Friday, February 1, 2008

Reading- what you read is the important part

References: Psalm 119:11, 2 Timothy 3:14-17, Proverbs 1:7,3:5-7, 9:10
Sara and I recently listened to a broadcast CD from Family Life Today( I believe that is the name) which talked about turning off the TV and reading more. After listening through the broadcast, I was left with a few thoughts.
The first thought is that reading could be considered a more thought provoking, imagination workout. There are books that will teach you how to do about anything you are interested in. Gardening, building tree houses, tennis, plumbing, you name the subject and your local library has a book on the subject. Nathaniel has found books on special effects, bicycle repair, and frogs. Public libraries can be a very useful tool for expanding your horizons. TV can teach you also, but most of the programming is entertainment, not educational or uplifting.
My second thought is that the whole basis of this program we listened to had not so much to do with reading, but with reading the books the guest was selling. He was promoting his own publishing company and selling his own product under the guise of getting people to read. I appreciate his love for reading, but he never said anything about reading any book he did not publish personally. It seemed a little self serving, rather than the supposed topic of helping kids get away from the TV and into reading. Also, church, school, and public libraries have most of these books for free reading, which saves families money. I can appreciate saving money.
Another thing that stood out to me is that I really don't see a lot of difference between TV and reading in most areas. Both require you to sit for hours on end in stead of being active. Both have poor content available(watching MTV or soap operas is no worse than reading romance novels) so that argument is only valid in certain circumstances. You can get garbage through a book or a TV, the key is to be careful what you put in no matter the media type.
The foremost point, which I left for last as it would be the longest, was that this fellow, on Christian radio, who was a Christian himself, never once mentioned God's Word as a source. The Bible has stories of adventure, family, wars, history, love, and of course the basis for our existence. We use our Bibles here at home for building us closer to the Lord, for teaching our children, learning history, and many other things. Human behavior can be studied throughout history by examining the Scripture. We can see how man reacts to God, and how God reveals himself to man. The God that created us has revealed Himself to us through the power of the written word. That is our greatest source of education that we can experience.
When God chose men to write His words to keep for all eternity, He was showing us what He intended for us in the garden of Eden. He shows us what happens when we disobey Him. God has given us the only completely accurate history of the world. In "The Star of Bethlehem" we see how God created the entire universe to give us evidence of Himself and to prove how prophecies that He gave to men would be fulfilled in the earthly arrival of Jesus Christ, God's only son.
So, in the great media debate over books versus TV, I would conclude that God's Word is the only book we really need, but many expository books(that accurately interpret Scripture) can help us see how this amazing book applies to our lives. I am always cautious, however, of any book written by man that is not the inspired Word of God. Anyone can make mistakes or interject their own opinion. Not everything I write is correct, even though I write with the best of intentions. We must always use Scripture to check the accuracy of the writings of man, or we take the chance of missing or misinterpreting what God truly has for us.
I was recently pouring over the Bible study books on my shelf and realized that I need to throw out a lot of them, that is, after getting all the laughter out of my system. My laughter soon turned to disgust when I saw that this person writing had taken so many things and turned them to her own point of view. People often give me books about the Bible as I have taken an interest in reading more lately, but much of what we see is garbage. This book was in that category. The writer spoke about Paul contradicting himself, Peter "lying about his death" for the sake of getting a point across, and many other heresies and false teachings.
So, if you want a good book, read the Holy Bible. Read a literal translation if you want to get any doctrine out of it. Read it daily and let God's Word to you be pervasive and influence everything you do. If you can find a good commentary or book about living what you read, carefully examine it against Scripture and see if it holds up to the test. If it doesn't, throw it out, burn it, or otherwise dispose of it. There are too many false teachings in the world, we should not throw our money at authors that disregard God's point of view or distort His teachings. I want to challenge everyone reading this to get into the Word today. Do it daily in prayer and meditate on what God is showing you. It will change your life, I guarantee it.
Mark