Habit #1 Reading the Bible Everyday

Honesty, being the best policy, I need to admit something: I didn't read the bible everyday.

In fact, I woke up on day 3 and realized my new good habit hadn't lasted 2 days! This shocked me.

I really can't be consistent for two days?? The strange thing was I had read 40 pages worth of Christian literature, just not the bible. I actually have a history of this. I will read the most dense, esoteric theology out there, before I pick up a bible. What's the reason?

I'm not sure I really know... Perhaps it's that I don't have anyone to discuss it with, and so I eventually forget what I've read — in that case why bother? Or maybe it's because I don't want to do the hard work of reflection; so I rely on someone else to tell me what to think. 

Obviously the bible is important, otherwise pastors wouldn't pester us so much about reading it everyday. But why is it so important? Growing up Catholic I hardly cracked the spine of a bible — and that was ok. In Catholicism a lot of importance is placed on Catechism, or religious doctrine. At home I have my old Catholic bible and our catechism which is over 1,000 pages long. In Sunday school, while some kids were learning endearing songs about about Abraham and his many sons, I was internalizing the Catholic rules of almost everything: who can and can't receive communion, transubstantiation, confession, creeds, order of the mass, status of the clergy, etc etc... real exciting stuff. 

It wasn't until I was a teenager in youth group at Christ Church United Methodist, I first opened a bible. I didn't even know how to read one. I had put tabs in one; But this bible had a few more books in it, and all of a sudden Jesus had brothers and sisters.

I quickly fell in love with this old book full of weird stories.

One of the very first stories I ever appreciated from the bible, is the story of Peter's dream. Do you remember this one? 

Acts 10 tells the story..

There was a man named Cornelius who lived in Caesarea, captain of the Italian Guard stationed there. He was a thoroughly good man. He had led everyone in his house to live worshipfully before God, was always helping people in need, and had the habit of prayer. One day about three o'clock in the afternoon he had a vision. An angel of God, as real as his next-door neighbor, came in and said, "Cornelius."

 Cornelius stared hard, wondering if he was seeing things. Then he said, "What do you want, sir?"

   The angel said, "Your prayers and neighborly acts have brought you to God's attention. Here's what you are to do. Send men to Joppa to get Simon, the one everyone calls Peter. He is staying with Simon the Tanner, whose house is down by the sea."

 As soon as the angel was gone, Cornelius called two servants and one particularly devout soldier from the guard. He went over with them in great detail everything that had just happened, and then sent them off to Joppa.

 The next day as the three travelers were approaching the town, Peter went out on the balcony to pray. It was about noon. Peter got hungry and started thinking about lunch. While lunch was being prepared, he fell into a trance. He saw the skies open up. Something that looked like a huge blanket lowered by ropes at its four corners settled on the ground. Every kind of animal and reptile and bird you could think of was on it. Then a voice came: "Go to it, Peter—kill and eat."

 Peter said, "Oh, no, Lord. I've never so much as tasted food that was not kosher."

 The voice came a second time: "If God says it's okay, it's okay."

This happened three times, and then the blanket was pulled back up into the skies.

If you're not sure what is happening in the story, let me explain. Acts is the first book of the New Testament — after the gospels. Acts, or Acts of the Apostles, tells the story of the disciples after Jesus' death and resurrection. So here, some time after Jesus is gone, we have see Peter — the rock of the church, JC's right hand man.

At this point Peter is not getting  along with another one our major atostles, Paul. Paul, a Jewish Pharisee and new convert to Christianity, thought God's redemption was meant not just for the Jews, but for the whole world. Other Christians, like Peter, kind of agreed, but thought gentiles (non-Jews) should have to uphold Jewish traditions before they could become Christians.

 As you can imagine, this was a real turnoff for all the uncircumcised adult males out there, anxious to follow Christ. (Yow-za!)

At the beginning of Acts 10, Cornelius (an Italian gentile) is sent to get Peter and bring him back to his hometown of Joppa. Surely Peter would have turned him away, except that God gives him this vision of a large sheet with many animals on it: kosher and un-kosher. God says, eat. But Peter, like a good Jew, says "of course not God, these animals over here aren't kosher!" God then corrects Peter's good intention, and says if I made it, it's clean. 

In one strange vision God is announcing he is available to ALL people. This is a HUGE moment in the history of religion and culture. Ancient religions all had "chosen people," or chosen lands to which God belonged. Even today we put narrow limits on God. 

Just yesterday I heard a pundit claim God was behind America and against the rest of the world — that we're the best country God ever gave the planet. 

Isn't this the same thing? Aren't we just making the same mistake as Peter when we say this?

Some people are in, some are worthy, and some are out. 

I remember thinking, "wow, this ancient book is relevant. How is that possible?"

This is the mystery of the bible — it is ancient, yet modern. It speaks to all cultures, all backgrounds, and all people. It transcends class and race. It touched the hearts of people 3,000 years ago, and 1 year ago. 

What other book can do that?

My final thought about this habit of reading the bible everyday is this:

Two years ago I was working with Christ Church youth group. During the summer we took the kids to Leesburg camp. The Middle School speaker that year was one of our pastors husbands.  In a talk I will never forget, he illustrated the importance of reading the bible everyday to the movie The Notebook.

The Notebook is a love story centered around an old man who reads aloud to an old invalid woman, whom he regularly visits. From a faded notebook, the old man's words bring to life the story of their lives together. Though her memory has faded from Alzheimer's, his words giver he a chance to relive their unforgettable love story. Every day he reads her this story, so that one day, she will understand just how much He loves her. 

The bible, this man said, is God's love letter to us. Like The Notebook, God desires for us to hear again and again our love story: so that we might one day understand just how much he loves us. 

The bible is our epic love story. Greater than anything Nicholas Sparks could have written. 

So today I will hear those sweet words again.... and tomorrow and and the next day and the next day... so that each day will be my happily ever after....