Bible Reading Tips
2012-03-06
Introduction
It is good to know that we need not look any further to find out the meaning of life. The days of philosophy and fear of the future are over. People often wonder why God does not seem to do miracles today, and why he would tolerate evil.
But did they listen to him when he came to do miracles or did they nail him to a cross?
He did not leave without a witness. He did not only send the Holy Spirit. He has preserved his word for centuries and millennia that we might know what he has done throughout history and what he is going to do in the future.
As believers in Jesus, this should blow our minds. The Bible is searched for answers, and some look at it as mystery, and some as a mathematical equation to be solved. But the message is clear. God created and owns the world. Man is in error and cannot save himself. There is enmity between him and God. God sent his Son Jesus to die for all sins of all people for all time, and he rose on the third day to conquer death. Belief in this alone is the way to eternal life. Yet the message of the Bible goes further that we might know God better and abide in Him. This leads to blessing in our lives now and forevermore. What should we do? Read the word. Know the word. Preach the word. But if we do not know His word, how will can we possibly know God and live a practical faith that might win some for eternity? Here is the challenge: read through the Bible at least once a year for the rest of your life. God wants to you use you today, but if you cannot hear His call, or even know His calling, how can you be used?
When reading the Bible, I would like to give some of my Bible reading tips that work for me.
1. Read the Bible at Least Once a Year for Life
It is better to read it more than once a year. There are plenty of charts to help you read through the Bible. I suggest just reading it from the beginning, and reading it in the modern canonical order until you get to the end (i.e., starting in Genesis, and reading left to right until you finish Revelation). To make it safely through the end of the Bible in a year, you need to read four chapters a day. This is very practical; there is always enough time to read four chapters in one day. This is how I figure. Since there are 1189 chapters in the Bible and 365 days in a year, you do the following division:
1189 / 365 = 3.2575
You round up because that will guarantee less than a year, and you allow for sick says.
Now, some chapters are very short (Psalm 117) and some are very long (Psalm 119). To make each day a little more even, determine how many pages are in your Bible, without all the maps, concordances, and table of contents. There are about 1548 pages in my Bible, so you do the following division:
1548 / 365 = 4.2411
You will read about five pages per day (remember, round up).
Since I prefer to read the Bible in canonical order, I sometimes prefer to read extra New Testament when reading the Old Testament. There is just nothing like the Gospels, so you would want to read extra New Testament over and beyond your Old Testament readings. This is just a suggestion. You would still read the New Testament like normal when you get there; this is additional reading.
Now, say you want to read it through more than once a year. You just change the division above to accommodate for that. To read it through about twice a year:
1189 / 180 = 6.6056
You will read seven chapters a day. For four times a year:
1189 / 90 = 13.2111
...Or about 14 chapters a day. I did this once, and being a slow reader, I would not be able to do it again. Our pastor reads through the Bible four to six times per year, and carries a full time job on top of that. He is a very disciplined man. It can be done. If God is a priority in your life, you will set aside a good amount of time in the Bible.
You also do not want to miss any days. If you cannot read your usual amount, read what you can. Do not skip any. And if you start in January, and finish in late November, do not take the rest of the year off to start in January. Just keep going; if you read Revelation 22, the last book of the Bible today, tomorrow (or today) you start (continue) with Genesis 1.
A little Bible reading calculator can be found here.
2. Do Not Overuse Commentaries
It is very tempting to turn to commentaries, but this should be kept to a minimum. That is why I even advise you to stop reading my writings, or anybody else’s, and read more Bible. Consider the following:
John 14:26: “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”
1 John 2:27: “But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.”
Who is going to teach you all things according to the Bible? The Holy Ghost, not some man. It is helpful to read a little bit of man’s writings, and even more profitable to hear the Word of God preached, but you are most responsible for teaching yourself, and your family. You have the Holy Ghost; do not let any commentator or pastor spoon feed you when you have God’s power in you.
3. Listen to Sermons
I love to listen to sermons. I love to hear them at church, and I do listen to sermons on the web. Preaching is found in the Bible, and it is a good thing. However, like the commentary, you need to listen with a critical ear. Do not let someone else think for you, for if you are saved, you have the Holy Ghost, and you are quite capable of teaching yourself the Scriptures.
4. Listen to the Bible.
I do not do this as often as I should, but it is beneficial to just listen to the word. Get it on tape or CD, and listen to it in the car, especially if you have long car rides. Turn off the talk radio, and “Christian” radio, and listen to the Word. The time traveling in the car will never be a waste.
5. Memorize the Word
This is a major weak point of mine, but memorizing the Scriptures is important. I am way too sporadic in doing this. But the Bible reads:
Joshua 1:8: “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.”
John 15:7: “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.”
We need to have the Word in us in order to be transformed by him.
6. Write About the Word
This has been very helpful for me. Most of my writings I share on the web; perhaps just somebody somewhere can be helped by my thoughts? But more importantly, at least for me, the writings help me think through the Scriptures, convict me of my own sin, and when I return to the writings later, it helps me remember what I had learned in the past. Get a website or blog and publish your writings there. Give it a try!
7. Word Studies
Get yourself a concordance, or if you prefer, do a word search on free Bible software, such as E-sword, available at http://www.e-sword.net . E-sword is the software that I use, and you can search for words or phrases to study and compare and see what they mean. Very invaluable lessons can be learned from doing these.
8. Topical Studies
Go through the Bible on various topics, and make some notes. Compare and contrast the judges, kings, prophets, the churches in Revelation, and so on. There is a lot you can learn. What can you learn about the songs of degrees or the Jewish festivals?
It gets a little tougher when you are looking to do studies such as what the Bible says about specific teachings on a subject, such as abortion, false religions, and other things that are being dealt with in our times. I recommend that you read through the Bible many times to get an idea as to how it is laid out. Jot notes down if or when you can. It may come in handy.
9. Exegetical Studies
The best type of study you can do is to go through a book of the Bible, and study it verse by verse. The Bible is not a list of tenets, but was largely written in narrative. Taking isolated verses could get you into the trouble of taking it out of context, and then your interpretation is bad. Start at the beginning of the book, and work your way through it. One exception would be the Psalms, which are 150 individual songs, where you can deal with each chapter by itself without being concerned with the previous or following chapters. However, it would still be good to read the whole book of Psalms and see some observations that run across the whole book. Proverbs would be another exception, where there are several chapters that are lists of Proverbs, and each verse is its own unit.
These are some good questions to think of as you do this kind of study. What is God doing, and what attributes is he displaying? What are the people doing? What is the relationship between God and humankind? What needs to change in the hearts of the people? Doing this verse by verse, paragraph by paragraph, chapter by chapter, will help you determine the “theology” of the book. If you do this, you will be able to write a general, concise statement as to what the theological theme(s) of the book is. You will learn a lot about God, and about yourself, when you do this.
Conclusion
I hope this is helpful for you as you read and study the Bible. If we really believe that the Bible is the word of God, shouldn’t we be doing a lot of these things I mentioned above? I speak to myself more than anyone else, because we need to be convinced that God is trying to speak his great oracles to us through his Word, and with the Spirit as our teacher.
For some more tips on how to interpret the Bible, go here.