If You Could Only Have One Book of the Bible

The following program is recorded content created by the Truth Network. Calling 866-34-TRUTH. That's 866-34-TRUTH.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Alright, phone lines are wide open. 866-34-TRUTH.

866-34-87-8-8-4. What about you? If you could only have one book of the Bible to read for the rest of your life, couldn't read any other book of the Bible, you just had one. And that would be your book, your connection to the truth of God as revealed in Scripture. For the rest of your life, only one book of the Bible that you could read, which book would it be and why?

866-348-7884. I decided to do a little poll the other day on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram asking this very question. I had an idea of where the answers might go. You could give an educated guess as well. And then I asked myself the same question and came up with like a top three that I would have to say if I could only have one book to read in the Bible for the rest of my life, which would it be?

But what about you? Which book? You only get one and that's the book for the rest of your life that you read from the Bible.

Give me a call. 866-344-TRUTH. And of course, tell me why. In the New Testament, in the five books of Moses, the book that is quoted the most is Deuteronomy. In the prophetic writings, the book that's quoted the most is Isaiah. In what would be called the writings in the threefold division in the Hebrew Scriptures. So that would reflect books like Psalms, Proverbs, and quite a few others. Psalms was the one quoted most often. So those were three favorite books of the Bible in terms of each of the three different sections as they were quoted Deuteronomy, Isaiah, Psalms. Now in the rabbinic literature in the centuries following, it's the same three that were quoted the most from their respective parts of the Bible in the threefold division that is found in the Jewish canon of Scripture. So same books we have as Christian Old Testament but different order of books, different division. And then in the Dead Sea Scrolls, the same phenomenon. Deuteronomy, Isaiah, Psalms of the books of the Old Testament. So if you could pick any one book, you only get this.

You don't get to read anything else from the Bible through the rest of your life. Which book would it be? So I'll get to calls and then I'll tell you the results of the survey and then later in the show I'll tell you my particular choice.

Let me say this also. I listen to audiobooks a lot while driving in my car. Unless I'm burdened to pray about a particular thing or have a phone call to make, I listen to audiobooks and on a regular basis I'm listening to the Bible on audio.

So some days if my concentration level is not as intense, maybe I just kind of need to unwind a little bit on a longer drive. I might listen just to an enjoyable read, you know, another book outside of the Bible. And then if I'm more focused then I'll be taking in Scripture. So yesterday I was listening to a nationally best-selling book on a very important theme and it's a pretty easy listen. You know, it wasn't a drain to listen to it. So I'm just listening to it and thought, ah, I'm going to switch over to the Bible.

Now here's the thing. I was about to get to 1 Chronicles in the Old Testament and if you're familiar with 1 Chronicles, the opening five chapters are basically just genealogy. I mean the chapters after that, it goes on quite a while before it gets into deeper narrative and tells you more about the life of David and things like that. So when you're reading, you're sitting reading, you speed read through, at least I do, if you make a confession. If it's repetitive, you know, just genealogy is a speed read through them or the list of, you know, they brought this offering on this day and then it's repeated the exact same thing 10 or 12 times, I speed read it. But when you're listening, I'm not going to skip over it, right, because I want to be reverent. But I thought, well, maybe I'll just read the speed read this later.

No, no, no. It's the word. I'm going to listen. And immediately, even though it's just genealogies, I felt the weight of it. I felt the truth of it. I felt the authority of it. I thought it was just God's Word. The Bible is different. If you only had one book, what would it be a little bit later in the broadcast, I want to play a clip for you of a recent world record that was set, then an amazing quote behind it and then a story behind me getting the quote yesterday. Let's start with responses to my question.

We'll go to Knightdale, North Carolina. Sean, you're first up. Any one book in the Bible, which would it be? I would personally say Genesis, mainly because I feel like that's the source. So it's like, in my opinion, everything piggybacks off of creation, right? So a lot of things are confusing because just as just me personally, a lot of things piggyback off of the idea of creation to begin with. So I feel like that's a lot of things that confuse when you think about creation and then you think about science. You know what I'm saying? It confuses a lot of people.

And then you think about history to a fourth book. Yeah, I feel like Genesis is the source. That's my thing. All right. Hey, Sean, thank you for the response. I appreciate it. And hey, first call, we start with Genesis.

