I have decided to expand my Bible. The Scriptures seem so limited sometimes. Life could be so much better with an expanded Bible. There is plenty of unfamiliar, yet inspired material out there to do this with. In the upcoming months and years, I have made the decision to expand my Bible.
Now, before anyone keels over, I am not talking about adding to the 66 books found in the Bible. This is very clearly commanded against (Deuteronomy 4:2; 12:32; Proverbs 30:6; 1 Corinthians 4:6; Revelation 22:18-19). What I am talking about is approaching the Scriptures with a renewed seriousness. I am talking about actually knowing and studying more of the 66 books in the Bible. Too often our knowledge of Scripture is terribly limited. No, we should not expand our physical Bibles, but we should expand the Scripture found in our head; our “Mental Bible.” We need to expand how much we know and what books we know.
We only seem to focus on certain “popular” passages and books even though there is so much more to be found in our Bibles. We have studied, restudied, broken down, had laser-like focus, and analyzed certain books to death. Yet, we don’t even know the general message of some book and possibly do not even know where they are in the Bible. It seems like these are rarely opened. We emphasize a few books in the Old Testament and typically skip over most others. When is the last time you have studied through 2 Chronicles? Have you cracked open Amos or Habakkuk lately? We do a better job with New Testament books, but there are still several books we push off to the side. For example, when is the last time you looked at 2 Corinthians or 2 Thessalonians?
In fairness, some books of the Bible carry much more application and relevance for today, and some are more difficult to understand than others. However, all Scripture is directly from the Lord and is immensely valuable (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Through Jesus’ ministry, He quoted from 24 Old Testament books (From Bible.ca). Jesus was certainly a man who was not limited by His knowledge of Scripture. We should strive to follow in His footsteps.
There is so much more we can draw from Scripture if we are willing to expand our knowledge of the Bible. There are an infinite amount of benefits when we do so. The Lord has given us ALL of the Bible. Certainly we should not physically take anything out of the Scriptures, but let’s also not take out and limit the books we do study. The challenge for all of us is to “expand our Bibles,” or in other words, to “expand our knowledge of the Scriptures.”
BP's Fuel For Thought 
Right on! Your dad’s workbook on the Minor Prophets was a fantastic study that opened up my mind to these awesome, but overlooked, books. I preached a series on each of them and only managed to graze the surface. And, I still have a lot more studying to do! Spurgeon said the Bible was a shallow brook where a man could get a sip and be refreshed or it was a deep ocean that a man may never reach the bottom of. Let’s dive in!