The Bible is history’s all-time best-selling book, and it has more power to transform your life than any other book ever written. How can you unleash its life-changing power? Here some old-fashioned suggestions and newfangled ways to do so.
Each American home contains an average of 4.4 Bibles. A recent poll found that 80% of Americans believe that the Bible is sacred literature which they ought to be reading. But the survey also found that huge numbers of Americans are confused or ignorant about basic Biblical truths. Consider, for instance, the 66% who do not know who preached the Sermon on the Mount (Jesus), the majority of Americans who can’t name the first book in the Bible (Genesis), and the 12% who believe that Noah was married to Joan of Arc! Why is this true? For a couple of reasons:
(1) Most Americans have no plan for reading or studying the Bible,
and no personal commitment to doing so.
Surveys show that only 13% of Americans have a regular time when they read the Bible. Is this because our lives are too hectic to find time for God? Since the average American watches 4-5 hours of television a day and spends 2 hours a day on Facebook, probably not!
(2) Many people do not know how to read, study, and understand the Bible
in a way that works for them and helps them to grow spiritually.
Picking up a huge volume containing 66 separate “books” written by many different authors over dozens of centuries and trying to make sense of its contents can seem like a daunting task. Where does one begin? What does all this ancient history and genealogy have to do with today? And what about all the strange and unfamiliar words?
Fear not! The purpose of this article is to offer some practical suggestions to help you dig into God’s Word and mine its life-changing treasures of wisdom, knowledge, understanding and inspiration.
Consider, first of all, what the Bible actually is. It is God’s effort to communicate with man, telling us the most important truths that we need to know about life. It answers the most basic questions that we all wonder about—questions like these: Does life have meaning? Is there a God? Does God have a purpose for my life? What happens when a person dies? Is there a heaven, and what is it like? How can I know that I will go to heaven when I die? Is there a hell? And who goes there? And how about this one: How can I find real joy, peace and fulfillment in a world like this?
Believe it or not, the Bible answers all of these questions and many more. Why? Because God is self-revealing, and He doesn’t want to leave us in the dark. Life is an open-book test. So open the Book!
God does not want us to be ignorant. In Psalm 119:105, King David wrote, “Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path” (NLT). In John 8:12, Jesus told His disciples, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (NIV).
In the Bible, God has given us all of the information we need to have a fruitful and satisfying life in this world and an indescribably blessed one in the next. But such a life doesn’t come without effort on our part, and it may require some outside assistance. That’s why God has supplied us with churches, pastors, Bible teachers, and a wealth of other helpful resources. Here are some suggestions as to how Christian believers may access and use those resources.
(I) Schedule a regular time for Bible reading. If we don’t schedule a regular time for Bible reading, it may become just like other abandoned New Year’s resolutions to lose weight, get in shape and clean out the garage.
(a) When? Morning is great. Nighttime is great. Lunchtime is great. Any time is better than no time. Make it a habit—a good habit. And stick to it! Most of us have things that we do on a regular basis, like drinking our morning cup of coffee, reading the newspaper, taking our vitamins, going for a walk, etc. Doesn’t God deserve to be a part of your life in the same way? Make Bible-reading a part of your routine.
(b) Where? Read the Bible somewhere with enough privacy that you can think, reflect, relax before God, and even meditate. Select a place where you will not be interrupted, and where you can be alone with God.
(c) For how long? There is no magic number. Someone calculated that 15 minutes a day would allow a person to read the entire Bible in a year. Starting out with something like 10, 20 or 30 minutes a day would get the ball rolling. As you begin to enjoy the spiritual stimulation of adventuring in God’s Word, your daily Bible time will probably increase naturally.
(II) Develop a reading plan. Rather than drifting aimlessly through the Bible, just opening it randomly to a page, or plodding through the whole Bible from Genesis to Revelation, bite-sized chunks or chapters purposefully chosen can help. Here are a few types of plans:
(a) Try reading one of the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John) all the way through, one chapter a day. In less than a month, you will have conquered an entire book of the Bible. The feeling of satisfaction will lead you to pick another one and keep going! Luke and John are two of the Gospels (stories of Jesus’ life) that are good places to start. Reading about the life of Jesus will cure you of the false belief that he was only “a good man” or “a good teacher” and nothing more. (Have you ever met a teacher who walked on water?)
(b) If you need encouraging words for getting through times of trouble, try reading the Psalms. There are 150 of them, so reading two or three a day would allow you to read them all in a couple of months.
(c) If you like pithy wisdom that is easily applicable to daily life, the Proverbs can’t be beaten. Since there are 31 chapters of Proverbs, reading the chapter corresponding to the day of the month (for instance, Proverbs Chapter 12 on the 12th of the month) will allow you to finish the whole book neatly in one month and experience that good feeling of having another book of the Bible under your belt.