Why not? 866, three, four, truth. Now, let me look on my list here and see where Genesis came in. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. So that's ninth out of 66 books in the survey that we did. And we didn't tabulate everybody's responses everywhere, but at a certain point we stopped and got these. So this would be representative, a good representative sampling. Again, I had my ideas in terms of which I would pick and I ended up...

I didn't allow push to come to shove with me. I came up with my three that I would. Yeah. Gene asked which book has the most verses. He said, is it Acts? You don't mean in the New Testament. In the New Testament, it would be Luke. In the Bible as a whole, the most words are found in Jeremiah. Then, if I'm correct, Ezekiel is next. And then I think Psalms, Isaiah, Genesis, somewhere in that order in terms of words, actual words.

Jeremiah is the longest. Proverbs 4, verses 20 to 22, urge us not to let God's words out of our sight. Keep them stored deeply in our hearts. And it says they are life to those who find them.

Life to those who find them. And I'm just, hang on, I'm just going to type a note to our call screener and tell him I don't need any more info. Yeah. This way, because he's normally going to tell me, yeah, which caller has what to say on what. But with all the calls we're getting, just, yeah, just need the name and the place and we'll go from there, make it simpler for everybody. This way I can get to more calls. And there's a caller on hold in Utah, anonymous caller. Please stay right there because I really want to talk to you today. You've called in with an important subject and I really do want to talk to you about that today.

All right. Joshua one eight. Joshua's told us he goes to take the land. Don't let this book of the teaching, this book of the law depart from his lips, but rather recite it, repeat it, meditate on it day and night wise so that he can do what is written in it. And then his ways will succeed. So here he's going to take the land, go to war, right? Moses is dead.

He's going to lead the way. And what's the key? Get the word in your heart, on your lips, in your mind, repeat it, recite it. The Hebrew word for meditate, as I've often explained, does not just mean to quietly think, but it's something being uttered. And this is a way to this day that Jews and others will memorize things by repeating, by reciting, by speaking. All right. So it's just constant on your lips, on your lips, on your lips, and then on your lips and your mind and your heart wise so that you can do it, so that you can act on it. And then you'll be blessed.

Then you will succeed because you'll be doing the will of God. All right. Let's go over to Montreal, Canada. Adam, welcome to the line of fire. What's your take? Hey, Dr. Brown. Thanks for having me on here.

Sure. I would say if I was to pick one, I'd probably go with the book of Genesis. And I would agree with one of the previous scholars who basically said that everything kind of piggybacks off creation.

So that's one of the reasons. Then also, of course, the Abrahamic covenant that's there and then the nation of Israel being born. And then another thing, too, that caught my attention not long ago from the book of Isaiah, when he says in Isaiah 46, when he says, I'm the Lord who declares the end from the beginning. So actually, when we look at Genesis, it's amazing how many parallels there are also to the end time. So with the Tower of Babel, even in Genesis 11, you know, where we see the nations coming together, we see also, of course, the same picture in Revelation as well.

So I just think that if we were to pick one, as you're saying, I think you can go wrong with the book of Genesis. Hey, Adam, thank you for the call and the explanation. I appreciate it. 866-3-4, truth. We'll get to more calls in a moment. There are so many encouragements within the Word to be people of the Word. Jesus tells us in John 15, 7 that if we abide in Him and His words abide in us, then we ask what we will and it'll be done for us.

You say, how could He say that? Well, because when we abide in Him and His words abide in us, then we're in harmony with God. We're not going to be asking for carnal things. We're not going to be asking for things outside of the will of God. Our prayers will be in harmony with the will of God. Same with Psalm 1-3, that the godly man again meditates in the Word, recites, repeats it, mutters it, utters it. Day and night takes his delight in it and whatever he sets his hand to do succeeds.

Why? Because he's in harmony with God. Just like Psalm 37-4 from a different angle, delight yourself in the Lord and He'll give you the desires of your heart. Here, these other verses are telling us if we're people of the Word, if we're in the Word, we get the Word in our heart and our mind, then we're in harmony with God and the things we do, we'll be blessed.

Colossians 3 urges us to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly. This is a theme through the Scriptures. And how does Jesus deal with Satan in the wilderness, Satan's temptation? What does he do? He rebukes him, he answers with three verses.

