The Book God Wrote For You

Looking for a book containing real-life drama, exciting adventure and suspense? Want a book that dares to write world news in advance, that reveals the secrets of health, how to live forever, how to acquire riches and honor and how to have loyal friends?

The words of the Book can be yours to understand and profit from thorough firsthand study. Here are some keys to help you uncover the treasures of the Bible.

The King James, or Authorized Version of the Bible, is usually the best to buy first. It is the Bible most easily found in bookstores, most often quoted in sermons and easiest to use with most concordances.

One of the ways to start studying the Bible is to begin reading with chapter one, verse one: “In the beginning God . . . . .” (Gen. 1:1). If you don’t know much about the Bible, the story of creation is a great place to start.

If you read at a minimum of 200 words a minute and will read just 10 minutes a day, you can read all 1,189 chapters in the King James from Genesis through Revelation (773,746 words) by this time next year. A cover-to-cover reading will give you an overall view and a feeling for the book God wrote to you!

You can mark your Bible to emphasize points of importance and special interest to you.

Two easy ways to begin marking your Bible are chain referencing and color coding.

To make a chain reference, you start by listing the subjects you want to study on a blank page in the back of your Bible.

If you are studying dancing, and have found several scriptures on the subject, you would write the first one, say Exodus 15:20, on this special reference page next to the word dance. Then you would turn to Exodus 15:20 and in the margin you would put the location of the second scripture in the chain.

Using standard abbreviations for the names of the books will help save space. If Exodus 32:19 is the second scripture, you would turn there and put the third scriptures location in that margin and so forth.

This is a simple system that enables you later to go right through the Bible and find out what you need to know about a subject.

Chain referencing can be done with sermon notes, booklets or by using a concordance. Using a concordance is not that complicated. You may want to ask your parents or minister to show you how to use one to find a list of scriptures on a particular subject.

Color coding, is the second easy way to mark your Bible. This means using colored pencils to highlight or shade in an area that discusses a subject you are studying. You may want to color all verses about the Sabbath with red and every verse about prayer with green, for example.

Since it is impossible to have a different color for every subject in the Bible, your colored pencils can also be used to write key words or symbols across specific verses. Short words are easily written out with wide letters such as TITHE, WINE, and DANCE.

The real key to understanding the Bible is to act on what you are learning. It is always a good idea to ask God to help you understand the Bible before you study. Then when you have studied and learned a principle, put it into practice.

Exodus 20:12 gives a promise of long life. Proverbs 18:24 shows how to make friends. John 16:33 explains how to be happy even in this troubled world. Getting to know the world’s best seller pays off – it opens a treasure chest of knowledge that God has written to you!

In your study of the Bible you will come across scriptures that you may not understand.  You may email your question to the cognwm.org.  We have ordained ministers to assist you.

We would also like to admonish you to believe the Bible for what it says.  Do not depend upon what your minister or another minister tells you the Bible says. You will be surprised to learn that the Bible says quite a number of things contrary to what some church organizations teach.

 
The Church of God, New World Ministries P.O. Box 5536 Sevierville, TN 37864