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You Don't Have to be Intimidated By the Bible

"For nothing will be impossible with God." And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

Luke 1:37–38

Watch Week One: Understanding the Bible

Have you ever picked up the Bible and felt lost in the massive text in front of you? The Bible is both God’s story and his Word to his people, but when you read a verse or a chapter, do you understand what he is saying?

As we go through this study together, we want to help give you a big picture of what each part of the Bible means and give you a better understanding of how to approach it. First and foremost, you are not alone in navigating this big book of Scripture. Each word was written by humans but was inspired by God. This means that God, through the Holy Spirit, commissioned human authors to write his Word. Therefore, as you dive into Scripture, ask him to speak to you. God has given you the Holy Spirit as your helper, and he will not leave you with his story in your hands without a guide to help you understand it. As you open your Bible, ask the Holy Spirit to lead you.

The Bible allows us to see God’s presence throughout history. From the first words of creation until today, a pattern within humanity of fellowship-rebellion-exile-restoration has repeated itself. Seeing this same pattern in our own lives, we come to terms with the reality that our struggles are universal and there is only one redeemer capable of rescue. The Bible is one big story of God rescuing his people.

The Story of Scripture

The basic story line of the Bible is:

  • Creation: God created everything, and he had a plan.
  • The Fall: Humans screwed it up. We wanted to go our own way, and selfishness spread to all humanity, which means every single person is born into sin. There is an enemy that spoke into that selfishness and speaks into our lives today.
  • Flood: There was judgment and a flood—a reset where Noah and the animals survived. Given the chance, humanity again completely screwed it up. But God redeemed the story with a chosen people.
  • Covenant people through Israel: He began a new story through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. A baby is born to Abraham in his old age and that baby would be the seed that would eventually lead to Jesus.
  • Jesus the Messiah: Jesus, the Messiah, is born into the people of Israel. He put the sins of the earth on his shoulders and died for our sins so we could live forever with God.
  • The Church: Today, the church is the family of God. All those who have trusted in Jesus. That church is supposed to be about one thing: giving the great hope of Jesus away.
  • Our Hope: There is a future hope that is coming. We’re going to be with Jesus forever in the new heavens and new earth. We are the family of God. So, our purpose here is joining the story of God and giving it away.

From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible tells this story, but when you open up the table of contents and see sixty-six different books, how do they all fit together? What order are they in and why? Whether you are new to the Bible—or you just need help remembering how it all fits together—we are going to give you a big overview of the books of the Bible so that you know how to understand what you’re reading when you open this big book.

We live in between Jesus revealed and Jesus returning. With the Bible, we hold in our hands God’s expression of the full arc of his grace, and our most useful tool for both getting to know God and discovering our calling. Thanks be to God.

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How to Read Your Bible

Daily Question

Both the Old and New Testaments show us nothing is a surprise to God. How does knowing that nothing can derail God’s story (Romans 8:38 and Hebrews 12:28) motivate you to love and study your Bible more?

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Comments (17)

God’s love for me is so big! I want to know more about why and How He can love us like that when we continue to sin. I’m thankful for His grace and mercy everyday.

It gives me hope knowing that God’s plan for me is already set. It makes me eager to study all the greatness He has done in the past, and know I can completely trust Him and know that everything will fall into place in my life according to His timing.

It leads my heart back to what (whom) is the most important in life. He is so good and do worthy to be praised. He deserves our utmost.

Knowing that He is the same from beginning to end and in control, makes me want to seek Him more. If I slack off, I can feel Him chasing me down! His unfailing, never ending love is amazing 🙂

I feel like knowing that nothing I have done can derail His story, will allow me to know I am worthy enough to study and learn His word. I often feel like I am inadequate or not smart enough to understand, so why read? I get most of the word from sermons/songs/conversations. I know reading the Bible is one of my biggest weaknesses. Often times, I want to read and study the Bible, but I feel I fall short. I pray that knowing my life is adequate and won’t derail what He wants to do in my life, I can rest easy and give myself grace.

Hey Haley,

I totally understand what you are saying, it can feel overwhelming and impossible…where do I start?

I think it is a trick of the enemy to make us feel this way, because is says so many places in scripture that being "wise" by the worlds standards doesn’t give you any edge when it comes to understanding God’s word…I take great comfort in the fact that most of the amazing people in the Bible we not the smartest, most well-educated people but rather the simple, humble, work-class normal people…the Holy Spirit did his work on them to give them understanding of His word and His ways, and He will do his work on us too, if we ask Him to!!

The Grace God gives us we are to extend to others, (and to ourselves!)
Looking forward to this study,

Thanks for sharing!

Haley –
I, too, haven’t really known where to start when it comes to the Bible. Since I was told it had all the answers, I felt even worse when I didn’t understand some things….which is why I am here. Learning how to read it. 🙂
I do find peace knowing God’s got this . . . and am excited to learn more about Him, his love for me and the grace and forgiveness he has for all of us.

Karen –
It does feel very overwhelming. I am with you on that. Hopefully this study will teach us both. I am so excited about it. Yes!!! God’s got this! He led us here, so we are in the right place.?

Yikes! ONLY GOD can give you GRACE you can’t give yourself GRACE! You are making a GOD of your own making if you don’t study HIS WORD and only get His word from songs and sermons those are man’s interpretation! The almighty GOD of the universe gave you HIS WORDS ask the Holy Spirit to lead you into all truth by reading HIS WORD! Otherwise you can be decieved! The enemy doesn’t want you to read GODS WORD! GOD will help you understand. Read a version like the NIV or something you can understand. Compare different versions easy ones like the Easy to Read version compare it to the King James and the Holy Spirit will give you understanding. Just ask your Heavenly Father ❤️

I guess reading HIS WORD helps us to know what to expect in the world Therefore nothing takes us by surprise and causes us to be afraid of the weird things happening around us. It is a comfort because we know GOD is in control. We are safe in HIS HANDS noatter what happens to us!

I guess reading HIS WORD helps us to know what to expect in the world Therefore nothing takes us by surprise and causes us to be afraid of the weird things happening around us. It is a comfort because we know GOD is in control. We are safe in HIS HANDS no matter what happens to us! Because it’s written in HIS WORD! But we MUST READ IT to know! If we don’t read it we are clueless like the rest of the world!

I think that knowing nothing, not even me, can derail God’s story is a powerful truth to cling too. That even in my free will, God’s story will be accomplished is ? yet so simple. I like how Jo put it,"following Jesus is simple, but hard." So knowing that nothing is going to stop God’s story and seeing that evidence through His Word motivates me.

We are the ones who get surprised, but God has a purpose in everything.

His kingdom can’t be shaken, and our LORD is the same, never changing. Therefore, knowing about His mighty works as written in the Bible and throughout history, we can rest assured that He is still at work. The LORD is faithful to His promises and worthy to be trusted.

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