Where? From Deuteronomy. And as a new believer, early in the Lord, this is one of the things God gave me. It's a great hunger for His Word. So I read through the Bible cover to cover about five times the first couple of years in the Lord and then used to memorize 20 verses a day. God gave me grace to do that without fail for about six straight months when I was saved by the year.

So in a short period of time, I had memorized thousands of verses and that remains a foundation that I'm built on to this day. We'll be right back. It's the Line of Fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown, your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Thanks, friends, for joining us on the Line of Fire 866-34-TRUTH. I want to take a couple more calls and then switch gears for a moment, then I'm going to come back and talk about the results of the survey, what you all said in terms of not just calls today, but responses online. If you could have only one book of the Bible to read the rest of your life, which would it be? And then I'll share my own thoughts as we get to the end. Let's go over to Sid in Raleigh, North Carolina. Welcome to the Line of Fire.

Which book would you choose? Hey, Dr. Brown. Can you hear me okay? Sounds like I'm on speaker. You're on speaker or something. All right, let me take this Bluetooth off. Hold on.

Ah, we tell everyone to do that. How's that? Is that better?

Much better, sir. Okay, so it was an interesting thought when I heard the show coming on, and then you said like your top three. So actually, the first thought came to my mind was the book of John. But after I contemplated it a while, I think Hebrews came up, but I'm gonna settle down at the book of Psalms.

Okay, tell us why. Because, you know, my background, similar to yours in a sense, but you know, Psalms actually is a comforting, encouraging, it talks about, you know, it covers to me the whole gamut. And so as far as reading for the rest of my life, I can pretty much, to me, the book of Psalms covers the whole Bible.

Got it. Because the Holy Spirit, forgiveness, redemption, my Savior, my Lord, and my Shepherd, it just, I think, you know, for the rest of my life, that I could, and that's where I land at the book of Psalms. Sid, many others felt the same way.

That was number three on our survey, and the first three were much higher than the rest, and obviously that was, you know, the Psalms were prayed and sung by the early church and have been through the centuries. Hey, thank you, thank you for the call. Let's go to Andrew in Bonne Burant, Iowa.

Welcome to The Line of Fire. What book would you choose? Oh, I'd land easily on the book of Matthew.

Okay, tell us why. Sure, well I just like the whole fact that he's absolutely a numbers man, and so everything he witnessed, you know, he's called, even though he's a sinner, to follow Jesus, and like everything he witnessed, I got to believe everything out of his mouth is absolute truth. And also, I watched the show The Chosen by, and like, watching Matthew and that, I reread the book of Matthew, and you can't not read it in his voice. Yeah, reading it with my daughter, and we're both enjoying it. Yeah, so interesting.

Yeah, got it. So I would have thought this would have been higher on the list, but Matthew's number eight. Genesis was nine. Matthew's there, just counting down as you were talking, so that's very interesting.

I thought it would be higher. Matthew, eyewitness, so much of the teaching of Jesus included as well. Hey, thank you for the call. All right, switching gears for a moment, but we're gonna stay with this subject later in the show. I want to go to an anonymous caller in Utah. Thanks so much for calling in. How could I be of help today?

Hi, well, here's my problem. You know, I do believe in God, and I do believe that I'm saved. I do believe that I'm not gonna lose that salvation.

I'm secure in Him. I just don't feel that fire that I had before. I don't feel that conviction I had before. I mean, I want it, and I do believe in God, and I love Him, but at the same time, I'm just kind of like in a dry spell. I don't know what to do to, I mean, I know people tell me, yeah, just read the Bible. Well, yeah, but I just, you know, I'm just like kind of lost in direction. I don't know what happened, but I just kind of fell back.

Yeah, thanks for being honest and for calling. When you were at your best, most passionate, most convicted, most on fire, how are you living then, in short? What did your lifestyle look like in terms of times with God or ministry or being in church?

What did it look like? Well, I wanted to witness to everybody. I talked about Jesus all the time. I was, you know, you couldn't get me to shut up. Now I'm just kind of, I don't know, complacent.

I don't know. And did it happen suddenly, or is this something that's happened gradually? I think it happened kind of suddenly, but gradually at the same time. It was kind of like, you know, I mean, I still had that tug, but then it just kind of faded a little bit, you know what I mean?

Or a lot. Right, so what changed, did anything change in your own lifestyle? Yeah, I mean, I wasn't praying like I did before, wasn't getting into the Word like I did before, and I know all of it. I mean, I could tell myself all the answers.

