Our pastor recently shared some powerful reasons why we should be lovers and students of God’s Word, the Bible. The great early church father Augustine was far from God, despite the prayers of his mother, when he heard God’s voice speaking through children:

Take and read. Take and read.

So he did, and the Bible changed his life. Our pastor went on to quote John Ortberg. Thank God for the Internet, it was a long list, but I found it. I present it without further comment:

John Ortberg: why read the Bible

• It generates life. 
• It creates faith.
• It provides guidance.
• It makes the foolish wise.
• It makes the faltering strong.
• It makes the discouraged hopeful.
• It is the first book to read to a little child.
• It is the last best book to read to a dying man. 
• It is so simple and yet so deep that the early church fathers and mothers used to say, “A gnat could swim in it, but an elephant could drown in it.”
• It corrects the erring.
• It inspires the daring.
• It encourages the despairing.
• It humbles those who are overbearing. 
• Reading the Bible honors God and worries the Devil.
• It reminds the lonely they have love for this life and heaven in the next.
• I promise you on your deathbed there is no book that will speak to you the way this book will. 
• If that were not enough, in this book you will meet Jesus who alone mastered life and conquered death. The story of his actions, the unmatched brilliance of his teachings, the eyewitness account of his death on a cross and his resurrection are simply found nowhere else but this book.
• Nowhere else.
• You will not find the truth your soul is longing for outside of the Bible.

So, please, for the good of your soul and the good of the souls of your family and friends, read the Bible. – John Ortberg

⁷  The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple;
⁸  the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes;
⁹  the fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether.
¹⁰  More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.
¹¹  Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward. (Psalm 19.7 – 11, ESV)