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How to Read the Bible

Ready to start reading the Bible? All you'll need is a time, a place, and a plan. Remember that the Bible is a spiritual exercise not just an intellectual one—God is speaking to you in his Word. Ask for his help, and for his Holy Spirit to increase your desire daily to hear him speak. Welcome to the adventure.

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How Should We Read the Bible?

Have you ever received a special letter in the mail? How did you read it?

Did you halt all else until you could savor the words? Maybe you sipped something while you slowly soaked up the sentences, or stole away to a quiet place away from interruptions to think on the meaning. Maybe you kept it hidden and re-read it habitually.

Did you honor this message because you couldn’t wait to get your hands on a good one-pager of literature?

No! You pored over those words and gave them special treatment because the person whose heart they flowed from had a special place in your life.

The words that we most treasure come from the people we most cherish. The person behind the words determines the power of their influence in our lives.

We read the Bible the same way we read a special letter. It has a powerful influence on our lives and a reserved place in our hearts because we love its Author.

Those of us who have read it through, know the story. Each one of us lived in rebellion against God and deserved his punishment, but God sent his Son Jesus to be our substitute. Jesus suffered for our sins, died on a cross, but rose from the dead three days later. Through this death, he reconciled our relationship with God and gave us new life (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). This new life is a life of knowing, obeying and enjoying God as we were created to do (John 17:3).

Our Maker himself has shared his thoughts with us and made them accessible to us at all times.

When we open the Bible, our Creator, who designed us and delivered our souls from death, speaks to us. He tells us the story of how he demonstrated his love for us, how to get to know him better, and what he has determined to do with his creation.

What other voice could be more important in our lives than the voice of our Maker, our Savior, the very life-giver himself (John 1:1,4)?

So how should we read the Bible? Read the Bible like it is God’s own Word to you, his gift to you given out of his love, and the means of drawing near to him.

The Bible isn’t a letter in your mailbox, but a book on your shelf. How often, how happily, and how diligently you open it will be determined by how deeply you understand the character of its Author.

So read it like it’s from someone who loves you, and read it because you want to love him better too.

by Bibles.net

OPEN YOUR BIBLE

We Read the Bible Because It Reveals the Way of Salvation

We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. For since the message spoken through angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, how shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him.
(Hebrews 2:1-3 NIV)

Read Hebrews 2

God Wants Us to Read the Bible So We Revere and Obey Him and Walk in Humility

When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the Levitical priests. It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees and not consider himself better than his fellow Israelites and turn from the law to the right or to the left.
(Deuteronomy 17:17-20 NIV)

Read Deuteronomy 17:14-20

Read the Bible Joyfully

I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches. I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways. I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word.
(Psalm 119:14-16 NIV)

Read Psalm 119

Read the Bible Attentively

He read it aloud from daybreak till noon as he faced the square before the Water Gate in the presence of the men, women and others who could understand. And all the people listened attentively to the Book of the Law.
(Nehemiah 8:3 NIV)

Read Nehemiah 8

Read the Bible Publicly, Communally, and as a Family

Afterward, Joshua read all the words of the law—the blessings and the curses—just as it is written in the Book of the Law. There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded that Joshua did not read to the whole assembly of Israel, including the women and children, and the foreigners who lived among them.
(Joshua 8:34-35 NIV)

Read Joshua 8

Read the Bible Regularly

My son, pay attention to what I say; turn your ear to my words. Do not let them out of your sight, keep them within your heart; for they are life to those who find them and health to one’s whole body.
(Proverbs 4:20-22 NIV)

Read Proverbs 4

Read the Bible Day and Night

Blessed is the one...but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers.
(Psalm 1:1-3 NIV)

Read Psalm 1

Read the Bible to Understand the Times

In the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the Lord given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years.
(Daniel 9:2 NIV)

Read Daniel 9

Read the Bible to Know and Seek Jesus

You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.

Read John

Theme Verse

Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.