Right, right. No, I'm trying to help diagnose if we can get to a root of this. Did you change jobs or interests or focus so that somehow your schedule changed and now you had less time for God? Were there other things that started to come first? I think just family issues and, I don't know, just I think corona probably, I know that everybody's blaming corona.

No, that's fine. Life changes, we're trying to diagnose this. Yeah, and I don't mean to blame it all on corona.

I'm not trying to say, oh yeah, it's not. I'm just saying, you know, just, you know, we just kind of flipped out of not going to church every Sunday and, you know, watching it on TV or on YouTube or whatever and then quit doing that and it just, you know, just kind of little by little just became a fade. Right, right. Family issues, just life itself, just all kinds of different things.

Got it, got it. Now look, there are times when something more specific happens or there's a shift in our interest or we open the door to sin and you can more easily pinpoint a specific thing. In your case, in the more general slide, right, what is strongly in my head is in Ephesians the second chapter, excuse me, Revelation the second chapter, where Jesus is speaking to the church in Ephesus, which was still Orthodox in its beliefs and it persevered and so on, but he says, I have this against you, you've left your first love.

So this is something the Lord actually holds against. In other words, you didn't just lose it, you left it. You made choices, you did things differently. But then he says this, remember the height from which you've fallen, so you're doing that even by calling, you're doing that. And then he says, do the things you did at first or else because otherwise we just keep sliding further and further. So what did you do at first? What you have to do is force the issue, meaning even though I feel nothing, even though my mind is a million different places, even though my flesh doesn't want to do this, I am going to, I'm gonna get alone in the room and tell my family, hey, you know, do whatever you have to do, family responsibilities, work responsibilities, and then get alone and say, God, I have to have a breakthrough. And if you spend an hour and you feel like you're talking to the wall, you take out the Bible and read it, so this feels dull, if you will take steps towards him, I know this is what others are telling you, and I asked you questions because I was not just going to give you this answer.

In other words, I wanted to see if there were other things or other reasons. But if you will do this, and it's something I've had to do in my own life, enforce the issue. Do what you know how to do. Take your baby human steps to God, draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Something will begin to change. You may suddenly become convicted of sin and realize there's junk in your life.

You may be convicted of other things and attitudes in your heart. God may show you the neglect. If you will take those steps, so do what you know how to do. Say, I don't know how to have more faith. Don't worry about it. Do what you know how to do. I don't know how to take an interest. Don't worry about it.

Do what you know how to do. As a believer, you're under command. You've been bought with a price. You're not your own. We give account to God. He's our Lord, and he calls us to seek him earnestly.

Hebrews 11 6, he's a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. If you will do that on a consistent basis, if I remember at a time when I realized as I was getting my PhD and was theologically proud and had even though I was an active Christian in many ways and committed, I had left my first love. And I thought, what am I gonna do? I'll like fast pray, get all excited, get all on fire for a couple days, and then go right back to my old ways. Yeah, hardly praying, hardly meeting with God in a quality way. So I thought, okay, if I didn't pray at all one day, I'm gonna pray five minutes. If I read the Word and prayed 15 minutes one day, I'm gonna make it 25. I just, I'm gonna turn little by little in the right direction every day, every day, every day. And before I knew it, the fire of God fell in my life.

I was transformed, and I've been changed ever since, and that was, it was 1982. So if you will do that, take your baby steps. Force the issue. Do what you know how to do. You could pick up the phone and call me. So the same way you say, God, I know you're real, I know you're there, but I'm dull, I don't have any desire to share my faith, I feel spiritually lazy, just be honest. Take those steps. He will honor that. And then as soon as you can get back with your family, back in church, back in fellowship, I don't know what their restrictions are, but as soon as you can do that, do that. Get out of the old habits.

Do what you did at first. So take a look, Revelation chapter 2. It's just the, what, first eight or nine verses there. Read that, and I believe it's a direct word that'll minister to you. And what I want to do is is this, rather than discuss it, go back and forth, I want to urge you to take the doctor's prescription, okay?

Implement this, and you'll see change, if not within days, within weeks, you'll see change. Father, you know exactly who this is, this caller. He's anonymous to me, but known to you. Bring him back, not just all the way, but with a greater fire, passion, devotion, hunger, thirst, desire, than he's ever had before. Touch his whole family, in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you for calling. It's the Line of Fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34-TRUTH.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Here is the question of the day. If you could only have one book of the Bible to read for the rest of your life, that's it. Never get to read another book of the Bible. You could only read one.

