What can Chinese pastors teach us about reading the Bible every day? Pastor and missionary leader, Leland Wang (pictured with Watchman Nee and John Sung), was the director of the Chinese Foreign Missionary Union and he had a special message about reading the Bible that he called, “No Bible – No Breakfast.”
His Bible reading plan changed the face of missions for Chinese Christians. From 1929, Leland Wang led Chinese missionaries to preach the Gospel, not just in China, but in Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines as well. Below is a condensed version of Leland Wang explaining this teaching in his own words.
I am a Chinese by birth and a Christian by rebirth.
I am a Chinese by race, and a Christian by grace.
My day always begins with a reading of God’s Word. If it does not, I go hungry, for my motto is, “No Bible, No Breakfast.”
I was born in Fuzhou, China, in 1898. The first Bible I ever saw was given to my father by Hsu Sanyu, a Christian friend of the family, when I was nine years old. I asked my father for it, although I could not understand a word, as it was in English.
The book made a wonderful stamp album. At the age of fourteen I broke an ankle in a fall from a high iron fence near our house. I became discouraged during the two months I was confined in a Shanghai hospital, for I feared I should never walk again. For the first time I wondered in adolescent fashion about deeper problems. Where did I come from? What is the purpose of life? Where do we go after death? In the years that followed I studied Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, but they gave no answers. I decided to let the future take care of itself.
After our marriage, my Christian wife, Ada, led me back to a search for life’s truth. While attending church with her one day, I heard the congregation singing, “Nearer, My God, to Thee” and I thought, “That must be a wonderful God. I’ve never heard anyone sing, ‘Nearer, my idol, to thee!’”
I reflected upon all the good works — hospitals, schools, missions — built in China in the name of Jesus. Even the history of the world is dated before and after His birth, I reasoned. This man Jesus intrigued me, and Ada told me the Bible was the best book from which to learn of Him. She introduced me to Miss Evelyn Wallace, a Canadian missionary and teacher at Hwa Nan College in Fuzhou, who was conducting a Bible study for anyone interested. I joined the study.
I entered into an examination of Matthew because I was told the Old Testament was too hard for beginners. I began to be disappointed as I read, “Abraham begat Isaac: and Isaac begat Jacob…” I kept reading. As I came to the Sermon on the Mount, I marveled at the remarkable teaching unfolding to me. I began to see myself as a lost sinner whom Christ had come to seek and to save. I realized I needed a pure heart to see God. The Bible became a different kind of book to me, and through reading it I came to acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior. My mother, who had been a Buddhist, also came to the Lord. One by one, my family came to accept Jesus.
God led me to Acts 17:11, which tells how the Christians in Berea searched the Scriptures daily. Daily! To systematically study the Word I determined to read a portion each day. But when? I realized my trouble was that I liked to sleep late and then rush into my daily activities. When evening came, I was too tired to read and continually postponed my study until the next day. God led me to several verses in Proverbs, one of which. Proverbs 6:9, says, “How long will you sleep, O sluggard?”
So I decided to rise each day at 6 a.m. to read my Bible. I began this discipline when I was twenty-one years old, while studying at the Naval College in Nanking. There was no central heating and the cold winter provided little incentive for my plan. After some time I faltered. So I prayed for dedication and disciplined myself by hitting my hand with a stick once for each minute I was late in rising. I think the longest I overslept was thirty minutes — which was a painful experience! My wife and others thought this punishment a little crazy. But it got results. I overslept only a few times.
Later, I found an even more effective means of ensuring my early reading. If I did not read at least one chapter to start the day, I did not eat my breakfast. “No Bible, No Breakfast” became my motto. The Bible has been my daily companion. With no Christian schooling it was the only way I had to gain knowledge of the Word. Needless to say, the reading has helped immeasurably to strengthen my faith. Very early in my Christian service I found answers in the Bible to meet the problems that arose.
Three things have greatly helped my daily Bible reading: First, carrying a Bible or New Testament in my pocket wherever I go. Verses can be read in spare moments. I always have the Word of God within easy reach. Second, establishing my motto. I have lived by “No Bible, No Breakfast” for forty-four years; not as a law to bind me, but as a motto to remind me. For “man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” Third, having a plan. I read ten chapters daily, two each in the Old and New Testaments, plus five in Psalms and one in Proverbs. 2+2+5+1=10 every day. This way one can finish the Old Testament once a year, the New Testament three times a year, and Psalms and Proverbs once a month.
The Psalms teach me to pray and praise in my dealings with God. Proverbs teaches me how to live and deal with men. I have read these books over four hundred times, and they have not lost their freshness. There are thirty-one chapters in Proverbs. I used Proverbs as my traveling calendar and have no trouble remembering dates.
This is my plan of daily Bible reading. I do not expect everyone to follow it, as it is rather a big order. But everyone should develop some sort of systematized study plan. A man in Pennsylvania said to me one day, “Brother Wang, I know where you got your motto ‘No Bible, No Breakfast.’ You must have learned it from your Chinese laundryman, ‘No checkie, no shirtie!’” I replied, “No, sir, I learned it from Matthew 6:33: ‘But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness: and all these things shall be added unto you.’” And since two negatives make a positive, I not only get my Bible but my breakfast, too.
This is beautiful