Unit One: A Few Covenant Essentials 

Lesson Two: The Bible

The Bible is a big book, and an unusual one. Many writers have contributed to it over a number of years. In fact, it is a collection of smaller books that form one larger unit. Altogether, the Bible contains 66 smaller books—39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New.

The New Testament begins with the story of the birth of Jesus and tells about the cross and the first church. The Old Testament tells about the people of Israel and contains frequent references to the coming of Jesus. 

In the Bible you can read poetry and history, prophecy and wisdom, all with one purpose, to tell the story of God’s relationship with the people of this world.

As a church, we’ve built our understanding of God and our way of life on the Bible, because we’ve found in scripture a very amazing story of God’s love and power. So we read the Bible together in church and use it as an authority in our meetings and our worship.

We also encourage every Christian to read their Bible alone in a quiet place, just as a person might read a letter from a friend or a very practical reference book. 

We refer to the Bible as the Word of God, because we believe that God has spoken to us in these pages. In fact, the Bible says that God has breathed out the words of scripture to individuals who wrote them down.

In other words, a person like Paul, who wrote letters of advice and encouragement to churches, was writing the truth that he had learned from God.

Check this out: 

God breathed out all Scripture, as if he was whispering in the ears of the people who wrote the Bible. So all of scripture is useful. It teaches, rebukes, corrects, and trains us to do right, so that we can all be totally equipped for every good work that God gives us to do.
Second Timothy 3:16-17   (paraphrased)

I kinda paraphrased the verse, but you can find it in your Bible, and it will say the same thing.

But check out what the passage says about the practical uses of scripture. What can it do in our lives? I’ll give you one answer. It rebukes. What are the other three things it can do? And by the way, what is a rebuke?

If you ask someone what the Bible does for them, they might tell you that it helps them through the day. They might say that it changes them or teaches them. They might say that they are encouraged when they read their Bible.

If you have time, ask someone. It might be interesting. Find someone who regularly reads their Bible and ask why.

Here’s another verse that talks about how the Bible was written. 

Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
Second Peter 1:20-21   (NIV)

God provided the words and the prophets wrote, but who else was involved in the Bible-writing process? I’ll give you the vowels, and you provide the consonants.

                            __ __ e    __ o __ __    __ __ i __ i __   

An odd name, but it says something about who he is. We’ll learn more later.

Anyhoo, this is cool: 

For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
Hebrews 4:12   (NIV)

It sounds like a commercial for super-sharp ginsu knives. But what does Scripture cut? Or better yet, in the last few words, what does it analyze or judge? Two things, and they may be heart-related.

So the Bible teaches us about God, but it also teaches us about ourselves, apparently. But there’s one thing to remember about reading scripture. It isn’t very technical. In fact, it’s downright simple.

Here it is: 

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.
James 1:22-24   (NIV)

James is a very practical book. This is one of those simple, simple things that James wants you to know. It’s so cool, I just have to write it again, but this time in my own words. 

When you read the Bible, do what it tells you. If you don’t, you’re like a person who looks at her reflection in the mirror and sees that she has a weasel sitting on her head, and she goes, “Oh my goodness! I’ve got a weasel on my head!” And then she turns around and forgets about it, and she goes to school, and she still has this weasel on her head. What good did the mirror do? Don’t read your Bible like that.
James 1:22-24   (paraphrased)

Wait! I forgot! What did the verse in James tell us to do?

So that’s why we read our Bibles. It’s an anti-weasel device—and so much more.

[.]