I am struggling to find reasons to avoid reading a few things, including a small pile next to the bed, and a larger pile shoved inside a cupboard next to the bed, and a pile on the desk at work.

Everyone knows that Christians are readers, or God would not have given us a Bible. But “Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body” (Eccl 12:12). And because life is full, and because we are busy, we know exactly what this means.

So I turned to a friend to ask what books he thought I should read next, and do you know what? He gave the best advice of all.

He said that it looked to him like I was extremely busy, and that I should get on with reading Romans 12-16 (which is what I wanted to do anyway, because I was working on it), and forget all my fairly significant and numerous piles of books until another day.

So that is what I'm doing, and discovering once again that the best book to read is the Bible. Follow my example, stop reading and start reading!

That said, I can't resist sharing this gem from page 56 of Bryson Smith's book Faith. Why page 56? I've been playing a game in which you have to share the fifth sentence of the 56th page of the book that happens to be sitting closest to you when someone asks, and I realized that the last time I played this game, I was sitting in semi-dark and missed Bryson's book which was lying on the floor at my feet. So here, by way of penance, are the fourth and fifth sentences from page 56 of Bryson's book, and mighty fine ones they are too:

When we believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ, we are granted an eternal inheritance which is kept in heaven for us. Furthermore, while we wait for the time when we will receive it in full, we are granted God's own Spirit as our deposit and guarantee.

Think about that while you avoid reading other books.

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