But if you seek the Lord, your God, and you strive with all your heart and your soul, you will find him there. When you are in distress and all of these things happen to you in the future, you are to return to the Lord, your God, and obey his voice, and he will not abandon you, nor destroy you nor forget the covenant that he made with your fathers, confirming it to them by oath, for the Lord, your God, is a merciful God.
— Deuteronomy 4:29-31 NCB
Barna Research estimates that the average household has 4.7 Bibles. Why someone would keep a Bible with only two thirds of its content on their bookshelf I cannot imagine [Barna: State of the Bible 2021]. Perhaps those are Reader Digest versions.
Being an overachiever, I have nine or ten copies. Starting with my first Bible, I have been trying to find one I can accept as Gospel. Not easy finding a Bible that fits my world view, Lord knows how much I’ve tried. In every version I read about God wanting me to do this or that, or worse, give up something that I enjoy. I’ve combed through the Bible from the beginning to end, chapter by chapter, paragraph by paragraph; during moments of despair, sentence by sentence. Every new version fails to offer me a God consistent with my point of view and expectations on how He should behave, not me.
According to the same study only 26% of the population believes that the Bible is the real word of God and should be interpreted literally, word for word. All I can assume is that the Bible must be one heck of a page turner. I know I have been turning those pages trying to my view of God. Fifty percent of Americans read the Bible less than twice a year. Might explain the Reader Digest version.
Why do we keep so many copies of the Bible around yet never bother to read them?
While I am sure there are many reasons for these conflicting answers, I will offer you my two cents.
First, we put way too much faith in priests and pastors to give us God’s word, His actual word. We get instead the interpreted version of God word, interpreted by their own version of God and how He should behave. For a typical sermon that means a quick two minute reading from the Bible, and a twenty minute explanation on what God is really saying… . Forgive the generalization, I have endured my share of churches and their sermons. What I have learned after all those years in pews is that like the rest of us, our pastors and priest are only human. They make mistakes.
Our mistake on the other hand is how we go about selecting a church to attend. Often the decision comes down to those same interpretive sermons. Do they line up with our own thinking… our own theology? Worshiping or glorifying God on most people’s checklist is a distant second, forth, or even further down depending on whether you have kids. Most of all, we pray they will not call out our sins during the sermons, otherwise we may be forced to call out theirs after the service.
In short, when the sermon fits our own theology, there is no need to open a Bible. Everyone is on the same page with “God’s Word“.
Another reason may be guilt. Since we call ourselves Christians, which 63% of Americans still do, we feel obligated to have a Bible. Guilt may help explain one or two on the shelf but not the three to five Bibles the study finds that sits on our shelves.
Perhaps the simplest reason may also be the most powerful in terms of our lives. What if God Himself placed a gaping heartache in our innermost being, an ache we spend our entire lives trying to fill with things of this world, only to find that nothing seems to satisfy it, even searching Bible after Bible trying to find it? What if that heartache was designed by God to drive each of us to searching and searching until we find Him? How else can you explain the need for so many forms of religion, and why new ones keep popping up each year. What are each of us searching for if not something bigger than ourselves?
What I have come to believe is that while you can read the Bible from cover to cover, all that you have read is nothing more than head knowledge. You may quote it verse by verse and understand what those words mean, but the intent of those words never get in to the one place they were designed to live in, your heart and soul.
Forget about religion. Religion is man made, not God made. Religion has as much worth as a counterfeit bill. A counterfeit bill designed to mimic a relationship. Designed to keep us away from having a true relationship with Jesus, where He can heal that gaping heartache through His love. His dying love for each of us, that none should perish [John 3:16].
You will not find Jesus through practicing your religion, nor will you find Him through your own version of truth. God is not some lump of clay waiting to be shaped into your version of god, rather it is the other way around [Isaiah 29:16 NIV]. He is Potter, waiting, just waiting for His beloved whom He created in love to join Him.
Contrary to what you may believe, you do not have to wait until Jesus comes back to have that relationship, actually that may be too late. Also, why would you to want to wait until you are on your death bed to accept Him with your dying breath, only to miss out on all those years of being in a loving relationship? That is like waiting until you are ready to die to marry the person you are hopelessly in love with, just to be sure something better does not come along. So many wasted years. So many empty years without true love at your side walking with you throughout your life.
You will only find Him by taking Him at His word that He loves you, right now, just as you are, regardless of where you are this moment, both physically and spiritually. He does not care, His only desire is to wrap His arms around you in love and let you know it will be all right… .
Why accept a counterfeit of some religion when you can experience a real. personal relationship, right now? What are you waiting for?
If you need help reaching out to Him, pop over to this page, it offers a prayer that may help. If you do accept Jesus as your Lord and Savoir, please drop me a line, I would like to pray with you in love.
Blessings in the name of Jesus Christ,
Rob Nimchuk
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