Year: 2020

Links for the Weekend (3/20/2020)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

Each Friday, I’ll post links to 3–5 resources from around the web you may want to check out.

Generosity in a Time of Hoarding

When we are fearful, we tend to take steps to protect and care for ourselves and those close to us. Trevin Wax writes about what love for others—specifically love for others in the church—could look like in a time like this.

In a time of tumult and uncertainty, as the COVID-19 pandemic affects not only our physical welfare but also our economy and our social interactions, our tendency is to turn inward, to the safety and wellbeing of those closest to us. We tend to our families.

Prudence and wisdom lead us to stock up on supplies, but fear and selfishness lead us to hoard the goods our neighbor may need.

As Christians, we should be known for giving, not hoarding. How can we display the generosity of Christ during a season of uncertainty?

Podcast: The World and Everything in It

In Pastor Don’s email this past Monday, he recommended a podcast from World Magazine called The World and Everything in It. Here’s what he said about it.

It’s like NPR from a Christian perspective. It’s a Monday through Friday podcast lasting a bit over a half hour. It gives you the news and also perspectives on daily and cultural happenings. Though it’s not a PCA-sponsored organization, there are many PCA people who are part of it, and it is a work consistent with our church’s theological viewpoints.

If you’re not familiar with podcasts, there are even detailed instructions on how to proceed. (And here is a link to the specific segment Pastor Don mentioned.)

Free Stuff!

With schools and many businesses closing down and lots of people working from home or at least staying at home more often, a few Christian companies have stepped up to provide some interesting free resources.

  • Crossway is offering the book The Final Days of Jesus as a free ebook, no strings attached.
  • Christianaudio gives away a free book each month. This month the free book is Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Life Together. It’s a short book, but many people have found it a profound work on Christian community. (Bonhoeffer was a German pastor during World War II and was killed by the Nazis in his efforts to resist their regime.) You will have to create a free account in order to download this audio book.
  • Crossway has collected a bunch of other free resources and deals here. These resources include: three free ebooks, articles, podcast interviews, Bible reading plans, and devotionals.

Note: Washington Presbyterian Church and the editors of this blog do not necessarily endorse all content produced by the individuals or groups referenced here. 

Session Statement on COVID-19 and WPCA

Posted onAuthorDon Waltermyer

Please note: An updated statement from the WPCA Session can be found here.

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. (2 Timothy 1:7)

Greetings, Washington Presbyterian Church Family! As you all know, our world has been gripped by the threat of Coronavirus (COVID-19), and the threat is no longer “over there”, but has now showed up in our own neck of the woods.

However, as the passage above proclaims, the spirit God has given us as Christians is not one of fear. Perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18), and in Christ, we’re loved perfectly.

For the foreseeable future, we plan to continue to gather for Worship services. However, other plans will change, at least in the short run. (Below, you’ll see specific actions that our congregation is both recommending and taking.)

With respect to how our church responds, we the Session ask you, along with us, to be gracious in how we think and act during this time. Some feel as though the issues surrounding the pandemic are being somewhat hyped. Others believe not enough is being done. Philippians 2:4 reminds us “do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.” In other words, we’re not to only consider our own perspectives, but also to be considerate for the views and concerns of others—even when they differ from our own.

And of course, we’re not only to be mindful of the concerns of others, but at this time, their actual health and well-being. People are getting sick, and some are dying. Yes, thankfully the numbers are relatively low for now, but none of us knows the eventual outcome and potential spread of the disease. Christians have historically been the people to step forward and show kindness and concern during times of plague and pestilence. This time should not be different.

Though a person may not be greatly concerned about contracting the disease him or herself, that is not the only consideration. We can be carriers of the virus and not know it. If not careful, we could unknowingly pass it on to one of our seniors, resulting in a very serious cases of the virus, or worse. Additionally, we should want to do everything we can to slow down the advance of this virus so populations at large can be spared from widespread outbreaks. Proverbs 22:3 reminds us “The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffers for it.”

As of Friday (3/13) an adult in Washington County was diagnosed as the first presumed positive case of the virus in western Pennsylvania. Unless that person was living as a monk somewhere in isolation, we all know that others have very likely been exposed as well.

COVID-19 is here in our home county.

Yes, the Bible teaches God is in control, and praise His Name that He is! However, the same Bible teaches us that we are responsible, and must act responsibly, loving our neighbors by our actions and decisions.

