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Instruction, inspiration, and resources to help you understand and apply the Bible in your life.

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Bible Intro: Genesis and Job

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Each week I’ll write a brief introduction and some thoughts about the readings you’ll be doing this week in our Through the Bible reading plan.

In most cases I won’t give links like I’m doing below because the additional posts will either follow this on the home page (if you aren’t getting the newsletter) or they will be links on the email newsletter. PLEASE sign up for the newsletter–it will come out on Monday with the notes on the upcoming readings and on Thursday with misc. materials that have been added to the site during the week. To sign up CLICK HERE.

As we are still in the stage of getting started on this new way of teaching, below are some links of current posts that pertain to our readings this week:

One very important post to read before you start Job:

Job intro: Know the end of the story before you read the book of Job-– this is important to read because it reminds you that God condemned the comments of Job’s friends, he said they were wrong in how they accused Job. If you don’t understand this, you’ll read the comments of the friends out of context and because many of them make sense on the surface, (even thought they are false) and believing them will make you believe many false teachings popular today.

Some additional posts that will be useful in your understanding of the readings:

Overview of Genesis and Job, foundations for answers to the big questions of life–brief intro to the books
Video: Job and Genesis, Foundational Answers to the Big Questions of Life –this is an hour long lesson, an in-depth overview of the books. PLEASE take time to look it over or listen to it
What was happening before God spoke the universe into existence?–brief devotional quote and thoughts
How do you know when the various books of the Bible were written?–citations of scholarly notes on dating the Bible with a special emphasis on the importance of when Job was written

Personal note:

“In the beginning God. . . . “

So starts the book of Genesis and for me it is one of my favorite things in the New Year–to start out with God, beginning again to read the Bible through in Chronological order.

I’ve been doing this for many years, but each time I learn more, see more, come to love God and his Word more. I’m so glad you are joining me in this journey.

An intro: Why read through the Bible in Chronological Order

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As we start reading through the Bible in Chronological order, it’s worth asking why we should do it. To answer, ask yourself, why read any story in the order that the events happened?

The answers are obvious. With the exception of the use of flashbacks or other literary devices, we need to read and experience events and character development in their natural time-dictated sequence for the story to make sense, for us to know the characters, and to care about what happens to them. In a non-fiction book we have to know the premise, the background, the arguments for the practical recommendations that follow for them to make sense.

To illustrate the truth of this:

Jump into the middle of a Harry Potter story with Muggles, Quidditch, Dumbledore, and Hogwarts

Open at random a book from Hunger Game Trilogy and read about  Mockingjays, Panem, and the Twelve Districts

Open a book on the popular Paleo diet find these terms: paleo/primal, autoimmune protocols, leaky guts, and ketogenic

All of the above are nothing more than a confusing list of names and terms if you don’t read the entire book but they would all make perfectly good sense if you read the entire book from start to finish and meet each term in context.

It’s no different with the Bible

For someone who did not grow up listening to Bible stories or perhaps grew up in church and wasn’t paying much attention, how much sense does it make when you hear about Shem, Jeroboam, and Barnabas or about atonement, sanctification, and justification?

We wouldn’t claim to know the least bit about the Hunger Games or the Paleo diet if we only dipped into a few pages of each book here and there, even if we had favorite pages we went back to again and again, so why do we think we know the Bible when for many Christian they have:

  • Never read it all the way through
  • Or ever read it in Chronological Order

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Download Chronological Bible reading plans

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For 2016, these are the reading plans that I will follow for the lessons and commentary that I will share on this site. They arrange the Bible into the order the events happened. Though it can be a bit of a chore to jump around, especially when you get to the historical books and the prophets, psalms and other passages are mixed in, but the effort is worth it.

CLICK HERE to download a PDF of the Chronological Bible reading plan. This is useful if you want to print it off and put it into your Bible.

CLICK HERE to download a MS WORD document of the Chronological Bible reading plan. If you keep this on your computer you can click on the passage and it will take you to http://www.biblegateway.com, where you read the passage in a variety of translations, listen to it, or look up commentaries about the passage.

CLICK HERE if you want to be taken to the Chronological Plan for your phone.

Read your Bible for an overview of all

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You don’t really understand any part of the Bible if you don’t know the content of the entire Bible. To make that content part of your life, you need a plan to read through the Bible consistently. This brief video shows you why it is so important and introduces a great online program that gives you a variety of ways to read through the Bible.

Overview of the Bible Plan Overview
It is absolutely essential for every Christian to read through the Bible every year. This site offers a number of plans and in either an online format or where you can print out a schedule and use that.