First Chapter . . .

. . . of a new study book published by Word Action-- they had it on line as advertisement so I'm not 'stealing' my own material-- let me know if you like it-- and there are five mopre chapters--

GROWING IN FAITH

Introduction:
The Christian life is not a sum of segments, but a whole, a unit, a person learning to relate to a Person. Just as the body is made up of many parts, all important, and the church is the Body of Christ, also made of many individual parts, even so our individual lives have vital components that function together. We can separate them and look at them individually for the purpose of overall strengthening and health, but there will be overlap-- not a neat categorization. Don’t worry about it. Get the overall view; hold off on judgment. Get with the program.

Week One: Reading the Bible

Why read the Bible? Why read it daily?
When I was a beginning Christian the dear, loving people I looked up to in the church told me “Read the Bible and pray every day.” Great advice, and absolutely true. But even though I was brought up in the church, with Sunday School classes and vacation Bible schools I really didn’t know how or where to begin. Looking back, I wish someone could have helped me get started. It would have saved me a lot of time. Here are some things that I might have found most helpful:

(1) A Primary Focus for My Reading
Many good things will come from daily Bible reading. But there is one basic reason for daily reading that blesses and fulfills all the other benefits. We read to come to know God.
The Scriptures have been given to us so we may come to know the Father, to help us to be more and more like Jesus, and to help us live out God’s love in the power of the Holy Spirit. If John 3:16 is the Golden Text of the Bible, perhaps John 20:31 is the Golden Key: ”…these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,and that believing you may have life in His name.”
We believe that the same Holy Spirit who inspired the writing can breathe life into the reading. It isn’t the beautiful old words or the modern translations that bring the Bible to life: it is the Holy Spirit! He is the vital connection. We will not be saved simply by repeating words, as true as they may be. We are saved by the Truth, who is a Person. Through the written Word we may come to know the living Word, Jesus. We discover that as we come daily with obedient spirits, the written Word nourishes our faith, and brings us into line with the mind of Christ.
We read to come to know God!

(2) An Overview of the Bible
The Bible is actually a whole library of books. In the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments are stories, songs, lists of genealogy, history, allegory, different kinds of prophecy, and more. The Bible was written over a period of more than a thousand years, and by perhaps forty different writers. We believe it is like no other book, in that it is God-breathed, divinely inspired so that the human authors were enabled to convey divine truth. The Bible is divided into two main sections, the Old Testament and the New Testament.
The “Old Testament” refers to the ‘covenant’ Jehovah made with Abraham and his descendents. It was the promise that they would share His blessing with the entire world. The Old Testament consists of three main divisions. It begins with
(1) the Law (Genesis through Deuteronomy) and history (Joshua through Esther). The stories of Creation, and the Flood, mysterious and wonderful, lead to the story of one man, Abraham. He is so important that a large section of Genesis is devoted to him, his son Isaac, and grandson, Jacob. The last two thirds of Genesis are about the beginnings of a new nation, the Jews. The rest of the Law and history tell of how God loved these special people, and intended for them to carry out Abraham’s covenant. The second section of the Old Testament,
(2) The Wisdom, (Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon), is a treasure of poetry, prayers, songs, drama, and much more than can be described here. From the simple, profound beauty of the 23rd Psalm to the sophisticated philosophical arguments in the Book of Job, there are blessings for every mood, every situation. The readers who are willing to make the time to let the message come through will find great reward in these books in the middle of the Old Testament. Finally, the last section is called
(3) the Prophets, (Isaiah to Malachi). As a young Christian I liked Isaiah the best because I took the promises God was making to the chosen people of Israel as promises for me as well. I confess I still do. I never will forget the night I discovered Isaiah 41:10. It was my first night away from home.
It was September, 1949, and I was on my way to college. Six grown people packed into a Dodge sedan for a two day journey from Ohio to Boston. We stopped near Syracuse for the night. In the tiny tourist cabin where two of us slept I opened my little Bible. I was not using any ‘plan’ for reading beyond the sketchy advice I had received to read the Bible every day, so I skipped here and there from day to day.
But that night my eyes fell on Isaiah 41:10 and I read these old King James version words:
Fear thou not for I am with thee; Be not dismayed for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee, yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.
That night in that tiny cabin I did not know where I was; I was homesick and frightened. But those words became a very personal message to me. I knew God knew where I was. I knew He would be with me. Nearly sixty years later as I write these words they are still “my” promise.

