Why I Read the Whole Bible in a Little Over a Year
Leave it to your kids to keep you honest. When my son (from my brief first marriage) and step-son (from his brief first marriage) were in early elementary school, and our daughters were babies, those little guys were very interested in going to church (little people usually are). So, of course, as good parents, we needed to look into that. Around this time of year, I set myself a goal to settle into a church before Christmas.But that was going to be harder than it sounds. My husband and I came from different religious traditions, and it appeared irreconcilable. Until I found our Bibles. Having both been brought up in traditions that teach the Bible, we agreed that we would look for a church that taught it as authority. The Bible was to be our standard. But neither of us had actually READ it. It appeared that the only way we would know if a church was "worthy" would be to read the Bible. Coincidentally, about that time I unpacked the box which contained Bibles we both were given as a kid.
Now, I had tried previously to read the Bible, but always gave up before the end of Exodus. This time, however, one of the Bibles I found was a New Testament only. (This is my best tip if you've never read the Bible: start with the New Testament!) I began sometime in October; by November, I was a new creation. By the end of the following year, I had read the entire Bible. (Did I mention that I was also working full-time?)
Here's what I found:
- John 14:6~ Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
Frankly, that was a relief to me. I had never quite been successful at getting my brain around how all sorts of various things could be true at the same time.
- Romans 10:9~ that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;
And, you know, I had always believed that Jesus had died for my sins, been buried, and resurrected from the dead; what I never understood until that moment was that it was ALL of my sins. Not just those that I confessed. (How could I ever remember them all?)
Well, folks, it's not up to me. All my sins were in the future when Jesus died on the cross, and He, being God, knew about them all.
And He did it anyway.
For more stories about how people were born again, see this post at Created For His Glory.
posted by Rebecca @ 12:15 AM
13 Comments:
Thanks for sharing your testimony.
God is good. :-)
How wonderful that you were truly set free by God's truth! What a loving and faithful Savior we have to take our sins away, every single yucky one of them.
Thank you for sharing!
I think that it is great that God used His Word to make you into a new creation. God is good all the time!
Thanks for sharing your testamony. The Lord does work in mysterious ways, and in your situation I think of the last line of Isaiah 11:6.....and a little child shall lead them."
"The entrance of thy words giveth light..." (Psalm 119:130). This is a beautiful illustration of that fact!
What a wonderful illustration of Isaiah 55:11! God is amazing!
Beautiful testimony. Thanks so much for sharing.
Blessings to you.
Thanks for sharing your testimony! What a wonderful story!
Beautiful post! I'm so glad I didn't have to do anything for my own salvation. Jesus did it all. All I had to do was trust in Him! Thank the Lord!
Hi! I'm here via the Bloggy Tour of Testimonies. You know, it is funny everytime I tried to read the bible I always got up to the middle of Exodus. I've heard the same from others. I've made it all through the New Testiment but being originally Jewish it is very important for me to read through the Old Testiment. Soon, I hope!
Grest post! Thank you so much for sharing. God IS good!
Hi Rebecca,
Thanks for sharing your testimony. I was wondering if you'd like to post it on my new site called ShareMyTestimony.org?
I created the site to let Christians share their testimonies, and read other testimonies to see how God is working in the lives of others.
If you'd like to contact me, you can click on the contact link on my site.
Thanks,
Justin
What an awesome God we serve! I believed on the Lord Jesus Christ for my Salvation 48 years ago! Through the years, I cannot count the number of prayers that he has answered and the peace that he has given in troubled times. I had been trying to figure out how to believe enough, for three months because I had always known it was true, but I also knew that I was lost in my sin. God had brought that clearly home to me with a minor car accident. Finally, a sweet lady shared with me, Ephesians 2:8-9 - For by grace are you saved and that not of yourselves it is the GIFT of God. Not of works which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us. What an eye opener. Suddenly, I understood that it was not how much I believed but that God was GIVING it to me by faith. Then she showed me Romans 10:13 - Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved! That changed my life, I finally understood and received Him that day.
Thank you so much for sharing your testimony. My husbands Uncle was a huge example to me on reading the Scripture through (Still working on it though!) He read the Bible through and the new testament twice every year as far back as he could remember, when I ask how long he had been doing that. He died at 94 years, through most of those years he read with a magnifying glass one letter at a time. He put me to shame.
What an awesome God we serve! I believed on the Lord Jesus Christ for my Salvation 48 years ago! Through the years, I cannot count the number of prayers that he has answered and the peace that he has given in troubled times. I had been trying to figure out how to believe enough, for three months because I had always known it was true, but I also knew that I was lost in my sin. God had brought that clearly home to me with a minor car accident. Finally, a sweet lady shared with me, Ephesians 2:8-9 - For by grace are you saved and that not of yourselves it is the GIFT of God. Not of works which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us. What an eye opener. Suddenly, I understood that it was not how much I believed but that God was GIVING it to me by faith. Then she showed me Romans 10:13 - Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved! That changed my life, I finally understood and received Him that day.
Thank you so much for sharing your testimony. My husbands Uncle was a huge example to me on reading the Scripture through (Still working on it though!) He read the Bible through and the new testament twice every year as far back as he could remember, when I ask how long he had been doing that. He died at 94 years, through most of those years he read with a magnifying glass one letter at a time. He put me to shame.
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