Reading Many Books has No End

Last year, I posted a few times on cleaning out the basement and some of the finds. My parents have been at it again and found a box of books that were meant to go out last year, but I wanted a picture first. I finally got the picture taken, and books out to recycle.

In grade school and high school, I did not enjoy reading at all. It was a challenge to get a book positioned for me to read and then turning pages could sometimes be a battle between stick and paper. The struggle continues today, but I'm used to it and it's just part of what it takes for me to be able to read.

When I started college, the number of books I had to study increased, as well as their thickness and complexity. However, it was a little more enjoyable as the material was generally something I was interested in learning. After college, as I got into more web development work, I had manuals on how to run some of my software and learn more programming skills.

Now, it has been nearly 20 years since I first read some of those books. New software, and manuals, I was once excited to use are now very outdated and not worth more than the dust collected on the pages. Piled up, the stack goes from the floor to higher than my arm rests. I have read all of it at some point, but it's now useless material. While age may make some books useless, that is not the case for everything.

I have read one book more times than I can count, cover to cover, and still learn more each time. It has been nearly 2000 years since it was completed, but is still relevant today. God's Word, as recorded in the Bible, never changes, but is always up to date for every situation. If I still used, or taught, the exact material from my school books today, it wouldn't do any good. Preaching from Scripture will have no expiration date and will always be useful.

Ecclesiastes 12:12 says in part, "Of making many books there is no end, and much study is wearisome to the flesh." The next two verses give the purpose of continuing to gain knowledge about God. I'm thankful for the experiences, and wisdom, God has given me over the years in this quad life. Today was week two out of five for preaching and, as long as I preach from the text, I will never run out of material.