part 1 of “Nuts and Bolts: Bible Basics”
Why read the Bible? It’s so old and out of date. The Bible is just a bunch of rules. A list of dos and don’ts. The Bible is old-fashioned. The Bible was written so long ago it can’t be relevant to us now. Why read the Bible? The Bible is boring and really isn’t all that interesting.
These are some of the things that have been said about the Bible. But really when it comes to reading the Bible, it just depends on how you look at it.
We all have read other books. These books are older, newer, or somewhere in between. There are classics like A Call of The Wild, A Tale of Two Cities, Moby Dick, 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Chronicles of Narnia, and many more. There is the Harry Potter series, The Hunger Games series, The Maze Runner series, and many newer book series. When we read these books, we are looking to be taken away into a different world. We get to know the characters and we can get brought into their storylines and we can be happy for them or sad for them. We go on an adventure with the characters.
There are also inspirational books, do-it-yourself books, self-help books, and many other books. We read these books to help us. Whether the book is an inspirational one where we get some uplifting and encouraging words. Maybe the book is a do-it-yourself one and you are just trying to figure out how to fix the car or put up a shelf. Maybe it’s a self-help book. How to help you with your relationships, be a better leader, be more efficient, use your time better, help people, think more positively, and others. Then within those broader categories of books are smaller ones that have to do with more specific things, like parenting, dating, marriage, and so on.
While all of these books are good to read and good to have because it’s good to know other thoughts on the different subjects. All of this kind of stuff can be found in just one book… the Bible.
The Bible is full of stories within one big story. Stories of action. Stories of heartbreak. Stories of fear. Stories of redemption. Stories of rescue. The Bible is full of characters to follow and learn about and see how they lived life. Just to name a few, David, Moses, Joesph, Adam and Eve, Gideon, Jonah, Daniel, Matthew, Luke, John, Jesus, God, and so many more. The Bible is full of self-help information. The Bible is full of parenting, dating, and marriage advice. The Bible is full of inspirational thoughts and encouragements.
In the book of 2 Timothy, Paul writes what the words of Scripture are useful for
“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,” - 2 Timothy 3:16 NIV
Paul says that Scripture is God-breathed. The Bible is the word of God. The words in the Bible are His words. The words were written down by people but came from God. He goes on to say that Scripture is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training.
Scripture teaches us how to live life and what to do in situations. Scripture teaches us what to say and how to act. Scripture also teaches us what is true. In the last series, we talked about Scriptural truths that will help us fight off the enemy when he tries to get a seat at our table. If we don’t read the Bible we can’t get those truths planted in our minds.
The Bible also does what all of the inspirational and self-help books do. The Bible corrects us and trains us. When we go to those self-help or inspirational books, we are looking for help on how to correct something, do something better, or change a behavior. This is what the Bible does. The Bible will us pointers and help us move forward in a good way.
When we look to inspirational books we are looking for uplifting words of encouragement or a clever saying to take through our day. The Bible is full of inspirational things. There are verses to memorize and hang on to that provide inspiration. There are stories of inspiration as well. There are characters in the Bible that can inspire us as well.
When it comes to reading the Bible, it just depends on how you look at it.
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