Day 1: Overwhelmed

“Read your Bible.”  Any church you go to will tell you the same thing (but few will teach you how to do it).  Central to our journey of faith is the regular reading of Scriptures.  So, you know… “Read your Bible.”

This statement is often met by a few different reactions, frustration, discouragement, and anxiety.  The Bible is no joke!  If you are brand new to reading the Bible it can feel immediately overwhelming.  “Where do I start?” “What if I don’t understand?” “How do I know I’m reading it right?”  These are only a few of the questions.  Maybe you’ve tried before multiple times and given up because it just didn’t make sense.  Stop right there!  Before you get worked up, it’s normal.  The Bible is a book made up of 66 other books, from writers that covered nearly 1300 years, filled with people you’ve never met, about places you’ve never been, filled with words you might not be able to pronounce.  BUT…we’ve got to start somewhere.  

The Bible is called the “Living Word” because we believe it breathes life into the community of faith.  We believe its pages contain God’s self-revelation (how we get to know Him).  We believe it’s one of the key elements of a healthy, growing Christian faith.  Our task over the next six weeks is to try to shed some light on the Bible, hopefully, helping you gain confidence in turning to the pages of Scripture for the purposes of encouragement, hope, conviction, transformation, and life.

Before we begin, I want you to write down some of the concerns and worries you have about this journey.  You can do this in a journal, in the notes section on your phone, on this blog, or wherever you can keep track.  It will be important to refer back to these worries from time to time and watch as some of them are stripped away over the next 6 weeks.

Let’s start somewhere:
First, just a little familiarity.  The Bible is made up of 2 sections called (Testaments – Covenants).  There is an Old Testament.  This is the history of the people of God up to (but not including) the birth of Jesus.  The New Testament focuses on the life, death, resurrection of Jesus and the growth of the community of Jesus followers called the church.  Time wise, we would say that the New Testament covers the 1st Century AD.  The Old Testament is BC.

These 2 Testaments comprise of dozens of smaller units, some are letters, others are stories, collections of wise sayings, poems, and prophecies.  We will go into detail on each of these types of literature later in this series.  However, there are 39 smaller units in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament.  Each unit has a name, chapters, and those chapters have verses.  For instance, if I say look up John 1:42.  That means, you will go to the table of contents, discover John is a book in the New Testament, look at Chapter 1 and verse 42.

Today let’s turn our attention to Luke Chapter 1.  Luke is a book called a “Gospel.”  Its primary function is to tell the story of Jesus.  First pray…ask God to help you.  Second, read Chapter 1.  If something grabs you in this chapter, stop, take note, underline it, or write something down about.  Third, what’s happening in this passage?  Who are the characters?  What do you understand?  What don’t you understand?  What is one word, phrase, or moment in the chapter that sticks out to you?  Don’t worry…we will move on from here and you will grow in confidence.