Want to Learn More?

If you would like to know more about Jesus or have questions about his role as Messiah, the best source is not another man’s opinion, no matter how eloquent or educated. No, the best source is the Bible.

But the Bible is a big tome, consisting of 66 books or letters, hundreds of chapters, and thousands of verses. If you don’t know where to look, how can you possibly begin?

No Bible?

If you need to get a Bible, there are several ways to obtain one.

Ask your church. Many churches have Bibles just for this purpose.
Go to a homeless shelter, the Salvation Army, or a Christian rehab center to see if they can give you one.
Get a Smart Phone app.
Buy one. (There is a link, above, to do this online.)

A Word About the Abbreviations on This Page

Some of the Bible Study Guides and Read the Bible Plans are from radio / TV / internet broadcast sites and / or sites affiliated with church entities. Here are the explanations of the abbreviations I’ve used when typing the links.

VOP → The Voice of Prophecy, Loveland, Colorado, USA
IIW → It Is Written, Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA
BGEA → Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Charlotte, North Carolina, USA
NLV → Bible, New Living Version

God’s Promises and insights

Lost

Nothing you can do, nothing you have done, can prevent God from reaching out to you, forgiving you, and redeeming you. There is only one thing God cannot forgive. Called by the terrifying name of “The Unpardonable Sin”, it is simply the sin of refusing to accept Jesus as your Lord, King, Savior, Friend, and Brother and then having the audacity to die in that frame of mind.

What about “Grieving the Holy Spirit Away?”

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit (also translated as “Breath”) of God. It is the thoughts, intents, character, personality, lifeforce, purpose, and power of God. Think of the word “God” as a family name, like Smith or Anderson or LaSalle. Both God the Father and God the Son share the same common Spirit, so if one is “grieving the Holy Spirit away”, then one is rejecting God. One cannot reject God and confess to rejecting God at the same time, so rejecting God is a pretty serious decision. However, one can confess even the decision to reject God, and God will immediately forgive that person!

All Have Sinned. All Have Come Short

Still, we are all sinners, and as sinners, subject to the temptation to doubt our own faith; to fall back on old habits; to harbor secret lusts and cravings; to believe that we are self-sufficient; and to betray and deny our relationship with God. Peter denied Jesus at the trial of Jesus, but when the rooster crowed for the third time, Peter went out and wept in confession.

Redemption

God promises that He will forgive you, whether you have committed acts that would appall others; whether you have never come to Christ; or whether the circumstances of your life have obscured your relationship with Him.

If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.
–1 John 1:8-9 (NLV)

Dazed

So, are you dazed? Feel trapped? Is everything against you, closing in? Are you lost in a maze, unable to make progress toward bettering your situation? Are you tired of running in an exercise wheel? Do you feel guilty about everything, anything, nothing, and overwhelming things?

Alone

Have you said, “The Lord has forsaken me!”? I know where you are. I’ve been there, too. Even Jesus was there once. On the cross, as the weight of our sins was crushing his life out of his body, he cried out, “My God, my God! Why have you forsaken me?”

Yet, Never Alone

And I know how you can find yourself, if you are looking. Look at the nail prints in Jesus’ hands. God says:

See? I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands.
–Isaiah 49:16

Damned

Do you feel damned? The very fact that you feel that way shows that you are not. The truly damned don’t care and therefore don’t feel anything.

Says Who?

The one calling you damned is Satan. He is afraid that you might be inclined to reach out to Jesus, and he wants you to believe reaching out is hopeless. God’s message to you, about you, is this:

But now, thus says the Lord, who created you, O {insert your name here}, and He who formed you, O {insert your name here}: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; You are Mine.”
–Isaiah 43:1

Read the Bible (It’s More than a Paperweight)

The Bible is About Jesus

First, you should know that the entire Bible, from one cover to the other, from the first verse to the last verse, is about Jesus.

Some portions are prophecies about Jesus’ mission during his first visit; about what he would experience, about why he endured all that he did, about how much he wants to redeem us.

Other portions are about his role in Creation, about his thoughts, his providence, his character, and his love.

Then there are parts are illustrative, showing his involvement with mankind from before to then, to now, to after, to beyond.

Still other parts are about the efforts of the enemy of God to undermine and thwart Jesus’ influence on my life and yours (and theirs and everyone’s).

The Bible is Historical.

The Bible is more than the history of the nation of Israel.

It is the history of time from Creation to the New Creation. It is the history of the children of Adam, of Noah, and of Abraham. And it is the stories about the great men of God throughout history. Their complete stories, warts and all. They are stories of both their worshipful obedience as well as their foibles, their misunderstandings, their lapses of judgement, their mistakes, their planned and consciously chosen sins, and the consequences.

