The Gift of Reading the Bible in its Entirety
Blog Post, December 17, 2021, by Jay Harris
The gift of reading the Bible in its entirety
Reading the Bible is a means of encountering God and being transformed by the encounter. By reading the Bible we are able to read what God has said and the record of what God has done in human history. Best of all, God continues to speak through the Bible and to act in the lives of those who read it. Be warned, though, the Bible is not just a neat and tidy catalogue of life lessons. It is much richer than that. The amazing variety within scripture is one of the features that make the Bible so rewarding to read. After all, the Bible is not just one book, but a diverse collection of sixty-six books. Within these books there are many stories, and interspersed among these true stories are laws, histories, sermons, teachings, poems, songs, proverbs, prophecies, gospels, letters, parables, visions, and, yes, some genealogies and census findings thrown in.
What you have in this is the evidence of a real, continuing encounter between God and many generations of people. It is out of this continuing encounter that an overarching epic story emerges. This is the story of God and God’s people that runs through the Bible. The people in the Bible are often deeply flawed, so this is a story of conflict and redemption. It is also a story of relentless love as God perseveres with these flawed people. We all love a plot like this in a story. The plot takes us on a journey. The only way to experience the full sweep, scope, and depth of the biblical story is to read the Bible in its entirety. This is the epic story waiting to be read, but there is also a story waiting to be written.
The story waiting to be written is the story of your transformation as you immerse yourself in God’s Word. The ultimate immersion experience comes when someone chooses to read the Bible in its entirety. The following list presents just some of the ways you can be transformed:
Depth of Understanding
o From relying on soundbites to having a broad understanding of scripture
Navigating Life in the World (Romans 12:1-2)
o From conforming to the world to your mind being renewed, discerning the will of God
The Search for Truth (2 Timothy 3:14-17; 4:1-5)
o From accumulating opinions to suit your own desires to being armed with truth and sound teaching
Strengthening Your Inner Core (Psalm 1)
o From being chaff that is blown to the wind to being a tree planted by streams of water, bearing fruit
Intimacy with God through God’s Word (Jeremiah 31:33)
o From a second-hand connection to the God of the Bible to God’s words being internalized in one’s heart and a greater closeness to God
Connection
o From feeling lonely and alienated to being connected to a world-wide movement following the same playbook
Connection to Christ (John 15:7-11)
o From being a passive Christian to being fruitful and your joy being complete because God’s Word abides in you
Spiritual Growth
o From feeling a lack of confidence related to Bible study groups to having the ability to lead because you have read the whole Bible
Being Equipped for Life by God (2 Timothy 2:15)
o From feeling ill-equipped for your roles in life to being God’s approved, unashamed worker rightly explaining the word of truth
Those who take on the challenge of reading the whole Bible receive a priceless gift. If the prospect of reading the Bible from beginning to end sounds intimidating, though, you are not the only one. The length of the Bible is partly the reason, yet people who give up reading the Bible also read long trilogies. Another difficulty in reading the Bible lies in how far the reader is removed from the biblical world by many miles, centuries, and customs. Also, the overarching story of the Bible does not unfold naturally simply by reading the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. The reason is that the books of the Bible are not arranged in chronological order.
This is where the plot-driven guide, Layered Bible Journey, can be of help. Believe it or not, you can read the Bible in its entirety, even if you start with little or no knowledge of the Bible. Whether you use the Layered Bible Journey or not, consider reading the whole Bible to take your discipleship to the next level and to draw closer to God.
