Start Reading to Hear

We’ve got to keep reading the Bible.  Seriously, keep reading it.  I understand how silly that sounds; and yet, it's so important that I encourage all of us to do it because it’s one of the best ways that we open ourselves up to hear God’s voice.  Why?  Because God’s words to us are meant to challenge, comfort, meet us, greet us, revive us, and much more.

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Of the 66 books in the Bible, there’s a message for all of us.  The ‘Old Testament’ contains 39 books ranging from ancestral histories teaching us about how we got here to legal codes challenging us to live differently than the cultures around us to prose and poetry that help us wrestle with what it means to be human.  Within the New Testament, we have the narratives of Christ’s life, ministry, death, and resurrection in the Gospels.  There are the letters of Paul and other disciples pondering how we live in the world now that we have experienced God’s grace through Jesus Christ.  And, there’s hopeful reminders and encouragement to keep on keeping on until the Lord returns in Revelation.

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So, here’s my invitation (or you can call it a challenge if you want), start reading and diving into it. I’ve provided a list of the biblical books below, and I want you to post this on your refrigerator; then as you finish books check them off.  Dive in and listen.  We have many bibles here at church if you need one as well as notebooks.  I want you to listen and wrestle with the word.  Write questions as they strike you.  Highlight or underline passages that touch your heart.  Take the summer to start with, then continue on after that.  God’s always speaking to us.  What are you hearing?  It doesn’t matter where you start exactly you start besides in sections.

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Old Testament
Torah - Genesis           Exodus             Leviticus          Numbers         Deuteronomy
Histories - Joshua                    Judges             Ruth                 1 Samuel         2 Samuel         1 Kings             2 Kings
           1 Chronicles       2 Chronicles             Ezra                 Nehemiah                   Ester
Writings - Job              Psalms             Proverbs          Ecclesiastes                 Song of Solomon
Prophets - Isaiah                     Jeremiah         Lamentations              Ezekiel             Daniel
           Hosea              Joel                  Amos               Obadiah                      Jonah               Micah
           Nahum            Habbakkuk          Zephaniah         Haggai        Zechariah        Malachi

New Testament
Gospels - Matthew      Mark               Luke                 John
Acts
Paul’s letters - Romans           1 Corinthians               2 Corinthians         Galatians         Ephesians
           Philippians          Colossians         1 Thessalonians           2 Thessalonians
                       1 Timothy        2 Timothy            Titus             Philemon

Non-Pauline Letters – Hebrews    James           1 Peter      2 Peter        1 John      2 John        3 John           Jude
Revelation