The “New Testament” refers to the fact that the “Old” covenant, made to Abraham and his descendents, has been fulfilled by a “New” promise. Many prophecies of the Old Testament clearly foretold the coming of a Messiah who would bless all mankind. Through Jesus Christ, the new covenant is revealed; Abraham’s promise has been expanded; now Jews and Gentiles alike can be full members of God’s family and inherit all the promises of grace.
The New Testament also has different sections or divisions.
(1) The Gospels are the first four books of the New Testament: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The Gospels each tell the story of Jesus Christ’s coming to earth, and his ministry, death, resurrection and ascension. Invest a lot of your reading in the gospels.
Mark’s gospel is probably the first that was written, and Matthew and Luke both seem to augment and amplify the rapid action of that shortest of the four. They are called the synoptic gospels because they seem to share the same story from slightly different personal viewpoints, and so give depth to our own growing understanding of Jesus. John’s gospel picks and selects miracles and personal conversations of Jesus, and especially of his challenges to the disciples that uniquely call for confession of faith: “Who do you say that I AM?” Remember, we read the Bible to know God. Remember the “Golden Key” to the scriptures: John 20:31 is perhaps that key to the entire Bible. ”…these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.”
In 1956 during my first pastorate a man named Walter came to Christ and was genuinely transformed. Walter had never been around a church before. He knew absolutely nothing about church or the Bible or how a Christian would want to live. He came to Christ in response to such a simple invitation and prayer that I honestly wondered if he had understood, if his faith could be real. I need not have wondered, because he asked for a Bible of his own. A healthy hunger is always a good sign in new-borns.
I gave Walter a Bible and told him to begin reading John’s Gospel. “I don’t want to learn about John,” he said. “I want to learn about Jesus!”
I explained that the first books in the New Testament were about Jesus, and Walter began his Bible reading there. Within six months he was asking me questions that were keen and relevant to spiritual growth. Walter grew to be a true man of God, a valued member of his congregation for many years, and a blessing to all he met.

(2) The one book of History in the New Testament is the Book of the Acts of the Apostles. Beginning with the birth of the church at Pentecost in the first two chapters, Acts tells the story of how the church reached out in all directions from Jerusalem in the first half of that century. Broadly speaking, the first twelve chapters reflect the leadership of Peter, and the last sixteen the influence of Paul on his three missionary journeys, reaching Rome and the nerve center of the civilized world. The church across the centuries has liked to think this is an ‘unfinished history,’ and that the Holy Spirit is writing ‘new chapters’ as succeeding generations obey the Great Commission and live in the spirit (Spirit) of the first Pentecost. You’ll learn more about that as you read daily.
(3) The Epistles are letters written to churches or individuals, twenty-one books in all: Romans through Jude. Some of these letters have passages that are easily understood. Some have difficult lessons. God is not interested in confusing sincere seekers. Most important of all things is looking for Jesus in all those words. Be kind, tenderhearted, forgiving.* Make sure your spirit is right.
(4) There is one book of Prophecy, the Revelation of Jesus Christ. About this last book in the Bible: it carries a unique promise of blessing to those who read it, but don’t get hung up in Revelation. Stick with what is crystal clear. The first three chapters are pretty plain, although even here ‘experts’ love to date and label the various church “ages. We can be sure there is spiritual struggle and conflict, and we can be certain that God and holiness will prevail. But run from anyone who gets out charts and explains exactly what is going to happen, blow by blow, as the world comes to an end. They don’t know! Read Revelation 3:20: Behold I (Jesus) stand at the door and knock; if anyone will hear and open the door I will come in!” Make sure your door is always open to Jesus.

The Old Testament is the necessary foundation for the New Testament. The only Bible Jesus knew was our Old Testament; he quoted from it, and declared that it foretold His coming and His mission. It is not made obsolete by the New, but is tied to it in so many ways that the foundation for our faith rests in both Old and New. The New Testament does not contradict the Old; the Old Testament does not conflict with the New. The awesome Creator, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob we see in the Old Testament is the same holy Father, the same mighty Breath of the Holy Spirit, the very same Christ who has come, who has died, and who is coming again, that calls to us from the pages of the New Testament. We need to read both testaments, read them together, to study them and let their message shape our live and living. An old familiar couplet tells us that
“The New is in the Old concealed,
The Old is in the New revealed”
In God’s great wisdom, the simple, profound message of His love for each one of us can be understood by little children, and yet there is always a challenge to learn more, to come closer, to be made into men and women of God. We are saved in a moment of time, but we never stop growing in grace.
Welcome to the homework assignment of a lifetime. Welcome to the Bible!

