American young adults in their late teens and early twenties report having the most stress of any age demographic, yet those who regularly read the Bible and apply it to their lives are far less stressed than those who don’t, according to new research.
Have you heard of the little boy who found a long stick and cut notches he assumed to be accurate measurements? He went running to his mother and said, “Mom! I made this ruler and measured myself! I’m seven feet tall!”
If we use the wrong measurements, our self-perception will be biased. The only true way of measuring up is given in Ephesians 4:13, which says we should strive to “be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ” (NLT).
If you’re like me, some days reading the Bible feels like running five miles on a treadmill after two hours’ sleep with 10 urgent things on your mind. It feels like a drag you don’t really have time for. It’s one more box to check off your list of “Things Good Christians Do.” Maybe you speed read while checking your phone. Five minutes after you snap that Bible shut, you don’t remember a thing anyway. So what’s the point?
Or perhaps you feel guilty because you never get around to it, and who needs that?
Bible reading can be an empowering, life-transforming habit, but maybe we make it too difficult. We think we have to carve out a half hour each day for serious Bible study. We think we have to plow through the entire Bible in one year for it to really count. Then we get discouraged when we can’t follow through. All or nothing thinking can leave us feeling defeated before we even start.
In reality, reading the Bible doesn’t have to be hard. God loves any small effort we make to draw near to Him through reading His Word.
Here are nine simple ways to make Bible reading easier.
In recent years, many Christians have either abandoned or deprioritized the notion of truth, elevating personal experience over what God has revealed about Himself and His world. Years ago, Chuck Colson warned in his book The Faith that Christians must not give up on the idea of truth nor downplay its importance, even in an attempt to gain a wider hearing. Christianity matters precisely because it is true. If it isn’t true, it doesn’t matter. Here’s Chuck:
When it comes to spiritual warfare, we want to avoid extremes. We don’t want to blame everything on the devil and his cohorts, because sometimes the battle is within our own hearts (Rom 6). But we don’t want to ignore or make light of the real battle against “spiritual powers” of darkness either (Eph 6:12).
The key is finding out exactly what the Scriptures teach, and then laying hold of the Scriptures that will help us win our battles.
Some people foolishly use the name of the Lord like a magic charm or incantation. It might surprise them to know we’re never taught in Scripture to rebuke or cast out Satan or demons. That is the Lord’s work (Matt 8:28-34). Even the archangel Michael refrained from rebuking the enemy. He said, “The Lord rebuke you” (Jude 9).
Remember, even speaking to Satan got Eve in trouble (Gen 3:1-5). We are simply exhorted to resist or stand firmly against the enemy and he will flee (Jas 4:7).
Spiritual warfare involves conflict with our sinful world (1 John 2:15-17), our sinful flesh (Gal 5:15-16), and our enemy, the devil (2 Thes 2:4). Here are some Scriptures that can help us be valiant and victorious.
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An excavation team in Israel has uncovered the first known depiction of two Old Testament heroines.
According to a new Gallup survey, a record-high percentage of Americans believe the Bible is a collection of "fables" recorded by men and a record-low percentage believe it to be the "actual word of God."
Pastor and author Alistair Begg on Sunday urged Christians in the U.S. to maintain a biblical worldview as they live in a culture that has "dismissed" their beliefs, saying today's church is under constant pressure to affirm sin and secularism.
As Author Berk Decker notes in his book You’ve Got to Be Believed to Be Heard, “people buy on emotion and justify with fact.” The more believable, likable, and relevant we seem to people, the more effective our engagement with them. However, I fear that many of us are pursuing the opposite strategy with the “culture wars” of our day. In our passion for declaring and defending biblical truth, we are tempted to see our opponents as our enemies. When we attack them and they respond in kind, our “side” rewards our passion and applauds our courage. But are lost people attracted by such antagonism or repelled by it?
“Heaven is a fairy tale for people afraid of the dark.” –Stephen Hawking
I’m afraid of the dark.
If we’re talking about the endless kind of darkness that offers no light anywhere, no hope ever, and nothing but nothingness, who among us would not panic at the thought of that?
I expect people like Mr. Hawking simply find the idea of Heaven too good to be true, and thus conclude that it must be a product of man’s delusional yearning for “pie in the sky by and by.”
And yet, there are solid reasons for reasonable people to believe in the concept of a Heavenly home after this earthly life. Here are some that mean a lot to me. By no means is this list exhaustive. It’s simply my thinking on the subject.
The God who made us created us with a longing for Himself and a satisfaction in nothing less.
When we get to Heaven, we will finally be satisfied, but not until then. “I shall be satisfied with Thy likeness when I awake” (Psalm 17:15).
“I go to prepare a place for you,” said our Lord. “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also.” (John 14:3).
If it were not so, I would have told you.
Jesus said that. I believe Him.
I choose to believe.
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