Getting into God's Word

God promises to speak to us in his Word, the Bible.  He says it is able to make us wise for salvation and thoroughly equip us for every good work (1 Tim 3:15-17).   The Pslamist says: How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Psalm 119:103.  If we desire to grow in knowing God, we need to feed on his word.  As Jesus said: "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'" Matthew 4:4

Therefore it is a helpful thing to try and regularily read the Bible, to nourish and grow us in Christ. We can do this in groups or individually. 

Reading the Bible in groups

We have groups that meet each week during school time called Growth Groups and Prayer Triplets.   

Reading the Bible ourselves

To help us read the Bible ourselves, here are some ideas.

1. Use a good translation.  We suggest the NIV (New International Version). It is reasonably literal and easy to read.  If reading isn't your favourite thing and you find it a little hard, maybe try the CEV (Contemporary English Version).  If you really want to push yourself try the NASB (New American Standard Bible.  It feels wooden as you read it, but that is because it is more literal.

2. Find a quiet place away from distractions.

3. Try and develop a habit.  Try and read the same time of the day, with something else you have to do.  For example when you wake up, eat lunch, come home from work, straight after dinner.  Since we have to do certain things, it helps to develop a habit by connecting Bible reading with these regular activities.  Work out what suits you.

4. Start of with a small goal and build up. For example, aim for reading 1-2 times a week for 15 mins, and then build in frequencey and perhaps length. If you read and pray for 30 mins the first time, you are less likely to repeat it, as it feels too much.

5. Be accountable. Perhaps ask a friend to ask you how you're going.

Here are a few methods to try.  Remember, throughout life, variety helps.

·          Pray- ask God to help you as you read

·          Read the passage.  To start, try a NT book e.g. Colossians, Philippians, Galatians, 1 Peter.

·          Think- often easy to skip over.  Often having some questions to help is good. 

     Eg 1. You could use ask what the passage says about:

                   God

              Jesus

              People

              Salvation

              Living the Christian life

    Eg 2. What should change in my thinking or behaviour?

                   Eg 3: “SPACEPETS”

               Is there any…    

                   Sin to confess?                 

                   Promise to trust?     

                   Attitude to change? 

             Command to obey?                               

                   Example to follow?                                

            Prayer to pray?

                   Error to avoid?

                   Truth to believe?

                   Something to thank God for?

·          Pray about things in the passage that you read in the Bible.  As God speaks to us in his Word, we speak in response to him, in prayer.

Other resources/ideas

·    Search the Scriptures (A. M Stibbs).  This has a few questions to answer for each passage in the bible. An excellent resource.

·    Take notes as you read

·    Revise sermons- take notes on Sunday, and look over them on Monday or Tuesday.

·    For the Love of God (Don Carson). Could get this at Koorong Book Shop.

·    Matthias Media has several good resources. Go to Matthias Media: www.matthiasmedia.com.au on the left side, there is the tab 'The Daily Reading Bible', or 'The Pathway Bible Guides.  These are trustworthy and good. Another way is subscribing to 'The Briefing', again on the left tab, which comes monthly and has bible reading questions that go for 20 days (each issue).  The magazine is also really good (so you get 2 good things in the one magazine).                                 

·    Seven Ways to Get excited by the bible (Rick Warren). see Koorong.

·    Bible in a year- there are methods set down to help you do this. For an example of a 1 year plan, click here. Or a if you want a plan to read the Bible in 3 Years click here.

Reading the Bible with your family 

Here are some ideas on reading the Bible together with your spouse and children.

As the head of his family, a husband should be aiming to present his wife as holy, like Christ did the church (Eph 5:21-31) and a father should be bringing up his children in the fear of the Lord (Eph 6:4). Both of these are going to involve reading/teaching God’s Word. And so as husband we need to lead our families by getting them into the Bible. 

As we keep doing this there will be formal times, and also informal teaching in daily life (Deut 6).  And with the formal part, variety will be good, and with children, changing things so they are age appropriate.

1. With our spouses

·      It maybe a good way of setting aside say 20 minutes, once a week (aim low is better than grand plans that don’t develop into a habit). 

·      Choose a time in the week that is likely to have as little chance of distraction.  Turn the TV off, be away from the kids (if possible), don’t answer the phone. 

