How to come to the Bible

The Bible requires something from us in terms of humbling ourselves that other books do not require. With the Holy Bible we have to put aside our self-confidence and self-assurance and humble ourselves.

"God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble." (James 4:6)

We should not assume even that just because we love God there is nothing between us and God as a covering obscuring His light from entering into our mind.

So it is good to pray in coming to the Word of God something like this:

[i] " Lord, have mercy on me. I don't want to have anything between You and me. I do not say I can remove any barriers easily. But I confess that some barriers in my heart may be there. Lord I need to receive grace. You resist the proud. You give grace to the humble. O Lord I do humble myself before You that I may receive grace. I need to see revelation in Your word. And thankyou Lord. Amen."

Originally posted by sonship
This thread is about [b]HOW to come to the Bible.
That is how TO come to the Bible.
Or how to COME to the Bible.
Also meaning how to come TO the Bible.

Basically I am interested in discussion how to come to THE Bible. By which I also mean how to come to the BIBLE.

You get the idea, I'm sure.[/b]

During my days in the system I knew a preacher who used to take this approach of seeing a sermon in every word and making it so; some American evangelicals still preach like this. Unless there is real inspired spiritual meat in the message it rapidly starts to feel like sucking on old bones. I'm not saying that you have nothing to say of value on this topic, just that my experience is that I prefer preachers to get to the point instead of hogging the stage.

Originally posted by divegeester
During my days in the system I knew a preacher who used to take this approach of seeing a sermon in every word and making it so; some American evangelicals still preach like this. Unless there is real inspired spiritual meat in the message it rapidly starts to feel like sucking on old bones. I'm not saying that you have nothing to say of value on this to ...[text shortened]... that my experience is that I prefer preachers to get to the point instead of hogging the stage.

I agree, First we receive the milk of the word then the meat. Some of us want meat, but I have learned there is meat in the milk too.
I think Sonship is telling us how to come to the word and get the milk and the meat on our own. Just you and the Lord.

Originally posted by sonship
This thread is about [b]HOW to come to the Bible.
That is how TO come to the Bible.
Or how to COME to the Bible.
Also meaning how to come TO the Bible.

Basically I am interested in discussion how to come to THE Bible. By which I also mean how to come to the BIBLE.

You get the idea, I'm sure.[/b]

Which BIBLE do you mean, and by that I mean WHICH bible do you mean
and in particular Which bible do YOU mean?

For a new reader I might recommend:
Staring with say, the Gospel of John or Luke
Or better still the shorter simpler Gospel of Mark.

I wouldn't be worry about canonization issues in church history. And I wouldn't use them for excuses to rationalize not reading the Bible at all.

If the Old Testamant is your preference to start reading, Genesis is excellent.

But reading meditatively the book of Psalms is also very edifying if your heart is turned towards God.

If your heart is not turned towards God and you don't ever want to do so, don't read the Bible. This may harden your heart even more.

The key to unlock the word of God is with the heart of the reader.

From Life Study of Exodus by Witness Lee, Msg. 59

http://www.ministrybooks.org/books.cfm?n

The Entrance of the Word Giving Light

In 119:130 the psalmist says, “The entrance of thy words giveth light.” The Word has an entrance. This means that the Bible has an opening, a gate. According to my experience, the bar to this gate is not on the inside, but on the outside. It is on our side of the gate. This means that if the gate is closed, we are the ones who have closed it. Whether the Word is open to us or not depends on how we deal with it. Sometimes we pray that the Lord would open the Word to us. However, when we pray in this way, the Lord may tell us that, on His side, He has already opened His Word. Now we, on our side, need to open the gate of the Word. Our experience testifies that if we have no problems with the Lord when we come to the Word, the Word will be open to us. But if we come to the Word when we have problems with the Lord, the door will be shut. This indicates that the bar to the gate is on our side. When we come to the Word and open it, then in our spiritual experience, the Word will have an entrance, an opening.

I wish to emphasize the fact that whether the gate of the Word is open or closed depends on us. We need to thank the Lord that the Word has an entrance, a gate, and that the bar of the gate is on our side. We should say, “Lord, thank You for the entrance, the opening, to Your Word.” Often in our experience we sense that, because we come to the Word in the right way, the Word has an opening. This opening seems to depend on the Lord and come from Him. However, it actually depends on us and comes from approaching the Word in a proper way.