What Bible Should I Buy?
Without getting into the complexities of all the different Bible versions on the market and why we have them, I am going to simply suggest two Bibles:
NIV (New International Version)
NLT (New Living Translation)
How Do I Navigate the Bible?
NEW TESTAMENT AND OLD TESTAMENT
If you look at the table of contents you will notice that it has two major divisions: New Testament and Old Testament. Testament just means "covenant" or "promise." The Old Testament covers the creation of the world, the fall of man, rise of a nation called Israel (God's chosen people) through a man named Abraham and the fall of Israel due to their sin. However, the Old Testament offers hope through the promise of a deliverer or Messiah in the future.
The New Testament starts with the birth, life and ministry of Jesus. Jesus is the deliverer the Old Testament promised. He is the Messiah who not only rescues Israel from their sins, but all of humanity through his death and ressurection. The rest of the New Testament is all about the birth, growth and spread of the early church.
CHAPTERS AND VERSES (BIG NUMBERS AND SMALL NUMBERS)
Unlike any book you have ever read, the Bible has big and small numbers throughout the text. The big numbers are the chapter numbers. The small numbers are called verse numbers. They are to enable students of the Bible to reference very specific points in the text. They were not in the original manuscripts of the Bible, but were put there later by Biblical scholars.
Where Do I Start Reading?
Start with Luke and then the Book of Acts. Luke is one of four gospels that tells the story of Jesus’ life. Acts is another book by Luke (the author of the Gospel of Luke) that talks about the early history of the church. Just go to your table of contents. There should be two divisions: New Testament and Old Testament. Under the New Testament section Luke is the third book of the New Testament after Matthew and Mark. Acts is the 5th book of the New Testament.
LUKE/ACTS READING PLAN
I think one of the best ways to read these two books together is by using a Bible reading plan on Bible.com by The Bible Project entitled “BibleProject Luke & Acts”. This will provide you with a daily reading plan and videos to explain what you are reading. If you commit to spend 52 days reading Luke and Acts and answer the daily questions below, I promise you that reading the Bible will become easier for you. It doesn’t mean you will understand everything in the Bible, but you will understand the basic ministry of Jesus and the early church as presented by the New Testament.
Struggle with reading or would you like visuals to help? Check out this visual storytelling of the book of Luke.
LUMO VISUAL BIBLE
Pray Before You Read
The prayer below is taken from The Bible Recap with Tara-Leigh Cobble.
Before you read God’s Word today, seek His help with these 5 prayers:
God, give me wisdom, knowledge, and understanding.
God, let any knowledge I gain serve to help me love You and others more, and not puff me up.
God, help me see something new about You I've never seen before.
God, correct any lies I believe about You or anything I misunderstand.
God, direct my steps according to Your Word.
Ask Daily Questions
It’s not only important to read the Bible, but it’s also important to understand and apply it. Each day as you read one chapter answer the following questions in a notebook:
SUMMARY
Write what you read in your own words. Use a couple of sentences to describe the stories you just studied.
DISCOVERY
What was your favorite part or verse of your reading? Why?
QUESTIONS
Write down what question(s) you may have from today’s reading. What did you not understand?
If you want to get into deeper study to try to answer your questions, a great tool is the NIV Study Bible or NLT Life Application Study Bible. These are in depth Bible study tools.
APPLICATION
What did God teach you today and how can you apply it to your life?
Here is a printable pdf version of these questions for daily writing.
DAILY BIBLE QUESTIONS PDF
Watch “Break Down of Luke 1” for an example of these questions in action.
Another great resource on Bible study can be found at “How to Study The Bible” by the Navigators.
What Should I Read After Luke and Acts?
I would advise the through the following in this order:
- Read the Gospels
- Read the New Testament
- Read the Old Testament
- Read the Whole Bible in a Year
Year of Biblical Literacy
Bible Project
Sermon Series The Whole Story - This isn't a reading plan, but a year long sermon series that walks you through all the major stories of the Bible in chronological order and shows you how all these stories point to Jesus. - Read the Bible Chronologically
Recap Bible (podcast) - Read the Bible Out of Order - Simply copy and paste all the books in the Bible into a word doc. As you read through each book, put a start date and an end date next to the book. Don't allow yourself to reread a book until you have gone through every book in the Bible. For example, "Genesis 3/1/2022-3/31/2022" would indicate you read Genesis in March of 2022. This method allows you to:
Read in any order you want
Read at your own pace
Ensures you read the whole Bible (not just your favorite books repeatedly)
Final Tips
- Find a consistent quiet place
- Find a consistent time (set an alarm and/or put it on your phone calendar)
- Go analogue (use a real Bible and notebook)
- If you use digital tools, silence notifications and get rid of distractions
- Keep your Bible and notebook in a very accessible place and always seen
- Vary your bible reading methods (fast, medium and slow reads)
Fast - Read one book in a single sitting.
Medium - Read one chapter a day.
Slow - Read a couple of verses a day, a parable, story or a paragraph. Dig deep into the study notes. Consider studying the text with a commentary (indepth book devoted to the understanding and the intrepretating a book of the Bible). You can buy commentaries separately for each book of the Bible. You don't have to buy a commentary set which can be very expensive. - No matter what you do, think of this as a marathon not a sprint.
- Do something daily, manageable, organic and sustainable. Don't overcommit to something you can't maintain.
Digging Deeper Into Understanding the Bible