The Apostle Paul certainly has a way with words he wrote the following, "For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction." (Romans 15:4)Paul of course was referring to the writings of the Old Testament or often called the Hebrew Bible. He was referring to the prophets, psalms, proverbs, as well as everything else that we find in the Old Testament.
Paul was reminding the new Roman Christians that those writings were written for them, i.e the current generation of Christians. That these writings pertained to their salvation. That these writings were for their edification, inspiration, encouragement, and hope.
These writings are for us too.
But do we read them?
Most of us would answer NO. I know because people tell me they are too busy to read Scripture because:
They have to do the laundry
Walk the dog
Make dinner
Go to work
Cut the grass
and on and on and on.
Well, I can understand, life is pretty hectic. Let's face it many people work all day, come home and make dinner and then get the kids to bed.
I hope though that you could find a few minutes in each day, even five minutes to read. To fall in love with the Word of God.
Start small. Start with the Psalms. Read one Psalm a day. Then go to a smaller book like one of the prophets like Jonah or Amos or Hosea. Read a gospel, Mark is short it's only 16 chapters. Read one chapter per day.
Anyway, I don't care where you begin just begin!
If you need encouragement join your parish Bible study.
As Paul reminds the Romans and us, those writings were written for our salvation so its good for us to know them.
I wish you well on your new journey into the Bible.
