Thinking Out Loud with Alan Shlemon - Read Your Bible!

Episode Date: December 18, 2025

Alan briefly unpacks three reasons why daily Bible reading should be a priority.

You know you're supposed to read your Bible, but why? Well, I want to briefly unpack three reasons you should be reading the Word of God in this episode of my podcast Thinking Out Loud with Alan Shleiman. instruction manuals. Just kidding. I never read them. In fact, quite often, after I've opened up some sort of new item, I promptly will toss the owner's manual in the trash. And the reason is because I think to myself, man, I don't need somebody to tell me what to do. I'll figure this out for myself. In fact, sometimes I think the adventure of trying to figure out how to put something together or to perform some sort of task without the instructions is more adventurous and more exciting. Now, you've probably heard the phrase, pride comes before the fall. And sure enough, after I tossed the instructions in the trash, I soon find myself, you know, trying to dig

those same, you know, that same crumpled manual out of the garbage a few moments later. And the reason I'm doing that is because the manual typically has important details I need. Now, the same could potentially be said of scripture, right? We're told to read your Bible, right? That's what people say. And in fact, we've heard that so many times, it oftentimes will not even register when we hear it again. Because you think, yeah, sure, I read the Bible, right? And, you know, oftentimes we think we know it, but we don't. And so when we face persecution or when doubt creeps in or trials befall us or when our wisdom falters, then we turn to God. Right? We pull the Bible off the shelf, dust it off, you know, and then finally dig into the word.

but it just seems like waiting for a crisis before we study scripture or get in the word of God is a losing strategy, right? I think it's pretty clear we should all be reading in our Bible probably a lot more than we do. And I want to kind of explore the question why and offer here three reasons. Now, these three reasons obviously are going to be, are not the only reasons, right? There's obviously more of them. And I probably won't go to too much detail, but I just want to offer three quick thoughts about why making daily Bible reading should be a priority in your life. So the first one is simply, you should read your Bible so that you can come to know God. Now, of course, there's a lot of things I can say about, you know, knowing God and reading the

Bible and how that leads to knowing God. But let me go in this particular direction. I think it's easy to develop wrong ideas about God. What I mean by that is like Christian pop culture and our own preconceived notions can oftentimes sort of color our understanding of who God is. And that's why we should always make scripture our guide, right? We should go to God's word because only God can tell us what God is like. Only God can tell us what God is like. In fact, it was so important to Jesus that we gain greater knowledge about God, that he even prays to the Father about this. And this is a well-known passage in John 17, where Jesus is pleading to God, to the Father, that we would come to know him.

And Jesus says, this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God in Christ Jesus whom you have sent. So we gain knowledge of God not merely to understand Him, but also to love Him. And knowledge of God then is sort of tied to the love of God. And so knowing Him allows us to love Him because you can't love Him, someone you don't know. And of course, reading scripture, being in the Word of God, helps us to know and also to love God. All right. So that's one reason. Second reason is that you should read your Bible so that you can know your place in the world. And what I mean by that is that reading your Bible helps you to know where you are and where you need to go. So let me give you

an illustration. In 1926, there was a famous woman, she was a 20-year-old American swimmer named Trudy Ederley. And she attempted to become the first woman to swim across the English Channel. Now, that's, that's 21 miles from France to England through like open water, right, open ocean. And so she, she departs France at 7.08 a.m. And after, get this, 11 hours of swimming through freezing cold water and being stung by jellyfish, she makes it to within just five miles of England's shore. But it's too late. Because what had happened was by 11 hours, night had fallen, right? The fog had kind of settled in onto the ocean and she couldn't see where she's going. Right. And the waves are sort of crashing over her head and she begins to lose energy. She begins to lose hope. Now, the townspeople in

