Did you ever wonder why the Bible is so hard to read? It's 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 you'll find secrets FAR more valuable than just gold.
The Bible is also like is a jigsaw puzzle. It's 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 God's 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 you've underlined and draw a box around 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 you're 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 God's 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, you'll need to read 1 chapter of the New Testament and 5-7 pages of the Old Testament.
Here's the way to know the number of pages you'll need to read: Take the total number of pages in the Old Testament and divide by 200. Let's 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: 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. |
