Implementation: The Missing Ingredient - Hughes, JOFMM Spring 2004

“Are you reading your Bibles?” the preacher asks his congregation
with probing seriousness. “Last week, how many days did you
neglect spending time in the Word?” he asks again causing most of
his congregation to cringe with conviction and guilt. “You need to
read your Bibles!” the preacher exhorts, waving his Bible in the air
for emphasis as he concludes his exposition of Psalm 19:7–14. By
the end of the sermon his congregation has been pierced through
with conviction. They know he is telling them the truth. They realize
they need to spend more time reading their Bibles. After the
service many leave with a weight of guilt hanging on them like a
load of wet bricks. They want to be right with God. They want to
have the Scriptures richly dwelling within them. They want to be
faithful students of the Word. But if the truth were told, and usually
it is not, especially to the preacher, they feel defeated and exasperated.
Why? Because they don’t know how to go about reading
their Bibles, at least not in a meaningful way! It may seem so simple
and obvious to us, but for many Bible reading is complex and difficult.