Bible One Year

From the October-December 1972 issue of The Concordia Lutheran

Read the Bible for One year!

Long ago in England there was a father who saw to it that his son was very carefully instructed in the Word of God during his early youth. Father and mother sought also to practice what they taught their son, but the son threw everything to the four winds. Although earnest prayers had accompanied the youth’s confirmation, he did not remain faithful; he went upon that broad path which leadeth to destruction. Finally, the time came when the father lay upon his death-bed. This did not concern the son in the least, other than that he looked forward to the money which he should receive, in the inheritance. The father summoned his son to the bed and said to him, “My dear son, I have often told you that your present behavior has caused me much grief and sorrow. I do not expect that my present admonitions will have any affect upon you for the better. I ask only one thing of you, promise me that after I am dead you will return to this room in which I have died; daily to read a portion from the Word of God. Do this for one year, only 365 days, and then you can do as you please.” The son was deeply moved and promised his dying father that he would obey his request. On the first day after the funeral the son went into the father’s room in which he had died and picked out the shortest Psalm he could find to read. He continued to do this on the second and third day also. Soon he had to pass on to longer sections of Scripture and as the year progressed the more time he spent with the Bible. Before the year ended the son was not only reading the Bible but also praying. And when the year ended what a change had come over the son! And no wonder, for Jesus says, “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life” -John 6:63. The father would now be able to declare, if he were able to witness this wonderful transformation, “This my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found” -Luke 15:24. Jesus says, “There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth” -Luke 15:10.

-MLN