What book would it be, and why? 866-34-TRUTH is the number to call. 866-34-87-884 to weigh in with your thoughts. I'm gonna share with you in a moment the results of a survey that we did, you know, with several hundred responses, just to get an idea of what you were thinking online. And normally, once you get several hundred representative on a few different social media sites, if it builds to several thousand, it's pretty much repeating similar things. In other words, you get a good cross-sampling if you do enough early on. So I think this is, you know, of value to let you know what people are thinking. But we'll take calls as well. And at the end of the show, I'll tell you what I came up with. And I say it's a top three, but the one and two were a little stronger than three, but but I got my one. So anyway, well, I'll share that.

I'll share that with you. Okay, first, there was a recent world record set in 400 meter hurdles. Women's world record in the Olympic trials. I don't follow track and field closely at all. And then some of the Olympics I'll watch, you know, every four years or eight years.

Things were now postponed with COVID. Japan from last year. So sometimes I'll watch, but normally just if there's a record set or something, I'll catch it afterwards. So I wasn't aware of all the world records, etc. But I saw this. I saw this the other day. I was doing some research on YouTube, and then, you know, all these things pop up on the side. So it's like, oh, wow, new world record.

I watched it. So I was curious, when I see someone set a record or some amazing accomplishment, I always wonder, who are they? And are they believers? And and what's going on? What kind of people are they and how they get where they are?

Just questions, because it's tremendous effort, you know, a tremendous effort, dedication to get to that place. So this was the race as it was called. Let's listen, and for those watching, let's watch. The world record is 52-16. Let's see if either of these two women can challenge that. The little Mohammed always gets out fast and aggressive, and she is doing that right now. This is a woman who's only run three races up to this point.

But when you talk about being a tactician and executing perfectly, that's a little Mohammed. But Sidney McLaughlin looks very comfortable through half of the race, and throughout the round, we have seen monster finishes by a Sidney McLaughlin. Does she have one more? Because the world record holder is putting some distance between her and the rest of the field.

And look at Shamir Little come on the inside, got a little off balance there. This is Sidney McLaughlin challenging Darlila Mohammed. Sidney McLaughlin gets ahead of the world champion and the Olympic champion.

Sidney's time is now, and what does that time look like? 52-51-0. That's a new world record. Yeah, you can see her shock setting that new world record, and it looks, I mean it's quite amazing, almost inspiring to see this incredible run and stride, almost effortless with massive effort in the process. Okay, so why did I play that for you?

Well, I'd seen the world record just on YouTube, and then clicked just to find out a drop more about Sidney who set the record, but then went on to other things. That was it. Well, I was on my knees praying yesterday, something that that is often a theme in my life of just seeking God, because being in ministry and being burdened to want to touch people's lives, and being burdened to see the work that we do touch more and more people, it's something we're often praying about. Lord, may these messages get out and have an impact.

Lord, cause these shows to get out and have an impact. Lord, cause these books to get out and have an impact, so that Jesus can be exalted, so lives can be changed. So I'm constantly burdened and praying for the things that we do for our workers on the field, for our team, to see the success of God's work through us. And he was reminding me yet again in prayer, and I was meditating on passages like Matthew 6 33, seek first the kingdom of God, this righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Or Colossians 2, where in him, in Jesus, are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And I was saying, Lord, everything I need is found in you. Everything our ministry needs is found in you.

And I'm sharing that, not just for me, but for you. Whoever you are, whatever circumstance of life you're in, if you're a believer, everything you need is found in God. You say, I need doors to open. He can open those doors. I need relationships for him.

He can bring you into those right relationships. I need funding. He can fund. Whatever is needed. I need favor. I need ability. I need anointing. Everything we need is found in him.

So if we seek him earnestly, everything else falls into place. So I just finished praying about these things and got a note, an email, from my assistant Dylan, who had seen a quote from Sidney MacArthur. And we had talked about the world record. I mean, it's just not a conversation we'd be having.

Hey, did you hear about the latest Olympic world record or Olympic trials world record? So he didn't know that I had actually followed this a little bit, but sent me this quote from Sidney MacArthur. And so I want to read this to you. She said, my faith was being tested all week. She's a believer.

