”The man who doesn’t read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them.” This saying is certainly true and ties in with a couple more sayings on this same subject. ”Few are better than the books they read,” and ”life is too short for reading inferior books.”

Unfortunately reading is fast becoming a lost art and those who do read so often read what the saying calls ”inferior books.” There are many of that type, and as another wise man once said, ”There is no worse robber than a bad book.” What we read does have a profound effect upon our lives. Through the printed page we absorb into our minds thoughts and ideas which affect the very way we think and act. For example, if we are reading an exciting mystery, our mouth can go dry and our pulse can quicken as we read of the shady character creeping up the rickety stairs in the dark with the dagger in hand. Our bodies are reacting in the very same way it would if we were actually experiencing the situation we are reading about.

This is why it is so important for us to choose with care the books we read. It certainly should go without saying that the most important book of all for us to read should be our Bibles for it is the only book that reveals the very thoughts and plans of Almighty God. It is also useful for us to read good books written by those who can help us to understand what we read. We do not have a Philip to come join us as we read Isaiah, but we can turn to a Christadelphian now dead. who can guide us as we strive to unlock the meanings of the wonderful prophesies found in God’s inspired writings.

Solomon told us that ”of making many books there is no end,” and he said this long before the printing press or the paper back books came into being.” We should take as much care in choosing our books as we choose our friends for they will both have a profound effect upon the way we think and act.

Charles E. Jones made a statement which we think is worth repeating. He said, ”You will be the same in five years as you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read.”

Since what we read and the people we associate with have such a profound effect upon our lives, why are we so casual in our choice of books and friends? Some of those who lived in Ephesus realized how important it was to choose only the best books, and as a result, they ”brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver.”

Now those books might have been sold instead of burned, but they were only deserving of the fire. Bo we have any books that we would be better off burning than reading? If they are books that make us burn in our lusts, then how wise we would be to follow the example of the Ephesians.

Let us choose with care what we put into our bodies. Some who are careful to eat only the right foods, feed their minds with garbage. It can come from the written page, it can come from our associates, it can come from what we see on TV. Our life is too short to waste it on trifles as light as air.

If we want our name to be written in the Book of Life then we better get busy reading the Book right now. If we want Jesus when he comes to ”change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body,” then we should be busy changing our minds for as Paul said to the Corinthians, ”Incredible as it may sound, we who are spiritual have the very thoughts of Christ!” This comes by reading the same scriptures that Jesus read, for again it was Paul who told the Philippians, ”Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.”