Profitable Reading

 Greetings to you all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,

     Second Timothy 3:16-17 says, “ All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:  That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.”

     As a child I enjoyed reading books.  I remember the time that I got my fiSst reader in the first grade.   it was mostly the story about Dick and Jane and  Spot the dog.   After that my parents purchased a set of encyclopedias with two volumes of story books, one of them by Zane Grey which was all Western stories.  When in high school the literature class was one of my favorites.   We had the opportunity to read all kinds of writings from various authors including short stories and poems.  Now as an adult I find I read very little outside of 1 book.  That one book is the Bible.   all other books that I read are about the Bible or the Bible itself.

     We do not have the original parchments that contained the earliest writings of the scriptures.   We do have over 3000 manuscripts that are pages from the Bible.  The manuscripts are dated as far back as the third century and go up as far as the 10th century.   with all of these manuscripts we can be guaranteed that the translations that we have are accurate.   the above verse reminds us that every scripture is God-breathed.  The passage also exhorts us to have confidence in the scriptures because they are profitable in four different areas in our lives.   The scriptures are profitable for Doctrine for reproof for correction and for instruction in righteousness.  Does that mean that I understand everything in the Bible?   The answer to that is no, I do not understand everything in the Bible.   Those things that I do not understand I put aside and mark them as questions and someday maybe I will understand that particular passage.  I am often reminded about the little song that says I Stand Alone on the word of God the b i b l e.  Thousands of books are being published every day.   whilel we have such a large number of books available we must ask ourselves what is the most profitable thing for us to read?  We could spend time reading William Shakespeare or Mark Twain or any number of other authors such as Charles Dickens and they would be good books to read.   it is only however, the Bible that is profitable for those areas in our lives which guide us in our style of living.  It has been said that there are three basic questions for every human being.   The first question is where did I come from?   The second question is why am I here?   and the third question is where am I going?  The only book that answers those three questions is the Bible, the word of God.  Praise God today for giving us His word the Bible.   May we be diligent in reading his letter to us.