No more big, heavy, highlighted, Bible?

Technology has done a disservice to my Bibles.  I look behind my desk in my office at church to see 17 different Bibles on a bookshelf staring at me with lonely bindings.  I have Bibles of varying translations like the NLT, NIV, NRSV, NASB, The Message, TNIV, and ESV.  (Yes, I know some of those are paraphrases.)  And I have study Bibles with names like Life Application, NIV Study, Apologetics, Archaeological, Serendipity, Wide Margin, Quest, Sports Devotional, and Student.  And I rarely look at any of them.

As a technoholic, I find myself looking instead at my Youversion Bible App on my phone or tablets, or my NIV Study Bible app if I need some study notes.  Between the two, I can read almost every translation, search for keywords, highlight, write notes, and share to Facebook or Twitter; all without wrinkling a page.  Technology is a great tool for the growing Christian. You can even use reading plans to read through the Bible devotionally.

But the key is actually getting into the Word.  And I'll admit, I don't enough.  Sure, I'm reading the Bible for research, sermon prep, or to plan a Bible study; but I don't let it read me nearly as often as I need to.  And as a strictly undisciplined person, I'm not saying that out of some legalistic, "you have to read your Bible daily to be a Christian" ideal.

Here are my reasons for getting into the Word:

1. God wrote it.  Yes, so did a bunch of men.  But the creator of the universe left us His book and we treat it like it's a hot potato.  The fact that we have access everywhere should not lessen that fact.
2. Overhearing the Gospel.  The Bible does this amazing thing.  Soren Kierkegaard said, "The gospel is seldom heard.  It is overheard."  Tony Campolo says reading the Bible is like standing behind two men talking on a street corner, and realizing that what they're saying applies to you too.  There is no work of literature in history that is written both for the contemporaries of the day and to readers today like the Bible.  And when I read it, I always overhear something that seems written just for me.
3. It reads you back.  God's Word has a way of figuring me out as I read it.  I find myself reading a random Old Testament story that can bring to light issues or sins in my life that I need to deal with.  
4. It's real.  I mean that in a couple of ways.  First, it doesn't hide from the hard questions.  The bible shows main characters' sin, breaks cultural barriers - like the prominence of women in stories, and doesn't shy away from real violence when it happened.  Second, the Bible has stood up to scrutiny and criticism in every way.  It's held up to archaeological evidence, literary and textual criticism, outside historical references, and scientific evidence.  No other religious book - see: Koran, Book of Mormon, etc. - has been so thoroughly attacked and been able to remain credible.

So go read the Word.  I don't care how you do it.  Open the app, turn on your Kindle, or dust off the old family Bible.  Just read it.  And let the Word do the rest.