One Over 99 Ministries

Reading the Bible

Do you need to discipline yourself?

Ray Comfort from The Way Of The Master TV show says, "No read, no feed"
If reading your Bible is something that you don't crave, then you need to set the course for intervention now to force yourself to read it. (2Peter 2:2) Ray will not eat until he has read his Bible. Maybe you should try that too. Discipline yourself to read the word if you don't have a craving. Before you know it, you will be starving for it! The Bible says, Fatih comes by hearing and hearing the word of Christ (Rom 10:17), so in order to increase your faith, which comes from the Holy Spirit, we must read His word. To read more of Ray Comfort's perspective on reading the Bible, be sure to read that section under the 'Save Yourself Some Pain' tab of our site.

RULES OF ENGAGEMENT!
If you are going to be ‘Top Gun’ soldier for Christ, then you must adhere to these basics:
1. You must plan on reading the Bible daily.
2. Expect to understand it and take the time to do so.
3. You must agree that it is the infallible word of God.

"All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work." (2 Timothy 3:16,17)
Actually, according to the English Standard Version or "ESV", scripture is God breathed. Understand, the Bible was penned by man but they were all under inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Hence, the Holy Spirit is indeed the author of scripture. You must agree to this truth or none of the Bible will make sense to you because you will only listen to your own logic rather than the logic of God. There are 66 books that make up the Bible or as we like to call them 'love letters'. God has given us divine direction through the Holy Spirit and those men who penned each letter, which enables us to overcome any obstacle by applying the Bible to our lives daily, as if it were the owner's manual to our life. It's even been said that B-I-B-L-E stands for “Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth”. If you look at it that way, you better get a good understanding of it and do it right away.
There are different versions of the Bible and rather than turning this into a debate about which version is best, we recommend that you check each translation for accuracy as you study, and ultimately pick a version that you can read clearly. If you happen to be studying with a copy of the NASB MacArthur study Bible, then you should just stick with that (hint, hint). We hold the King James version in high esteem as it is pretty much used by preachers throughout our country. That being said, we also use both the NASB and ESV for a more literal translation as most Reformed theologians do. A term you may or may not have run into as you study the Bible is Hermeneutics. Biblical hermeneutics is the branch of theology that deals with principles of exegesis, or the science of interpretation of the scriptures. That was easy... Now what is 'exegesis'?! Exegesis is critical explanation or interpretation of a text or portion of a text, esp. of the Bible. However, we must warn you that many pastors today and even some Bible commentators are very weak in this discipline. We go further to expose some of these 'wolves' in sheep's clothing in that designated section of our site. We encourage you to look it over carefully, as you may be surprised. There may be someone you hold in high esteem that is indeed what we deem to be a wolf. Those people are formidable in the ways of eisegesis. Okay, maybe now you're thinking "Great! What's eisegesis?"... Eisegesis is an interpretation, esp. of Scripture, that expresses the interpreter's own ideas, bias, or the like, rather than the meaning of the text. When anyone reads the Bible in this way, they completely twist the scriptures to fit whatever it is that they want it to say. By the way this is a sin! By reading the Bible in eisegetical form, those people are breaking the second of the ten commandments. They are making a graven image of God. Making a 'god' to fit their less than righteous ways of life, rather than humbling themselves, submitting to God's sovereignty in every aspect of their lives. Especially in the teaching of God's Word.
Our friend Todd Friel has a great DVD on the subject of hermeneutics, which teaches in 45 minutes what some students lack after years attending seminary. We recommend the purchase of this video as possibly you are going to be using some quality study tools and bible commentaries to learn the Word accurately. As we end this section, we would like to quote Pastor Ralph's answering machine. Ralph is a very close friend of the ministry who lives in Pittsburgh PA... When you call Ralph's phone and reach his answering machine, the recording simply says, "Leave a message, read the Bible, and do what it says. BEEP". It just doesn't get any better than that!

Seriously, are you a good person?