Because the word in the Bible embodies God, Christ, the Spirit, and life, we Christians need to come to the Bible daily and even hourly. We should not take the excuse that we do not have time. Finding time to spend in the word depends on our realization of its importance. We all find time to eat every day, no matter how sloppy, lazy, or loose we may be, because we realize that eating is a life necessity. If we do not eat, we will die. When we see that reading the Word is a life necessity, we will find time to do it.
We need to spend time in the word every morning. Spoiled children may say that they cannot rise up early in the morning, but when they become adults, they are able to rise early every morning in order to keep their job, the source of their living. Everyone can make it because life necessity teaches us. Contacting the Bible is much more important than keeping a job or eating breakfast. There is no excuse for not contacting the Lord through the word every morning.
Some consider that being legal is always bad. However, in order to live, we need to keep four legalities—eating, drinking, breathing, and sleeping. Furthermore, without legalities, it is impossible to have a strong family, school, corporation, government, nation, or military force. When young men enter the military service, they have no liberty. From the time they enter, everything is a legality. The length of their hair and when they rise up are not for them to decide. They are given a specific amount of time to complete every task. Legality makes everything healthy and strong. The United States is a democratic country, a country of liberty, but it is also a country of legalities. If someone drives a car even a little too fast, he or she may receive a ticket from the police. Those who do not care for the law and do not behave legally are penalized. Even the president must follow the laws. It is for this reason that the United States is a strong nation. It is a country of freedom, but no one is free from the law. People are free, but they must exercise their freedom legally, within the bounds of the law.
A person who goes to sleep early, rises early, and eats regularly in a legal way is a healthy person. A loose person cannot be healthy. We need to be normal, strict, formal, and legal. The higher a life is, the more legalities it has. The Christian life is the highest life.
We need to try our best to come to the Bible for at least ten minutes every morning. We should seek the Lord’s leading as to which book of the Bible will meet our need at the present time. Once we have His leading, we should gradually read through the book from the beginning to the end, reading and praying over a few verses every morning. By praying over some verses, we will receive the nourishment from them. After practicing this every morning for a few months, we will be spiritually healthy. I thank the Lord for His mercy that for over fifty years I have spent time in the Word nearly every day. This has kept me. Every morning before we do anything, we need to come to the Word. Regardless of how early we go to work, we can spend ten minutes to read a portion of the Word and pray over it to receive spiritual nourishment. This will bring us into the presence of the Lord.
In addition to praying over a few verses each morning to be nourished, later in the day we should try to read a few chapters. It is possible to read three chapters of the Old Testament and one chapter of the New Testament each day. In this way we can finish reading the whole Bible once a year.
When we read the Bible and take the word into us, it becomes the Spirit in us. The word and the Spirit are actually one thing. The word is outside of us. When we take it in, it becomes the Spirit. When we speak it forth, it becomes the word again. We should not consider the word to be separate from the Spirit. The Lord said, “The words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life” (John 6:63). For this reason, when we receive the word from the Bible, we contact the Lord and receive the Spirit.
Colossians 2:6 says, “As therefore you have received the Christ, Jesus the Lord, walk in Him.” We receive Christ by the word and the Spirit. Receiving Christ is not merely a doctrinal matter; it becomes practical when we receive the word in the Bible and touch the Spirit. The word and the Spirit both convey Christ, because Christ is embodied in the word and has become the Spirit (John 7:39; 1 Cor. 15:45).
We need to receive Christ daily and hourly. We cannot eat food once for all; we need to eat several times a day. Likewise, we need to receive Christ several times each day by the unique way of receiving the word and touching the Spirit. It is a good habit to always carry a Bible with us to be able to receive the word. Each time we receive the word and touch the Spirit, we receive another portion of Christ. It is crucial that we build up such a daily habit.