The Bible itself describes God’s word as ‘a light for my path’ (Psalm 119: 105) Christians have heard God through the Bible for many centuries. This is time-tested wisdom that renews our minds and warms our hearts, in an often confusing world.
Here are a few steps you can take to discover this ‘light’ for yourself.
Getting hold of a Bible:
A widely used Bible app is YouVersion
It is good, too, to have the Bible as a hard copy. At St Barnabas, we use Today’s New International Version and the New International Version. This can be found here:
Opening up the Bible
The Bible is a wonderful, big book. So how to get started?
If you’ve never read the Bible, start with one of the gospels – Luke is a great way in. This takes you to Jesus, to whom all the Bible points.
One great way in is ‘The Bible in One Year’ – which you can get hold of here. This comes from the church which pioneered the Alpha Course, something many in this church have been blessed by.
A great tool is called Lectio 365 (there is also Lectio for families) – a free app you can get here It has an audio option, if you prefer hearing rather than reading. [‘lectio’ is Latin for ‘spiritual reading’].
Digging Deeper
Join a ‘Life Group’. These are small groups of members of St Barnabas who meet every fortnight to study the Bible together, pray together and enjoy each other’s company. Life Groups are a great way to dig deeper into the Bible and highly enjoyable too. Contact James Cawdell to find out more via: james@st-barnabas.net
Listen again – all St Barnabas sermons are recorded and you can access them via our YouTube channel. The sermons follow a pattern, which ranges across the Bible. You can see the current programme here:
Deep Dive
For online bible studies, try the materials of the noted American preacher Tim Keller (here: Gospel in Life – Sermons and Resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Churches and Ministries)
The Bible Project is a helpful site with a lot of materials to help you dig deeper – Study the Story of the Bible With Free Tools | BibleProject™