JOSHUA 1:8 NIV

How To Read The Bible

Article: 5 Min

The Four C's
of Bible Reading

by Bibles.net

Quote

Spend Time Getting to Know God

Be much alone with God. Do not put him off with a quarter of an hour morning and evening. Take time to get thoroughly acquainted. Talk everything over with him. Pour out every thought, feeling, wish, plan, and doubt to him. He wants converse with his creatures. Shall his creatures not want converse with him? He wants, not merely to be on “good terms” with you, if one may use man’s phrase, but to be intimate. Shall you decline the intimacy and be satisfied with mere acquaintance? What! Intimate with the world, with friends, with neighbors, but not with God? That would look ill indeed. Folly, to prefer the clay to the potter, the marble to the sculptor, this little earth and its lesser creatures to the mighty Maker of the universe, the great “All and in all!”

by Horatius Bonar | Source

Video: 10 Min

How to
Read the Bible
for Beginners

by DLM Christian Lifestyle

Video: 7 Min

Reading
the Bible
for Beginners

The first thing you must know about reading the Bible is that it is a lifetime pursuit.

by The Straight Truth Podcast

Quote

What's Your Motive for Reading the Bible?

Don’t read the Bible so you can say you read your Bible regularly. Read it because you want to hear from Jesus, build a thoughtful theology, gain perspective, develop courage, preach the Gospel to yourself every day, be reminded of how much he loves and cares for you and has a plan and purpose for your life, build an intimate relationship with him.

by Dave Kraft | Source

Video: 3 Min

You Need the Whole Bible

You need the entire structure of the Bible in ways that you may not be able to understand or to know right now. Don't get discouraged by the size—persevere in reading the whole Bible. Here's why.

by Russell Moore at his blog

Article: 10 Min

14 Ideas to Make Your Bible Reading More Consistent

by Kristen Wetherell at her blog

Article: 7 Min

Jesus Calling: How Well Are You Listening?

by J.A. Medders at Desiring God

Quote

[The Bible]
is not an ordinary Book
I am about to read
but a supernatural,
and, therefore,
I need the
assistance of its Author.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss Wolgemuth

Ask Pastor John

What Should I Expect My First Time Through the Bible?

by John Piper, 11 Min

Contemporary

Word of Life

by Jeremy Camp

Verse

Deuteronomy 11:18-20 NIV

Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates

Image

So faith
comes from
hearing, and
hearing through
the word of Christ.

Romans 10:17 ESV

Videos

Play Video

How Do I Study My Bible?

8 Minutes | by Impact Video Ministries

If we aren’t reading God’s Word regularly, we won’t grow in our relationship with God. Here’s step one for how to form a habit of studying the Bible.

This video was originally published by Impact Video Ministries on their YouTube Channel.

Play Video

5 Easy Tips When Reading the Bible

7 Minutes | by Impact Video Ministries

You can lay a good foundation for your Bible reading by answering five questions: Who? What? When? Where? Why? Answering these questions before you begin a book of the Bible can greatly improve your understanding of God’s Word.

This video was originally published by Impact Video Ministries on their YouTube Channel.

Play Video

Where to Start When Reading the Bible

11 Minutes | by Impact Video Ministries

It’s easy to get frustrated and stop reading the Bible if you don’t know what you’re reading! This overview of the structure and books of the Bible will help keep you from confusion as you set out to read the Bible.

This video was originally published by Impact Video Ministries on their YouTube Channel.

Verse

Psalm 119:1-6 ESV

Blessed are those whose way is blameless,
who walk in the law of the Lord!
Blessed are those who keep his testimonies,
who seek him with their whole heart,
who also do no wrong,
but walk in his ways!
You have commanded your precepts
to be kept diligently.
Oh that my ways may be steadfast
in keeping your statutes!
Then I shall not be put to shame,
having my eyes fixed on all your commandments.

Verse

Hebrews 3:12-15 ESV

See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end. As has just been said:

“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts
as you did in the rebellion.”