The Incredible Benefits of the Word
The Incredible Benefits of the Word
In 1466 Desiderius Erasmus, the illegitimate son of a Dutch priest, was born in the Netherlands. In 1492, the same year Columbus sailed the ocean blue, Erasmus entered a monastery. Later he was released from his vows and began studies in Paris before moving on to Cambridge where he taught himself Greek. He was convinced that knowledge of the actual biblical text was a prerequisite to proper theology. He therefore prepared the first Greek New Testament accessible to scholars, giving translators the ability to translate directly from the Greek into other languages. Not long afterward men like Martin Luther translated the Greek New Testament into German and William Tyndale into English. We owe an enormous debt to men like Erasmus who labored to give us access to the Bible.
Today we enjoy the rich blessing of having the Bible in English in multiple translations. We do not benefit from it automatically, however. Instead, we have to read and study it. Tim LaHaye, in his book, How to Study the Bible for Yourself (Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers, 1976, 1998, 2006), has a chapter he calls, “What Bible Study Will Do for You.” In that chapter he advocates that you spend 15 minutes a day reading the Bible and 15 minutes a day studying it. If you do that he believes you will experience the following benefits:
1. It will make you a strong Christian
2. It will assure you of salvation
3. It will give you confidence and power in prayer
4. It will cleanse you from sin
5. It will give you joy
6. It will produce peace in your life
7. It will guide you in making important decisions in your life
8. It will enable you to articulate your faith
9. It will guarantee your success
Here are a couple of quotes from that chapter worth pondering:
Of the hundreds of spiritual failures I have counseled, the thing they all had in common was an absence of the Word in their daily lives. All these failures (and consequent miseries) could have been avoided if these people had learned to study the Word for themselves (p. 14).
Unfortunately, many Christians think they are too busy to refresh their minds each day on the Word of God. What they don’t realize is that a daily quiet time costs them nothing in the long run because the rest of their day will be more successful than if they had ignored the Bible (pp. 20-21).
If you do not already read and study the Bible each day, why not? Why deprive yourself of the great benefits it gives?