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Read the Bible

To get on spiritually you need to know God better and to know God better you must spend time hearing what he has to say which means you need to read the Bible.  Although God can also speak directly to your heart, you need to know His written Word so you can judge whether God is speaking to you, or the enemy is trying to deceive you.  God will not love you more because you read the Bible. It's for your benefit, not required to make God love you. However, without reading the Bible, you will not grow spiritually, and you will be more easily deceived.

There are many very good reasons for reading the Bible, as I discuss in an episode of my radio show (The Good News Show) but often people come up with excuses: here are two common reasons why people give up reading the Bible.  One reason is that they tried to read the Bible but it didn’t make any sense, the words were difficult for them to understand. One solution is to read a modern English translation of the Bible that uses words that are more familiar to you such as the Contemporary English Version.  Another reason that people give up reading the Bible is that they get to a part of the Bible that talks about somebody who was the father of someone who was the father of someone else and it all seems about as exciting as reading the computer error messages. However, it can be fun and enlightening to spot the names you know in such lists and see if where there are in the list is significant.  And if all else fails you can simply skip the list and get on with the story.

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Jesus Loves You: This I Know

Jesus loves me! This I know
For the Bible tells me so.
Little ones to Him belong.
They are weak but He is strong.

Yes, Jesus loves me!
Yes, Jesus loves me!
Yes, Jesus loves me!
The Bible tells me so.

(Words by Anna B. Warner 1860; Music by William B. Bradbury 1861)
(Whitney Houston singing Jesus loves me: click here)

Is this simple song familiar to you? Did you ever sing it as a child? Kenneth Osbeck writes in 101 Hymn Stories, “Without doubt the hymn that has influenced children for Christ more than any other is this simply stated one, written in 1860 by Anna Bartlett Warner. Miss Warner wrote this text in collaboration with her sister Susan as a part of one of the best-selling novels of that day, a novel written by Susan entitled Say and Seal. Today few remember the plot of that novel…but the simple poem spoken by one of the characters, Mr. Linden, as he comforts Johnny Fox, a dying child, still remains the favorite hymn of children around the world to this day.” Osbeck writes that…