The Bible – What Is It For?

 

So, what’s the Bible all about then?

Is it a history book? A guidebook? A source of wisdom? An instruction book on how to be a Christian? A hoax? How do we use it? What is it FOR??

We were discussing it last week on the Alpha course and there were lots of things said about it but most interesting was the admission that many of us (there on the course, I don’t mean generally) don’t actually look in the Bible other than when we have to do a reading in Church, or when we want to look up something, or perhaps find something to support an argument we are having at that particular moment. All very good, but do we use it properly?

I admit that I have read versions of the Bible as a child and as a young adult, but those were in formats that were little more than storybook formats and since then I haven’t really read it with any sort of studiousness. I found I’m not alone in that and we found that it was a common issue that we just don’t know how to read it, or when to read it, or what to read in it. We don’t mind reading it at all, it’s just that we don’t know how to use it for maximum effect. We don’t know how to begin – what do we do with the bits we read? How do we connect them together to mean something to us in our own lives? Where do we stop reading?

I have been to Bible study groups before but always found that my own thoughts were usually crowded out by other people, or that my views became changed by what others saw before I had chance to consolidate my own and therefore think about things deeper. I don’t think I’m alone in that particular problem!

Eddie our minister said he has signed up for the Scripture Union daily bible reading and has it delivered to his email inbox every day and suggested that we have a look and see if it is useful to us as well. I went in search of it last night, and signed up right away. I got my first reading overnight but because I didn’t think about it I didn’t realise it went to my junk folder. Oops!

I have retrieved it now and wanted to share with you this fantastic resource if, like me, you find yourself not sure what to do with your Bible. The Scripture Union people promise to give you a pertinent reading each day and it helps you go deeper into the text – both in terms of what it means and how you can apply its lesson to your own life.

You will find them here. I can’t wait to see what effect it has on the way I use my Bible from now on. Will I find it to be a guidebook? Or something more than that?

Time will tell!!