How important is the Bible?  Most of the articles you find here are about Bible study.  So let us get things in perspective.

Three things are eternal (faith, hope and love) and Bible study is not one of them.

When the Lord poured out His Spirit on all flesh, three things resulted (dreams, visions, and prophesying) and Bible study is not one of them.

The Spirit produces nine fruit, and Bible study is not one of them.  (This article is turning into a ‘book of lists’.)

Obviously, Bible study is not the most important thing in our relationship with our Lord.

Bible reading and Bible study are like reading a love letter.  Reading a love letter connects us with our loved one, but it cannot replace our loved one.  We love the love letter because we love our loved one.  And we love Him because He first loved us, not because we ‘studied it out’.

I don’t know if my wife still has the love letters I wrote her, or not.  We’ve relocated our family so often they may have been lost.  But she seems to be satisfied that I am still around, with or without the love letters.  I heard a story about a Christian traveling in a land where the Gospel had little or no penetration.  This Christian encountered a native of that place on the road and mentioned something about Jesus.  The native’s eyes brightened with wonder as he said, ”Do you know Jesus , too?”  It seems he had been converted but that was all he knew about Jesus.  He had no Bible nor any Bible teacher since his conversion.  I don’t know if the traveler gave the native a Bible or not.  I’m sure the native would have loved the ‘love letter’ like he loved Jesus who wrote it.   Like that native, we are satisfied to be in daily fellowship with our Lord, and His ‘love letter’ to us makes it all the more beautiful.

Here are some snippets from His love letter.

He says, “I will rejoice over you with gladness, I will quiet you with My love, I will rejoice over you with singing.”  And again,  “I shall surround you with songs of deliverance.”

He says, “I will contend with him who contends with you.”

He is the Judge of all, but to us He says, “Your sins and iniquities will I remember no more.”

As we read the scripture we can look expectantly for the beauty of Jesus to be revealed to us.