I took a little break from our series “Building a Relationship With God” partly because other things came to me that I felt I needed to write about and partly because I was waiting for inspiration to hit me again. Well God has inspired me again so lets continue with part 5 of our series.
In the past few articles of our series, we explored the topics of talking to God, hearing God talk to us, and looking for the signs God gives us in our lives. Now let’s discuss how we know and learn the word of God or, in other words, what He has already told us.
God has given us His word and His word has been recorded by various people throughout history. While there are many books and writings that we can look at to find what God has taught men over the course of history (some ancient writings were not found until fairly recently), the Bible is the primary source of our knowledge of God’s word. In fact, with estimates of between 2.5 and 6 billion copies being sold, the Bible is the most published and best selling book ever. So let’s start there.
In as few words as I can think of using, I would describe the Bible as a “handbook for life”. In the Bible, you can find a message from God on nearly anything you need to know about or are concerned about.
The Bible is a recording of God’s interaction with man, the word God has given to man, and God’s teaching man how He expects us to live and interact with each other.
The content of the Bible is so diverse and deep that we could spend a lifetime studying the Bible. So how do we get started really getting to know what the Bible is all about and what it is telling us?
You can pick up the Bible and just start reading but there is so much in the Bible that you can quickly become overwhelmed by just diving in like this. I know my study of the Bible needed to start with an overview and a “map”.
Having an overview and a “map” of the Bible can help you keep your bearings of where you are, the history behind each book of the Bible, and what the particular book of the Bible is about.
Some of the guides that I would consider starting off with would include:
Knowing the Bible 101, A Guide to God’s Word in Plain Language by Bruce Bickel & Stan Jantz, and
Discover the Bible for Yourself by Kay Arthur
(I have placed a link to these books on The Whisper of God website bookstore.)
Once you start getting to know more about the Bible and how it is laid out, then you can start to use it for guidance in your life.
I am not one of those people who can tell you off the top of my head where to go in the Bible for every situation that might arise in your life, so again, I have certain reference materials to help guide me. Some of these include:
The Handbook of Bible Application, A Guide to Applying the Bible to Everyday Life
What Does the Bible Say About… The Ultimate A to Z Resource
(Again, I have placed a link to these books on The Whisper of God website bookstore. )
There are many, many others like these but these are a few that you would find on my bookshelf.
Once you get to know more about the word that God has given to us through the Bible, you will be able to refer to the Bible to help you navigate the waters of life.
So grab your Bible, get yourself a map, and get started learning more about the Word of God!
How do you feel about Bible Study Groups in addition to reading the word on your own?
Jan,
I think any study of the Bible is great – especially in a group where you can share ideas and interpretations of what the Bible is telling us. As you well might know you can ask three people to read the same passage and come up with three different versions of what the passage is saying to those three people.
If you looked at my bookshelf you will find many books on the Bible. This is because I enjoy reading many peoples views of what the Bible is saying to them. The interpretation of the Bibles words is a very personal thing and hearing or reading others views can help you define what the words of the Bible say to you. One thing I don’t think you should do is have anyone tell you what the meaning of the Bible definately IS.
No matter how you study the Bible, make it personal. Make the words come alive for you.
Thanks for being part of The Whisper of God community.
Elmer Laydon
It is always nice to get someone else’s opinion. No one person has the interpretation of the whole bible.
Me gusta compartir el estudio biblico con otras personas, pero tambien una vez mas creo que la biblia le habla a cada uno en particular, por ejemplo el otro dia una hermana cristiana mientras trbajabamos juntas me dijo debemos estar muy alertas y preparadas para el dia del rapto, pues hay muchas senales que el senor viene pronto, yo le conteste estoy muy de acuerdo contigo sin embargo he meditado en este estudio y esto puso Dios en mi corazon, llegare como ladron en la noche, nadie sabra con exactitud cuando el senor va a venir, y pienso que Dios es el que da la vida y la quita, nadie sabe cuando exactamente un nino va a nacer ni si quiera el mejor doctor, al igualque en que momento partimos de esta vida, pues creo que ese es el momento de tu rapto individual cuando el senor llega inesperadamente y dice este es el dia que te vas y el momento, por eso creo que ese es el verdadero dia de tu rapto. Mi alma te Alaba Jesus Aleluya