We are about to embark on another summer of reading through the New Testament. If you are like many other Christians, you know that this is a good thing to do, but you may not be exactly sure why. This is quite all right as far as it goes. There are many things that are good for us that we do without any detailed explanations. Babies don’t need to be taught how to need sleep, even though sleep is essential to the health. And babies don’t need to be taught to be hungry for milk. If the baby is alive and healthy, the desire for milk comes right along with the baby. It is the same with our spiritual food. “Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.” (1 Peter 2:2–3, ESV).
So there is nothing wrong with turning to the Word out of instinct. But Peter adds a second reason for continuing to feed on the Word. A newborn baby cries for milk, curiously, before he has ever had any. He is born hungry. But notice Peter’s second reason — “if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.” A baby that has been nursing for six months has grown attached to it, and these reasons are the experience of goodness that his instinct initially led him to.
We are inviting you to join us, with tens of thousands of others around the world, in reading through the New Testament together this summer. We are calling it “Same Page Summer,” and it is a unique Bible reading program. If you are a Christian, you already have an instinct that is drawing you to join us. But we want to add something else. Many have found that the experience of tasting that the Lord is good, together with thousands of other believers who are doing the same thing, to be an experience that is transformative. Come, join us.