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THE BIBLE IS HIS STORY

The Bible is a book about God and His infinite and gracious love for His people. From the beginning of creation, God had a plan and a purpose for humanity. In the beginning, God already existed. He was holy and perfect and needed nothing. Out of God's desire for relationship, He created the Earth and man.


God's design for creation was to live among His people in perfect unity and union. He created everything that was needed for life and it was very good. Until it wasn't. Sin entered the world and separated us from God. Humanity's desire to be like God, knowing both good and evil, created a chasm between us.


Even though sin separated us from God and made man mortal, God had a plan from the very beginning to restore us to a right relationship with Him. This would come through Jesus.


The Bible is a beautiful redemptive story of God's love for His people. Resist the urge to reduce time spent in God's word to a box to be checked off your list. Scrap your Bible in a year app, ditch your study books and try something new. Pick up the Word and read it as one continuous story. Take time to understand what is says, what it means and process what you should do in response.


Savor the stories, fall in love with the characters and look for Jesus. Challenge yourself to look for attributes of God and then collect those each week. Getting to know God better through these stories will give you a greater hope and dependency on Him as you live out your own.


Be in the word, wholly present and open to all that He has for you! Follow along with our guide to get started:




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66

BOOKS

40

AUTHORS

1600

YEARS

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BEFORE YOU BEGIN

Pick a book

Decide on one book of the Bible to read from start to finish. If you're not sure where to begin, start with the beginning, Genesis.

Discover the Genre

What is the style of writing for the book you selected? And why is this important? You don't want to read a poetry book thinking it's historical narrative anymore than you want to pick up a good non-fiction book only to find out it's complete fairy tale. Knowing how the book was written gives you insight into what you're going to read so that you can better understand and interpret it.


Know the audience

Who was this book written to? While the Bible is relevant and for us today, it was written to a specific audience. Knowing that audience can keep us from misinterpreting promises and warnings intended for a specific group of people.

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ASK THE W'S

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WHO WROTE IT?


Knowing who authored the book gives you a greater understanding for why it was written and what the author might have been experiencing as they were writing it. Just like any other book you read, you might give a quick glance at the "about the author" page to gain insight into their thought process.




You should already know the audience, but knowing when it was written will help you better understand what hardships, struggles or events that particular audience was facing during the time this was written. Placing the passage in the context of the original audience during their lifetime will change the way you read and interpret scripture. It will help the promises on the pages have more cultural relevance and significance and provide you greater insight into how you may be able to apply it to your own life today.




Every book of the Bible was divinely authored by God and carefully selected to be part of His living word. The Bible is a love story about God's redemption and the promise of a new heaven and new earth where we can be reuinited with Him. Knowing why a book of the Bible was written helps you place it in the context of His great love story.

WHEN?

WHY?

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Take it slow

How do you move a mountain? One spoonful of dirt at a time.

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COMPREHEND

INTERPRET

APPLY

Grab your Bible, a good highlighter and a pen. Crack open your Bible and begin to read the Word. Select a passage from the book to read today.


  • Read the passage once from start to finish.
    • Don't worry about taking notes or checking the margins, just read it as a story.
  • Re-read the passage a second time, this time looking for what it's telling you about God.
    • Use your highlighter and identify words or phrases that describe the character of God in the passage.
    • If you are using a study Bible, check the margins to see if there are any cross references for the passage you've read and then flip to those verses to see what they have to say.
  • Start to jot down some notes of what the passage is saying and what you think it means.
    • Why is this passage included in scripture?
    • What's important about it to the original audience and how is it relevant to us today?
  • Only after you've let the Word speak to you, consider consulting commentary.
    • If you are using a study Bible you can read it there or you can try another resource like www.gotquestions.org or www.blueletterbible.org. Commentary is a useful tool to help you further understand what a passage means so that you can begin to apply it in your life.
  • Decide what you are going to do in response to what you've read and understood.
    • Consider one practical step you can take in your own life as a result of reading this passage to become more like the character of God you saw here.


Remember the Bible is God's living word. Time spent in the Bible is like time spent in His presence. Every minute we spend should leave us better than when we started. We should approach the scripture with the hope that it will change us, making us a little bit more like Jesus each day.




START READING

JOURNAL

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PURCHASE BE JOURNALS

JOURNAL

TAKE THE NEXT STEP

GENESIS

EXODUS

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