I think the fact that people don’t read is because they do find it boring, because they’re reading it in a way that it was never really meant to be read. If you wife wrote you a “love letter” that was your family tree, then a history of what her parents lives were like, then some good news, it wouldn’t be much of a love letter. It would be an ok book though.

It’s like saying that Dave Ramsey wrote me a love letter with newest book. There’s plenty of great news in it, and he definately has a desire to help everyone in America. But if I read it as a love letter from Dave to me (creepy, I know) I wouldn’t get as much from it, as I will reading it as someone attempting to save me from financial hell.

IMO, we should learn to read the bible as the absoulute Word of God. Full of history, and poetry, and wisdom, and morality, and the good news of Christ. We don’t need clever titles, and we don’t need to set it up to be something that it isn’t. It is truly amazing enough on it’s on.

I think that this borders on there are fewer men in the church in general .. because we have to make everything so femine and emotional. But that’s another disucssion.

I also understand why you say you don’t like the “love letter” thing yet when I read the Bible it is clearly conveyed to me in such a way. Yes knowing that Paul wrote to Timothy and so on ad so forth that is nice but God did preserve His word for me to read and in it to discover ultimately His love for me that he sent his only Son for me from the first mention of the gospel in Genesis 3:15 to the death burial and resurrection of Jesus.

I like to call the Bible well the Bible. Not sure why we don’t read it and study it more. Maybe we find it boring. Maybe we don’t like to read. Maybe we are like Chris and feel we have done it out of duty instead of love none of these are good Reasons. Well I suppose I should read my Bible instead of typing on this blog.

but there a couple ways that I don’t like to see scripture referred to as:

“God’s Instruction Manual” - really??? When was the last time that you read an instruction manual? The only time that anyone ever pull one out is when their oven is broken. I want the Bible to be something much more than that. I should not just pull it whenever my life is broken!

“God’s Love Letter” - The first problem with this line of thought, imo, is that it’s not a letter mainly. 3/4 of it is historical narrative. There are psalms, proverbs, etc. And the letters that are in it aren’t from God to us, they’re from Paul to Timothy. I don’t think that when we read the bible we should expect to experience it as a letter from God to us, because that’s not what it is.

I was listening to a person the other night who said, “if we can really learn to understand what scripture is, we would appreciate it more”. And when we see it as THE Word of God, and stop putting other clever lines that aren’t very good descriptions about it, then we will be able to take it to heart a lot more than we are able to right now.

I think that both of you guys are right. We have to approach the word out of love, and if we truly loved God more we would not just read more, but we would pray more, and serve more, and love more, and hate injustice more, and you can fill in your own blank.

So, why don’t we?

Truth is truth no matter where it comes whether we see it on tv or on read it in a book if it is truth then it is truth. However Gods word is the source of absolute truth as you have so noted.

I keep coming back the “faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.” I also come back to 2 Timothy 3:15-17 as well as many many other passages of scripture that speak on what the Bible is profitable for.

Should the Bible be our God absolutely not. Does it give us instruction absolutely.

I think of times when I have gone on long trips away from my wife and I have opened up my suitcase and there is a card or love letter. I take and I read that letter not out of duty but because I love my wife. Because I love my wife i want to feel close to her I can use that letter, a picture, a song all of these will make me feel close to my wife but none as close as those words she wrote to me. Nothing will draw me closer cause me to think deeper then to meditate on what she has said in her letter.

God has chosen to write us a letter that reveals his love to me. Can I feel close in a song yes, in other reading absolutely but I am drawn back to that letter. That letter he wrote and preserved for me. That Letter that explains all about who He is and who his son is and what I can do to show my love for Him.

Why in the world would I not want to read it. Not out of duty but out of love. Maybe the problem is we really don’t love God like we say we do. And definitely not as much as he loves us.

The Bible is important but not at the expense of a relationship with God even if it is a fundamental part of that relationship.