his is a true story: A young preacher once invited an older preacher to his church to share a sermon with his congregation. The sermon was powerful and many people were touched deeply by the message. Afterwards, the younger preacher asked the older preacher the secret of his success.

Number 3: From Cover To Cover

Now here’s today’s message...

This is a true story: A young preacher once invited an older preacher to his church to share a sermon with his congregation. The sermon was powerful and many people were touched deeply by the message. Afterwards, the younger preacher asked the older preacher the secret of his success.

The older preacher asked him, “Have you ever read the entire Bible, from cover to cover?”

The younger preacher said, “I’ve read a lot of it, but not the whole thing.”

To which the older preacher responded--while pointing to his Bible--“When you read this book twenty times, all the way through, then you’ll be able to preach like that.”

I know it’s a true story, because the man who told it to me was that younger preacher, many years ago, and he went home and did exactly what the older preacher suggested. The man who told me this story was quite old when he told me, and he didn’t tell me just how many times he’d read the entire Bible since then. But judging from the message he gave when I heard it, I would say he well exceeded the suggested twenty!

What’s good for powerful preaching is also good for powerful living.

The most pivotal time in my life came when I started reading the Bible for myself as an adult from cover to cover. I had been in a Bible study for a few months with a small group of men from our church, and decided to go out and buy a good study Bible for myself--with lots of footnotes included in it so I could understand better what I was reading.

I started with Genesis Chapter 1. As I began to read, I tried to immerse myself in the story, reading it not just as ancient history, but more like a newspaper, describing the events of the day as if they were actually taking place as I was reading them. As I read the Bible this way, the stories came alive, starting with the story of the creation of the world:

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).

As I read that passage, I began to picture what it must have been like for God to create something out of nothing.

When God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light, I tried to picture what it would have been like to be in total darkness, and then watch as God’s light burst onto the scene. As I continued reading, I could see the water flowing, waves crashing, plants growing, fish swimming, birds flying, animals moving, and then--as the climactic event--God creating the first two human beings in His own image. I felt like Thomas Merton, an author who wrote,

“By reading the scriptures I am so renewed that all nature seems renewed around me nd with me. The sky seems to be a pure, a cooler blue, the trees a deeper green. The whole world is charged with the glory of God and I feel fire and music under my feet.”

After a few weeks of reading the Bible like this, I sensed God’s deep love for me in a new way, and my own need of a Savior. I put my faith in Christ and never looked back. I honestly don’t know how many times I’ve read the Bible since then. But I do know that as I’ve read and reread it over the years, it has changed me, challenged me, comforted me, and most of all increased my faith in the God who spoke its words into existence. As D.L. Moody said:

“I prayed for faith and thought it would strike me like lightening. But faith did not come. One day I read, ‘Now faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.’ I had closed my Bible and prayed for faith. I now began to study my Bible and faith has been growing ever since.”

If you’d like to increase your faith, I’d encourage you to read the Bible from cover to cover, starting in Genesis 1. Make it a goal for yourself, not just to get through the whole Bible, but to let the whole Bible get through you. You’ll be glad you did.

Let’s pray...

Father, thank You for giving us Your words in the pages of the Bible. Help us to read them and apply them to our lives daily so that we can grow closer and closer to You, and look more and more like Your Son , Jesus Christ. It’s in His name we pray, Amen.