Better Than the Stereo

By Norman E. Fultz

Having recently purchased a set of cassette tape recordings of the New Testament and having taken time to only listen to portions while at home and busy with the regular day to day activities, I have found a way to really enjoy them. On a trip recently with the family, we took a rest from conversation and radio, and placed one of the tapes in our portable tape recorder which we had taken along and so listened to Paul’s letters to the Philippians, Colossians and Thessalonians. Even more recently while driving to a series of gospel meetings more than five hundred miles from my home, I again took my recorder and tapes. It is a thrill to listen at one sitting to the whole book of Matthew, take a little break, if desired, and then hear the account of the Lord’s life by Mark, or to jump to the Acts or Romans.

There is something so stimulating about the reading of the scriptures by the professional reader as he reads the Sermon on the Mount or delivers Jesus’ scathing rebuke of the scribes and Pharisees in Matthew twenty-three or hear His appeal, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem. . .” or the depiction of the judgment scene in Matthew twenty-five. The time passes rapidly and the miles flow by as one breaks the monotony of Interstate driving while being profitably occupied.

Other valuable tapes to me are tapes of Homer Hailey’s studies in the prophets which I made a couple of years ago in a series of gospel lessons, and Roy Cogdill’s lessons on I and II Timothy and Titus and lessons by a number of other gospel preachers whose subject was of such interest that a recording was made. Yes, there are times on those trips when I still enjoy the fine music available on the stereo, but how good and profitable it is to have something that is even better than the stereo.

The recorded New Testament can be purchased for a very nominal price and there are so many uses that could be made of it in addition to those I have mentioned herein. This just happened to be the one that I have enjoyed most. Preachers often spend a great deal of time driving, brethren whose jobs take them on the road a lot and families on vacation or shorter trips would profit from this use.

Truth Magazine, XVIII:7, p. 14
December 13, 1973