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7 Habits For Effective Bible Reading
7 Habits For Effective Bible Reading
7 Habits For Effective Bible Reading
A little booklet for getting big results from your Bible study
This ebooklet is for you, if: You believe the Bible is the word of God You sometimes struggle to hear God talking in it It will show you a simple but powerful method for finding valuable lessons in you Bible. You can apply this method to any passage, chapter, or verse. Even if you are an experienced reader, it will make your reading more rewarding, profitable and effective. If your reading is more effective, you will find you understand God more and find more lessons and guidance about how to really live the Christian life. Something we all want to do, but need help with. And thats exactly what the Bible is there for.
David Barnes
sometimes we only see the hard bits. We invest all our brains in working on those bits, and the obvious stuff slips by. And since we dont even feel like we understand the hard bits it ends up very frustrating. The English is hard. There are many clear, modern translations out there now but for many of us, the Bible is still in the language of thees and thous. Even once we get around that, we have to deal with figures of speech yanked out of three different foreign languages and rammed (often clumsily) into a completely different one. Translators are only human after all. We assume that the Bible says a lot of things that it doesnt. Were brought up to believe that the Bible is full of all sorts of teachings and ideas that arent really there. Many of them are openly contradicted. We read these things, and assume that were misunderstanding or missing some vital elements. Sometimes we are (and we need to keep reading to get a complete understanding), sometimes were not (and we come to realize that we were brought up with lots of wrong ideas about what the Bible said). All of this disappointment creates an unvirtuous circle. We read it, and its hard, and we dont get much out of it. The next time we drag our Bible out and force ourselves to look inside we feel a mix of guilt and foreboding. Were not looking forward to it. Our experience tells us that we never benefit much. Approach anything with a negative attitude, and youll only get negativity out! Which means that its hardly a surprise that we dont read half as often or half as much as we intend and that in turn, of course, makes it all the harder. Promise 1: None of the seven habits to tell you to pull your socks up and just read more. Im sure youve told yourself that before. I will make sure that you have the tools to benefit when you read, so that in the end you will want to read more.
David Barnes
David Barnes
A reader that aims for understanding will immediately ignore everything that they understand easily. An effective reader knows understanding is the first step and once they understand something in the Bible, they wring all the goodness from it that they can. An effective reader makes sure that what they read has an effect on them. Paul talks about people ever learning, but never coming to a knowledge of the truth. They understand a lot but they dont really know God any better. Their reading is not effective: it has no effect on them. Promise 3: The seven habits wont give you an immediate, full understanding of everything you read. Im going to show you how to benefit from Gods word every time you read it. There are more than a lifetimes mysteries to discover. Its wise to start with the easy ones.
David Barnes
David Barnes
ideas. Take John 1:1 for example. In the beginning was the word. Where have you heard that phrase in the beginning before? Right in Genesis 1:1. Thats an echo. If you cant find echoes in the Bible, look for echoes with your own life or anything else youve experienced. 5. Confront those difficult bits. You should have pretty much ignored them so far. Now write down anything that you dont understand, that doesnt fit with what you already believe, or that just seems wrong! Write them down, think about them for a while but dont feel obliged to solve them. They will still be there later. Now that youve written them down, you may find yourself more open to hearing a solution in future reading or study. Be patient as you keep reading, and over time you will come to understand many of these. Finally, its time to draw conclusions about what youve read. If you follow the five habits above then youll learn a lot but its the next two that will help you really come to a knowledge of the truth. 6. Learn about God and Jesus. If you dont learn about God and his son, whats the point of reading? Does the passage reveal anything about Gods character? If Jesus Christ is in it, what do you learn about him? 7. Find a practical lesson for yourself. The Bible is there to transform you. Is there anything in the passage that will help God transform you into a better disciple, if you accept it? For each stage, write down what you find but remember that the last two are the most important. Youll find as you work through these steps that each one builds on what you found in the last. If youd looked at the chapter and tried to find a practical lesson straight away, would you have found anything so profound? No.
David Barnes
After reading, go back over it and try to get an overall feel for what the passage is saying Flick back and forth a few chapters, see if any themes pop out Pick out your favourite bit the verse or verses that are most interesting Any juicy echoes or difficult bits? A quick read isnt the best time for this kind of detailed study, but sometimes they leap out Whats God telling you about himself? Remember that today! Whats God telling you about what you should do? Remember that too! Thats all! Now get your Bible out and do it.
What to do next
If you are looking for other resources to help you then please visit my blog at 7biblehabits.blogspot.com, where Ill be God Willing posting related resources such as bookmarks and workbooks, as well as posts on Biblical and religious topics. You will also find the most up to date version of this ebooklet there. http://7biblehabits.blogspot.com/ You can also contact me through this blog.
7 Habits for Effective Bible Reading v. 0.1 Please pass this along to anybody who you think would find it useful. Let me know what you think of it at http://7biblehabits.blogspot.com/