(d) If you want to understand how to live a joyful, Spirit-filled Christian life, the epistles (short letters of instruction written to the New Testament churches) will be a treasure trove of great spiritual advice. These wonderful letters add a lot of “how-to” to the desire that most believers have to experience a deeper and more fruitful Christian life. One good way to read an epistle is to read a chapter a day, stopping to ask yourself how its contents apply to your daily life.
The shorter epistles (Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and James) are great places to begin. After that, Romans (deep theology), I and II Corinthians, I and II Thessalonians, I and II Timothy, I and II Peter, and I, II and III John will give you an assortment of teachings on important doctrines and practical Christian living in the here and now, along with a fascinating glimpse into the future. It’s all good!
(e) There are a number of Bible-reading plans available on the Internet that—if followed—will guide you in reading the entire Bible in one year. (For example, the website biblestudytools.com lists 17 different daily reading plans from which readers may choose.) Some of these plans give you an Old Testament portion, a New Testament reading, a selection from the Psalms, and a selection from Proverbs for each day. If you have 20 minutes or so to do all of this, such a plan might work for you; it’s a good, balanced approach. If not, you may find it a bit too demanding, fall behind on your reading and give up, which is not good. Reading the Bible should be a blessing, not a burden. Don’t attempt anything which leads to discouragement.
(III) Find a good Bible-believing and Bible-teaching church.
The means through which Christian believers get to know God in a real way and become mature and fruitful Christians has been provided by God. It is called the local church. Those who avail themselves of this means have a chance to become dynamic Christians, developing their own spiritual gifts and doing wonderful things for God. Those who do not run the risk of remaining spiritually immature, ineffective servants who never become what God intended for them to be.
The church is an educational institution; it is not just a place for people to go and feel good about themselves or “pay their respects” to God once a week. Not all churches are equally good at educating their people, so don’t settle for a sentimental attachment to a church that doesn’t really meet your needs. God has raised up gifted pastors and teachers to help people to grow spiritually and reach their full potential in Christ. The function of those pastors and teachers is “to equip [God’s] people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ” (Ephesians 4:12-15, NIV).
Hopefully, your church holds one or more weekly small-group Bible studies in addition to its Sunday service. A small-group Bible study is one of the best ways to learn the Word of God because you can ask questions and participate in discussions in a way that is not possible during a regular church service. If your church doesn’t offer a small-group Bible study, then it is important to find one somewhere else. We get one chance in this life to get to know God and his Word. This is life’s main event. It’s not a small thing!
(IV) Supplement your Bible reading with devotional reading.
Hundreds of wonderful Bible teachers and Christian writers have produced what are called “daily devotionals,” or books which take a Bible passage, explain it, comment upon it, and (usually) provide a real-life illustration to bring its meaning home in a practical way. There are devotionals for men, devotionals for women, devotionals for teens, devotionals for parents, and many other varieties. If you visit christianbook.com or amazon.com and search for “daily devotional,” you will find dozens of great choices—most of which will give you different devotionals to read for each day of the year. Devotionals will expose you to many of the Bible’s most inspiring passages, along with helpful teachings that illuminate your personal Bible reading. There are also dozens of applications for smartphones, tablets and iPads through which you can have a nutritional spiritual breakfast (or dinner) delivered to you. For example, the Christian website crosswalk.com offers more than 80 online daily devotionals.
(V) Use a Bible commentary. A Bible commentary is a one-volume or multi-volume companion to the Bible which features introductions to each book of the Bible and (in most cases) verse-by-verse comments that provide historical, theological, practical and linguistic information from Bible scholars. One excellent one-volume commentary is the Believer’s Bible Commentary, which can be purchased from christianbook.com for $23.99. Many of the classical Bible commentaries from great Bible scholars that used to cost hundreds of dollars are now free on-line. If you visit biblehub.com and search for “commentary,” you can access the wisdom and scholarship of 23 different commentaries regarding any verse or passage in the Bible. It’s like having 20 or 30 Bible scholars right by your side as you read the Bible.
(VI) Get a good study Bible.
A study Bible is a Bible with numerous added features such as a concordance (where you can look up specific words and topics and see where they are found in the Bible), study notes, historical information, helpful cross-references, and a running commentary giving scholarly information or practical applications to help you better understand what you are reading. If you go to christianbook.com or amazon.com and search for “study Bible,” you will find hundreds of choices for good study Bibles.
(VII) Use Internet Bible study resources.
The Internet is a phenomenal source of resources for people who want to get deeper into the Word of God and to better understand how to live the Christian life. Four great websites to help you study the Bible are biblestudytools.com, crosswalk.com, biblehub.com and biblegateway.com. It would take a day just to explore the resources contained on one of these sites.
Crosswalk.com offers a video of the day, Christian news, articles on almost any topic you can imagine, Christian blogs, a daily email newsletter, FAQs, Christian history, Christian columnists, and other items of interest. Biblehub.com has similar features, and includes a wonderful “interlinear” version of the Bible showing the meaning of each word in the Bible in the original language (Hebrew for the Old Testament and Greek for the New Testament). If you look up a verse that you are studying, it will first show you that verse in 19 different translations. Then, if you click on ”interlinear,” it will show you each word in the original language, what part or speech, tense and mood it is in, and the meaning of that word taken from several different lexicons (or linguistic dictionaries). Without knowing a word of Hebrew or Greek, you can unveil the precise meaning of a text in a fuller way than just by reading the English translation alone. Bottom line: You can go as deep into the Word of God as you want to. And all of this information is only a click or two away.
