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| Section: Basic Christian Living:
courses for new Christians |
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Beginning with God |
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5. This
Wonderful Book: |
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You and Your
Bible |
2
Timothy 3:16-17 'All Scripture is God-breathed and is
useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good
work.'
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The
'God-breathed' book
The Bible is the most amazing volume.
Its 66 books were written by some 40 authors over a period of about 1600
years. It covers events from creation to the late 1st century AD.
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| The authors include kings,
prophets, priests, fishermen, a tax-collector, a tent-maker and a doctor.
The Old Testament was written in Hebrew and the New Testament in Greek.
Yet it all
hangs together in such striking unity that only God himself
could be its ultimate author. God inspired the human writers.
This is what the verse above means when it says that 'all Scripture
is God-breathed.' It comes from his mouth, so to speak. It's
his Word.
Knowing the
Author
It was the message of the Bible
that introduced you to God himself. Indeed, this was his purpose
in causing it to be written. And now that you know him and belong
to him, you can continue to find help and direction through reading
it.
Not all of it is easy to understand,
but you can count on the Holy Spirit's help as you read. He'll
enable you to meet God again and again through its pages,
so that you continue to grow strong as a Christian.
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A
two-part book
The Bible is really a library
of 66 books: Genesis to Revelation. But these fall into two main
groups: the Old Testament (39 books) and the New Testament
(27 books).
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| To help us find our way
around them, each book is divided into big sections called chapters and smaller
sections called verses. 1.
The Old Testament
Starting with creation, the
Old Testament tells how God introduced himself to great individuals
like Enoch, Noah and Abraham. Then he showed more of himself
to Abraham's growing family.
Finally, he took their descendants,
the nation of Israel, and made them his special people.
To them he gave the Ten Commandments and other laws, and to them
he promised the Messiah. This was God's 'foot in the door', by
which he would eventually reach all humanity.
2. The New
Testament
The promised Messiah, of course,
was Jesus. The New Testament records his life, death,
resurrection and ascension, and the start of the church as the
people of God.
The book of Acts and the Letters (or Epistles) show how the church
grew rapidly and how it coped with some of its early problems.
The last book—Revelation—gives a glimpse into the future:
the return of Jesus to earth and his final great victory over
sin and Satan, in which you will share.
Getting the
most from the Bible
The apostle Peter has some
good advice for you as you prepare to read the Bible:
1 Peter 1:23 - 2:3 'You
have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through
the living and enduring word of God. For, "All men are like grass, and all
their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the
flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever." And this is the
word that was preached to you.
Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy,
envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual
milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have
tasted that the Lord is good.'
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 | 'Rid yourselves of…' Notice the attitudes you're
to get rid of. You won't get much from your reading if your relationship
with God or other people is under a cloud. If there are matters that need
putting right, do it without delay. Then you'll find the Scriptures coming
alive to you as you read.
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| 'Crave pure spiritual milk.' You're to come hungry to
the Bible, with a thirst for it like that of 'newborn babies'. This is
normal. If you have no appetite at all, something's wrong. Are you,
perhaps, feeding your mind on garbage from TV or magazines?
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Part of your
hunger will be an expectant attitude. Expect to hear the
Lord speak to you through his Word. And come to it with a willingness
to be obedient to whatever he might say to you:
Psalm
119:34-35
'Give me understanding, and I will keep your law and obey it
with all my heart. Direct me in the path of your commands, for
there I find delight.'
Regular meals
Just as we need regular meals
to remain physically healthy, we need to feed regularly on God's
Word, the Bible, to remain spiritually healthy.
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So set aside regular times when you
can read and meditate on Scripture. This is something you could schedule
alongside the prayer-times that we considered in the last lesson. If you
work, maybe you can find a quiet spot in your lunch break and read your
Bible for twenty minutes or so. Some people prefer early morning for their
devotions (Mark 1:35). Others feel more alert in the evening (Matthew
14:23).
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Parents often
tell their hungry children to chew their food properly
before swallowing it. It's the same with God's Word. Take time
to chew over a sentence or a verse rather than rushing on to
finish the section or chapter. Aim to get all the goodness out
of every bite.
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A
balanced diet
In your reading, sample different
kinds of Scripture. You could start, for example, with one
of the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John), the books that record
the life of Jesus. Then you could try a few Psalms, which are
poems addressed to God. One of the New Testament letters would
give you a different flavour, after which you could try some
of the tasty morsels of wisdom from the book of Proverbs.
On the whole,
aim to spend more time in the New Testament than the Old
because, as a Christian, you are a New Testament person-a friend
of Jesus, whom the New Testament introduces. But feel free to
jump around. Certainly there's no obligation to read consecutively
from Genesis to Revelation, just as you don't have to read the
books in your local library in a fixed order.
If you want to be more systematic
you can get a One-Year Bible, which has the text of Scripture
ready divided into 365 daily sections, so that you read through
the whole Bible in a year.
Whatever method you adopt,
have a notebook handy so that you can jot down the thoughts
that the Holy Spirit gives you as you read.
Let the Word of God become
your delight!
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