From ‘Les Miserables’ by Victor Hugo comes the cry–‘to the barricades!’  To battle.  Stand up for what you believe in.  Don’t roll over and play dead.  Be bold.  Speak your peace, even if it stirs up quite the contrary.

We live in contentious times.  Everyone taking sides, and being rather nasty about it.  I remember the ’60’s race riots, when I’m a student at Chicago’s Moody Bible Institute, as acrid smoke of burning buildings billows in the air.  Or Vietnam War controversies.  A president resigning.  Political candidates and religious leaders shot and killed.  My being the 2nd birth date chosen in the lottery for the Vietnam draft.  The only lottery I’ve ever won!

Such is life.  You have your own story.  Could go on and on, but let’s cancel the pity party!  As the new year approaches, let’s not go to the barricades, but to the Bible.  One of the best decisions I’ve ever made (and I’ve made a few in my lifetime!) is to decide without flinching, without making lots of excuses, without allowing unnecessary interruptions, without heading to the barricades, but running headlong to the Bible!  As in reading it all year long.  All of it.  Its entirety.

Isaiah 8: 19-20–‘…should not the people inquire of their God?  Why consult the dead on behalf of the living?  To the law and to the testimony!  If they do not speak according to this word, they have no light of days’.  Here’s the point.   Why waste time with ‘dead’ things.  With colossal wastes of time, which fritter away what can never be reclaimed.  You know what your ‘dead’ things are.  I know mine.

Why not make your commitment today to spend quantity and quality time with your Lord Jesus in God’s living Word.  From January 1st until December 31st.  I’ve never known anyone, anywhere, ever who regrets time with the Master.

To the Bible!  All year long.  Cover to cover.  Genesis to Revelation.  Ready?  Set?  Go!  To the Word!  Happy New Year!

Lord, we look forward to time with you in your Word all year long.  For Jesus’ sake.  Amen.