I hope you are part of a church that includes “the public reading of Scripture” (1 Timothy 4:13) at its main weekly meeting. Family worship is also a common setting for reading Scripture out loud to others. In both of these settings, both the reader and the hearers are, as John wrote about the public reading of Revelation, “blessed” (Rev. 1:3). What follows are two additional ways we can experience this blessing as readers and also bless others.
First, read the Bible to those who join you for a meal at your home. This may already be your practice, especially if your kids are still in the house and you have regular times of family worship. But perhaps you don’t have that routine in your life, so here’s the idea that I saw recently when I was a guest in a house. The husband and wife hosting us have a stack of Bibles on a shelf next to the dining room table. The husband told me that when they have people over, once the meal is over, he passes out those Bibles and reads a passage or chapter, encouraging the others to follow along. That’s what happened that night. It was simple, and we were all blessed.
Here’s a second idea: record yourself reading Scripture and send it to some people you love. Two of my children are young adults, and my third is almost a senior in high school. They all have cell phones, and we have a “family” text thread that also includes my daughter-in-law. So here’s what I do: I record myself reading Scripture with a user-friendly recording app on my phone, then send it to my loved ones on the family text thread. It’s simple. Sometimes I will say something about the passage I’m going to read (I’m currently reading through Romans, one chapter at a time), or I will mention something at the end. I often express my love to everyone after I finish reading. Do they listen to it? I think so. I hope so. However, even if they don’t, getting one of those texts is just a little reminder of the importance of Scripture in our lives.
Occasionally, I combine the above two ideas this way. Let me illustrate with a recent situation. My wife and I had a young couple in our church over for supper. They were married this past fall, and I had the privilege of leading their premarital counseling. This was a bit of a “let’s see how these opening months of your marriage have been going” type of get-together. Once we finished eating, I organized a time of Bible reading. I first made we each had Bibles (scrolling on a phone is fine, but I prefer people look at physical copies). I didn’t do the reading, but asked the young man if he would be willing to read the chapter. He was happy to. I then started recording, but instead of having him read right away, I did “introductions” around the table and made some funny comments during that time (at least they were humorous to me). And then the young man read the chapter, and I seem to recall asking the group how many Old Testament references we could see in the chapter just read (there were several). Once I stopped the recording, I sent it to the family text thread with the title, “Special guests and a guest reader! Listen to the end for a hilarious comment.”
You might not be able to accomplish the first idea right away (reading the Bible at a meal with guests), but perhaps you can do the second, even now. Here’s an idea: pick a psalm that you love, record yourself reading it, and send it to a missionary you know. You might start the recording by saying, “I thought I’d send this to encourage you.” I guarantee it will!