The Bible
I’m a born-again Christian. I asked Jesus into my life at the age of 8, and I can tell you, I have seen some remarkable things happen – in my life and in others. However I never really got into the Bible. I loved the Gospels, and had read most of Paul’s letters, but the Old Testament daunted me. The books were long, sometimes full of Laws I didn’t understand, wars between nations I couldn’t pronounce and so on. I’d read Genesis, lots of Psalms and some Proverbs – as well as Esther and Ruth, but not the others. But I have to say, two things changed for me this month:
- I learnt about the Old Testament: about the history, its geography, key figures, and where the prophets are chronologically. I found a great diagram for this:
- I downloaded an audio Bible. There are several places where you can do this, but I used this site. This will not replace my physical Bible, but it is great because I can listen to Bible while doing things such as getting dressed.
For me, this has not been a good month for reading – I haven’t been well and now I’m working I’m really busy, however I have read several books of the Bible that I hadn’t read before. To me, that is more important as it is helping me in Christian growth and my walk with God.
There are some books that I have which have helped unpack the Old Testament, and have helped me see Jesus in those books:
- Let’s Read the Old Testament by Raymond Edmund Brown
- How to Read the Bible Book by Book by Fee and Stuart
- The Bible Jesus Read by Philip Yancey
- The Ancient Love Song by Charles D. Drew
I really enjoy How To Read the Bible, that has helped me so much with my understanding and improved my study.
What a great chart for remembering and placing in a time-line all the prophets. Reading can be difficult when you’re ill, I agree, although I don’t know why that is. You seem to have picked up in your reading a bit judging from your latest post. Enjoy your Bible reading. You have a nice blog here.