In the above paragraph, I put the word Christian in quotation marks, because many of the books displayed on this display certainly claim to be Christian, but seem to draw the reader's attention to something other than God. For instance, there is The Green Bible. Let me say that again, The GREEN Bible! This is basically a study Bible that includes essays by "Christian" environmentalists and prints all the verses that speak about the environment in green. I like what Richard Land said on the issue:
"Sure it's important, but when they asked Jesus what was most important, he said, 'Love your God, and love your neighbor as yourself.' He didn't say anything about creation."
I would go so far as to call this corruption of the Word of God, sacrilege. At any rate, that book is not the one that caught my eye today, though it has in the past, it is just an example of the kind of literature that is on the table. Although there may be one or two decent books, the majority are not things that would be helpful for "the edification of the saints".
The book that caught my eye was the Busy Dad's Bible, which advertised itself as having "Daily Inspiration Even If You Only Have One Minute". I've been thinking about this off and on throughout the day, and wondering what my life would be like if I only gave the Lord one minute each day to read his word. Now I know that I'm not the busiest man alive, far from it, it may be easier for me to find time to give God than it is for some others, but I know some super busy Dad's who still give time to the Lord and encourage their families to do so as well and are much better for it.
The first example to come to my mind, is my Dad. There have been times when he has been slammed with stuff to do, whether it be meetings with various committees every day (minus Sunday) for two weeks, often stretching from early to quite late; or all the numerous responsibilities of a Regional Chairman with NTM PNG, so much so that some days I barely saw him; or now as he has been even busier than ever over the passed few months, he has made a point of taking time to be alone with the Lord each morning for approximately half an hour and encouraging us (sometimes 'strongly encouraging') to do so as well. Also, each weekday morning, we would have family devotions whenever it was possible (missing it even one time in a month was rare). This is one of the reasons I respect my Dad and one of the ways that he has been such a great example to me.
Back to the question I have been thinking about all day, "What would my life be like if I only gave God one minute each day?" This is a quote from the back of the book:
"It fits right into my schedule."
And that's what it would be, that's what I would be doing, fitting God into my schedule. Yet this gets me thinking, how often do I end up doing just that? Fitting God into my preconceived plans. Fitting time with him into a day that should be centered on him. Far more than I should.
This probably wasn't as coherent as it is in my mind, when I write or speak, it seldom is, but hopefully you get the point.
This probably wasn't as coherent as it is in my mind, when I write or speak, it seldom is, but hopefully you get the point.
