As to reading the Bible, let me suggest that you begin by reading five pages of your Bible each morning. Page numbers are much easier to keep up with than chapters and verses. Five pages are always the same length. Take whatever time you need to read five pages. It may take you 15 or 20 minutes, or even 30 minutes. But if you read five pages a day, you will read the Bible in less than one year. If you can, try to read 10 pages a day. I read 10 pages in my Bible in about 30 minutes every morning.

The largest Bible I have is a Dickson New Analytical Study Bible, which is the King James Version and has the American Standard Version embedded in the text. Reading five pages a day, I can finish in 289 days. That includes reading the helps offered, including summaries and outlines of every book. One New King James Version that I read had 1,128 pages, and at five pages a day I finished in 219 days. At 10 pages a day, the Dickson Bible can be read two times in a year, and the New King James three times a year. Imagine reading the Bible two to three times a year, year after year, for several years!

I can’t think of anything the church today needs more than members who read and know the Bible thoroughly. And I know of no way for that to happen without reading the Scriptures again and again, “For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little” (Isaiah 28:10 NKJV).

One of the reasons the church is in the throes of controversy is that we have leaders — elders, deacons, preachers, teachers (professors) — who are biblically ignorant. They have studied all about the Bible but know little of the Bible. “Behold the days are coming, says the Lord God, That I will send a famine on the land. Not a famine of bread, not a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord” (Amos 8:11).

Average people in the pew today are so biblically ignorant they will swallow virtually anything any preacher says. We have deacons so biblically ignorant we are afraid to make them elders. We have elders so biblically ignorant they are allowing doctrinally unsound preachers to lead their congregations into apostasy. We have preachers so biblically ignorant they are following the biblically ignorant denominationalist preachers into the wastelands of doctrinal confusion.

Brethren, we must know the Book, and the only way to know the Book is to read it front to back again and again and again. And we must all know the Book, from the least (the smallest child) to the greatest (oldest). Read your Bible every day, but spend some quality time and effort in its reading.

Copied from Bulletin Briefs

We often sing about how safe and secure we are in the everlasting arms of our Lord. It is only in this fellowship that such a promise can be assured. There is no fellowship like the one that is provided in Christ.

According to Webster, fellowship is defined as a “membership or partnership in a society” (Webster, 1925, 220). There are numerous societies that one can belong to. However, can you think of one with greater blessings than that of being a member of the Lord’s body?

In writing to the Ephesians, Paul the apostle emphasized these great blessings that one can have if he or she becomes a member of the church of our Lord (Ephesians 2:19-22).
In the Lord’s fellowship we can become a citizen of the greatest nation (verse 19). Peter calls Christians a “royal priesthood, a holy nation, [God’s] own special people” (1 Peter 2:9). This nation is to be united in purpose (Mark 16:15-16) and doctrine (1 Corinthians 1:10). It contains the greatest soldiers (2 Timothy 2:3) with the greatest armor (Ephesians 6:11-20). And, it will be the only one standing when all others have fallen (Hebrews 12:28).

In the Lord’s fellowship we can become a member of the greatest family (verse 19). Where else can you find a family that contains better members than this household? They are to treat one another with the highest regard (1 Timothy 5:1-2), and are to love one another with the greatest love ever known (1 John 4:7-11).

In the Lord’s fellowship we can become a part of the greatest building (verses 20-21). No bomb or missile could ever topple this building for it is built upon a Foundation that is indestructible (Ephesians 2:20). Its stones are living (1 Peter 2:4-5) and are being built up by the One who built all things! (Hebrews 3:4).

In the Lord’s fellowship we can become a dwelling place of the greatest being (verse 22). Undoubtedly, this is the most impressive blessing of this fellowship. This society is the only one who is inhabited by the God of the Universe. If it is good enough for God to place His residence there, then why should we search for any other?

Make sure you are a member of this fellowship today!

Copied from Sixth & Washington Streets Bulletin, Marietta, Ohio

He opens you up and scoops out all the yucky stuff--
including the seeds of doubt, hate, greed, etc.

Then He carves you a new smiling face and puts His
light inside you to shine for all the world to see.

Submitted by
Sean Keith