In light of all this, our church invites everyone to consider the following steps, as we seek to be led by wisdom and love, rather than driven by fear.

General Steps:

  1. Seek medical attention if you have any symptoms that are associated with COVID-19, per the CDC. These symptoms include fever, cough, and shortness of breath. Click here for more information.
  2. If you or your child have any type of illness with a fever, please refrain from coming to church until the fever has resolved and you’ve contacted medical professionals.
  3. Wash hands frequently with soap and warm water and/or use hand sanitizer when hand washing is not an option.
  4. Be especially careful around those particularly susceptible to this virus, specifically the elderly and immune-compromised individuals (people with chronic illnesses, people undergoing cancer treatment, etc.).

The following are the steps and action the Session is taking and recommending:

  1. We will be holding our 10:30 a.m. worship service on Sunday, March 15th.
  2. We will not have nursery available for at least this coming Sunday.
  3. We will not be holding Sunday School on Sunday, March 15th.
  4. We are cancelling all other weekly ministries for at least the upcoming week, including Transitions Healthcare Bible Study, Pioneer Clubs, Youth Bible Study, Men’s Bible Study, and Worship Team practice. Regarding Home Fellowship Groups, we will leave that decision to each individual group.
  5. We ask that each person refrain from handshaking, hugs, etc.
  6. Offering: In order to minimize touching common surfaces, we will not pass the plate to receive the offering. Instead, we will have offering plates positioned by the sanctuary exits, so that you may give at the conclusion of the service.
  7. Small bottles of hand sanitizer have been placed in the pews throughout the sanctuary. We strongly encourage making use of them.
  8. If you for any reason feel uncomfortable with attending worship, you of course can stay home. If you would like to livestream a worship service, Pastor Don recommends Providence Presbyterian Church in York PA. Go to yorkpca.org, scroll down and click where it says “Worship online with us on Sunday mornings at 8:30 or 10:30 by clicking here.” That will take you to a page listing the order of service. On that page you will click “Please visit our YouTube channel to access our live stream.” (Another recommended option is Willow Creek PCA church in Winter Springs, FL. Their service begins at 10:45 am. Just go to willowcreekchurch.org and you’ll see on their first page a place that says “Watch on Facebook”. Click that tab. Willow Creek’s pastor is Kevin Labby, who is a former pastor of our sister congregation in Murrysville.)
  9. After this Sunday, and sometime during the upcoming week, we will reevaluate our plans going forward, and communicate those plans with you, the congregation.

Finally, some spiritual counsel

Trust and don’t be anxious. When everything and everyone around us attempt to steal our confidence in God, keep trusting his goodness and power to make all things work together for our good and his glory.

Pray for healing physically and spiritually. God can use this illness to make his power known in amazing ways, and prayer is vital to that. So let’s pray that people will be healed from both COVID-19 and spiritual blindness.

Stay in the word. The Enemy would love for Christ’s followers to check news feeds more than their Bibles. In particular, read the Psalms for wisdom, guidance, and adoration in times of distress.

Love your neighbor. People around you might be incredibly anxious and fearful, and people around you might even get sick with COVID-19. A Christian’s unshakable joy that overflows into love for neighbors is a powerful witness. It is also a way that God can bring healing. Make specific efforts to love your neighbor well during this time.

Thank you for taking the time to prayerfully consider these things. As you know, these types of illnesses (and their accompanying fears) are part of this fallen, groaning creation, and God is using them to make his name great among the nations. To God alone be the Glory!

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Links for the Weekend (3/13/2020)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

Each Friday, I’ll post links to 3–5 resources from around the web you may want to check out.

Anxiety, Waiting and the Coronavirus

It’s hard to have any conversation these days without talking about the Coronavirus (COVID-19). As with everything in our lives, trusting God should make a visible difference in the way we approach this. This pandemic can stir up a lot of anxiety, so I thought it would be helpful to link to this article from Christian counselor Alasdair Groves.

It’s an easy parallel for us to make today, isn’t it? A virus is seeping across the world and has reached our shores, and we don’t know how treacherous it’s going to be. God is calling us to continue forward in love of neighbor and service to his kingdom, but all we can see are public surfaces potentially covered in germs and neighbors who may be walking vectors of disease. 

Where’s Your Treasure? Three Questions to Ask Yourself

If you’ve been around the Christian church much, you may be familiar with the language of idolatry. This doesn’t just refer to worshiping little figurines of wood or stone, but rather when we put anything other than God in the place of God. These are often good things! But discovering our idols can be difficult. Cindy Matson offers three short, helpful questions to ask yourself to uncover some of your idols.

