Reading the Bible Together Can Change Your Life

Song of Songs 1:16a – Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, truly delightful. 

This is an excerpt from the new book “Real Romance: Sex in the Song of Songs”. To purchase the book, click here, and to access the sermon series that accompanies these devos and this book, click here. 

I (Grace) had enough conviction left to know God’s plan for me was not to be dating a non-Christian. I should have broken up with Mark, but instead I bought him a Bible as a gift. I wasn’t spending much time reading my own Bible, but hypocritically, I thought he needed one. I knew the Bible would tell us what we should do. Despite my lack of wisdom, God showed incredible grace to Mark and me. We feel very humbled to be able to teach what we learned the hard way so that others don’t have to go through the same experience. The Bible has been a foundational part of anything good in our marriage. We are excited to help you learn from a book of the Bible, as we study Song of Songs.

I (Mark) became a Christian reading the Bible that Grace gave me. I quickly found a wonderful, Bible-teaching church and became excited about learning from God’s Word, which has led me to preach through books of the Bible as a senior pastor since 1996. Today, we are both teaching the Bible most weeks to the men and women at Trinity Church, which we founded as a family ministry in Scottsdale, Arizona, along with our five children (the two oldest of whom are now married). We give our Bible teaching away to help people in their relationships with God and others through RealFaith Ministries.

Without the Bible, we would not be married. Either we would have so badly ruined our romantic relationship while dating that we would never have made it to marriage, or if we did marry, it would have ended badly. We have sought to build our life, marriage, family, ministry, and legacy on the Bible, and God’s Word has never failed us. We want to be honest with you so that you can be honest with God and each other. If God can take a lost guy who was sleeping with a pastor’s daughter and give us a good marriage and a godly family along with a Bible teaching ministry, then there is certainly hope for you!

How often do you read the Bible with your spouse (if you’re married) or on your own or with other Christian community (if you’re single)? Make a plan to read the Bible this year and, if you don’t have a plan, we’d invite you to read the Bible in a year at this link: https://www.bible.com/reading-plans/29360-bible-in-a-year-2022.