When Reading Doesn't Benefit Your Soul | Clip from How to Read as a Christian

We're really glad to have Jeremy. One reason that we asked Jeremy to join us for this topic is that, Jeremy, really, I think that of modern pastors, especially those that I would consider, you know, in the younger half, all right, so you're still in the young half.

I appreciate you calling me that.

Yeah, it's a bit gracious, but you are. I think that you have demonstrated in your ministry the benefits of continuing to pursue a pretty aggressive plan of reading and not kind of have slowed down. So, I think that what you would have to add to our talk will be a help.

One reason that we want to cover a number of principles today is that it is easy to assume that if you're reading a lot of Christian literature, you know, so if you just go to a Christian bookshop and you find a title that's interesting and you pick it up and you take it home and you do the diligence of reading, which is not so easy today when, you know, when it's so easy to get on your favorite, you know, device and binge watch something.

So, you know, the thought is that if I am giving time to reading and it's Christian material, then it will benefit my soul and that is not necessarily true.

No, there is a danger there. I think you're absolutely right in the same way as some people might say, well, just the simple fact that I'm sitting in a church building where I'm hearing good preaching, that must be doing me some good.

Well, it should be doing you some good, but the question is how are you responding to it? What are you doing with that material? So, yeah, simply having all this stuff on the shelves around us, that doesn't actually do any good.

We have to engage with it in the right spirit.

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