The truth is we’re all completely obsessed with treasure. We’re actually wired that way. God designed us to be active worshipers, and treasure is simply shorthand for the object of our worship. Since our hearts are always actively worshiping something, they’re not neutral; nor do they accidentally stumble into worship. They choose it. And, as Captain Jack points out, treasure is far more than just material wealth. For this reason, the Sage of Proverbs warns, “Guard your heart with all diligence, for from it springs the issues of life” (Prov. 4:23) Likewise, Jesus warns that “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matt. 6:21). The question I want you to think about today is, Where is your treasure? To answer, carefully ponder three questions and invite the Holy Spirit to examine your heart.  

Practicing What We Teach

Here’s an article which helps us think about loving our neighbors in practical ways. This article focuses on material poverty, but its principles are broader. There’s a great success story at the end; make sure you read the whole thing!

As we “put off” sin and “put on” righteousness, the church should be the place where this transformation is encouraged and supported by a community of God’s people. If you’re struggling with slander or lust, you don’t just need to be told not to do those things. You need to be surrounded by a community that helps you reimagine what life will look like if you no longer practice those things.

On the WPCA Blog This Week

This week on the blog we published an article by Sarah Wisniewski called Book Review: Labor with Hope: Gospel Meditations on Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Motherhood. If you haven’t already seen it, check it out!

Thanks to Phil A for his help in rounding up links this week!

Note: Washington Presbyterian Church and the editors of this blog do not necessarily endorse all content produced by the individuals or groups referenced here. 

Book Review: Labor with Hope: Gospel Meditations on Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Motherhood

Posted onAuthorSarah Wisniewski

My mom volunteers at her home church to coordinate their rather robust library. She snapped a picture of a new book she was preparing for circulation and texted it to me, asking if I wanted to read it before she put it on the shelf. Being about four weeks from my due date at the time, it seemed like the right read at the right time, so I said yes. 

The book was Labor with Hope: Gospel Meditations on Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Motherhood by Gloria Furman (with Jesse Scheumann), and I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who relates to any version of childbearing or child rearing. 

First, the chapters are short. At an average of 3–5 pages per chapter (and only 151 in the book), Furman gets not only that less is sometimes more, but also that five minutes of attention may be the most a person, especially her primary audience of moms, has to devote to reading. (They’re also a good length for reading in the waiting room of an OBGYN.)

Second, Furman takes an inclusive view of motherhood. She recognizes the labor of the months of gestation and the months (or years) of the adoption process, conception by traditional means and with medical intervention, raising children from infancy and entering their lives later. She not only leaves room for the “non-traditional” mother but seats her at the head of the table. 

Third, this book delivers on its promise of gospel hope. If you want pages of witty, relatable mommy moments sprinkled with Bible verses, this is not for you. Instead, this book offers unshakeable hope rooted in the whole of Scripture. 

Furman’s premise is that God is not like us, but rather we are like God. Our human experience of birth and mothering reflects aspects of God, rather than God simply using a familiar experience to explain himself. A core example from the book is that women suffer to bring forth children because Jesus suffered on the cross to bring forth his own people.

Scripture uses the image of childbearing frequently and in a variety of contexts. It’s used to describe God’s judgment, his relationship with Israel, and Paul’s labor among the churches, among a long list of others. Furman makes a thorough, though not comprehensive, study of each of them. The book is a rich dive into what Scripture says about childbirth and rearing and how that should affect our view of the vocation of mothers. 

Furman talks about Jesus All. The. Time. She talks about Jesus way more than she talks about the tasks of mothering, like changing diapers and preparing snacks. This is not a particularly practical book, in that she doesn’t offer tips on discipline, meal times, or family devotions. But it achieves its goal as a series of meditations on both hope for moms and the hope motherhood points to. 

I appreciated that Furman assumes that the women reading her book can grasp the deep and rich gospel teaching she presents. Her writing is both approachable and beautiful but in no way simplified for “mommy brains.” She sets out to offer real hope for the physically, emotionally, and spiritually painful work of mothering, and she knows that it only comes through a more than surface-level understanding of the gospel. 

