Week Fourteen, 2018
READ the WORD
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:1
How to Read a Book is a book by Mortimer Adler, written in 1940, which gives guidelines for critically reading good and great books of any tradition. Adler explains why he was compelled to write the book. He asserts that very few people can read a book for understanding, but he believes that most are capable of it, given the right instruction and the will to do so.
It is his intent to provide that instruction. He takes time to tell the reader about how he believes that the educational system has failed to teach students the art of reading well, up to and including undergraduate, university-level institutions. He concludes due to these shortcomings in formal education, it falls upon individuals to cultivate these abilities in themselves. It is a classical guide to intelligent reading.
I thought about this applies to Bible reading. One in five Americans – 20% – read the Bible at all, and 39% – a little more than a third – of Christians read the Bible regularly. The number one indicator of spiritual growth is a habit of daily Bible reading. No one else can read the Bible for you and create spiritual growth in your life. A choice to read your Bible daily will do more than just about anything else to create the conditions for spiritual growth in your life.
Not only do you need to have the will, but, you need instruction to know how. Bombard the text with questions and look for answers and seek to integrate the parts and put them together. Seek the Holy Spirit to guide you. The natural person cannot understand, but the spiritual man understands and praises all things.
Ponce de Leon was looking for the fountain of youth, but the Bible provides a fountain of life. When we spend time in the Bible it becomes our joy, because the Bible meets the challenges of life in a Biblical way. It has been said that the Bible is so deep that theologians cannot touch the bottom, yet so shallow that babies in faith cannot drown. We need to come to the Word of God by the person who wrote it.
We have to have the will to read and the knowledge and know how to do it. If enough Christians made that choice, think about the impact that could have on the church. If you are concerned about the direction of our country, the spiritual atmosphere of your home, your ability to influence your kids … then start with your own habit of Bible reading. That’s the 5% you control, that no one else can. And this habit is a game-changer.
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SOMETIMES TRUE STORIES
TEEN ALCOHOL:
• Ten alcohol kills about 4,300 people each year
• Alcohol is a drug and is still the number one drug choice of youth
• Children start thinking about alcohol by age 8
• One of three eight graders have tried alcohol
• One of two 10th graders drink alcohol
• One in seven teens binge drink
• Only one in one hundred parents think their teenage child binge drinks
• The human brain is not fully developed until the early 20’s
• The last area of the brain to develop controls judgment, planning, decision making and self-control
• Every two minutes someone is injured in a drunk driving crash
• Every fifty-one minutes someone is killed in a drunk driving crash
• Annually drunk driving injures 290,000 people
• Two out of three people will be impacted by drunk driving in their lifetime
–o–
Ken Whitten on Joy:
• Joy is evident when the flag is flying because the King is in residence in our heart.
• We don’t give to God, we return to Him.
• Happiness is what comes to us. Joy happens within us
• You can have joy without happiness.
• Joy doesn’t come from a place. It comes from a person.
• Happiness is external. Joy is internal.
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QUOTES YOU CAN USE
When you dance, your purpose is not to get to a certain place in the floor. It’s to enjoy each step along the way. Richard Gonzmart
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” – Theodore Roosevelt – 26th President of the United States from 1901 to 1909 – Excerpt from the speech “Citizenship In A Republic” delivered at the Sorbonne, in Paris, France on 23 April, 1910.
If perfect love casts out fear, why are so many people battling with anxiety, stress and worry. Foundational to freedom and healing of these issues is an encounter with The Father’s love. All of us need to have the healing experience of The Father’s Love. May it change you! (Operation Lightforce)
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©2018 John Grant | Florida State Senator (Ret.) | 10025 Orange Grove Drive | Tampa, FL 33618