TLDR: Romans. “For many, they see the book of Romans as…maybe the most important book of the Bible. Because while Paul has gone place to place preaching the Gospel, here in the book of Romans he actually elaborates on the Gospels. He explains it systematically.” - Francis Chan, "The Book of Romans: Part 1" Many people have tried and failed to read the Bible cover to cover. They usually get stuck around Numbers. While this is a noble effort, if it doesn’t motivate you to keep reading, don’t do it. It’s better for you to jump around the Bible than get so bored going cover to cover that you stop reading it all together. The goal in getting to know God is to hear what He has to say in these Scriptures, and, honestly, He’s a lot more obvious in the words of Jesus, Paul, Peter, James, John, and all those other New Testament folks than He is through the stories of the Old Testament—for me, at least. The way I see it is this: say you want to study some subject, like computers. You’re likely not going to start by learning about the very first computer ever and then studying each and every historical event that happened to make computers what they are today. Most likely, you’re going to learn about the technology that is current and relevant today, and then you’ll become so passionate about it that you actually want to go back and read up on the history and earlier models of computers. For me, the same goes with Scriptures. I started with Romans and read all the way through to Revelation, and am now making my way through the Gospels to Acts. If you’re prayerfully reading the Bible and asking God to reveal Himself to you, He will. I got so much out of reading the New Testament, and now I can’t wait to go through and read the rest of the Bible to see what He has to say everywhere else. Even better, the Bible is a living Word. God says new things each time we read. Even now as I am rereading Romans for the fourth time I’m picking up on things I never noticed before. But we have to be careful when we approach Scriptures, for two main reasons. (1) Reading the Scriptures will always be dry and dull if we read them as a way to learn about God rather than as a way to hear from God. When we read the Bible like some history book that talks about dead historical figures, it’s boring. It’s dull. It doesn’t speak to us. But when we recognize that a living God is revealing Himself to us as we read His living Word, then reading the Bible becomes exciting. We get the opportunity to hear directly from the Creator Himself as we meditate and pray over His Word. It’s one of the most obvious ways He communicates with us. (2) We have to remember the main purpose of reading Scriptures: getting to know God. If we read the Bible because we want an excuse to do something we think might be wrong, we’re missing the point. Bible reading should never have any agenda other than seeking God and leaning in to what He has to say to us—not arguments we can use against someone else, or ammo for judgment of others. The Bible is a way for us to each individually communicate with God. What we want to be true and what it actually says might not always align, but we have to be okay with that because our only agenda is to listen, not argue. "We all want certain things to be true. And so even as you’re reading through the Bible, you have to be able to differentiate between what you want it to say and what it actually says—to be fair to the scriptures. Because the truth is, a lot of what God writes is offensive to us…So as you’re reading, just understand that this isn't going to be popular, and sometimes we’ll even read the Scriptures and wish it said something else. But the goal is to say, ‘Okay, Lord. I know that Your thinking is different from my thinking...I want to read Your Word and hear what You have to say is truth.'” - Francis Chan, "The Book of Romans: Part 1" So, if you’re asking me where you should start with reading the Bible, I recommend Romans. Paul explains the Gospels well in Romans, and I’ve found God has said a lot to me whenever I read that book. Start there and find out what He says to you.
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AuthorFighting complacency and advocating change in myself for the world around me. Posts by Date
February 2019
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