My daughter’s middle name is Hope, and there’s a plaque on her wall that reads, “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure” (Hebrews 6:19). Labor with Hope anchors its hope—for parents and their children—in the only safe harbor, the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

Photo courtesy Sarah Wisniewski

Links for the Weekend (3/6/2020)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

Each Friday, I’ll post links to 3–5 resources from around the web you may want to check out.

Confessions of a Recovering Political Idolater

About 20 years ago, Jared Wilson realized he had an idolatry problem. The way he paid attention to politics was unhealthy, and it was not honoring to God. I commend this article to you, because Jared talks about his repentance in ways that are specific and helpful (whether your idolatry problem is with politics or with something else).

My repentance consisted of a few practical things. I swore off all cable news, realizing how much the constant bombardment of news both real and speculative was eroding my joy and buttressing my anxiety. In the twenty years since, I haven’t watched but a handful of hours, usually when at other people’s homes when it is the background noise of choice. But other habits die harder. Here are some symptoms of my ailment I need to stay in constant vigilance about. Maybe you do too.

Marriage Was Never Supposed to Fill the Empty Spaces

Sometimes God uses hard situations to teach us important lessons. Lauren Washer has found herself in just such a situation, apart from her husband while he is deployed in the military. She’s learning a lot about trusting God and the design of marriage during this hard season.

Yes, he’s helpful, trustworthy, and loves me enough to be honest, rebuke me, and walk me through my struggles.  His wisdom is invaluable and I’m a better person having been married to him for the past thirteen years.  But he’s not God.  And try as I might to make my marriage relationship fill my soul, it never will.  Neither will anything else.

No Condemnation

Kristen Wetherell writes about her sense of inadequacy, the way she wonders if she’s disappointing God. She shares two questions she asks herself in those moments. I’m guessing these will be helpful for you, too.

Rather than buckling under the dark cloud of condemnation and listening to your fears, you can speak back to them. You can confidently confess your need for a Savior––”Jesus, I need you!”––and desperately seek him for change. His grace wasn’t just for the moment you believed by faith, but is for each and every moment of faith, for your every failure and every need.

Note: Washington Presbyterian Church and the editors of this blog do not necessarily endorse all content produced by the individuals or groups referenced here. 

Links for the Weekend (2/28/2020)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

Each Friday, I’ll post links to 3–5 resources from around the web you may want to check out.

Christians Grieve the Death of Believing Loved Ones, But We Don’t Grieve Without Hope

Given the multiple deaths in and surrounding our church family recently, I thought this was a good article from Randy Alcorn to share. He meditates on what it means to grieve with hope.

Therefore, though we have genuine sorrow when Christian friends and relatives die, we also can say with Scripture, “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? . . . Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:55-57). Though we mourn, our mourning should be mixed with worship of God and thanksgiving for the life of the loved one who has died. 

The First Empty Nest

Stacy Reaoch has reached the stage of parenthood when all of her children are in school. This means her house is quiet in the middle of the day, and it has made her reflect on freedom, control, and God’s faithfulness.

The closing of a chapter is bittersweet. In some ways, from 9:00 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. seems like the first empty nest. It’s a transition from having little ones always by my side, to them being out of reach. It’s a time when I need to trust that God is able to meet their needs even when I’m not present. Parenting is a series of letting go, a series of trusting God with the children he has given us. Will I trust him to keep them safe while they’re at school? Will I trust him to provide a friend at the lunch table?  

What is Reformed Theology?

We accurately refer to our church as a “reformed” church, but that term may not be familiar to everyone. Being “reformed” refers to a theological position, but that doesn’t have to be academic or stuffy. In this short video (under 2.5 minutes), Kevin DeYoung gives a quick description of this important label.

On the WPCA Blog This Week

This week on the blog we published an article by Sarah Wisniewski called Learning, Teaching, Writing, and Women. If you haven’t already seen it, check it out!

Note: Washington Presbyterian Church and the editors of this blog do not necessarily endorse all content produced by the individuals or groups referenced here. 

Learning, Teaching, Writing, and Women

Posted onAuthorSarah Wisniewski

As a writing major in college, I took a bunch of classes in literature and literary theory. In my junior year, I also picked up an elective called How to Read the Bible, focused on biblical scholarship. 

They turned out to be basically the same skillset: You consider the themes and structure of the text, its historical context, what else that author has written, and opinions from other scholars. Yet my literature classes were full of women, while the biblical studies class was mostly men.  

Women have the same capacity as men for deep study, informed and reasoned discussion, and presentation of learning. These talents, in both sexes, are a gift to the individual and also to the body of Christ. 

