How To Read the Bible?

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Have you ever asked, “How Do I read the Bible?” or “Which Bible?” or “What Bible Study Tool I Should I use?”

I remember when I was growing up… my dad had so many super heavy and huge Bible study books. The man loved to read. He loved to learn. He even loved to teach… as far as I imagine, anyway… He was a school teacher when I was a kid.

I remember that I had visited his school and class one day and remember seeing in a top drawer of his desk all the things he had confiscated from his students. I remember thinking he must’ve been a pretty mean teacher and was always sort of dreading getting to the age where I’d have to be in his class. (Really, but not really.)

I was also proud, though and liked to “show off’ to my classmates that my dad was a teacher and I would be in his class one day… so, I couldn’t have been that scared. (Love you, dad!)

A lot has changed in the world since the 80's. We have access to all kinds of the information that back then people only had access to through big, expensive books. Now days, it's easier and more cost effective than ever to study most anything we want.

Those huge books that my dad had to lug all the way to China in the 80's can now just be carried in as small a package as our phones... that's pretty cool. It's amazing how God really does give us all that we need to live godly lives.

I moved to California when I was eighteen. I needed a job and the coffee house across the street from our apartment offered to hire me. (I say “Our,” because I had just gotten married.) The owner asked if I liked coffee. I said, “No.” To which he responded, “Well, you better start. You HAVE to try one specialty coffee drink per day.”

In order to be able to sell our drinks well, I had to be able to make them and describe well what they tasted like and be able to tell customers my opinions on the drinks. Well, as I’m sure you figured by now, I was an avid coffee drinker in no time.

And still today, I don’t start my day without a few cups of coffee first.

And you know what, I also don’t like to start my day without reading my Bible and praying.

I tell you the story about the coffee for this reason… I didn’t like coffee whatsoever. I didn’t mind the smell, but the taste… yuck! But in order for me to work at the coffee shop and sell their coffee, it was required of me to drink their coffee. They didn’t care if I liked it or not. They didn’t care what time of day I drank the coffee. They didn’t care if it was inconvenient or that I wouldn’t be able to sleep after work… they cared that I did what was expected of me… so that I knew my stuff.

And guess what, twenty five years later, I still pretty much know my “coffee stuff!” (Woop! Woop!)

There are just certain things we do if we are going to actually know God and follow Him. It’s real hard for me to remember a long period of time where I didn’t like reading the Bible. I’ve gone through seasons in my life where I didn’t feel like it, and I mean I REALLY didn’t FEEL like it. But I kept on doing it whether I felt like it or not… in fact, I still do whether I feel like it or not….

There’s a lot of things I do whether I FEEL like it or not… because there’s just things we gotta do… we gotta get up and go to work whether we feel like it or not. Hopefully, we clean up the house whether we FEEL like it or not. We take care of bills whether we FEEL like it or not. Why? Because there’s just things that we gotta do to survive well in life, right?

“Gasp! Shauna, you are so legalistic!” You know those people in your life, the ones actually close to you… the ones that love you and you love them? We talk with them and spend time with them… even when we don’t “feel” like it. If we don’t and we allow too much time to pass, the relationship starts to dwindle… doesn’t it?

Yes, I will read the Bible daily, whether I feel like it or not, because I love God and it’s important to me to be with God and hear from Him. It’s important to me to know what He said and is saying. It’s important to me that I “hear His voice.” Reading the Bible is the most common way that God speaks to us.

People will often tell me, “But I want to hear His voice audibly or get a word through the preacher or prophet.” Or, “The Holy Spirit will talk to me.” Or they listen to preachings or podcasts or read a devotional book… all very good things, but they just don’t take the place of being one on one with God, in His very Word.

I get it. It takes time to sit down and read. (Trust me, I get it… I’m a slow reader.)

How to Read the Bible?

There is no rule as to how to read the Bible. This blog is just to help you out if you don't know where to start or want try something different than what you've always done or even want to go deeper in your relationship with Jesus.

I learned to read this way after having already had daily Bible reading in my routine. I was in a dry season and didn't "feel" like I was hearing from God and my father in law had just made these journals to help teach the church to read.

I've been reading that way ever since.

Read it daily.

Mornings work best for me. If I devote time in the morning just for this, I more than not actually do it. I can wait until anytime during the day, but If I wait, most likely, I will be too tired later or too many other things will come up.

Read systematically.

Don’t play “Bible Roulette.” You’ll be amazed at the things God speaks into your spirit, on a daily basis, even though you aren’t “jumping” all over the place in the Bible. Try it.

Pray before you read.

Ask the Holy Spirit to speak to you through it and help you to understand what you’re reading. It is through the power of the Holy Spirit that scripture truth is make clear to us.

Journal your readings and the things God is speaking to you. This will help you to stay focused on what are reading, because, especially when you’re just starting out, it seems that every. single. time. you sit down to read, something comes up in your mind of something “that just has to be taken care of right now.”

My brain is always going... it's easy for me to "zone" out of anything, so with "looking" for this key verse, I stay much more focused.

