{"id":4733,"date":"2022-06-10T17:30:00","date_gmt":"2022-06-10T23:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/?p=4733"},"modified":"2022-06-03T20:55:27","modified_gmt":"2022-06-04T02:55:27","slug":"take-and-read","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/?p=4733","title":{"rendered":"Take and Read"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Our pastor recently shared some powerful reasons why we should be lovers and students of God&#8217;s Word, the Bible. The great early church father Augustine was far from God, despite the prayers of his mother, when he heard God&#8217;s voice speaking through children:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Take and read. Take and read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">John Ortberg: why read the Bible<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>It generates life.&nbsp;<\/li><li>It creates faith.<\/li><li>It provides guidance.<\/li><li>It makes the foolish wise.<\/li><li>It makes the faltering strong.<\/li><li>It makes the discouraged hopeful.<\/li><li>It is the first book to read to a little child.<\/li><li>It is the last best book to read to a dying man.&nbsp;<\/li><li>It is so simple and yet so deep that the early church fathers and mothers used to say, &#8220;A gnat could swim in it, but an elephant could drown in it.&#8221;<\/li><li>It corrects the erring.<\/li><li>It inspires the daring.<\/li><li>It encourages the despairing.<\/li><li>It humbles those who are overbearing.&nbsp;<\/li><li>Reading the Bible honors God and worries the Devil.<\/li><li>It reminds the lonely they have love for this life and heaven in the next.<\/li><li>I promise you on your deathbed there is no book that will speak to you the way this book will.&nbsp;<\/li><li>If that were not enough, in this book you will meet Jesus who alone mastered life and conquered death.&nbsp;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.<\/li><li>Nowhere else.<\/li><li>You will not find the truth your soul is longing for outside of the Bible.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>So, please, for the good of your soul and the good of the souls of your family and friends, read the Bible.<\/em> &#8211; John Ortberg<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><sup>7 <\/sup>\u00a0The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple;<br><sup>8 <\/sup>\u00a0the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes;<br><sup>9 <\/sup>\u00a0the fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether.<br><sup>10 <\/sup>\u00a0More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.<br><sup>11 <\/sup>\u00a0Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward. (Psalm 19.7 &#8211; 11, ESV)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Our pastor recently shared some powerful reasons why we should be lovers and students of God&#8217;s Word, the Bible. The great early church father Augustine was far from God, despite the prayers of his mother, when he heard God&#8217;s voice speaking through children: Take and read. Take and read. So he did, and the Bible &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/?p=4733\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Take and Read<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8X9bo-1el","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4733"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4733\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4735,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4733\/revisions\/4735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}