“I made a resolution that I was going to change my ways. And we got up Sunday morning and said, “We’re going to church.” We didn’t know anybody,” said Shelvie Summerlin.
The year was 1950. 22-year-old Shelvie and his wife Myrtle, attended a small church in Moultrie, GA. “And in that service, I gave my heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ.
In a moment or two, my wife walked up and stood beside me, and we both gave our life.
And that was the beginning of our Christian ministry.”
Born November 30th, 1928, Shelive served in the Army Airforce in World War II.
In his later 8 years in the military, he worked as a chaplain’s assistant, where he felt God leading him in a new direction. “A number of people were called to the ministry. And I stepped out,” recalls Shelvie. “I felt that God was calling me. I was going to pastor and build five churches. And that I would be blessed if I would honor His Word. And I committed myself to a lifetime of ministry and service.”
To prepare for his life of ministry, Shelvie began reading books on how to be a pastor and building a church, but something was missing – an understanding of the Bible.
Shelvie continues,” I asked the pastor if they would conduct a study of the Bible.
And all of those that were interested and would like to come. That we would start a Bible study and learn something about the Bible. Because I knew nothing.
And I started reading the Bible. I read at least three chapters a day, and seven chapters on Sunday.”
Within a year Shelvie had read the entire Bible. He remembers, “When I finished the Bible the first time, I distinctly remember I really felt good about myself. I felt like just a thirst for the Word.”
Over the next several years, Shelvie read the Bible once, sometimes twice a year, while pastoring a new church. He also loved reading about heroes of the Christian faith. One was George Müller, founder of the Ashley Down Orphanage in England.
“I read a book, one of George Mueller’s books. And I read where he had read it through 200 times. And I liked that. And so I followed that leadership,” said Shelvie.
He developed a plan to reach his goal, one he still uses today!
Shelvie states, “If you read 200 pages a day, it’s going to take you two plus hours.
I usually do it in two hours. There’s 1,200 pages in the Bible that I read 1,156.
Reading it every six days, that’s over 50 times in a year.”
In just four years Shelvie reached his goal of reading the Bible all the way through 200 times, and that was just the start.
“As soon as I got past Brother Mueller’s time, the 200 times, that was when I moved it to 500. And I decided I was going to go for 500. And then when I got to 500, that was when I moved it to 1,000. And I figured I wasn’t going to live long enough to get it. But I set that goal and moved it up to 1,000,” says Shelvie.
As he and Myrtle continued starting new churches over the years, Shelive kept journals of his daily Bible readings, writing down one scripture to meditate on each day. On June 5th, 2021, Shelvie had read through the Bible one thousand times.
Warmly he states, “the importance of reading the Bible a number of times is valuable. But one of the most important things you’ll ever need to do is to write down one scripture every day. I call it nuggets; golden nuggets and you’d be surprised how the spirit will bring – it says in the book of Acts the spirit brings things to remembrance.”
In their 75 years together, Shelive and Myrtle launched hundreds of churches across the U.S. until she passed in 2024. Today, Shelvie reflects on the impact daily Bible reading has had on his life, and what it can do for all believers in Jesus Christ.
“If you want to follow Jesus, you need to do what he did.
Start being an example. And to be an example, you’re going to have to be a student of the Word. There’s only one Bible. I knew the Bible was correct, and so I patterned my life to live, to read, to execute those scriptures in my life,” says Shelive.
“And even though I couldn’t be perfect, Paul said “there is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus” so I have the ability to claim that recognition as a perfect person in Christ, not in me!”
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