Literature is a collection of written works. They come in form of books, epistles, letters, journals and articles.
The Bible is a kind of literature. Hymns and other poetry forms are also within this bracket.
Any Christian who is ready to conform to the way of the Lord and His work must READ. I first wondered why God wrote the TEN COMMANDMENTS and did not SPEAK it to Moses. He wrote it by himself so it could be read. God had helped man from the ancient times with the art of writing. From the advent of the Egyptian hieroglyphics on papyrus and wood, and from carvings on stones, God had pointed to man the way to document very important information.
With the human memory so limited, and the tendency to forget so persistent, the oral tradition of passing information with the word of mouth from generation to generation, is certainly deficient in preserving very important messages, such as God’s instruction to man. The skill to read and write is certainly of the Lord.
God then ensured that all the codes put together to guide His people Israel were written down….written down for posterity. Every time the people wanted to find the way they had lost, they returned to the books. In the Quran, the book of the Moslems, the people of God(Jews and Christians) are there referred to as “the people of the books.” Are we still the people of the books in reality?
The Spirit of God ensured that the message of salvation and story of the gospel were written and recorded in four different books which we now call The Gospels: Mathew, Mark, Luke and John.
The stories continued in the book of Acts of the Apostles. The Epistles remained the most elaborate texts of the body of teachings of the Early Church. The Revelation offers us an insight into God’s church plan spread out from the beginning to the end.
All these make up what we call the Scriptures. And we are told, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.
“That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.”
Writing did not stop after the Revelation. Great and inspired works have continued since the end of the first century, opening our eyes to the fulfilment of the scriptures down to this present day.
Today, we have a number of books written by inspired ministers of the church of God. Some are in hard copies. Others can be found online. I found F.G. Smith’s “What the Bible Teaches,” online. I have also seen a number of pioneer books online. Some church of God sites have these books on their website for free downloads. In those days we used to have a number of books coming in from abroad, I don’t think it is financially convenient for us to continue to expect that to happen now. We can download articles, tracts and other needed and useful literatures online.
We also have the Way of Truth magazine sent all the way from the USA, free of charge and we receive these copies along with the Sunday School manuals. These are also online for download free of charge on www.wayoftruth.org.
With the Bible standing as the corner stone, this body of literature firm up to build a strong foundation for knowledge and scholarly prospects for both the ministry and the entire church membership.
Today, we really don’t have any excuse for ignorance or being poorly equipped for the work we are called to do.
How many hours a day do we spend surfing on the internet, downloading and forwarding light materials developed by light hearted people, when we have a gold mine of resources with strong knowledge base and stretching into eternity.
The apostle says “make full proof of thy ministry.” It all depends on where we are getting our inspiration from. And if we rely on the shallow pool we will be dry of the freshness of divine power and knowledge needed to feed the flock and disarm the present day purveyors of a hollow gospel of prosperity and prophetic messages.
Read the pioneers, read the thinkers, read the historians, read and draw waters from the depths of the springs.
Remember you cannot give what you don’t have. You cannot lead a flock of enlightened people with the lazy attitude towards the books. This is our time to awake. Return to the books where the secrets of life are documented; where the antidotes of our myriad of maladies are engraved. It is time to move away from the distractions to the glamour of scriptural attractions. Or aren’t there beautiful attractions in the Holy Books? Or did not David write, “O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day.” Psalm 119:97.
We are having problems today getting our people to read the literatures available to us. No wonder, evangelism has gone down. We need to revive the culture of reading in our congregations. We need to build up our most holy faith on God’s word. We need to know all the nooks and crannies of the holy book and learn to lead others through it. May the Lord open our eyes to greater truths and the infallible mysteries of the Kingdom. Amen.