*Here's an example of my journal entry for June 11, 2021:

1Peter 1-2______________________________________June 11, 2021

Key Verse: 1 Peter 2:8 “They stumble because they do not obey __

God’s Word, and so they meet the fate that was planned for them.”_

& 1 Peter 2:25 “But now you have turned to your Shepherd, the ____

guardian of your souls.”________________________________________

What this says to me: God has given me His Word as a lamp for my

feet and a light for my path, because He cares about me. He doesn’t

want me to stumble or fall or get hurt. He is my guardian.___________

How I will apply this to my life: I will continue to put God’s word into

my heart and mind. I want to know His will, His desire, His word. His

Word is a protection for me._____________________________________

My Prayer: Lord, thank you for your Word. Thank you so much that

you love and care about me in every area of my life. How awesome it

is that you are my guardian. I love you. _________________________

_________________________________ love, me_____________________

Which Bible?

Read the one that’s easiest for you to understand. Don’t read the catholic translations or the Jehovah Witness translations. They’ve been changed too much to match their doctrines.

I also suggest, if you are using a Bible app, to read various translations to get a better understanding of what is being said. Of course, you can do this with paper Bible’s too, it’ll just cost more.

I like KJV, NKJV, NIV, NLT, AMPC to name a few and LUT, if you read German. If you speak and read multiple languages, I highly recommend reading in those also… again, for a better understanding. English isn’t the end all, be all.

KJV and NKJV seem to be the most accurate word by word translations, but they’re in older English which can be difficult to understand.

AMPC explains a lot of the words, right there without having to look them up, which is nice.

What Bible Study Tools?

Here are my recommendations on books to help you dive deeper into what you are reading in the Bible... for example, looking to see what the original words were that were used, in either Hebrew or Greek and their meanings.

They help you to understand the context of what is being written and the culture behind. All very import for our understanding of what's going on and being said. So many scriptures get taken out of context and misused or misrepresented when not studied and understood. Beware of that.

This is a fun one…If you read paper books, I suggest “Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance,” “Vine’s Expository Dictionary,” “Thompson Chain Reference Bible KJV,” “Foundations of Pentecostal Theology,” and then books, sermons, blogs & podcasts on whatever topic you are studying.

Please feel free to ask me for more recommendations… regarding certain topics. If you are new to studying the Bible, I suggest starting in the book of Romans. Romans will give you a better understanding of who YOU are in Christ. It’s important to know who you are… I think that’ll be another blog post.

My ultimate current favorite is an online app/webiste: blueletterbible.org

I plan to show you how to use this website in my next blog post.

Why Read the Bible?

Let me finish with this. If we are going to call ourselves “Christian," which means, "Little Christ," then we sure better be looking and acting like Him more and more every day. How are we going to look like someone we don’t even know? How are we going to be and act just like them if we don’t even know them?

You know as well as I do that going to church and hearing sermons and doing all the right things, isn’t where that’s going to come from. Those things don’t make us Christians.

Honestly, being a believer doesn’t even make a person a Christian. That’s only the beginning. That’s when our spirits became born again. A Christian is a disciple. A true disciple looks, walks, and even talks like the one they are being discipled by. So, if we’re going to call ourselves, “Christians,” we need to be looking, walking, talking and being more and more like Jesus everyday… and the way to do that is to make the time to spend with Him and hear (read) His Word.

The Bible is full of other reasons to read it, but that is one of the biggest, in my opinion.

Jesus, God, and the Holy Spirit love you so much. I wish you could see how beautiful, handsome, smart, talented and just how overall perfect He sees you. Spend time with Him daily… He’s looking forward to it.

My Prayer for You:

“Lord, thank you for this friend reading this today. I pray that you would fill them new and fresh with your Holy Spirit and power. Give them eyes to see and ears to hear what you are saying to them. Let them taste and see how good and pleasant you are and how much you love them.

I pray that you would fill them with an ever increasing, ever-fresh hunger and desire to know you more and be just like you, pleasing you in every area of their life. Speak to them as they pray and read your Word and draw closer to you. Your word says to draw close to you and You will draw close to us. Make that real and evident in their life today.

Increase their faith in You and your Word…that they would walk by faith in your Word and not by what they see or how they feel. Let your Word accomplish all that you set it to do.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.”

Love ya,

Shauna

***PS. If you like these blogs, please click the “heart” and subscribe so you don’t miss out.

***PSS. If you want what I’m talking about… this knowing and understanding how much God loves you, read the book of John in the Bible.

To be clear, reading the Bible is not the "rule" for making it into heaven. I don't believe that someone will not get into heaven for lack of reading the Bible. The Bible tells us that the only way into the Kingdom of God is by believing in Jesus, that He is the Son of God.

If you believe what I am telling you and what the Bible is saying, and you want this assurance of eternity in Heaven (and salvation from eternity in Hell,) all you have to do is say, out loud, “Jesus is Lord” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead and you will be saved.

When you’ve done that, I would tell you to ask God, “God I want all that you have to offer. I want all of your benefits. I want the power to live this life Shauna is talking about. I want to be baptized in your Holy Spirit. Thank you!”

There's so much more that God has for you. Please let me know if you believed in Jesus and said those words for the first time. I'd love to pray with you and help point you in the right direction on your journey to becoming a disciple of Jesus.

All of heaven is having party in honor of you right now. Be sure to get yourself a Bible and get as much of it into your memory as possible... a paper copy, because you just never know when our electricity and internet will be gone.

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