The Bible
The Bible is actually a collection of 66 books
and letters.
39 of them were written for Jews before Jesus
was born. The other 27 were written for Christians after Jesus died.
Somewhere in the 4th century AD, the
Christian leaders of that time gathered all the different writings and letters
together.
From those they selected the 66 that we have
now as being genuine and bound them together into one collection “The Bible”.
The first 39 are called the Old Testament, that means the old covenant, or old contract.
They were written by a whole bunch of guys
ranging from Moses (around 1400BC) through to King David (1000BC) and on to
Malachi (400BC). There is a lot of Jewish history there, some poetry, songs, and
some interesting prophecy.
It’s basically God’s story from the
time he made the world up until just before Jesus was born.
The last 27 are called the New
Testament, the new covenant, new contract. Jesus basically wrote a new contract
and now God is dealing with people in a different way than he did before.
They were written by another bunch of
guys from around Jesus’ time. Most of them would have seen Jesus walking around
Israel. A lot of the New Testament “books” are actually letters that people
wrote to churches or individuals throughout that part of Asia (what we now call
Turkey).
It’s basically the story of Jesus and
the church. There are a lot of letters that explain a few things, and right at
the end there is a revelation that one of Jesus’ disciples received about the
end of the world. That one can be a bit hard to understand but it’s interesting reading. And once you get the bigger picture
of what God is doing with Israel and the church, it sort of falls into place.
If you’re not sure where to start, then
read Mark or Luke. They have the stories of Jesus’ life on Earth and they’re
fairly interesting places to start.
When you read, remember which part of
the Bible it came from. Things that apply to Jews don’t necessarily apply to
Christians, so it’s easy to get confused sometimes.
Even in the New Testament, the stories
from when Jesus was on Earth are sometimes about him talking with Jews.
Read the Bible as often as you have
time. If you can read 4 chapters a day you can read the whole thing in one year.
Paul said that you can only understand
spiritual truth if the Holy Spirit reveals it to you. So if you find that
something is confusing or unclear… just wait. One day the Holy Spirit will make
it clear to you. But be patient.
The other thing that will help you will
be Bible study with other Christians. Probably your church will organise those
for you. If not, ask your friends, or people you respect and one of them will
find something for you.
This is a good way to get to know the
Bible better. After all, it’s the only book we have where God reveals to us what
he is really like. The Bible is your best way to get to know God.
Your Bible study group will also get to
know you pretty well and make friends with you. They will be a great support for
you as a young Christian (and for old Christians too!).
The other really great thing to do with
the Bible is to memorise it. The Navigators have a really cool “starter kit”
called the Topical Memory System. It has scripture cards and a study booklet to
help you memorise some of the most common and most useful Bible verses. I really
recommend it. Even better, do it with a friend. And you can always make your own
with business card paper and a printer.
So, read it, study it, memorise it,
talk about it, and most of all… apply it to your life.
The Bible is one book that really can
change your life.
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