Secrets To Reading The Bible
Did you ever wonder why the Bible is so hard to read? Its simple really. God
is looking for people who are willing to pursue Him. The Bible is like a gold
mine. Now, if I were to give you a real live gold mine, would you just walk in
and pick up the gold? No, of course not. You have to dig for it, but the reward
is incredibly valuable. I promise if you dig into the Bible youll find secrets
FAR more valuable than just gold.
The other thing the Bible is like is a jigsaw puzzle. Its not until you
complete it that you really start to grasp the whole picture. I encourage you
most strongly to make a decision to read the whole Bible. My secrets in this
article will help you.
1.) Get A Version You Can Understand. The Living Bible is the
easiest to read, but it is a paraphrase, not a translation. This means that the
translators tried to translate the meaning of the original Hebrew, Aramaic and
Greek, not the exact words.
The New American Standard Version (NASB) is generally accepted as the
most accurate modern translation. It was translated with the benefit of the
findings of the Dead Sea Scrolls (1946) and the storeroom of Ezra (Egypt, 1872)
which were not available in earlier English translations. It is still somewhat
difficult to read, however.
The New International Version (NIV) is another painstakingly accurate
modern translations, but it is very readable. It too is highly recommended.
The King James Version and The Catholic Bible are the classic
American Bibles, but they can be very difficult to read. If you are a member of
a church, your Pastor or Priest may have a specific version that they
recommend.
2.) Every Time Before You Read: Ask God to open your eyes and your
heart to His Word.
3.) This Is The Order In Which To Read The Bible: The Bible is broken
into two parts: The Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament is
the history of creation and the Jewish nation, along with stories, writings and
warnings from Gods prophets.
The New Testament is the story of Jesus and the early Christian church along
with instructions on how to be a Christian. We live under the New Testament –
which is a new way of life which God set up through Jesus.
The first 4 books of the New Testament are Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and
are known as “The Gospels.” (This means “Good News”). These are 4 different
versions of the same story – The Life of Jesus. They are 4 eyewitness accounts
of Jesus life. So read in this order:
Matthew, Romans, 1&2 Corinthians Mark, Acts, Galatians, Ephesians,
Philippians, Colossians Luke, 1&2 Thessalonians, 1&2 Timothy, Titus,
Philemon, Hebrews, James John, 1&2 Peter, 1,2&3 John, Jude,
Revelation
4.) Read One Chapter At A Time. This will take anywhere from 5 to 15
minutes.
5. ) You Will Need The Following Tools: A pencil and a ruler.
6.) This Is How You Use The Pencil And Ruler: When you read, underline
anything that strikes you as important or interesting. When you finish the
chapter, look back over the things youve underlined and draw a box round the
most important thing in the chapter.
When you finish a book, review your boxed verses and make a double box around
the most important verse of the book. Doing this is simply a tool to help you
realize what youre reading. You will get much more out of reading the Bible
this way.
7.) When You Finish The New Testament, START OVER – you will be amazed
at how Gods Word is new & fresh every time you read it.
8.) After You Have Read The New Testament, Then You Can Add The Old
Testament. Read the Old Testament in the order in which it appears in the
Bible. To read the whole Bible in a year, youll need to read 1 chapter of the
New Testament and 5-7 pages of the Old Testament.
Heres the way to know the number of pages youll need to read: Take the
total number of pages in the Old Testament and divide by 200. Lets say the
result is 5. Your goal will be to read 5 pages of the Old Testament 20 times a
month for 10 months. Aim for everyday, but 20 times is the monthly must-have
goal. This gives you 2 months of extra built-in leeway and 10 days leeway per
month. If you get bogged down reading the Old Testament, turn to Psalms and
Proverbs. But never give up reading the New Testament for the sake of reading
the Old Testament.
9.) The Best Thing You Can Ever Do For Your Spiritual Life Is To Read The
Whole Bible EVERY Year. WHY should you do this? Because it is where faith
comes from. “Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message and the message
is heard through the word of Christ.” Romans 10:17
And how important is faith? This is what the Bible says: “The only thing that
counts is faith expressing itself through love.” Galatians 5:6
10.) Note This Web Site: http://www.biblegateway.com. This is an
incredible on-line concordance. A concordance lets you find a Bible verse by any
single word you can think of. For example: You can type in “love” and it will
give you every singe verse containing the word “love.” They have this for every
well-known version of the Bible in many languages.
In Conclusion: This plan will effectively help you to read through the
Bible. You will find that the Bible is “alive.” You will be reading along and –
BAM! – something will jump off the page at you
, like it was written ONLY for you
for this EXACT moment of your life. It is AMAZING and it will happen over and
over. It is no wonder that millions of lives have been changed by the Bible and
that a surprising number of people have even given their lives so that you might
have the right and the ability to read it.