you if you have taken better care of your everyday Bible than I have, but it is to suggest that an everyday Bible is meant to be worn out: worn out from use, from reading, study, prayer, and wrestling with the text. I don’t purposefully abuse my everyday Bibles, but I also do not try to maintain their original, pristine condition. I don’t want my daily Bible to be stiff, with pages still stuck together and the gold edges unmarred. My daily Bibles are usually dog-eared, coffee-stained, and somewhat floppy. The pages are smudged with pen, highlighter, and oil from my hands. The binding is now supple, eventually a little too loose. I want my daily Bible to be good enough quality–preferably sewn, not glued–that it won’t fall apart in the first year, but not so expensive that I am afraid of wearing it out or letting it develop signs of use and abuse.

Brothers and sisters, enjoy wearing out your daily Bible. It should be a constant companion and comfort and fit you like a good pair of everyday shoes. —JME

The Preacher’s Reading Habits

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weaverSteve Weaver (Ph.D., SBTS) serves as the senior pastor of Farmdale Baptist Church in Frankfort, Puritan, Baptist: Hercules Collins (1647-1702) and Particular Baptist Identity in Early Modern England (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2015). In an article entitled “Standing on the shoulders of giants: The preacher and his books” he writes:

One of my favorite quotes is from Sir Isaac Newton, discoverer of the law of gravity. In a letter to Robert Hooke on February 5, 1676, Newton wrote, “If I have seen farther, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” Newton saw farther than anyone had before, precisely because he was willing to learn from those who had gone before him. Just imagine what life would be like if all anyone ever knew was the knowledge they accumulated on their own. There would be no electricity, no light bulb, no telephone, no computers, no cars, no airplanes, no space travel, and, gasp, no iPhone.

But because men learned from those who had gone before, these inventions and many more were possible. Sadly, many preachers like to work in an anti-intellectual vacuum, gleaning nothing from the God-gifted men who have gone before them. God has especially equipped the body of Christ with teachers, evangelist, and pastors. I thank God for men like Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Augustine, Anselm, Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Newton, John Bunyan, Jonathan Edwards, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, and a host of others, who are, without a doubt, God’s gifts to the church. By studying the writings of these gifted men, we are enabled to “stand on their shoulders.”

The Word on reading

I believe that there is actually a biblical admonition to learn from others found in Ephesians 4:11-13 where Paul explains how the resurrected and ascended Christ has gifted his church.

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

I don’t think what Paul said here applies only to those living in our contemporary generation. Nor do I believe that it only applies to those in the same location. The church universal is much larger than our local congregation. It extends to all those saints, past and present, from east to west who have placed their hope in Christ and his sacrificial atonement. Therefore, the teachers, evangelists, and pastors from whom we have the privilege of learning stretch across the 2,000 years of church history (chronologically) and from pole to pole (geographically). In order to access this rich heritage, we need to read books.

Baptists and books

Historically, Baptists have recognized the importance of learning from the works of others. In his book on pastoral ministry, The Temple Repair’d, the seventeenth-century English Baptist pastor Hercules Collins provided his readers with a list of recommend books. Furthermore, when young men in his Wapping church expressed a desire to begin preaching, they were provided with key biblical and theological works. Collins believed that ministers must labor in their study of the Word of God because of the exalted nature of their work as ministers. Commenting on 2 Timothy 2:15, he wrote,

“We should study to be good workmen because our work is of the highest nature. Men that work among jewels and precious Stones ought to be very knowing of their business. A minister’s work is a great work, a holy work, a heavenly work. Hence the Apostle says “Who is sufficient for these things?” O how great a work is this! What man, what angel is sufficient to preach the gospel as they ought to preach it! You work for the highest end, the glory of God, and the good of immortal souls. You are for the beating down of the kingdom of the devil, and enlarging and exalting Christ’s kingdom.”

Do not be idle and lazy in the things of God Continue reading →