KEY SCRIPTURE:1Ti 4:13 KJV “Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.”

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It is said that all good leaders are readers. Leading  is all about influencing others to go a particular direction. The leader must be very knowledgeable  to be able to guide their followers rightly. Every one  of us came into this life empty-headed. Whatever we know today came through various forms of learning. One way that places others ahead of the people is a deliberate attempt or discipline of reading.

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Apostle Paul instructed Timothy to give attention to reading. What was he supposed to be reading? The best material for a pastor is the bible. He must read it  consistently, prayerfully, and reverentially. He must consciously read every portion of the bible. A good knowledge of the bible makes interpretation of the bible easier. The challenge certain ministers are facing is the error in interpreting the bible. This has led them to actions that are very wrong. For example, if a pastor  says members would not be served communion until they have paid their tithe. This is an error. I   believe such teaching comes from the experience between Abraham and the Priest of God, Melchizedek. After he had given one tenth of all he obtained, the priest gave him wine and bread. ( Gen 14:18-20)This practice is not in  agreement with any other portion of scripture. The communion is a ‘form’  of the Passover meal, which marks God’s deliverance for all of His people and can not be tied to the paying of tithes.s. This error proceeds from a lack of broad knowledge and subsequent application of the scriptures.

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Besides the Bible, the pastor must read broadly yet be very cautious about certain materials. He should be careful about these New Age writers whose materials are extensively  motivational. The spirit behind these kinds of authors is the spirit of the antichrist. They make references to the bible as the good book and would never make any reference to the death and resurrection of Jesus.

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Besides such authors, there are many  highly inspired authors whose writings would greatly bless you. Please give attention to reading such books.

​In this age of information technology, most of these  books have their audio forms, which could be read to you from any communicative material, like your phone or laptop. Just set up a time schedule to listen to the reading of these books. A good program to go through, listening to the reading of these books, would do so much good for you. The main challenge of listening to such materials read to you is that your attention could easily be captured by other engagements that would either make you miss parts of what is read or lose the  order of presentation of the information. It would be very advisable to give your whole attention to certain specified time periods. You can set aside one hour each day to listen to the books undividedly. You can even make notes as you listen to replay parts that are of more interest.t.

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THOUGHT: Good readership is an answer to blind leading

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FURTHER STUDIES

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Hos 4:6 KJV “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.”

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Ezr 7:10 KJV “For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments.”