Reading the Bible

I personally find the gospel of John to be a great place to start. It is in the New Testament.

It is easy to read and easy to understand. Then I would go to Paul's letters: Romans, Ephesians. There is a lot of great spiritual truth there.

So..John, Romans, Ephesians.

The Psamls

You can find several Bible reading guides here:

Back to the Bible - Bible Reading Guides

I suggest you look at them and find the one that seems to best meet your needs.

When I began reading the Bible, I started with the New Testament. Then after finishing that, I started on the Old Testament.

http://www.challies.com/sites/all/files/attachments/professor-grant-horners-bible-reading-system.pdf

This is what I use. It's not as hard as it seems.

shine0728 said:

Hello. After the recent passing of my grandmother, a devout prayer warrior, I would like to read my bible but I don't know where or how to start. Any suggestions?

Thanks.

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Hi shine,

I encourage you in the way that you are going. There are several good bible reading plans available on the net. One that I've used begins by having you read the letter of 1 John for 7 days straight. It is a great letter and it does give so much understanding of the love, mercy and justice of our Father.

You can never know the Scriptures too well, but there are many who don't put effort into knowing the one who loves them more deeply than any human love can comprehend. I would also enourage you to read Psalm 1 for 7 days. If there is any short and sweet instruction for how the righteous should live, psalm 1 is it! It expresses blessings from our Father for those who meditate on God's law day and night. For those for whom the instructions and the confidence of our Father's love is thought of constantly throughout the day.

God bless you.
In Christ, Ted

shine0728 said:

Hello. After the recent passing of my grandmother, a devout prayer warrior, I would like to read my bible but I don't know where or how to start. Any suggestions?

Thanks.

Click to expand...

Just like with most books, it would be best to start at the beginning.

I would suggest to start reading through the Bible at three places, with a chapter each of those three places every day.

Genesis through Job
Psalms through Malachi
Matthew through Revelation

Make sure you pray before and after reading the Bible. Pray for understanding and God's leading. I would start with John, then Genesis and then Acts. Eventually I would recommend you read through the entire Bible. Also, I would recommend reading a chapter a day from Proverbs for the rest of your life. There are about as many chapters in Proverbs as there are days in a month.

Something personal I do that is by no way mandated is I ask God before reading to "tell me something". Since it's His word I see this as the primary way He will talk to me.

The other posters have given wonderful advice. Definitely start with the Net Testament and the life of Christ.

IMO I would start with Matthew, Mark, Luke or John... Leaning about Jesus is very important, he is the only way to salvation. There is alot of things in the OT that no longer applies because of Jesus. I'm not saying it is not important to read OT too, but you will have a better understanding of what does and does not apply if you read the NT first.

I'm not saying this is for everyone but when I decided to start reading the Bible I started with Genesis and read through Revelation. I did that twice before I started skipping around and reading books out of order. As I said that may not work for everyone, but it worked for me!

Audio bible works for me, I have the ESV and KJV versions on my celphone. I often use ESV as easier to undertand. I can play it all day long or all night long, basically whenever I can. At times, I do both audio and reading same versions together - more sweet.

I would start in Matthew continuing on up to Revelation, then The old testament from start to finish, then repeat all.

I would do it by book at a time so I can understand the context. And I would avoid just picking out verses out of context which can easily be done with the bible (book).

If you have a smart phone, Google an app called YouVersion, which is a bible app with a variety of translations (including the ESV) and reading plans. You'll get a reminder message everyday and you can catch up on missed days at the press of a button. Each day's readings are taken from both the Old and New Testaments and Psalms and can be read directly from your phone. I've used it for the last couple of years. My phone's always with me so I don't have to cart a Bible around all day or on visits, and I've yet to find a suit with a pocket for a full sized ESV Study Bible.

*Edit: You can even get the app to read the text to you. Everything is FREE by the way.

I began by reading the NT, then reading the OT. I found that the OT is full of history and beautiful poetry that thrilled me and I saw God's hand in the NT. Nothing in the NT is contrary to the OT except the sacrificing. I reread the NT and found it had more meaning to me. Now I just love to read the Bible.