The Bible Society of Nigeria (BSN) has canvassed for the daily reading of the Bible and living by the dictates of the scriptures to reduce the challenges confronting Nigeria.
The General Secretary Chief Executive Officer of the Society, Pastor Samuel Sanusi made the plea when he declared open the 2021 edition of the Marathon Bible Reading organised by the society which was hosted by the Saviour African Cathedral, Agege, a suburb of Lagos.
Pastor Sanusi, while speaking at the opening ceremony of the event, themed; ‘Read Aloud the Word of the Lord, Joshua 8:34’, mentioned that one of the ways to achieve a part of the mission of the society which was to help people interact with the Word of God was the Marathon Bible Reading.
“It is an annual weeklong non-competitive Marathon Bible Reading that gives participants opportunity to read the Bible in any language of their choice uninterrupted for a period of five days.
“The unique feature of the exercise is that it gives participants the opportunity to read the Bible aloud in their mother tongue to the hearing of other people,” Sanusi explained.
He said the daily meditative reading of the Bible and the inculcation of biblical virtues and living by the dictates of the scriptures would change the fortunes of Nigeria positively.
“I, therefore, want to use this medium to call on Nigerians to return to God by reading and obeying His Word. If we do this, corruption and other social ills prevalent in the country will be very minimal,” Sanusi said.
The CEO said that the 2021 edition would begin September six in 73 different reading centers across Lagos State adding that it will hold simultaneously in 12 other states in the country.
Sanusi said that the society was looking forward to when all the states in the country would participate in the Marathon Bible Reading.
“People, irrespective of denomination, profession, age or gender should visit any center closer to them in any of the participating states and take part in the programme from Monday September 6- Friday September 10, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m.,” Sanusi said.
He noted that over the years the entire Bible had been read repeatedly within five days in the course of the programme in some of the reading centers.
Earlier, the Bishop of the Cathedral, Right Rev. Clement Afolabi thanked the Society for choosing the church for the exercise.
NAN reports that the Bible Society of Nigeria is a not-for-profit interdenominational Christian organisation that translates the Bible into Nigerian Languages, publishes and distributes it and also raises funds for the Bible work.
So far, it has translated the full Bible in 26 Nigerian Languages, while translation/revision is ongoing in 10 languages.