October 15

Friday is accountability day so send me a quick email informing me of your place in the race. This is also a great chance to start over, on Monday we start with the New Testament. If you have stumbled in the race, Monday is a great day to get up, dust yourself off and get back in the race. There are 74 days to the end of this journey and there is nothing more important that understanding the message of the New Testament.

The historical interlude readings are fascinating, so I will not comment on them. Today, I want to focus on why anyone would read the Bible. I will use historical quotes to support my case.
In his farewell speech on September 19, 1796, George Washington said, “It is impossible to govern the world without God and the Bible.”
Here are the words by John Adams, our second president, who also served as chairman of the American Bible Society. In an address to military leaders he said, "We have no government armed with the power capable of contending with human passions, unbridled by morality and true religion. Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."
Adams wrote to Thomas Jefferson on December 25, 1813, “I have examined all religions, as well as my narrow sphere, my straightened means, and my busy life, would allow; and the result is that the Bible is the best Book in the world. It contains more philosophy than all the libraries I have seen.”
James Madison, the primary author of the Constitution of the United States, said this: "We have staked the whole future of our new nation, not upon the power of government; far from it. We have staked the future of all our political constitutions upon the capacity of each of ourselves to govern ourselves according to the moral principles of the Ten Commandments."
Immediately after creating the Declaration of Independence, the Continental Congress voted to purchase and imported 20,000 copies of the Bible for the people of this nation. Can you image our Congress doing that in 2010?
Patrick Henry, of Virginia, boldly declared, “It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here.”
“So great is my veneration of the Bible, that the earlier my children begin to read it the more confident will be my hope that they will prove useful citizens of their country and respectable members of society.” John Quincy Adams.
William Gladstone said, “I have known 95 of the world’s great men in my time, and of these, 87 were followers of the Bible.”
President Theodore Roosevelt said, “A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education.”
President Dwight D. Eisenhower said, “The Bible is endorsed by the ages. Our civilization is built upon its words. In no other Book is there such a collection of inspired wisdom, reality and hope.”
President Ronald Reagan said, “Within the covers of the Bible are all the answers for all the problems men face. The Bible can touch hearts, order minds and refresh souls.”
What a great opportunities lies in front of us to read the Bible and incarnate these great truths that change lives and destinies of countries. May God give us strength to complete the journey.