Reason #1 to Read the Bible

I have been a Christian for as long as I can remember, in fact, many of my earliest memories are of going to church with my family, praise and worship, prayer time, and preaching, but it wasn’t until I started reading and studying the bible for myself that I really started to grow, emotionally and spiritually, in Christ. And, this experience isn’t just known to me, the same is true of many of my friends and family, and it is for that reason that we want to inspire others to read the bible for themselves!

Over the next several weeks we will be releasing short articles, each based on one of several reasons we have identified to read the bible. These articles are a joint effort and co-authored by Leah Cummins and Trevor Graeber, we hope you enjoy!

Reason #1: To understand God’s plan throughout time.

I have read through the Bible on many occasions, and the thing that most impresses me is how carefully and deliberately God set plans in motion. For example, the book of Ruth is short, it’s random, and doesn’t seem to contribute greatly to very much...until you understand that that was the beginning of King David and by extension, Jesus’ lineage and the parallel of the kinsman redeemer; amazing!

You see, God’s plan has always been about drawing us near to Himself. We see in Matthew 23 that He longed to draw the Israelites near “as a hen draws her chicks under her wings.” God referred to Himself as a husband in Isaiah and as father throughout scripture. His goal has always been relationship; building a people for Himself. He lives and loves and literally breathed those same traits within man. We can see this plan continued through to Jesus. We can see John the Baptist, Jesus’s cousin, being the one on whom the mantle Elijah spoke of in the end of Malachi, the voice of one crying out in the wilderness to make way for the coming one, Jesus! The story continues to us being adopted into the family of Christ, in being heirs with Christ, and gaining life through Christ. We are brought into the most intimate of relations in having God plant His own Spirit within us, the Spirit itself witnessing that we are in fact His children who have been reconciled to Him.

His end goal in the covenants between Him and the people of Israel shows a desire to have us reconciled to Him. From the early practices of sacrificing animals for sin all the way to Jesus who was sacrificed for ALL SIN-we see reconciliation being a heavy theme in His plans.

Another side of this we could consider is the victory over evil. Light coming into the dark and the dark not being able to overcome the light. The savior’s heel crushing the serpent's head(Genesis 3:15). When we enter into new life, we are given power and authority over the enemy and his ways

All of these observations are a product of reading, and looking at the bible for ourselves. We want you to be encouraged to read the bible, even part of it, for yourself, you can’t imagine the good it will do for you