I believe everyone should read the entire Bible at least once in his or her life. I have had the fortunate pleasure of reading it from cover to cover twice. To make it even more fun, I read the King James Version.
I once heard someone say that the Bible is the best selling book of all time but the least read. Ouch! Why is that I wonder? And why wouldn't every self-professed Christian take time to read all of God's Word? It's really not such a big undertaking. The KJV is comprised of 66 books, 1,189 chapters, 31,102 verses and 783,137 words. On average, it will take about 70 hours to read everything from Genesis to Revelation.
So, what did I gain from reading those 783,137 words? Well, I learned that I couldn't read the Bible like a novel. I found myself wanting to study many of the passages that I was reading. It took me way more than 70 hours to read everything. Overall, it probably took me 3 or 4 months to read the Bible. If I figure an hour a day, it took about 120 hours.
Honestly, I struggled through much of the Old Testament but then I'd come across a verse like II Kings 18:27 and my world was right again. Perhaps the words that meant the most to me were found in the shortest verse; "Jesus Wept." John 11:35
I still have that King James Version Bible. It was the first Bible that my parents gave me. Over the years, the cover has become tattered and the some of the binding has started to come loose. I've written on many of the pages and more than a few verses have been highlighted. A great man once told me that, "A Bible that's falling apart usually belongs to someone whose life isn't."
When I was younger, that was a true statement. To be honest, I don't read and study the Bible like I used to, however, unlike Lewis Carroll, I believe that I can go back to yesterday and become the Christian that I used to be. It seems to me that I read somewhere that Jesus is standing at the door knocking...
Be Well.
Bill
