Bible 101: Starting Your Voyage

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Bible 101 Starting Your Voyage
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Where do we begin?

• God is excited about teaching you His Word!
• EVERYONE has a lot to learn!
• You were built for this to know His Word!
• You will be surprised, and you will be changed
  for the better!
• This is an adventure!

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The Bible is our Compass

• It will ALWAYS point you in the right direction.
  Sometimes, you will hear or read something that
  seems to be in conflict or not make sense in
  light of Gods Word. Dont panic. Just wait.
  God has the ability and the will to make His
  voice heard to you. Part of what He will teach
  you is patience and trust. Remember God isnt
  scared of you searching for Him, of you asking
  Him questions. He is PLEASED by it. He has been
  waiting for this voyage since before you were
  even born.
• Every word of God is tested. He is a shield to
  those
• who take refuge in Him. Proverbs 303

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What do we need?

• Choose a Bible that fits what you need right now.
• New Living Bible
• New International Version
• King James Version
• Amplified Version
• All of these and other translations
• are published in a study version
• that can add to your learning.

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Why all the different translations?
Comunicación y Gerencia

• The Old Testament was written partly in Hebrew,
  than after the Babylonian conquest, partly in
  Chaldean (the language of Babylon).
• The New Testament was written in Greek with some
  Aramaic.
• All of these languages are very different. Each
  word can have many meanings. This can lead to
  subtle differences in translations.
• Ancient languages like Hebrew tend to be
  concrete, while modern languages like English
  tend to be abstract.

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This is where we are.

• Now we can start the voyage

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Understanding the Map

• The Bible was written beginning around 2000 B.C.
  until around 95 A.D.
• It covers the time from creation until the times
  of the people who were writing it, and then
  beyond into the future as writings of prophesy.
• It was written by many different people. Moses
  wrote the first five books. Job is the probably
  the oldest. John wrote the last book called
  Revelations
• The Bible is divided into the Old Testament
  (meaning before Jesus was born) and the New
  Testament (after Jesus was born and all that
  happened after that).
• The Bible consists of 66 books within the Book,
  39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New.
• These books can all be described as one of the
  following stories of peoples lives, laws and
  proverbs on how to live as God wants us to,
  prophesy (God talking as Himself to someone who
  writes it down), and letters believers wrote to
  each other that were inspired by the Holy Spirit.

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The Map in Greater Detail

• The Pentateuch (or Torah)
• History
• Poetry or Wisdom
• The Prophets (Major and Minor)
• The Gospels and Acts of the Apostles
• The Letters (Epistles)
• Revelations

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The Pentateuch (or Torah)

• Genesis
• Creation, early human history, the Patriarchs
  God moving
• through individuals Abraham, Issac, Jacob,
  Joseph
• Exodus
• The freeing of the descendents of Abraham who
  were
• enslaved in Egypt and the beginning of their
  adventures.
• Leviticus
• Gods manual on how to live, prosper, and please
  Him with the
• backdrop of the Israelites travels from Egypt
  towards
• their Promised Land.
• Numbers
• Gods manual continued
• Deuteronomy
• Gods manual continued (Gods people had some
  troubles getting it right)
• until they finally reached the border of their
  Promised Land. Here Moses
• turned over his job to Joshua and then died.

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History

• Joshua
• Judges
• Ruth
• 1st and 2nd Samuel
• 1st and 2nd Kings
• 1st and 2nd Chronicles
• Ezra
• Nehemiah
• Esther

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Poetry or Wisdom

• Job
• Psalms
• Proverbs
• Ecclesiastes
• Song of Songs, also called Song of Solomon

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The Prophets (Major)

• Isaiah
• Jeremiah
• Lamentations
• Ezekiel
• Daniel

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The Prophets (Minor)

• Hosea
• Joel
• Amos
• Obadiah
• Jonah
• Micah
• Nahum
• Habakkuk
• Zephaniah
• Haggai
• Zechariah
• Malachi 400 years of silence from God after
  this until Jesus birth in the Gospels (meaning
  Good News).

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The Good News (Gospels) and the Acts of the
Apostles

• Matthew
• Mark
• Luke
• John
• Acts

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Letters (Epistles) Christians wrote to each other

• Romans
• 1st and 2nd Corinthians
• Galatians
• Ephesians
• Philippians
• Colossians
• 1st and 2nd Thessalonians
• 1st and 2nd Timothy

• Titus
• Philemon
• Hebrews
• James
• 1st and 2nd Peter
• 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John
• Jude
• Revelation of John, while he was exiled to Patmos

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10(ish) people to know in the Bible ?Adam and
Eve ?Noah ?Abraham, Sarah, their kids
grandkids ?Moses ?David ?Elijah ?Isaiah ?Mary ?Jes
us... ?Peter ?Paul
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Jesus is the most important person in the Bible.

