My family is doing the  E100 Bible Reading Challenge being promoted by the Bible Society, as featured in the NZ Baptist a couple of issues back.

The aim is to read the “Essential 100 passages” of the Bible, following the format in Whitney T Kuniholm’s book, Your Way to the Heart of the Bible. The Bible Society has done research that shows a pitifully small number of Christians read their Bible on a daily basis. Baptists are a bit better at it, but not by much.

At the risk of sounding a bit boastful, I’ve never had a problem reading my Bible. (I should balance this by saying I do have a problem maintaining other disciplines, such as a daily prayer routine). Perhaps this is because I’m a literary person used to dealing with the written word and, therefore, reading comes naturally to me, as it does to my wife (also a writer) and our children.

But for many people reading is difficult and not a pleasure. Many homes do not have many books, or even any. To pick up a book as complex as the Bible and then enjoy, persist with it and understand it does not come easily to a lot of people.

And the Bible is a complex book. For me, that is what makes it so fascinating. It also helps prove to me the existence of God. No group of human beings could possibly come up with 66 books written over hundreds of years by 40 authors (although that seems to still be the subject of some debate) and yet still maintain a common theme and message. Only 40 God-inspired authors could do that.

I’m not a theologian, but it seems to me the Bible has a simple enough message: God is perfect. Man is not. Man can’t be with God unless he is perfect. So God sends His only son, Jesus, to deal with our sin so we can be with God forever.

But underneath that message are layers upon layers upon layers. For thousands of years preachers have been presenting us with new insights from the Bible, or we have discovered them ourselves, or teased them out in a group of like-minded believers. Sometimes it’s an “ah-ha!” moment. Sometimes it comes to us in a blinding flash. And often it doesn’t come at all – we stare at a passage over and over again and wonder, “just what does this mean?”

The Bible is full of history, story, poetry, song, adventure, love, rules and freedom from rules, good guys and bad guys, evil, hate, despair but ultimately love, hope and the promise of eternity with our Lord and Saviour.

If you haven’t picked it up for a while, then the E100 challenge is a good way to get back into it. My family is enjoying it, and even though I have already read the Bible from cover to cover several times I am once again astounded by what I missed previously.

– Duncan Pardon