A voice says, ‘Cry out.’ And I said, ‘What shall I cry?’ ‘All people are like grass, and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the Lord blows on them. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures for ever.’
Isaiah 40:6-8 NIVUK
READ IT
This should be absolutely obvious, but you would be amazed at the number of Christians who miss this. If you want to learn from the Bible then you need to read the Bible. And I mean all of the Bible, not just the popular parts, the easy parts or the parts you like. You must understand what theologians call 'the whole counsel of Scripture'.
And how do you do that? You read it. Cover to cover.
Not in one session, obviously. That would take too much and would be impractical for anyone with any kind of a life. But you can read through it in a year - and there is actually no reason not to. The time commitment is not big: around ten to fifteen minutes a day to read three chapters.
There are many different plans - even just the ones listed in the Bible Gateway website. My advice is to choose one that will cover the whole Bible and will do it in an order that makes sense to you. Also, we have to be honest: as parts of the Old Testament are the historical records of the Jews, some of them are a little dry. If you pair these with something like a Psalm or a chapter of Proverbs or a reading from the New Testament, you will find this easier.
But what do you do when you're finished? You begin again. And again. And again.
There is no shortcut to knowing the Bible. There is no weekend course or conference or camp that will download this knowledge into your brain. You just have to read it, and keep reading it, every day.
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