Website owner:  James Miller

My advice: read the Bible



   My advice to anyone: read the Bible.  The Bible has definitely 
   been the most important book in my life.  I started reading it 
   when I was a young boy, probably at around the age of nine.  I 
   was a serious young boy and I read it seriously.  One day I 
   decided to read through it, from beginning to end.  I started 
   at Genesis and read through it.  It was a project for me.  I 
   found some of the prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, etc.) a 
   little difficult to understand and boring but, except for that, 
   I found it mostly very interesting, thought-provoking, 
   fascinating.  It made a big impression of me.  I found in it a 
   faith, a meaning for existence.  I found in it my God, the 
   strength of my life.  I memorized many of its passages.  It has 
   been the book of my life.  For me it is the Book of Books.  It 
   is God's word to his creation.  I believe it in its entirety.  
   I believe in its authenticity, that it is a set of writings 
   inspired by God.  I trust it.  I love it.  I feel very sorry 
   for that young person or adult who has not read the Bible, does 
   not know the God of the Bible.  He is like a leaf tossed about 
   in the ocean.  He has no anchor.  The Bible is the answer to 
   the needs of man. 

   My advice: read the Bible.  Find for yourself a quiet, solitary 
   spot where you can be alone with no disruptions.  Start with 
   Genesis.  Read the Old Testament.  Learn the history of the 
   Jews as told in the first few books.  Read the New Testament.  
   Learn the story of Jesus as found in the gospels.  Read the 
   letters of the apostles.  Find out what true Christianity is 
   about.  Read God's word.  Find your God in that Bible.  Make 
   the Bible the book of your life.  Find your truth there.  
   Commit its words to memory.  Love the God that you find there 
   and seek him.  Commit your heart to that God.  Take the Bible 
   seriously, believe it, trust it, love it.  Make its teachings 
   the object of your life.  And know this:  To follow God is to 
   forsake sin, to turn from it, to repudiate it, to lead a good, 
   upright, godly life --- for God's sake (i.e. out of love for 
   him).  God's way is the way of morality, goodness, and virtue.  
   You cannot follow God and the way of this world.  To follow God 
   you must reject the way of the world, its outlooks, attitudes 
   and values.  The way of the crowd is the way of Satan.  You 
   cannot follow both Satan and God.  You must choose.  

   To find the God of the Bible you must read the Bible for 
   yourself.  There is just no substitute for having read the 
   Bible yourself.  Don't let someone else tell you what the Bible 
   says or what it means.  Be wise.  Be a skeptic.  The devil 
   preys on the foolish.  Don't get your information from 
   secondary sources.  Churches, preachers, ministers, Christian 
   literature.  These are all secondary sources.  Go to the 
   primary source.  Go to the Bible.  That is the primary source.  
   The secondary sources will all present the Bible as viewed 
   through their own lenses.  What are those lenses?  Their own 
   particular theological dogmas, doctrines, beliefs.  They will 
   present the Bible as viewed through those beliefs and views in 
   which they have been indoctrinated.  This world is just full of 
   false cults, theological error.  False belief, wrong 
   assumptions, error is everywhere.  Your chance of getting the 
   truth by going to secondary sources is, in my opinion, about 
   zero.  You are much safer in going directly to the Bible.  Most 
   people, if they wish to pursue the things of God, pick some 
   church that they feel comfortable with, go to that church, and 
   get an understanding of the Bible as interpreted by that 
   church.  Each church has its own slant, its own emphasis, its 
   own particular beliefs and assumptions.  Mind-bending religions 
   program people's minds and they become unthinking robots, 
   automatons, lost to spiritual truth forever.  Reading the Bible 
   with a programmed mind gives you only the view you have been 
   programmed into believing.  You see that view and no other.  
   Religions can be highly dangerous to your spiritual health --- 
   and your eternal soul.  Be wise.  Be cautious.  Read the Bible 
   with an unprogrammed mind.  You won't understand everything.  I 
   don't.  There are many passages of the Bible I don't 
   understand.  I understand enough, however.  I know what God 
   expects of me.  That is sufficient. 


   Mar 2008
       




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