1.2 – Your Experience with the Bible

[Greg]

Early experience with the bible was before coming to Christ people would quote scripture to me to try and get me to evaluate how I was living. It was annoying and pushed me farther from them at that time in my life. After coming to Christ I love reading the bible as a story and learning what others have gone through and how God has come through so many times. It is the best encouragement I can get. God takes the least and makes them the most as He does amazing and miraculous things with them in this world.

I like to look up information on specific topics in the bible to help me navigate issues or trials I find myself in and to get direction on what type of person i am supposed to be as I go through the trials. What should be coming out of my heart and does what i feel and do reflect the image of God I see in the scriptures?

[Cailey]

I fully believe that the Bible is the living word of God and that is how I read it. I go through spurts of reading certain chapters, different books, and asking God to show me what he wants me to see. I’ve never had a set way of reading the Bible because I believe God is always revealing different things to me through the Bible & that doesn’t come from specific order.

Reading the Bible as one big story about Jesus changes the narrative of the Bible and shows the the true love of God who sent his only Son Jesus to die for our sins. If you read the Bible as an instructional book it is more difficult to see a common theme throughout the Bible, Love. That is our true mission on earth to love God and love our neighbors ( Mark 12:30-31).

[Bradley]

I like to ready the Bible in sections, trying to understand the full context of the text. At times while studying for a specific topic, I will ping pong around a bit, but generally I like reading the Bible in chunks.

I have long believed that the bible points to Jesus as one grand story of God’s love for us, and I agree with the point that while yes, there are instructions in it, it is all the more about showing us God’s heart for his creation, and his desire to redeem each one of us!

[Caitlin]

My experience with the Bible at first was as a teenager and as I went to Youth Group and Church I got hungrier to discover more on who God was and who he was to me. Now, I read it for many reasons, to learn & grow personally, to continue to discover who God is and letting the Holy Spirit speak to me through scripture.

Years ago I was taught that it was like a library with many authors in one book. That simplified the understanding of the Bible and who wrote it and how it became. When I talk to people who don’t understand what the Bible is, I explain it just like that, its a story of Gods redemptive plan.