The Bible is such a huge book: wherever do you start? We all know it is good for us, but then so were cabbages, according to Mum.
So we stick with the familiar and read some of the New Testament, but very little of the Old. And we often find that the place we most often read the Bible is in church, or else at our Bible study group. (I meant to read the passage we are studying before I came tonight, but never seemed to get around to it.)
This is where Matthias Media's new resource may provide some help. Six Steps to Reading Your Bible is a six week series, centred around a DVD of talks and skits which are designed to help us think through what the Bible is, why it is worth reading and how we may best go about it.
The course includes helpful tips on how to get started on this journey and each session provides the group with passages for study with your fellow course members, as well as an assignment of five passages to read on your own in the following week, using the new insights you have gained during the session you have completed.
These assignments are graded, and begin with the potentially familiar (Mark and Psalms), then continue through passages from Ephesians, Romans, Leviticus and Hebrews. I like the way that the Romans readings have been organised to teach participants that the context of a passage helps us to understand its meaning. The pairing of the Leviticus and Hebrews readings shows how the parts of the Bible complement one another.
Most of the five or six minute videos include a skit which illustrates how not to read the Bible, as well as containing a short talk with useful information on how to get more out of our reading. One of the most pertinent points made was that we should read the Bible using the same skills we use in reading other books, but also that we must read it humbly and prayerfully in a way that we read no other book.
In the second session, Tony Payne, the presenter reminds us that creating a habit takes time, and that this short six week course could begin this habit for us, if we follow the guidelines that are laid down in the talks and booklet provided.
The course introduces recommended resources which may assist us in getting to know God better through reading his word, which include Matthias Media's own Bible Overview DVD and their Daily Reading Bible series, as well as The New Bible Dictionary and New Bible Commentary.
In the appendix there is a reading plan which would enable you to read through the whole Bible in two and a half years, by reading two chapters per day. The chart headings divide the Bible up into the genres of Law, Prophets, Writings, Gospels and Epistles, but confusingly mix these up at times so that Zechariah is listed among the Gospels, Esther is located in the Epistles section, and Ezekiel is labelled as Law.
Michael Coley's plan for reading through the Bible in one year also takes you through by genre, is easier to follow, and may be downloaded here.
