Louis Beck of Goochland, VA, in an email this week wrote, "I thought I would pass on an interesting tidbit with the forth-coming 2016 Super Bowl 50 game." I was teaching a Senior Men’s Sunday school class some years ago.
I asked the men a question:
"Do you read the Bible at home or just look at the Sunday school material when you get here?"
Out of the class of 15, 3 read the Sunday school lessons at home, no more. The rest did not read the Bible at all but waited to discuss it on Sunday. This was disappointing, these men were between the ages of 55 to 85. Some had been going to church all their lives.
How we miss out on God's glory. He has given us the Holy Spirit to teach us. We are blessed that we do not have to go to a high priest (earthly) to teach us.
When I became a born again Christian in 1983, I could not get enough of God’s Word, It was like the best spring water you could find. All of a sudden, the Bible, a neighborhood man gave me in 1963 (he had a home Bible study for local children) was clear as a bell. The Lord said the Scriptures are spiritually discerned, revealed to the born again believer, hid from the rest.
So, I decided to do an experiment. I turned the television on to a football game and turned the sound down. I opened my Bible and began reading at Romans. I did not rush and occasionally looked up to check the game.
In the time it took to complete the football game, maybe an hour and half, I had read all the way to Revelation. Imagine that?
[Editor's comment: This true story was emailed to me by Louis Beck, a former member of the Richmond First Pentecostal Holiness Church in Virginia, when I was senior pastor. He and his family were loyal and faithful members of our church.
God has blessed Louis and his wife, Anne, with 3 sons and 2 daughters, 5 grandchildren (3 girls and 2 boys) and another on the way. Louis wrote, "God has richly blessed me with a wonderful wife of 29 years. I would be nothing without Him."
It was Sir James McAllister who was a key leader in his family owned building supply company and a deacon of our church who invited Louis and his family to visit our church. They started with Bill Terry was the pastor, and then, I followed Bill Terry. They continued to attend our church during my pastorate. We had great fellowship, and we enjoyed their family and visited in their home. Louis Beck is a man of the Bible, of incredible faith in God to perform miracles, and to bless His people.
We can all do a better job of reading the Bible. This story of Louis Beck in reading his Bible during a professional football game is a great inspiration to all of what a man can do who makes up his mind to read the Bible. Most of us have several Bibles in our homes. Let's determine in 2016 that we will open our Bibles at home and read them. What a difference it will make in our lives! Let us be men who read and study the Bible. Those who will read the Bible in secret, God will reward openly. Great wisdom, knowledge, and spiritual understanding will be the fruit of such an activity in any man's life.
I asked the men a question:
"Do you read the Bible at home or just look at the Sunday school material when you get here?"
Out of the class of 15, 3 read the Sunday school lessons at home, no more. The rest did not read the Bible at all but waited to discuss it on Sunday. This was disappointing, these men were between the ages of 55 to 85. Some had been going to church all their lives.
How we miss out on God's glory. He has given us the Holy Spirit to teach us. We are blessed that we do not have to go to a high priest (earthly) to teach us.
When I became a born again Christian in 1983, I could not get enough of God’s Word, It was like the best spring water you could find. All of a sudden, the Bible, a neighborhood man gave me in 1963 (he had a home Bible study for local children) was clear as a bell. The Lord said the Scriptures are spiritually discerned, revealed to the born again believer, hid from the rest.
So, I decided to do an experiment. I turned the television on to a football game and turned the sound down. I opened my Bible and began reading at Romans. I did not rush and occasionally looked up to check the game.
In the time it took to complete the football game, maybe an hour and half, I had read all the way to Revelation. Imagine that?
[Editor's comment: This true story was emailed to me by Louis Beck, a former member of the Richmond First Pentecostal Holiness Church in Virginia, when I was senior pastor. He and his family were loyal and faithful members of our church.
God has blessed Louis and his wife, Anne, with 3 sons and 2 daughters, 5 grandchildren (3 girls and 2 boys) and another on the way. Louis wrote, "God has richly blessed me with a wonderful wife of 29 years. I would be nothing without Him."
It was Sir James McAllister who was a key leader in his family owned building supply company and a deacon of our church who invited Louis and his family to visit our church. They started with Bill Terry was the pastor, and then, I followed Bill Terry. They continued to attend our church during my pastorate. We had great fellowship, and we enjoyed their family and visited in their home. Louis Beck is a man of the Bible, of incredible faith in God to perform miracles, and to bless His people.
We can all do a better job of reading the Bible. This story of Louis Beck in reading his Bible during a professional football game is a great inspiration to all of what a man can do who makes up his mind to read the Bible. Most of us have several Bibles in our homes. Let's determine in 2016 that we will open our Bibles at home and read them. What a difference it will make in our lives! Let us be men who read and study the Bible. Those who will read the Bible in secret, God will reward openly. Great wisdom, knowledge, and spiritual understanding will be the fruit of such an activity in any man's life.