Question:

Recently someone sent me a question for which I should have had a ready answer.  I sent the writer a preliminary response, then started looking for a simple book or web page.  Three weeks later I still haven’t found a concise, helpful answer that doesn’t come with some baggage – i.e., a narrow interpretation of the Bible.  So I decided to write my own response.

Here’s the question as submitted to me –

hey i was wondering if you could help me with something. i’m having a hard time figuring out what i’m supposed to be reading when i read my bible. is there any way that can send me like a daily devotions study guide or just even just a regular study guide in hopes that i may get more out of reading the scriptures rather than flipping through the pages not really knowing where i need to be looking.. i would greatly appreciate it.

Answer:

Great question.  You have heard from someone (maybe from me) that reading the Bible is an important daily discipline for Christians.  So you probably went home and picked up your Bible.  But it’s a big book – actually a collection of 66 books.   And no matter where you started, you didn’t feel like you were getting anything out of it.   

I looked for some books for beginning Bible readers, and even ordered four samples.  Some are good (see below), but I don’t want you to feel like you have to read a whole book just to start reading the Bible.   I would send you to the Internet (and there are some links I suggested below), but most of what I found doesn’t seem to trust the Bible to speak for itself. 

So here’s my simple answer.

Where to start

The Bible has many different kinds of literature in it – history, poetry, songs, stories, sermons, and letters, just to name a few.  Except for the first eleven chapters, it covers about 2,000 years of history in a time and place very different from our own.  I can see why picking it up would seem intimidating.

Here’s what I suggest for getting started.  Look at the Table of Contents in the front of your Bible and notice that it’s divided into two parts – the Old Testament (mostly the story of the Jews before the time of Christ) and the New Testament (the story of Jesus and his followers). 

Find the beginning of the New Testament, where four writers who either knew Jesus or interviewed Jesus’ closest followers wrote his story.  Any one of the four is a great place to start, but if you start with the first one (Matthew), you’ll quickly hit a genealogy and wonder, “What’s that for?”  Skip over that, or maybe do what most people suggest and start with John.  See below for suggestions on how to read.

After you finish John (or one of the other three), read the story of the early church in Acts.  Then read one or more of the letters written by early church leaders to other followers of Jesus to explain the meaning of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.  Look in the index for Romans, Ephesians or 1 John – all good places to start.

Just one more comment about where to start reading.  If you’re going through a particularly intense time of life – good or bad – a good place to start reading is the Psalms.  (This collection of Hebrew songs is right in the middle of most Bibles – or you can find it in your Old Testament list.)  Whether you’re glad or sad or bad or mad, you’ll find a psalm that will help you put your feelings into an honest prayer of seeking God.

How to read

Make sure you have an easy-to-read Bible.  We have some inexpensive copies of the New International Version at Corinth for anyone who wants one.  Other good reading Bibles include the New Living Translation, the Message, and the Contemporary English Version.

For most beginners in Bible reading, I suggest you take baby steps.   What I mean is that it’s OK to take 5-10 minutes a day, and read a small section at a time.   Don’t be concerned about reading whole books or even whole chapters.  Pick a section (marked off in most Bibles by headings) – usually 5-15 verses or so.  Generally you’ll find the section sticks to one story or theme.

Don’t feel like you have to understand everything.  Look for what you do understand and what seems to connect with your life.  I find using a notebook or my laptop helps me focus as I write down a few notes.  Begin with a brief prayer, something like this:  “Father, help me understand your Word to me today.”

A starter method for reading the Bible that I learned years ago is to write down your “ABC” –

·         A title – how would you summarize that section?

·         Best verse – which verse spoke to you personally?

·         Challenge – what do you think God is saying to you in that section?

Here’s a second option, a little more advanced –

·         What does God want me to SEE?  (write down your first impressions)

·         What does God want me to KNOW? (what does this passage teach me about God, Jesus, people, the church, the world, etc.)

·         What does God want me to DO? (a command I should obey or an example I should follow or avoid)

·         What does God want me to SHARE? (something I could e-mail or share with a friend to encourage him or her, or maybe even a question I want to ask a more mature Christian)

Going further

That’s probably enough to get you started, with just the Bible and you.  But after a while, if you’re like most of us, you’re going to want to go a little deeper or vary your Bible reading habits.  Here are some more suggestions you might find helpful.

·         Find out what your pastor is preaching on each Sunday, and include that passage in your reading sometime during the week.  It will make your Bible reading and your church attendance more meaningful.

·         Join a Bible study group at your church.  At our church, we have several groups that study the Scripture passage for the following Sunday’s sermon.  Other groups suggest study books or watch videos of well-known and effective Bible teachers.  Your pastor also might recommend a community Bible study group.

·         Ask your pastor to help you find a mentor who could connect with you on a regular basis as you both read the Bible and share your insights.

·         Buy a “study Bible.”  One of the most popular is the NIV Study Bible, but there are other good ones.  Visit www.christianbook.com and put “study Bible” in the search engine.  A study Bible has introductions to each book as well as footnotes that help you understand difficult passages and concepts or just provide some helpful background.

·         A more inexpensive alternative to a study Bible would be a paperback book for beginning Bible readers.  One we have purchased and given to new members at Corinth is The Everyday Guide to the Bible.  It’s actually just gone out of print, but you can pick up a copy for next-to-nothing if you buy a used edition on www.amazon.com.

·         You can also visit www.christianbook.com for some devotional books to help guide your Bible reading.  Just enter “devotional books” in the search engine, and you will find many options, including some written just for your demographic – i.e. for young men, for newlyweds, etc.

·         When you’re ready for reading the Bible all the way through, I recommend Walk Thru the Bible’s “Daily Walk” as a good guide that takes you from Genesis to Revelation in a year’s time.  But you can also set your own pace of about 3-4 chapters a day.  Just be aware that most people mean well but get bogged down in some hard books to read for beginners – like Leviticus, Job and Ezekiel.

If you have any follow-up questions, let me know!  Or maybe some readers of my blog will add some other ideas of their own.