How to Read the Bible with Understanding

PREFACE

Y JOURNEY IN studying the Bible began back in 1973. I had been three years out of high school with no direction in my life. I was in what I refer to as my “unformative” years. I had gotten to a point at one time that I considered suicide as my only alternative. I had a genuine love for God since my youth, but my knowledge and understanding of Him was limited. I thought that He was a vengeful God and was willing to zap me for any mistakes I made. I remember sitting on the steps of my parents’ home in Birmingham, Alabama and I cried out to God, “you have to let me know who you are”.

Some time later I met a person who invited me to take a class that taught you about the Bible. But it wasn’t just about the Bible, but how to “rightly divide” it. This term, which we will be looking at in our study, is found in 2 Timothy 2:

15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

I knew nothing about the Bible much less about “rightly dividing” it, but as I mentioned, I had an innate love for God and was interested in learning more. This person handed me a card that had ten benefits listed that I would learn from this class. I don’t remember the ten, but the one that stood out to me was, “teaches you to discern truth from error”. You see the Bible tells us in I Corinthians 12:

2 Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led.

From the moment we are born we began to be “led”. I get a kick out of seeing a mother carrying her infant baby around in a baby carrier. I look at the baby and think, “that baby has no choice but to go where mom is going”, because the baby has no agenda of its own, but to be fed and have its diapers changed. I sometimes marvel at the beauty of the sight of a loving mother carrying for her baby.

But as we all know the baby grows up. It starts to make observations and as it gets older will make decisions based on their “being led”. We live in an age of marvelous technologies because people were “led” to discover things that they used to advance mankind. Others are “led” to destroy mankind. Of course the usage of mankind is all inclusive and includes women.

This is the same regarding God. Depending on how we are “led”, will determine our opinions about God. If we are “led” by truth, we will have a true knowledge and opinion about God. If we are “led” in error we will obviously have false knowledge and opinions about God.

The foundational verse in that class is found in John 10:

10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. I knew a little bit about Jesus, but I had no idea about a thief. I had heard that Jesus came to save us from our sins, which is true, but I had heard nothing about a more abundant life. We will be looking at this verse in our study.

So I took that class and it lived up to every claim it made. It changed my life. I had hope, I learned that God actually loved me, and yes, it taught me to “discern truth for error”. And to this day, some forty plus years later I still use these principals in my study of the Bible and my daily life. Is my life idyllic and without problems? Of course not. Do I have victories over the thief ? YES!!!!

One of the things I learned in the class was, “man’s basic spiritual problem is the integrity and accuracy of the Word of God.” These spiritual problems start with not reading the Bible. The next problem happens when the Bible is read but without an accurate understanding of it. The problem of not reading the Bible starts with, not knowing HOW to read it. The other problem stems from reading the Bible, but without accuracy.

It is my hope that after you read this book you will receive these benefits and more and that it will,

Show how the Bible interprets itself

Explain Bible contradictions

Show you that God is good ALWAYS Teach you to pray effectively Teach you to be victorious in life by defeating the enemy of God and man the Devil Show you the importance of Jesus in our lives

Show you that God is light and that God is love

HOW to renew your mind so that you can demonstrate the power of God in your life

HOW to manifest the more abundant life that Jesus gave his life for

And of course, teach you to discern truth from error

My prayer for you in reading this book is the same that Paul prayed for the Ephesians.

Paul prayed Ephesians 1:

16 [I]Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers;

17 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:

18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,

19 And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,

20 Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, 21 Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:

God wants us to know.