In churches like ours that follow the biblical teaching that women are not “to teach or to exercise authority over a man” (1 Timothy 2:12), though, it can feel like there’s no outlet for a woman to share what she has learned. 

Encouragement for women

Scripture makes at least one thing clear on the subject of women in the ministry of the church: Women’s voices are valuable and needed for the building up of the whole church. 

Women are commanded to teach

Paul, in a letter to another young pastor, instructs that “Older women … are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled” (Titus 2:3-5).

Women are instructed to pass on what they learn to younger women. Paul highlights the snowball effect of investing in the spiritual growth of other women: A woman benefits herself; she loves and builds up her household–and she is even granted the honor of upholding the integrity of God’s own reputation. 

Women’s voices are not only for women

Men can also benefit from the insights and wisdom of women. We’re told that “when Priscilla and Aquila heard [Apollos preaching], they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately” (Acts 18:26). Priscilla, wife to Aquila, is included in both the hearing and the explaining. 

Priscilla knew more than the man in the pulpit. She used her godly wisdom to instruct one who was already “competent in the Scriptures” (Acts 18:24), so that the gospel truth would be declared. Her contribution mattered in the kingdom of God; we find out later that Apollos’ teaching gained a large following (I Corinthians 3:4-5). Priscilla’s example demonstrates that there are appropriate avenues for a woman to instruct and even correct a man.

A need in the church

Our denomination, the PCA, has recognized that many of its churches are not encouraging women to serve to their full ability. Churches have tended to be “focused on what women cannot do rather than [on] fostering a biblically informed culture of what women are called to do” (WSMC report, Chapter 5).

The PCA commissioned the Women Serving in the Ministry of the Church (WSMC) study committee in 2016 “to pursue and equip the women of the church for every biblical role of service open to them” (WSMC report, Chapter 1). The committee submitted its report in 2017, including several recommendations to all PCA churches, detailed in Chapter 5 (pp. 58-63). 

The whole report is worth a read, to understand the value, biblical precedent, and bounds of women’s activities in the church. The thrust of the report is toward recognizing all the possible contributions women can make to the church. One opportunity that our church is pleased to offer is the WPCA blog. 

Write for the blog! 

I encourage any member to share on the blog, but this call is particularly to women. The church–our church–needs your wisdom, biblical insight, and experience. I hope the previous encouragements have eased any fears of overstepping biblical roles, but I realize there are other reasons people may hold back. 

I don’t have anything worth saying. Did the sermon strike you just so this week? Did something in your personal reading make you think? A blog doesn’t need to be a comprehensive analysis of a topic; in fact, smaller observations often make for more readable articles. I’ve found that I learn more by sitting down to write on a topic than if I simply study it for my own knowledge. 

I’m not trained in biblical scholarship. You have the Holy Spirit in you, teaching you through Scripture. There are plenty of Bible study tools out there (Knowable Word’s OIA method has been taught at our church), as well as commentaries for free online, for purchase, or for borrowing from our pastors. Study and write with prayer, and trust God to defend his truth. (Also, an editor will read your work and catch any blatant heresy.)

I’m not a writer. Writing is just thinking on paper. If you have an idea, jot down some notes and see where it goes. Ryan, as editor of the blog, or another writer can help with the writing. You could even co-write a piece with someone else to take the pressure off of you. 

Blogs are too high-tech for me. Write it by hand! I volunteer to type it up for you. Writers for the blog are not responsible for any of the techy stuff like formatting and posting articles. 

The WPCA blog exists for members of the church to share with one another what God is revealing to us. Anybody can write for the blog: men and women, pastors or lay people, the highly educated or the self-taught. We’d love to hear what God has taught you!

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Links for the Weekend (2/21/2020)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

Each Friday, I’ll post links to 3–5 resources from around the web you may want to check out.

Why Do We Read Scripture?

It seems like a pretty basic question, right? What are we hoping will happen when we read the Bible? Andrew Wilson gives one wrong answer and five right ones.

We do not read it to earn. It is so easy to be tricked into thinking like this, but the purpose of reading the Bible is never to present God with a good work that entitles you to a reward. You are no more justified after reading a Bible for an hour than you are after playing Playstation or having breakfast or going for a walk.

To Those Who Send ‘Good Thoughts’

I never know how to respond when someone tells me they’re sending me “good thoughts” or “positive energy.” Nancy Guthrie writes a winsome response to this situation; it is a model of charity and grace. And she brings in the life and work of Jesus in a beautiful way.