I didn't know that. From bad practices to three false start delays to a meat delay, I just kept hearing God say, just focus on me. Think of that. She's about to run one of the most important races in her life, and God's telling her, just focus on me. She said it was the best race plan I could have ever assembled. I no longer run for self-recognition, but to reflect his perfect will that is already set in stone. I don't deserve anything, but by grace, through faith, Jesus has given me everything.

Records come and go the glory of God is eternal. Thank you, Father. Those are powerful words, are they not?

Those are words that if you said, boy, you seem kind of moved by that race. Why was it? Because I knew the quote behind it. I knew the quote behind it. And what's fascinating is the color commentator.

So you've got the main commentator, then the other one adding in background and things. Right before the race, he said, I think Sidney McLaughlin can run down the other world champion and we could have a world record today. And of course, that's exactly what happened and how it happened. But here, what she's saying, records come and go. What matters is the eternal glory of God. And the key that God spoke to her was not to focus on the race, not to focus on winning, not to see yourself setting a world record, but just focus on me. That's a word from God for so many of us today, isn't it? Just focus on me. That's what the Lord is saying. It's not a cop-out.

It's the ultimate act of responsibility out of which everything else gets set in perspective and out of which everything else flows. All right, back to the phones. We go to Elizabeth and... No, we don't. Let's go to Chris in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Which book of the Bible would you pick and why? Did you say Chris? I said Chris. If you are Chris in Salt Lake City, then you are the man. Yes, sir, and I have to go with Galatians. All right, tell me why.

Because it's good news. I left Utah, was saved, I came back, and I feel like Paul. Hmm. So dealing with false teaching, false religion, spiritual bondage, and Galatians is a book of liberty. That would be a warning against deception, correct? Yes, sir.

My whole family's ODS, and I am constantly under fire. Hmm. So I guess Galatians 1, if we are an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel, right? That has some relevance there, huh? Yep, and if you forget it, he repeats it, so I think it's pretty important. Hmm.

Got it. So Chris, stand strong. Stand strong in the liberty and freedom that you have in Jesus.

May it be a light and a beacon to the rest of your family. So let's look at our survey and see where, yeah, Galatians is gonna be down the list. Let's just see here on my survey. We're gonna put it up for you in a moment, but Galatians, yeah, only one other, pick Galatians, and that was, yeah, that's, okay, we'll put the list up for you. We'll put the list up. So here it is, the number one book, and you can still call in with your take, 866-348-7884, and tell us why. The number one was the Gospel of John. Number two, so those watching in parentheses, these are the number of votes that got on our survey. Number two is Romans.

Interesting. Number three, Psalms. Number four, Revelation. I would say that that would be the biggest surprise to me, that that was so high up on the list, with all the mystery of Revelation and the visionary apocalyptic nature of it, that's fascinating. Revelation.

Maybe people just sensing a special end time application or the like. Ephesians. So very interesting that out of the top five books, two, written by Paul. Then Proverbs, next.

So by the top six, two are Old Testament, Psalms with the prayers and the cries of the nation and the individual, and Proverbs with wisdom for living. Then next, Isaiah. So of course Isaiah being maybe the best known of the Old Testament prophets and rich in messianic prophecy as well. Then Matthew. I thought Matthew would have been a little higher on the list. Matthew and Genesis were tied. So yeah, when I gave stats about which was one ahead of the other, actually Matthew and Genesis tied. Then Hebrews, James, or Jacob, as we like to remind folks. Luke, Acts, Job, Ecclesiastes, Esther, John, Daniel, Exodus. Then Song of Solomon, Nehemiah, Deuteronomy, Ruth, Ezekiel, Colossians, Leviticus.

They all got a couple of votes and then these just got one. Numbers, 3rd John. Was 3rd John there? Someone joking, just not to joke about the Bible, but that's such a short book.

Is that the one you have? Hosea, Galatians, Judges, Titus, Philippians, 1st Timothy, 2nd Timothy, Mark. So a bunch of those surprised me, and Mark being so low surprises me. But those are the results of the survey. So again, let's look at the top ones.

John, number one, got 86 votes. Romans, 65. Psalms, 57. Revelation, 24. Ephesians, 23.