·      If possible, aim for the same day and time each week, so that over a couple of months it develops into habit.  Say for example, if you commonly go to be at 10.30pm, then work out if you will get ready for bed first, or read and get ready for bed?  Where are you going to read?  Will you do it first thing in the morning, or just after dinner?

·      Try something that has lots of application and will be easier to understand, and not too long. Eg a letter in the NT, like say 1 Timothy. 

·      Each time

              - pray, asking our Father to help us

              - read the bible for say 2 minutes (could use the NIV headings as a break-up)

              - work out what it’s saying, but don’t get hung up on detail.

                       You could ask: what does the passage say about:

                       1. God   2. Jesus  3. Us    4. Something to change in our belief  5.  Something                        to do/not do. 6.  Something to thank God for

              - pray about what you got from the passage (1 min)

              - have a brief list of some other things to pray for. Eg For your kids if you have them.                   for non-believers you are reaching out to. For other suggestions see Prayers.

              - Try and keep the prayers focussed on things that the bible is focussed on. 

Try not to make it go longer than say 20 mins, so that it doesn’t feel such a big thing next time.         

Keep it simple and if there is something you don’t get from the passage and you want to, then ask someone from church what they reckon, or GG or a Pastor.  Once you have gone through a letter in the bible, you could do another one, or choose a different book of the Bible.  Try choose shorter ones initially or do part of a gospel, so that you are encouraged by getting through books, rather than getting bogged down.

2. With your kids

• Work out whether it you will read in the morning with them, or at night. 
• As they get older you could do it both times. 
• Again it is important to keep it short.  We pray first, then read the bible (5 mins) and then read another book they choose (e.g. something they enjoy)
• Be careful which bible you use, as one we bought actually distorted it a lot.
• When they are very young (about 2 years old, I think), we found the The Lion First Bible helpful.  We read one story each night, and said a short prayer.  We kept going through the bible several times, as they get more out of it each time (as they are that much older).  This helps them get the stories into their head, and as they get older they can start piecing it together.  With prayers we got them starting to say: Sorry (for 1 thing), Thank you (for 1 thing) and Please (for 1 thing).  And then I would pray.  We also split up who read with whom (Belinda or Connan).
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• When they were a little older, we then moved to a more detailed The Lion Children's Bible.  Again we just kept reading it through doing a story a night.  As they grew, we got through this Bible a few times. 
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• A very helpful bible that we have also used with our three is The Big Picture Story Bible.  It is very clever in not just telling the stories but giving the meaning as well. It has pieced together the main message through the Bible.  It is very very good.  And especially as the children have gone through the stories and are familiar to them, they will start to piece it together.  And I reckon many adults will find it helpful too. 
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• As we read when the children are around 7 years and older, I try and make one comment about what it means for us- what it says about God, or about us, or how God keeps his promises.
• Also we have used for variety XTB- eXplore The Bible.  It is good for kids around 7+ years.  It has some activities in it for them to do.  When they started we sat and helped them do it.  Then as they’ve got older they could do it themselves, but we have still been there to talk about what they got out of it.

• We also read the bible for 5 minutes max at Breakfast.  We do it altogether, as I eat.  We use ‘Table Talk’.  And it seems to work with kids of 5 years and older.  Again it is all there.  I am make it short and sweet.  It’s developing a habit.  You can get this posted to you and are several different issues available. 

• Another book for kids around 8 years old is a book that pulls different topics together (theology).  It’s called ‘Leading Little Ones to God’ by Marian M Schoolland (and alternate bookshop with free delivery  and is often cheaper than Australian bookshops is The Book Depository).  The book is a little dated and a few things that are a little dodgy, but overall it is excellent.  I didn’t do all the songs, but it did give us something to talk about and gives our kids a way of pulling the bible together.  I think I will do it again with our kids after about 2 years (as again they will get so much more the second time round).  Also variety is good.  We used this at night time.  You can get it from Moore Books Phone Number (02) 9577-9966.
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We keep teaching our children God’s Word so that they may know him.  And this will also fit in with the casual chats in life about Jesus.  We want their minds to be filled with God’s word not just the other stuff they take in.

We hope this helps

Connan