Category Archives: Scripture Reading

Not Want of Time, But Waste of Time

Dear Sovereign Redeemer and other friends,

From Chapter 1 of J.C. Ryle’s “Old Paths,” regarding the danger of neglecting our Bibles:

“You are in danger, because there is not a single reasonable excuse you can allege for neglecting the Bible. You have no time to read it forsooth! But you can make time for eating, drinking, sleeping, getting money and spending money, and perhaps for newspaper reading and smoking. You might easily make time to read the Word. Alas, it is not want of time, but waste of time that ruins souls! – You find it too troublesome to read, forsooth! You had better say at once it is too much trouble to go to heaven, and you are content to go to hell. Truly these excuses are like the rubbish round the walls of Jerusalem in Nehemiah’s days. They would all soon disappear if, like the Jews, you had ‘a mind to work.’ I say for the last time, Will you not repent and read your Bible?”

Who else cuts through our excuses and gets right to the heart of the matter? Precious few. I am thankful for the authors and preachers who can prick my conscience and bring me face to face with my own compromises.

May we take up our Bibles with a renewed vigor to hear from God!

Getting Started with Family Worship

Dear Sovereign Redeemer and other friends,

I recently fielded an inquiry from a father with young children about getting started with family worship. He was looking for recommended Bible study materials, and here are some thoughts that I passed along to him.

– Starting now is a great idea. Young ones pick up more than we think. Just be careful to start with a reasonable schedule (not too long, grow into longer times), so that it isn’t needlessly exasperating for Mom and child. These should be tender, wonderful times that shape your children’s memories of family life, not a chore that they come to dread.

– Nothing is better than the Bible itself, and nothing communicates your trust in the Bible more than just sequentially working through different books of the Bible, slowly and patiently. It makes sense to have a study Bible or commentary (or both) close by for when you hit difficulties or hard questions, but just refer to these when necessary, don’t rely on them.

– Sing a song together that is theologically rich, you open in prayer, take turns reading the Scripture text, talk about what you read, then all pray together. In the early years, this might be 10 or 15 minutes. Much later it might be 30 to 45. At first, just read a few verses, maybe 6-10. I have older children (20-9), so we try to tackle something like half a chapter per day. My children all learned to read early because they wanted to be able to take their turn at reading aloud. That made them eager to learn.

– Make it worship of the living God! I have seen the same basic format done by some passionately and with a real heart of worship, and by others mechanically and lifelessly. Same routine, radically different results. This requires, of course, that you actually have a vigorous spiritual life yourself, and that you are continually repenting and dealing with your own areas of hypocrisy. This will prove to be one great blessings of your life. Don’t cheat it by settling for less than real worship.

There is more that could be said, of course, but I hope this is helpful to fathers who are just getting started.

If this is an area of interest, here is a post about my own journey to establishing family worship.

Bill Brown Reads Our Recitation Text

Dear Sovereign Redeemer and other friends,

Every three months we choose a new text to recite and memorize together so that we are hiding God’s word in our hearts. The text is normally from the book of the Bible that is being preached, but this time we are reciting Isaiah 44:24-28 because the book being preached, the Book Ezra, is the breathtaking fulfillment of this prophecy:

Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, and He who formed you from the womb: “I am the LORD, who makes all things, who stretches out the heavens all alone, who spreads abroad the earth by Myself; 25 who frustrates the signs of the babblers, and drives diviners mad; who turns wise men backward, and makes their knowledge foolishness; 26 who confirms the word of His servant, and performs the counsel of His messengers; who says to Jerusalem, ‘You shall be inhabited,’ to the cities of Judah, ‘You shall be built,’ and I will raise up her waste places; 27 who says to the deep, ‘Be dry! And I will dry up your rivers’; 28 who says of Cyrus, ‘He is My shepherd, and he shall perform all My pleasure, saying to Jerusalem, “You shall be built,” and to the temple, “Your foundation shall be laid.” ‘

Isaiah was given this prophecy something like one hundred and forty years in advance of it coming to pass, with Cyrus, the Gentile king God would use, called out by name!

Now, if you have heard the resonant voice of Bill Brown reading Scripture, you know what a treat it is. Here he is reading our current recitation text.

This is available because Hope Baptist is working their way through Isaiah, and two of my kiddos, Megan and Jake, are recording him reading that book and putting it up on the internet. This is where you can access Bill Brown reading Isaiah.

Enjoy!