I want you to know that whenever I read that you are sending me or someone else “good thoughts,” I’m not going to roll my eyes. Instead, I’m going to close my eyes and meditate for a moment on all of the goodness that has flowed into my life from my heavenly Father, all of the goodness being worked into my life by the Holy Spirit, and all of the goodness I stand to inherit by being joined to Jesus Christ. And I’m going to pray that you will know and experience that goodness too.

A Prayer for Battling a Destructive Desire

We all face desires that could destroy us. How will we respond when that lands on our shoulders? Tim Challies shares a prayer that has helped him.

Faced with this temptation,
I would rather choose you, Jesus—
but I am weak. So be my strength.
I am shadowed. Be my light.
I am selfish. Unmake me now,
and refashion my desires
according to the better designs of your love.

Note: Washington Presbyterian Church and the editors of this blog do not necessarily endorse all content produced by the individuals or groups referenced here. 

Links for the Weekend (2/14/2020)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

Each Friday, I’ll post links to 3–5 resources from around the web you may want to check out.

A New Year’s Resolution: Don’t Try to Be With It

At the end of 2019, Kevin DeYoung wrote an article about the trivial nature of so much of the media we consume. Without being a scold, he urges us toward contentment in not keeping up with every last thing.

It can be scary to detach, even a little bit, from the screams of social media, Netflix, and cable news. But let’s not mistake knowledge for wisdom, or a multimedia platform for kingdom usefulness. There is no way to possibly stay with it, so why bother? Look out the window. Put down the phone. Lose touch with pop culture and reconnect with God. If you get to the end of 2020 and can’t recall any of the big style stories from CNN, don’t fret: in a few minutes no one else with either. 

The One Life Dream That Makes a Girl Blush

Here’s a wonderful article on the high calling of marriage and motherhood and how sad it is when young women feel ashamed to desire such a calling.

I wish we loved the strength it takes for a woman to become a wife and a mother. We marvel at her physical strength when she births a child. But we forget what invisible strength she shows when she lays down her life for her home every day after that.  

5 Necessities for Engaging Skeptics with the Gospel

This article is geared slightly toward preachers, but there is a lot here for the rest of us to learn as well. How can we engage skeptics with the gospel?

On the WPCA Blog This Week

This week on the blog we published an article I wrote called The Bible is for Everyone. If you haven’t already seen it, check it out!

Note: Washington Presbyterian Church and the editors of this blog do not necessarily endorse all content produced by the individuals or groups referenced here. 

The Bible is for Everyone

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

There are more Bibles in print today than ever. We have dozens of English Bible translations and scores of Bible apps. The number of ways to listen, stream, and download the Bible would amaze our parents in the faith.

And yet, some think the Bible is exclusive and elite. That it is aimed at a narrow strip of humanity.

Brethren, this should not be. The Bible is for everyone.

It is not just for pastors and ministers, not just for the ordained. It is not just for missionaries or evangelists or worship leaders. It is not just for elders, deacons, or Bible study leaders. It is not just for those in vocational ministry.

The Bible is not just for independent adults. It is not just for the employed or the wealthy or the powerful. It is not just for those who speak loudly into the world and influence others. It is not just for the educated.

The Bible is not only for those who already know it. It is not a private club with a secret handshake. It is not only for church members, not only for the theologically astute, not only for people who can turn to Amos without consulting the table of contents.

The Bible is not for a select, respectable few, because Jesus did not come for a select, respectable few.

With the drama and force of a thousand neon arrows, the Bible points to Jesus. And since Jesus invites everyone to come to him, the Bible is for everyone.

The Bible is for those who don’t know Chronicles from Corinthians. It’s for those who have never been to church, who don’t what “theology” means.

The Bible is for babies, children, teens, and the elderly. It is for the jobless and the retired. It is for the poor and helpless, the weak and the overlooked. The Bible is for grade-school dropouts and those with mental challenges.

The Bible is for regular, normal Christians. And it is also for the curious, the doubting, and the disenchanted.

The Bible is for you. And the Bible is for your neighbor.

Regardless of your achievements, bank account, or any status in anyone’s eyes—good or bad—the Bible is for you. And God invites you to read, listen to, study, and memorize the Bible so that you might know him through his son Jesus.

So grab a Bible, grab a neighbor, and take up this remarkable, unique book that is written for all people. Let’s dig in.

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