• He fulfills all of the requirements of the law in
  the Old Testament and as a result gives to us all
  of the promises that God told us about when He
  gave the first five books (Torah) to Moses. By
  shedding His blood while saying Forgive them,
  Father. They dont know what they are doing, He
  made all law-breaking (sin) redeemable - for a
  price. The price paid was His blood. This
  cancelled our debt and gave us a clean start.
• Now is when our lives really begin. (Deuteronomy
  28).

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There is no wrong way to study the
Bible...except to NOT study the Bible.

• Start with the area that is interesting to you.
  God made you the way you are for a reason.
• Know that from now on there are no
  coincidences, no accidents. God is doing things
  on purpose and for a reason.
• Share what you are learning. Ask questions. Dig.
  Test. Chew on what you read. This is a treasure
  hunt...

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How to find your way around the Biblewithout
getting provoked to anger!

• Each book is divided into chapters.
• Each chapter is divided into verses.
• When you see a scripture quoted, a number is used
  so that someone can find it quickly (Genesis 21
  means that it is in the 2nd chapter of Genesis
  and is the first verse in the chapter.)
• If a quote includes more than one verse, you give
  the verses with a hyphen between them if the are
  exactly next to each other, and a comma if they
  arent exactly next to each other. (Genesis 21-5
  means all the verses between the 1st and 5nd
  verses in chapter 2. Genesis 21,5 means only
  verse 1 and verse 5.)
• Most verses are small enough to MEMORIZE

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The Story of the Bible in One Sentence

• God was heartbroken when His perfect creation
  turned against Him, and He gave Jesus to come
  into our world to pay for our rebellion and begin
  a process of healing which He will complete when
  He returns.
• Ron Vanderwell 11
• (Hint There is no such book in the Bible. Dont
  bother looking for it. But this sentence sums up
  what the Bible
• is all about.)

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What makes the Bible different?

• It is inspired by the Holy Spirit. People wrote
  it, but they were directed what to write by the
  Lord. Inspired means having Spirit or Breath
  put into something. The Breath of God His Holy
  Spirit is the only thing that gives us life.
  Otherwise, we would be just dirt. Because the
  Bible is inspired, it is ALIVE!

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5 Quick Ideas on the Word

• God wrote it for us to learn about Him.
• When the Fall happened, we lost our ability to
  hear Him. So, He needed to give us the Word to
  teach us about Himself.
• Jesus has always existed - as has God our Father
  and Lord Holy Spirit- but Jesus chose to become
  human. He did this in order to be able to die for
  us.
• When Jesus died, the lawsuit Satan had filed
  against us was ended. Case closed.
• This world is only the beginning. Its where we
  are fighting a war to enforce Jesus legal right
  to complete ownership and preparing for reigning
  with Him throughout time. Plus, now we can hear
  His voice again

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How do I start?

• Plan on spending time alone. God will show up.
• Talk less. Listen more.
• When you start to pray, pray what your heart
  seems to be saying.
• The Lords Prayer that Jesus gave says it all!
  Matthew 69-13

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You are not lost anymore!

• This is an adventure, not extra work. You are
  playing Hide and Seek with the Almighty, and God
  wants to be found.

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As you eat the Word, your inner God-created
being will grow stronger and your life will start
to change. This is called bearing fruit of the
Spirit in the Bible.
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You are building a foundation.

• The toughest part of a building project is the
  foundation It is muddy and a lot of work is done
  without seeing any progress. You need to dig
  deeper to support a taller building. The
  footprint of the foundation, the amount of steel
  that you sink into it, and the careful curing of
  the concrete take time. If you take shortcuts on
  the foundation, it will limit how big the
  building can be. And if the foundation isnt
  strong, eventually the building will come down.
  The Word is the tool that you - and God - use to
  dig the foundation, the steel rebar that you sink
  into your life to give added strength, and the
  concrete that you and God pour into your soul.
  Its worth the effort. Once the foundation is
  set, the building goes up FAST!

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The more you learn from the Bible, the more you
and God can work together.

• The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are
  few
• Matthew 937

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Resources that can help

• a concordance
• comparing different types of
• Bible translations
• talking about what you are
• learning with your fellows
• as in fellowship.

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Other Resources

• Most Bibles come with a Table of Contents,
  introductions to each Book, and a concordance
  (usually in the back). These can all help your
  studies.
• The Internet (Thank you, Al Gore!) has lots of
  resources. One good one to try is from The
  Gatherings upper-ups is http//www.crcna.org/page
  s/our_world_main.cfm.
• Whitneys Confession The Bible for Dummies is
  a terrific resource!
• Make sure however to read directly from the
  Bible much more than you read about what OTHER
  people have read or experienced in their
  research.

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Enjoy the Journey!