Why Reading the Bible Matters?

Quite a few Christian friends of mine are frustrated with the Finnish Church and the lack of solid Bible teaching. (As ironic as that may be.)  Well, why does it matter then?

#1 It is the bread of life. If you want to live as a Christian with any kind of power, you’ve got to feed the Spirit in you. Malnourished Christians have weak faith.

#2 It shapes your worldview. We are bombarded with messages via commercials, films, TV shows, newspapers etc.  People who write this stuff have worldviews that consist of various -isms. If you want to know how God sees  the world around you, you’ve got to read your Bible.

#3 It straightens your life out. We get stuck with junk. It may be habitual sins, demeaning thoughts, self pity, hopelessness. Amazingly God speaks through the Bible and sets you straight. It is like looking into the mirror and suddenly you see the junk and can can make decisions to get rid of it.

#4 It makes you active. Church leaders are frustrated with their flock that just wants to be entertained, but not to get involved much. When the flock reads the Bible for themselves, the Word starts motivating believers into action.

#5 Because God speaks. It gives you joy, clarity of thought and freedom like nothing else.

Chain of Human History

Everyone agrees that genealogies are the most boring bits of the Bible. Long litanies of names you cannot pronounce. In all their tediousness there’s a point.

Reading through the story of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph one thing strikes me. They received promises and made decisions not just for themselves, but for the future generations.  They understood that each person, each generation is just one link in the chain of human history.

We really don’t think this way. Our main concern is how to make me happy, make me more money to buy more toys, and to get some loving. Let’s enjoy today and who cares about tomorrow, because tomorrow may never come.

We are so shortsighted.

Joseph’s brothers sold him as a slave to Egypt. Years later,  during famine the same brothers came to buy grain from Joseph, who was now the ruler of Egypt, second only to the Pharaoh. Joseph says the most remarkable thing:

“Do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God  sent me ahead of you.”

Joseph was able to forgive the most grievous wrong, because he saw that his life and work was not about him, but about the future of a people. He was just one link in the chain of people that make human history.

When I start to ask myself, how can I live not just for me, but for the future generations, everything changes. Suddenly how I live has consequences beyond me. What are the tough decisions that I (we) need to make now, to preserve what’s to come?  What are the battles I (we) have to fight, so that the up and coming generation won’t have to?

Let’s look further.