Proverbs, 21. Isaiah, 18. Matthew, 16. Genesis, 16. Hebrews, 12. James, 11. Luke, 10. And all the others were eight votes or less. So what do you make of that?

Why certain books? And what are my favorite three? And then top one? Tell me when we come back. You still call.

We'll still take some more calls to give your views. 866-348-7884. It's the Line of Fire with your host, activist, author, international speaker, and theologian, Dr. Michael Brown. Your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. Get into the Line of Fire now by calling 866-34-TRUTH.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Thanks, friends, for joining us on the Line of Fire. One thing you find with the Word of God in prayer is that the more time you spend with God in the quality way in the Word and prayer, the more you want to spend time with Him. The more the Word comes alive to you, the more you hunger for it, the more your prayer times are rich. And the less time you spend in prayer, quality prayer in the Word, the less time you want to. Now, this is true for lots of other things as well, but all the more when we're talking about the living God and His Word, all the more is it true that we focus and meet with Him and dig into His Word and let God speak to us through it and then really seek His face in prayer and open our hearts to Him and commune with Him. It's a holy addiction.

It's a desire that grows and that brings great, great life. So I asked myself, if I can only have one book of the Bible to read for the rest of my life, which book would it be? Now, I love the book of Job. I've spent years and years and years and years studying Job. As many of you know, I wrote a commentary on Job, which you can get on our website or any of the online book dealers. Job, The Faith to Challenge God, a New Translation and Commentary. It is as amazing as that book is, I wouldn't choose that as the one and only book I would have for the rest of my life. Now, I quote people who actually make that statement in the beginning of my commentary, that there's no book like Job and that if there's any one book I could have in all of literature to read, it would be the book of Job.

And for those of you who say, Job? It's an extraordinary rich book, incredibly rich. I wrote a commentary on Jeremiah, so I love the book of Jeremiah. But as much as I love the book of Jeremiah, I would not pick that as the one and only book I could read for the rest of my life. It is so overwhelmingly full of dark judgments on the sinning people of Israel and Judah. And yes, there's hope and restoration in it, but I would not make that the one book that I have for the rest of my life. Now, I'm currently writing a commentary on Isaiah, and it should have, well, if everything goes well, it's years of work to do it at the pace I'm doing it and the depth that I'm seeking to do it.

It's an amazing book. There's so much lofty truth in it. There's Isaiah's encounter with God in it. There are these soaringly rich prophecies and declarations of the uniqueness of the one God, the only God, the God of Israel, and then there are extraordinary messianic prophecies, and in a sense, the gospel preached more clearly in terms of Jesus dying for our sins.

Anywhere in the Bible, there it is in Isaiah 53. So Isaiah made it to my top three list, that if I could pick any one book, then that would be in my top three for those reasons. And yes, it has judgment in it, and yes, there's some obscure sayings in it and things like that, but so much that points us to the one and only God, so much that draws us into God's holiness, and so much about the Messiah. But ultimately, I wanted something that would have a lot of the teaching of Jesus as well, not just the accounts of his life, but his own words as well.

I know he speaks through the whole Bible, but his words when he was here on earth. So Luke is amazing in terms of the scope of what he covers and the stories that he tells that other gospel writers don't tell and how it's put together. Luke's incredible gospel. Mark, shorter obviously, and so emphasizing the doing of Jesus along with his teaching.

I thought, no, be either John or Matthew, for me. And John, well that's the revelation of the eternal Word made flesh, and lengthy sections like the teaching of Jesus in John 13, 14, 15, 16, and this high priestly prayer, and 17 that you just don't have anywhere else, and words you can feast on, meditate on, for the rest of your life. So John was right there, and when I started reading the Bible and just reading, you know, random passages, and I was, you know, we were reading for the book of Revelation and visions from Daniel because we were drug users, and that stuff interested us, just being honest with you. All the end-time prophecy and stuff's like, wow, cool, that's in the Bible.

We get high and talk about it. But then now I'm saying, believers starting to read, it's like, okay, I'm reading those passages, there are other parts of the Bible to read as well, and I remember someone suggesting, well, you should start in John. I remember, okay, there was a man sent from God named John. I thought, this is the John who wrote the book?

