"Read! Read! Read!" (1)
“The cloke that I left at Troas with Carpus, when thou comest, bring with thee, and the books, but especially the parchments.” (2 Timothy 4:13)
Some preachers seem to disdain books. I once heard a preacher at an independent Baptist meeting say, “We don’t need more books; we need more preaching.”
That’s a statement of ignorance. A good Christian book is simply good preaching and teaching.
When God wanted to speak to men, He wrote a Book.
The apostles communicated with the churches and with individual believers through the pen, and we have some of their writings in our New Testament. Had they possessed printing presses, I have no doubt that they would have used them.
The apostle Paul was a student to the end of his life. Even when in prison awaiting his death, he said to Timothy, “The cloke that I left at Troas with Carpus, when thou comest, bring with thee, and the books, but especially the parchments.” (2 Timothy 4:13).
Bring the books, said the stalwart old warrior! Bring the books, said the man whom we are told to imitate. “Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me” (1 Cor. 4:16). “Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an example” (Philippians 3:17).
It has been said that the man who wants to be a writer must be a reader.
It has been said that “the man who doesn’t read isn’t any better off than the man who cannot read.”
It has been said that “five years from now you will be the same person except for the people you meet and the books you read.”
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