Why did I miss that?

I was listening to the radio the other day and I happened to be tuned into a station where the broadcasters were calling up people randomly and asking them a simple question. This, by the way, is a normal routine for the people on this radio station. They call and ask various questions to show how people fail to notice many things they come in contact with on a regular basis. This particular day, the question was, “Who is the President on the one dollar bill?” Well, several people didn’t even try to guess, one person hung up, and one of them guessed Abraham Lincoln. I have to admit that I had to think for just a moment before I remembered that it was Washington.

This started me thinking about how much detail we miss in the simplest of objects that we come in contact with on a regular basis. So many have handled the dollar bill and used it many times but still miss some of the most obvious details. Of course, it may not be that obvious to us because we usually don’t sit down and study a dollar bill. We usually just take it out of our wallet and use it in exchange for whatever we are buying. The fact that George Washington is on the front never occurred to us.

Sadly, so many Scriptures are just like that picture of George Washington. They are passed over without any thought whatsoever to what the passage means. This is done because so many succeed in reading their Bible every day but fail miserably when it comes to studying what they read. This is basically just reading the Bible every day so I can tell the preacher that I’ve been reading it every day. But do you really study it? If not, then what is your purpose in reading the Bible anyway? The Bible is there for us to study and the only way that we can learn God’s will is by studying it! We also need the Bible when it comes to fighting the false doctrines of Satan. The Bible is a great tool meant to be used! “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). So  the next time you pick up your Bible to read it -- which I hope will be soon -- instead of just casually reading it, study it with the remembrance that it is absolutely the ultimate weapon against Satan!

Jonathan Glaesemann