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 – Home
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: New International Version (NIV) – Version Information – BibleGateway.com Opening up the BibleThe 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.Creation to Christ studies on the Discover app:
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 ourYouTube channel. The sermons follow a pattern, which ranges across the Bible. You can see the current programme here:
One great way in is ‘The Bible in One Year’ – which you can get hold of here The Bible with Nicky and Pippa Gumbel. 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’].
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™