(VIII) Watch or listen to online sermons. One wonderful resource which the Christians never had before the Information Age is the constantly expanding array of sermons recorded in either video or audio format. Many of the today’s greatest preachers now record and archive their messages and post them on the Internet. Name your favorite preacher or Bible teacher (if you have one), and you can probably find their sermons online. You can also find sermons from the past (for example, those from Billy Graham Crusades as early as 1958), and, in many cases, sermons from your own local church and from hundreds and possibly thousands of other churches across the country. If you search Google or YouTube (at your own risk), you can find written, audio or video sermons on virtually any subject you can imagine. Several good sermon websites are sermonspice.com, preaching.com, sermoncentral.com, sermonaudio.com, and sermons.christiasnsunite.com.
(IX) Watch online Church services. If you are ever unable to attend church, you are only a few clicks away from attending any one of the hundreds of churches which record their services. If you like great choirs, try going on the website for the Brooklyn Tabernacle or the Times Square Church; in a couple of clicks (especially on full screen mode) you’ll feel like you’re right there!
(X) Watch online Bible classes. Many Bible colleges and seminaries are making classes available online for credit or audit. Most charge a tuition fee, but some are free classes. Some can be found on YouTube as well. Yes, you can attend Bible school in your very own home!
(XI) Use Google. Although you can run into some crazy stuff on the Internet, there are almost unlimited possibilities for researching Biblical truth online by just using Google or another search engine. For example, if you want to learn more about patience, you will find 50 million results to choose from. Google “prayer,” and you will access 73 million results. And if you want to learn about being “born again,” the number is 630 million! So, search to your heart’s content.
One safe way to access Biblical content is to look for Scriptures on a given subject – e.g. “worry” or “depression” or “marriage.” Google “Scriptures on worry” or “What does the Bible say about marriage?” or “Bible verses on depression,” and you will find that someone else has already done the research for you.
You can also look up a wealth of information on any book of the Bible, topic in the Bible, person in the Bible, or event in the Bible. Be it history, geology, archeology or theology, there isn’t anything Biblical you can’t become informed about by tapping into the Internet one way or another.
(XII) Use Bible applications for your smartphone, iPad, or Tablet.
These applications could include a Scripture for the day, a daily devotional, or an audio Bible in any one of several translations. One of the most popular apps is YouVersion which features 41 different translations to choose from and 50 Bible reading plans. YouVersion at bible.com is currently being used by 127 million people around the world.
(XIII) Try listening to Christian audiobooks while driving. On the christianbook.com or amazon.com websites, many of the most popular Christian books are available as audiobooks. If you do a lot of driving, you can listen to the Bible or to a Christian book and redeem the time. Think how much you could learn in just one traffic jam!
(XIV) Read a Christian book. Yes, an old-fashioned in-your-hand, turn-the-pages book! Again, if you visit christianbook.com (the largest on-line Christian bookstore), you will find literally thousands of books which can help you to access the truth of the Bible and grow in your relationship with God. Or, you can visit a local Christian bookstore and find something stimulating and inspiring to bolster your faith.
(XV) Last, but not least, meditate on the Word of God and let the Holy Spirit teach you. The Bible is a supernaturally-transmitted book. When you commune with God, the Author is with you to help you to understand it. The Bible says that the Holy Spirit has been sent to teach us about spiritual things (I John 2:27) and to help us to remember and understand God’s Word (John 14:26). Don’t just skim over passages in the Bible as if they were from a newspaper article or history book. Stop and meditate upon what you have read. Read and re-read the same passage, and allow God to reveal the significance of what you are reading. Be in an attitude of prayer as you read, and ask God to show you the meaning of what you are reading. It was all written for a reason.
In summary, in this age of mass communication where the Internet makes knowledge instantly and abundantly available, there isn’t any good excuse for ignorance. Don’t say, “Well, I’m no Bible scholar,” and leave it there. We are all commanded to learn God’s Word so that we can teach it to others (Deuteronomy 4:9; 6:6-7; Matthew 4:4; Matthew 28:19-20).
We can all become as educated and well-informed about the Bible’s teachings as we want to be. The biggest question is our priorities, and God makes it clear what our number educational priority should be:
Proverbs 3:13-15: “Happy is the man who finds wisdom, And the man who gains understanding; For her proceeds are better than the profits of silver, And her gain than fine gold. She is more precious than rubies, And all the things you may desire cannot compare with her” (NKJV).
Proverbs 4:4b-7: “‘Let your heart retain my words; Keep my commands and live. Get wisdom! Get understanding! Do not forget, nor turn away from the words of my mouth.