But mostly, it is the story and history of Jesus and of the plan to redeem humanity while exposing the truth about sin and death.

Strategies for Reading the Bible

So, yes, picking up the Bible and starting with the first book, chapter, and verse and reading through (the begats, the patriarchs, the prophets, the kings, the wars, the rebellions, the captivities, the rejections of truth, and the nightmarish books of Daniel and Revelation) to the end is a stalwart approach to getting to know Jesus.

Pray Before Reading

When you read the Bible, you will be able to understand it more clearly if you pray for understanding before beginning your daily reading. The books in the Bible were written by men who were inspired by the Spirit of God, so if anyone, at anytime and anywhere can clarify understanding, it would be the Spirit of God.

You might want to use the following prayer as a guideline. Personalize it by talking to God about what you read yesterday. Ask questions that you have. Express to Him the feelings you have about reading today, whether they be pleasant or discouraging. Ask Him, “Why did you inspire someone to write this thing or that thing?”

Prayer Template

Heavenly and Almighty God, whose mind and character and will are Holy, I am about to read more of your Word to the world. My mind is not Your mind, God, so sometimes I find the thoughts of Your mind difficult to understand.

Please send your Holy Spirit to read along with me, to inspire my mind just as He inspired the writers of these precious 66 books.

Open my mind to new possibilities and help me to find Jesus in what I am about to read of history. Keep my mind focused and alert.

Place a garrison of heavenly angels around me to keep me sheltered from the confusion, the doubts, and the lies of Satan as I read. Make me receptive to your will for the world, your will for today, and your will for me.

I ask these things in Jesus’ name because Jesus said that anything I ask in his name will be granted. Amen.

Genesis to Revelation

The most direct method is to begin with Genesis 1:1 and read the entire Old Testament through Malachi 4:6 and then to proceed to the New Testament from Matthew 1:1 through Revelation 22:21.

An alternate way to do this, one which will keep you more engaged when travelling over the repetitious lineages or the more difficult passages, is to read two shorter segments, one from the first half of the Old Testament and the other from the second half of the Old Testament. To do this, you will need to keep track of where you are in both halves. I’ve included one such plan in the links at the top of this page (called the “2 x 2” plan).

Chronologically

Interestingly, the Bible is not completely in Chronological order. Mostly it is, but there are books that focus on specific people or specific events that are sometimes out of order. This happened in different ways but often it happens when a book covers a large span of time (for example: Genesis, the two books of Samuel, the two books of the Kings, and the two books of the Chronicles of the Hebrew nation). The book about the specific person or event “belongs” inside of the broader, sweeping scope of the larger book.

Biblical scholars have studied the Bible’s timelines and historical references and although there are sometimes disagreements among experts, the chronology of historical people and events is known well enough to establish a chronological order of reading for the most part.

I’ve also included a link to one such reading plan in the links at the top of the page (called the “Timeline” order).

Focused Bible Reading

There are two approaches to focused Bible reading. The first is to read the entire Bible according to topics. (The links called “Amazing Facts” and “Seven Section Plan” are two such Bible-in-a-year plans.)

Focused Study by Topics (What Does the Bible Say About…?)

The second approach to focused study is to get even more focused by NOT reading the whole Bible, per se. Instead, read as much as you can find anywhere in the Bible on specific topics. This is the method commonly used in the “Bible Study Guides” in the links above.

The easiest way to study and learn this way is by using the Bible Study Guides. The best way to do “easy” is to discuss, ask questions, and search out answers together with someone else. Look into joining Bible study groups sponsored by your local church. Study with a spouse or a friend. Study with a pen pal. Take a Bible Study correspondence course.

If I’m going to be coming near to you, contact me and let’s make arrangements to meet. I would love to spend time studying with you.

Yes, I’m walking to Vermont. Yes, I hope to reach my destination someday. But I would be more than happy to interrupt my travel in order to share time with you in getting to know Jesus more.

Whether we meet or not, there are many resources that are designed to help guide you to exploring the Bible in a systematic and organized way. I can’t possibly share every resource that is, was, or ever will be. In fact, I don’t have enough time or patience to even list “the most popular” or “the best” resources. (Most popular or best in whose opinion, anyway?)

Instead, I have compiled only a few, less than a half dozen, resources for Bible Study. I’ve listed an additional even half dozen Bible Reading Plans.

They are not “the best” or “the most popular”, even in my own opinion. They are ones that I have read and used and liked.