You know, I was that new, just trying to read it, figure it all out. So, you know, the riches you're confronted with right out of the gate, but ultimately, ultimately, I put Matthew first, if I only had one. Now, again, in our list here, John was one by a pretty substantial margin than Romans. Now, I did think about Romans a little because Romans has it all in terms of our faith, the foundations of one God and our rejection of God and universality of sin, justification by faith alone, life in the Spirit and overcoming sin, God's eternal purposes for Israel, and then practical application.

In that sense, Romans has it all. One godly pastor that I used to talk to as a new believer, a man that just deeply, deeply respected as a man of God, he said, he only had one chapter in the Bible, Romans 8. Romans 8 has everything. This is the key, Romans 8, and what a chapter, what an indescribably glorious chapter in the midst of an indescribably glorious letter written by divine inspiration through Paul. So, yeah, Romans was incredible, and obviously many said Psalms, that was next, and so much, you pray the Psalms, you cry out through the Psalms, you have comfort through the Psalms, and then the Messianic prophecy in the Psalms as well. But ultimately, Matthew made it to the top, just a little bit above John and then above Isaiah.

Why? Well, you've got the connection with the Old Testament there, right? It's all connected to fulfill what was written. So even though in my theoretical world here, it's just one book, it's presupposing everything that came before and constantly quoting it, going back to it. So I got my link there, and it's presenting Jesus as the Messiah of Israel. So I got that link, and we've got his life and his miracles and his death and his resurrection, and then we've got the Sermon on the Mount and other extended passages like Matthew 10, etc., of his teaching. So that is why I made that decision.

Now, here's the reality. We don't have to decide, we have the whole Bible. We have the whole Bible. I was given a copy of my book, Go and Sin No More, that was used in Vietnam, and it had multiple bookmarks in it. You know, you just put the ribbon in there and insert multiple.

Why? Because people would all be sharing the same book. So when you're done reading, you put your mark there, and someone else puts their mark there, because they didn't have access to other Christian books.

And then, yes, it's true. In times past, it may still happen in certain parts of the world, but times past, say in Communist China, when a Bible would be received, the group of Christians would get together, and they would each tear out one page. And that's what they would read and study, and then they'd pass pages. Now, obviously, you're not going to get the best understanding of things, because it's random and it's out of order, but this literally happened. And just think, if something was found from the, you know, an ancient snippet of the teaching of Jesus, the scholar said, we believe he really said these words.

It wasn't part of the Bible. We believe he said these words. We're like, wow. It's amazing. Well, you have it. You have it. You have the treasure of the Word. We have it. I have it. You have it. And we have so much access.

Come on. Right on my phone, I have the Bible in Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek. I have multiple translations.

Many, many, many. Just right here, on my phone. On my phone. And in the software, with endless variety, you just go to BibleGateway.com and get a host of translations for free. Or on your phone, UBible. And get a host of translations for free.

And get programs. Just press this button. Every day I'll remind you, read these chapters. They'll come up. Here they are on your phone. Read them. Read me. Here I am.

Knocking at your door. Or every day, here's a verse to meditate on. We're sending them memorized. And we have so much more access, and yet we're one of the most biblically illiterate generations in American history. To the extent that we're literate, we're illiterate biblically.

And it's a crying shame. I remember writing in 1991 that the more we stored the Word, stored the Word on our hard drives, the less we'd store it in our hearts. So let's get back to the Word. Let's be people of the Word. Let's be people who devour the Word, and who are doers, not just hearers, not just theological studies and intellectual reflection, but doers devouring the Word, drinking in the Word, taking in the riches, the treasures, and then living it out and sharing it with others. But let's be people who get in our heart, get in our mind. Some can memorize better than others.

Others, you know, visual, seeing, writing. Just do what you can to take in the Word. When I was memorizing 20 verses a day, I worked out a system myself because I was reading the Word constantly. And I, okay, this verse just jumps out of me.

Let me memorize that. And then it just got to one, two, multiple, and then 20 verses a day. And without missing a day, did that at least six months, read the Word another two hours every day, prayed at least three hours a day.

I was just disciplined during a relatively free time of scheduled life. But I keep looking at the verse until I could write it out once perfectly. Then I would say it seven times perfectly. Then I would write it once again perfectly, and then go on to the next. And I could do basically verse every three minutes or 20 verses an hour.

And those verses, I quote many of them to to this day in the King James, how I memorized them. Get the Word in your heart. Get the Word in your mind. Be a person of the Word, and you will never be shaken. another program powered by the truth network