biblereading.com

Can I read the Bible by myself?

Now that you’re acquainted with the Bible’s organization and its main message, you can proceed to reading the Bible itself and developing a relationship with God.

It is necessary for all believers to have a private, intimate, direct, sweet, and fresh fellowship with God, which can only be accomplished through prayer and reading the Word in the morning hours. A good example of this is the manna that nourished the children of Israel in wilderness. The only time they had access to the manna was in the morning. As soon as the sun became hot, the manna melted.

In the same way, Christians must strive to “gather the manna” in the morning by reading the Word and praying. Much like the children of Israel, each Christian must gather the manna for themselves. Arising early every morning to read the word and pray is vital for every Christian’s relationship with God. Allowing the day’s business to impinge upon this morning time will only interfere with your fellowship with God.

Devoting yourself to reading a chapter, or even a few verses, every morning is the best move for every Christian’s spiritual life. As the Apostle Peter wrote in 1 Peter 1:23, the Word regenerates. “Having been regenerated not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible, through the living and abiding word of God.” The Word is also crucial to spiritual growth, as Peter wrote in 1 Peter 2:2. “As newborn babes, long for the guileless milk of the word in order that by it you may grow unto salvation.

What’s the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament?

When approaching the Bible, it is helpful to understand the roles the Old and New Testaments play and how they complement each other.

The Lord defined the Old and New Testaments in Luke 24:27, 44-45 when He said, “And beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, He explained to them clearly in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself ?And He said to them, these are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all the things written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and Psalms concerning Me must be fulfilled. Then He opened their mind to understand the Scriptures.

Theologian Augustine once said that the New Testament is contained in the Old and that the Old Testament is explained in the New. We may put the matter this way: The New Testament is in the Old contained, and the Old Testament is in the New explained. This means that the New Testament is in the Old Testament and that the Old Testament is explained by the New Testament.
–“The Conclusion of the New Testament, page 1 (Living Stream Ministry)

The Old Testament gives a portrait, in types and prophecies, of this wonderful person as the Coming One. Now, in the New Testament, this wonderful person has come. The first page of the New Testament, in recommending this wonderful person to us, gives us His genealogy. This genealogy can be considered an abstract of the Old Testament, which in itself is the detailed genealogy of Christ. To understand the genealogy in Matthew, we need to trace the origin and history of every incident.
–“Recovery Version of the New Testament, page 5, footnote 1:11 (Living Stream Ministry).

While these excerpts show the importance of the Old Testament, the New Testament stands alone in that its sole subject is Jesus Christ.

The first name (Matt. 1:1) and the last name (Rev. 22:21) in the New Testament is Jesus, proving that Jesus Christ is the subject and content of the New Testament. The Bible is a book of life, and this life is a living person, the wonderful and all-inclusive Christ
–Recovery Version of the New Testament, page 5, footnote 1:11 (Living Stream Ministry).

Genesis LS#1: The General Sketch and Central Thought (1)

The Bible is a wonderful book. It is “The Book” among all books! It took 1600 years to complete, starting with Moses, the greatest prophet of God, and ending with the Apostle John. It was confirmed 300 years later (397 A.D.) at a council held at Carthage in North Africa. Not long after that, the Bible was locked away from the people by the Catholic Church. For nearly a thousand years, from the 6th century through the 15th century, the Bible was locked up. History calls this period the Dark Age. Human society became dark because the Bible, containing all the divine light, was locked away from humanity.

Then, in the Reformation, God used Martin Luther to unlock the Bible. At the same time, printing was invented, allowing the Bible to be printed. Although the Bible was unlocked, it was not so open. Yet, we thank the Lord that during the past five centuries He has opened up His Word again and again through many great teachers. We stand on their shoulders and we are grateful to them. Yet, how we thank the Lord that today the Bible is so open to us, allowing us to have a rich life-study of the living Word.

Future Reading: Life Study of the Bible

Why should we read the Bible?

The Bible and the Holy Spirit are the two greatest gifts that God has given to men. Both are vital to the Christian life. Without the Spirit, the Bible becomes merely a book full of laws, rules and regulations—dead letters that kill. Without the foundation of the Bible, Christians may be misguided into thinking that God has inspired a certain thought, action, plan, or the development of a concept—when He really hasn’t.

The Bible, the word of God, provides sinners with the knowledge and the faith they need to receive God’s salvation and be regenerated by God’s life. Once saved, believers need the Word for spiritual nourishment so they can grow and be perfected and equipped for God’s work.

The Apostle Paul wrote of the Word’s central role in a letter to his young coworker in 2 Timothy 3:15-17.

“And that from a babe you have known the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise unto salvation through the faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for conviction, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, fully equipped for every good work.”

Another passage also points to man’s dependence on God’s word to live the Christian life. In the gospel of Matthew, the Devil tempted Jesus by suggesting that He turn stone into bread. Unaffected, Jesus remarked, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out through the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4).

The Bible: Beyond a Dusty Bookshelf

For most Americans, the Bible has become little more than an obligatory book to own. Though Bible sales are increasing, the numbers actually reading the Bible are declining. In fact, the Los Angeles Times recently reported that more than 90 percent of Americans own an average of three versions of the Bible. Published in an article on July 27, 1999, the story found that “two-thirds of Americans don’t regularly read the Bible or know the names of the four gospels.”

Why is this happening? People acquire Bibles with the intent of knowing God through the understanding of His word. But when initial efforts fail, they become discouraged and stop reading. The following are some of the reasons why the Bible may be difficult to comprehend:

1. The translation may be in old English, which is challenging for modern-day readers.
2. The Bible is complex and packed with facts, so many that readers often have a difficult time grasping all of them and understanding them as a whole.
3. Biblical concepts and the spiritual significance of those concepts and other symbols are very deep.
4. The distractions of the world can harden the hearts of readers (Matt. 13:4,19).
5. Readers’ minds need to be opened by Christ (Luke 24:44-46) and enlightened by the Spirit (Eph. 1:17-18).
6. Readers’ motives in reading the Bible need to be aimed at receiving life from Jesus Christ (John 5:39-40) and not only for biblical knowledge.

Matt. 13:4 And as he sowed, some seeds fell beside the way, and the birds came and devoured them.

Matt. 13:19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand, the evil one comes and snatches away that which has been sown in his heart. This is the one sown beside the way.

Luke 24:44-46 And He said to them, These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all the things written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and Psalms concerning Me must be fulfilled. Then He opened their mind to understand the Scriptures; And He said to them, thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise up from the dead on the third day.

Eph. 1:17-18 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Him, the eyes of your heart having been enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling, and what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,

John 5:39-40 You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that testify concerning Me. Yet you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.