by Annagail Lynes

Created on: June 07, 2008   Last Updated: June 10, 2008

Why haven't you read through the Bible? When I am asked this question, I make a joke that I have tried, but I always get stuck in the wilderness. I finish Genesis and Exodus, but I become bored when Moses listed all the sacrifices.

I have read through the New Testament and the book of Proverbs many times though.

Many people, especially popular television preachers, convince you that you must read through the Bible every year in one of those read-through-the-Bible-in-a-year plans.

For me, I find it takes all the fun out of reading the Bible. I read the chapters in order to check them off my to-do list. I don't read them to understand them.

I write a lot of blogs and articles, and I am constantly in the Word. For me, discovering new truths, new gems, from the Word, is exciting. I love looking up words in the Greek and Hebrew to gain better understanding.

It is not about the amount of Scripture that you read. It is about the amount you digest.

Let's say you eat a whole table full of food-cakes, meat, potatoes, pie, zucchini, broccoli-but none of it stays down. It's the amount that you digested that gives you the nutrients, not the amount you actually consumed.

The same is true when you eat spiritually. You can read through the Bible in a year, devour books on the Bible, listen to preachers, but it is the amount that you actually digest that gives you the maximum benefit.

There are many reasons why you will not digest the Word.

One, your spirit doesn't witness with what is being preached. Your spirit-your Born-again self-call tell whether someone is preaching the true Gospel.

For instance, last year I began listening to a preacher who introduced me to the transforming power of grace. I had been taught about grace, but I didn't understand grace or its function.

His preaching is contrary to most preaching I hear on television today, but I know, in my spirit, that this man is preaching the Gospel of grace as Paul did. I know that what this man teaches is from Almighty God. As if to confirm it, God gave me a dream that showed God using this pastor

Over the last year, since I have listened to the gospel of pure grace, I have seen my hunger for the Word and God increase.

Your spirit knows the truth of God's Word when it hears it. Your spirit is yearning for that type of nourishment.

Most churches teach gospel of grace mixed with law. When people hear it, it sounds right.

However Jesus fulfilled the requirements of the law for us. We are no longer to live under the law because the

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