England who were waiting for her became suspicious of her not arriving on time. Right. So they're like, oh man, where is she? She probably needs help. And so they like, so they like these bonds. on the ocean cliffs, and then when Trudy saw those bonfires, she saw the light from those bonfires, she knew which directions to swim. And so the bonfires served as a, as guiding beacons for her. So she knew where she was and where she needed to go. And I would suggest to you that scripture provides similar guidance. It tells us where we are and where we need to go. And when it, you know, specifically, the Bible is really clear about this. For example, we are God's special creation. Right? Beautifully made in his image and loved by him. Now, although the Bible says we are beautiful in that sense, we're also broken, right? We're broken. I'm sorry, we're beautiful, but we're broken. In other words, we're not the way we're supposed to be. And we all know it because we feel guilty. And the reason we feel guilty is because we are guilty, right? Romans 323. And so the Bible tells us, therefore, that's where we are. We're basically guilty and deserving of.

God's punishment. We're in the crosshairs of God's wrath. Now, of course, that's the bad news, which I think is always essential to explain when you're talking about the gospel and God's message of reconciliation. But the good news is the gospel is that the cross is God's guiding beacon, right? The only way to get us out of the mess that we're in is to take up God's offer to grant us a pardon. And of course, he's provided a way for anyone to be forgiven and made whole. And that way is the only way, and it's through Jesus. So that's the second reason I think we need to read scripture, is to know where we are and where we need to go.

And the third reason is we should read our Bibles in order to help us to navigate culture. And when you think about our culture today, whatever culture you're in, but I'm just thinking of generally the Western world and the United States, it's obvious the world is really confused about a host of issues, right? it's confused about sex and marriage and gender and abortion and salvation and Islam and AI and bioethics and transhumanism and you can go on and on and on right and sadly not only is the culture confused but many Christians are confused as well and as my colleague Greg Kochel often says he says faithfulness is not theologically complicated and he goes on to also say he goes

though the world might be confused you don't have to be and I think Greg's right. God has spoken clearly on many of these issues that cause believers to stumble. And so when we're confronted then with some cultural idea, all we got to do simply is to filter it through the word of God. So for example, are you confused about sexuality and what our culture says about it? Okay, maybe. But the Bible is clear that sex should only occur between a married man and a woman. Of course, we see that spelled out in the first two chapters of Genesis, as well as in the words of Jesus in Matthew 19. What about if you're confused about whether there are many ways to God? Well, again, scripture is clear. And in fact, Jesus himself is clear on this. He says he's the only

way. John 146, Jesus says, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the father but through me. Or 1 Timothy 2.5, right? For there is one God and one mediator also between God and men, that man, Christ Jesus. So again, scripture is clear on that. Are you confused about whether it's right to judge? Well, again, God's word answers and explains clearly on how to judge. This is Matthew 7. Actually, it's the passage that's perhaps the most quoted passage by non-Christians, right? People, I've had many people tell me, even, perhaps they've told you.

They'll say, hey, you know, the Bible says, do not judge. In fact, is Jesus saying, do not judge lest you also be judged. Now, of course, when you read the context of that passage, you discover Jesus is not telling us not to judge, but rather he's telling us how to judge, which, of course, is, you know, not to judge hypocritically, but rather for us to, you know, avoid the very thing that we're condemning somebody else that they're doing, right? So we don't want to judge hypocritically. But anyways, the point is that on these topics and many more, the Bible gives clear instruction and clarification on them,

and that's why we need to take cultural ideas and filter them through scripture. So, all that being said, how can we not love the Word of God, right? I'm giving you three reasons why we should read the Word of God because it helps us to know God, it helps us to know how to receive his pardon,

and of course how to navigate this confusing age that we live in. And so really, we should be in awe that the God of the universe has spoken to us. So read your Bible, right? it contains important instructions you need to know as you live the life that God has given to you to steward. All right, well, that's all I have for you today. If you've enjoyed this episode, I encourage you to share it with a friend. And also don't forget to subscribe to my podcast, and that way you won't miss any future episodes when they come out. And thank you for listening. I look forward

to think it out loud with you next time. You know,