(3) A Plan for My Reading
There are many daily devotional plans available. Which plan we choose is not as important, perhaps, as simply keeping at it. The way you read and study will change and grow along with you as you become more and more at home in the Word. Beginners might do something as simple as reading the words Jesus spoke, often printed in red, and by browsing daily through the Psalms.
If you simply want to read your Bible through from cover to cover it will take you about fifteen minutes a day. I would strongly suggest that you read both from the Old and New Testaments each day, say three chapters from the Old and two from the New. Be prepared for some begets and begots and long words and difficult to understand passages. Don’t get hung up on secondary matters.
Don’t worry about God’s secret messages; the Way is plain and simple and clear. Keeping covenant with God by obedience to the Holy Spirit is what really counts. The basic plan of salvation is simple. God will help you sort out what you need. Remember the Golden Key! And as Jesus told the people who boasted about knowing all about their scriptures, but missed the main point, You search the scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me (John 5:39). It isn’t what you know when it comes to daily Bible reading, but Whom you come to know, and love, and follow.
One simple way to learn to study the Bible is a good Sunday School class. Lessons for Adult Sunday School classes provide plans for systematic reading of the Bible. In addition they can provide support and encouragement that is helpful in establishing any useful daily regimen. In addition many churches have Bible study groups for growing Christians.
There are a number of devotional periodicals readily available which have scripture selections for each day with supplemental readings. People from all walks of life share their stories and insights as to how that day’s scripture lesson touched them or met their need. These testimonies or brief devotions can serve as the basis for for meditation on the Scripture and prayer. Among these great little magazines are Reflecting God (formerly Come Ye Apart), The Upper Room, or My Daily Bread, and others.
A One Year Bible can be both a working plan for reading as well as a de facto journal. You can begin reading any day of the year and find selections from the Old Testament, New Testament, Psalms, and Proverbs. If you read the entire passage each day you will complete the whole Bible in a year’s time. You may use just the New Testament portion along with other readings from Sunday School lessons, or the like. You may read the Psalms each day. I write in the margins of my One Year Bible—it is my second one, about ten years old and close to being retired- and I see burdens and victories that give me a sense of progress in my faith journey.
The Revised Common Lectionary is a three year schedule for weekly Bible study. It is keyed to the three synoptic Gospels, Matthew one year, Mark the next, Luke the third, with John’s gospel being integrated into every year’s lessons as well. Selections from all parts of the rest of the Bible, Old and New Testaments, always including readings from the Psalms, complete what becomes a pretty comprehensive coverage of the entire Bible. The special times of the church year, such as Advent and Lent, Holy Week, Easter and Pentecost get special attention. The Revised Common Lectionary, or RCL, which may be easily accessed on the internet at (http://divinity.library.vanderbilt.edu/lectionary/) is an excellent way to share your Bible study along with millions of other Christians from many denominations.
Remember plans and schedules are our servants, not our masters. If you miss a day, don’t be discouraged and quit. If your plan is too ambitious, scale back. Take your time. But keep at it. You will find your way.

(4) Some Practical Suggestions
Write in your Bible
Date your entries. Claim promises. Underline passages that speak to you. Write answers to prayer in the margins. Look up cross references. Make your Bible personal to you.
Memorize favorite verses.
Thy word I have hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee.(Psalm 119:11) Write out a verse to memorize on a card and carry it with you until you have it. The Holy Spirit has a wonderful way of bringing just the word you need when you need it- but, not surprisingly, He uses the words we have hidden away in our reading and memorization.
Pray the Psalms
Some people think the only prayers they can pray are words they themselves put together. If a prayer in the Bible says what you wish you could say, make it your own! Pray with David “Search me, O God! Lead me in the Way!” In other words, if it is saying what you need, don’t just read it, pray it!
Let the Word shape you
Daily reading, combined with prayer, will help you become a man or woman of God. There is no higher ambition. Make this your personal goal. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

Discover and use Bible Gateway
One great tool for computer users, this web site gives access to many translations, can serve as a concordance, and even will read out loud to you.
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=33&chapter=21&version=31

Trust the Holy Spirit, your Teacher
Bible reading and prayer ‘overlap’ in our spiritual formation. In one sense Bible reading can be God’s side of the conversation. Just as Jesus came alongside the discouraged duo on the road to Emmaus* he comes again and again to warm the hearts of those who persistently seek him in the pages of holy scripture.

*(And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. Luke 24:27)

We read to come to know God!

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