A church was looking for a new preacher. They formed a Pastoral Search Committee and started interviewing candidates. During one of the interviews, they asked the candidate, “What part of the Bible do you like best?” He said, “I like the New Testament best.” Then he was asked “What book in the New Testament is your favorite?” He answered “The book of the Parables.” They looked at each other and then asked said, “Why don’t you share a bit of that book with us?” This is what he said:

There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus who went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell on the stony ground among thieves; and the thorns grew up and choked the man. So he got up and climbed a Sycamore tree. He was there for three days and three nights, when Solomon and his wife Gomorrah came by and helped him down. They took him down to the Ark of the Covenant to take care of him. He went on and met the Queen of Sheba, and she gave him a thousand talents of silver and a hundred changes of clothing. And he got in his chariot and drove furiously, and as he was driving along under a fig tree, his hair got caught in a limb and left him hanging there! And he hung there for forty days and forty nights. The Ravens brought him food to eat and water to drink. And one night while he was hanging there asleep, his wife Delilah came along and cut off his hair, and his strength left him and he fell on stony ground once again. And it began to rain. And it rained for forty days and forty nights. And he hid himself in a cave and said, “I am the only one left!” Later he went on and met a man who said, “Come in and take supper with me.” But he said “I can’t come in, for I have married a wife” And the man went out into the highways and the byways and compelled him to come in! He then came to Jerusalem, and saw Queen Jezebel sitting high and lifted up in a window of the wall. When she saw him she laughed and he said “Throw her down out of there”, and they threw her down. And he said “Throw her down again”, and they threw her down again. In all, they threw her down seventy times seven. And the fragments that they picked up filled twelve baskets full! “Now, whose wife will she be in the resurrection?”

The search committee sat in stunned silence, and finally they agreed that this was indeed a very knowledgeable candidate!

Everything he said was in the Bible. And while you may have laughed at how mixed up it was, I would guess that most of you would have a hard time identifying the different Bible stories referenced here. Indeed, it is all in the Bible! Unfortunately too many people today are ignorant of these stories, where they are found and the significance of them. You may know what the Bible says, but knowing what it says without making sense of it does you no good.

That is why I encourage all of you to spend time in your Bibles every day. Read it for yourself. Don’t rely on what I or anyone else tells you about it. Read it yourself. You have to know what it says, understand what it means for you, and believe it. That will not happen apart from the work of the Holy Spirit. Nor will it happen if you don’t know what it says!

I know there are a thousand different things screaming for your attention every day, and this is one of them that is so easily dismissed as not all that important. But consider this: What is more important than God?  He wants to spend some time with you. He wants you to spend some time with Him. So I have a challenge for you. Instead of spending all evening watching shows that you’ve already seen on television or something you don’t really want to watch, instead of scrolling mindlessly through social media posts on your phone, take ten minutes of that time and read a chapter of the Bible each night. Alone time with God. Instead of playing computer games for an hour, play for 45 minutes and spend the other 15 minutes reading God’s Word. Become better acquainted with your God as He speaks to you in His Word. Make it a daily discipline to learn more about the one who made you, loves you, and sent His Son to redeem you. There is nothing more important than that, but you wouldn’t know it by the way most of us prioritize our lives.

The better you know God’s Word, the better you will be able to apply it to your life, your living, your peace of mind. The more time you spend in God’s Word, the less likely you will be to get as mixed up as that man at the beginning of this devotion. The better you know God’s Word, the more you will understand the peace you have with God because of what Jesus did in your place. The message of Scripture is all about that. Get into the Word yourself to let God speak to you.