“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4; quoted from Deuteronomy 8:3).

You cannot do this on your own.

Don’t try this by yourself.

The Christian life should come with a warning label.

“Try this without the Scriptures as your constant guide and you will fail.”

Many a well-intentioned child of God has gotten off on a detour in life by denying themselves the guidance of a daily time with an open Bible. Some have strayed into wickedness because they lost their spiritual compass. Millions have lapsed into a religion of feelings and opinions and hunches due to their ignorance of God’s Word.

–I met some women who told me they no longer worship with other Christians. One said, “God showed me that I am the church.”  Because they did not know their Bible (or had rejected what they did know), they turned their backs on the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

We cannot say this too strongly: he who rejects the Lord’s people is rejecting the Lord Himself.  See Luke 10:16.

–Shortly after I became their pastor, a couple abandoned church to join an occult group because “their way is more exciting.We see some amazing things.” Because they did not know their Bible, anything that smacked of spirituality was good in their eyes.

–Sitting at home with the baby while his wife waited tables at a restaurant, a young Christian man opened his door to visitors who brought doctrines he had never heard of. Because he did not know his Bible, he was a sitting duck for their tactics.

God’s people read the Bible–Old and New Testament, all of it–for spiritual nourishment, for doctrinal instruction, for practical correction, for mind enlightenment, and a thousand other reasons.  The two testaments are different, to be sure. Christians find their doctrine (“what to believe”) in the New Testament, while in the Old they discover the foundation, the illustrations, the prophecies, and preparation for all contained in the New.

I urge new believers (and those young in the faith) to read the New Testament several times through before starting with the Old Testament. Familiarize yourself thoroughly with the life of Jesus and every word He taught, and then with the Acts of the Apostles and the epistles.  In that order. Then and only then are you ready to drop back into the Old Testament and able to appreciate what you find there.

I’m now in my 75th year of life. (Don’t let that alarm you. It’s quite all right. I’m still the same person I was a half-century ago, regardless of the white hair and the numbers on my drivers license.)   I received my first Bible at the age of 8 and have been reading it ever since.  It is an inexhaustible treasure, one whose depths we never reach.

Although I’ve read the Bible through numerous times, I still do not know a tenth of all it contains. As the Word of God, it contains His wisdom for the ages.

Was the Bible not written by men? My answer is, “Well, duh.” Of course. Where have you been?  “Holy men of old spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21).

This is my testimony, my friend. And I tell you, you will not be successful in living for God apart from His Word.  Jesus said, “Now you are clean through the word which I have spoken to you” (John 15:3).

I read the Bible for new discoveries from well-known texts, for treasures overlooked all the other times I walked these well-trod paths, and for better understanding of old truths. I read it for the new things the Holy Spirit wishes to say to me.  (Do not miss that. He is not limited to what Spurgeon or Luther or Hughes says He meant by a text. He is on the job at this very moment and fully able to speak for Himself!)

One reason (of a thousand) that I know the Holy Spirit indwells God’s people is how He teaches me from the Word. (And that did not come quickly. It was years before I had a handle on understanding the Word and learned to love studying it.)

I appreciate something Moses said to Israel:

“What great nation is there that has a god so near to it as is the Lord our God whenever we call on Him?

“Or what great nation is there that has statutes and judgments as righteous as this whole law which I am setting before you today?” (Deuteronomy 4:7-8).

There’s nothing else in the Bible like those two exclamations. They are priceless and have special meaning to Christ-followers today.

We have our God “so near to us!”  And we hold in our hands His righteous Word given by the hands of His holy men and women.  How blessed we are!

Here is my take on what this means for you and me today.  Because we have the written Word of God…

1) He who tries to live for Jesus Christ without living in His word is attempting something never before done in the history of the world.  We can no more live for Christ without a daily relationship with His word than we can exist without breathing.

2) We are not at the mercy of a hundred generations who came before us, playing the gossip game, handing down the gospel of Jesus by word of mouth and watching it become more and more corrupted with each retelling. We have God’s Word straight from the hands (and mouths) of the first generation of believers.

We can all be second generation Christians, thanks to the written word of God.

Cut yourself loose from Scripture and you’re in big trouble almost immediately.

3) The best way God’s people receive messages from Him is through the written word.

Now, this is subjective and can lead to a thousand abuses. But it’s true nonetheless.

I will sometimes be struggling with an issue while praying and reading the word. Then, at one point, bingo! there it is.  It’s as clear as if the Lord were sitting here in front of me and had spoken those words.

Our Lord once said, “The sheep hear (the shepherd’s) voice….and they follow him because they know his voice” (John 10:3-4).  He said, “They do not know the voice of strangers” (v.5).  “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (v.27).

Henry Blackaby has taught a full generation of believers that “if you’re not hearing from the Lord on a regular basis, you are missing out on one of the most basic parts of the Christian life.”

4) We hear from Him most often through His word. That is, His Spirit in you alerts you to something in His word.

Therefore, to get that, first, we have to be in His word, reading it and secondly, we have to be close to Him, yielded to Him and obedient, and listening for His voice.

In His Word. With the Lord.

5) We must never substitute the writings of preachers (books and blogs) for God’s Word.  All those other writings are “about” the Word; but the Bible “is” the word.

I’ve known of religious cults–off-shoots of Christian groups–restricting their membership to reading only Scripture as they interpret it and never taking it “straight.”  Personally, I like mine straight.  I love teachers like Adrian Rogers and Warren Wiersbe and Kent Hughes. I enjoy J. Vernon McGee’s take on many passages. But none of these take the place of opening the Bible and reading.

6) The object of knowing God’s word is not to impress anyone, ease our guilt, or pump up our sermons. The object is obedience.

Jesus said, “If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them” (John 13:17).

There is no way to stress this too highly.

7) Most of us have found that the best way to have a daily time with God’s Word is by having a set place and time. We keep the Bible and a notebook there, and when we settle there and open the word, our minds go immediately into the receptive mode.

Doing the Word haphazardly is a sure-fire way to drop the habit when our schedule crowds it out.  That’s why early in the morning and in a certain place works best for most people.  You’ll find what works best for you.

Someone might have asked the Apostle Paul a question like, “What’s the point in reading the Bible?”  He gave us the best answer: “All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17).