You crown the year with your bounty,
and your carts overflow with abundance.
- Psalm 65:11
“John Quincy Adams was also a man devoted to his Bible. In a letter dated June 22, 1838, he wrote:
“The first and almost the only book deserving universal attention is the Bible The Bible is the book of all others, to be read at all ages, and in all conditions of human life; not to be read once or twice or thrice through, and then laid aside, but to be read in small portions of one or two chapters every day, and never to be intermitted unless by some overruling necessity. I speak as a man of the world to men of the world; and I say to you, ‘Search the Scriptures.’”
- Robert J. Morgan, 100 Bible Verses That Made America
In my recent trip to visit the grandchildren, the oldest of them went with me to Nashville, to sell used books and games. One of the books that I purchased in return was 100 Bible Verses That Made America by Robert J. Morgan. As we approach the 250th anniversary of the birth of the USA, I thought I would do a condensed mini-series on some of these verses, four posts per week for a few weeks – maybe not all 100 verses.
The author spends some time, a couple of pages of bullet points, chronicling the life of John Quincy Adams. He served in various posts when Washington was president. And he served in the Senate alongside Abraham Lincoln. He was a lifelong servant.
Oddly, John Quincy Adams did not win the general election in 1824 when he ran for president. Andrew Jackson got more popular votes than the other four candidates, but no one had the majority of popular votes or electoral votes. To break the stalemate, the election went to Congress where John Quincy Adams had served faithfully, but Adams was boosted in this election when Henry Clay, who generally agreed with Adams on key political points removed his name from the ballot, endorsing John Quincy Adams. This put John Quincy Adams in the office of president during the 50th anniversary of American Independence, the day when his father and Thomas Jefferson both passed away.
What he said about reading the Bible is what I have often said. We should never tire of reading God’s Word. As we grow in faith, we find more about God that we did not know. We learn more about ourselves. And we gain a greater motivation to help those less fortunate.
But then the question of how much to read each day comes to mind. With people who are chasing their children around or their grandchildren, you might not have the time, but you need the quality time to rest.
In most office buildings these days a Bible in the open is considered to be “offensive.” Someone might be of another religion. I worked under such oppression for the last 20 years of my working life. We had employees who were Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, and Atheist. The most trouble that I had working with people of other “faiths” were the Catholics who thought I worshipped “wrong” and the agnostics because I could make up my mind about the whole thing.
But I had a church friend who wanted me to join his “One Year Bible” study group. Everyone would encourage each other and discuss what they read in the past week or month. I told him that I had been reading the Bible in a year for decades and I had this burning desire to slow down. When you are goal oriented, you focus on the goal more than what you are doing. I have eaten so many meals without ever tasting anything – driven to finish the meal and get back to what I had been doing. And so it was with reading the Bible.
If you read three chapters each day, you will be roughly one hundred chapters short, probably reading the letters to the Corinthians. Even three and a quarter chapters is a bit short. So, I would read four chapters per night, finishing the Bible in late October. But how much do you retain?
Do not get me wrong. If reading the Bible in a year is your thing, then do it. What I did instead was to lay out several translations and read the same passage in each, averaging about a chapter per day. I absorbed more and I read about the same amount. And I also found out which translations were nearly the same words, and which seemed to jump out with emotional turns of phrases.
When I told my friend my plans, he had four words to say, “Good luck with that.” I think he wanted me to come to the meetings because I had been successful in finishing the Bible in less than a year, multiple times. I think he wanted me there as the “poster boy.” “I did it before, you can too.”
But I knew a pastor who read the Bible in about three months. He averaged four times through the Bible each year, four different translations. And he preached on Sundays, led a Bible study on Thursday nights, and worked all week at a non-profit. He simply found the time.
So, how you read, how much you read, and when do you read is up to you. Just read. No matter how many times that I have read the Scriptures, I have learned something new.
Soli Deo Gloria. Only to God be the Glory.
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