I was seventeen when I went to a Thanksgiving vacation Youth retreat That our Youth group went on. It was on the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving in 1965. We drove from Trout Lake, Washington, to Yakima, Washington, and listened to a retired missionary speak to us five times in two days. All five sermons were about the importance of reading the Bible. One of his sermons was on the importance of volume in reading. He said when you read a lot of the Bible from all over the Bible that, you become Bible-minded; that is, you understand the doctrines in the Bible, the history of God’s working in the world, the trends and shifts in God’s working with people, how things fit together in God’s plan for the ages, and the overriding goals of God for His people. ‘He said you can read the Bible through in a year by reading ten minutes a day, and he said that reading thirty minutes a day will increase the benefit of reading God’s Word ten times. I don’t know where he got his information, but I believed his statement was true. He gave a suggested Bible reading plan of reading two chapters in the Old Testament, five chapters in Psalms, one chapter in Proverbs, two chapters in the Gospels, Acts, and Revelation, and two chapters in the Epistles for a total of twelve chapters each day. I started that Bible reading plan in 1965, 58 years ago, and have continued it ever since. If you do the math, that is about 250,000 chapters of Bible reading over the last 58 years. I have read the Old Testament 58 times, the book of Psalms 720 times, Proverbs 720 times, the Gospels, Acts, and Revelations 240 times, and the Epistles, Romans through Jude 500 times each.

I don’t know if any other high school kids at that retreat were as impacted by the speaker as I was, but he certainly made a difference in my life. I don’t know the exact difference the Bible reading habit I picked up from him made in my life, ministry, or preaching and teaching ministry over the last 60 years, but I would guess that it is substantial. I think that many of the rewards from Jesus at the “Judgment Seat of Christ” that would come to me will go to this retired missionary. I don’t remember his name, but he was a great tool for God in my life.

I have said it many times before, but who I am today and what I have accomplished with my life is primarily the result of a lot of faithful people who spoke into my life, who motivated me, shaped me, and taught me. I hope that I am passing that on to others in my life.