What is a ministers most important task? The ministers most important task is that of teaching the word of God.
What is the word of God? The word of God is the Bible.
So what does a minister do? He teaches you the Bible. Problem is, there is never enough time to teach people everything.
So what is my point?
How do I help you with the Bible so you can get more out of it? Send you to a church. That works. Some feel weird or out of place going to a church.
So I need to get you interested in reading the Bible on your own. That can be scary if you start in the wrong place, so I want to help you with this.
So where do you start? The OT or the NT?
Some say the OT is not necessary. I say you can find a lot of good information in the OT.
Best thing to do is show you how the Bible is broke down. So here it is:
The Old Testament
I. Pentateuch - The first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
These first five books contain the creation story and the early history of God's people. It has the Mosaic law, which is the law given to Moses by God for his people. It ends with the death of Moses and right before the Israelites entered what was called the promised land.
II. Historical Books - The next (12) books
These tell the story of God's people from entering the promised land till about 400BC.
III. Poetic Books - Job Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs
The poetic books speak about the problem of suffering, the need for praise, and how to live daily in relation with God.
IV. Prophets
These make up the rest of the old Testament. God used the prophets to send messages to his people.
The New Testament
I. Gospels Mark, Matthew, Luke, John
These four books tell us the history of Jesus. Each book gives an account of Jesus life. They all tell the same story, but as seen from the different writers perspectives.
II. History Acts
This book gives us the history of the early church right after Jesus.
III. Epistles
This is the rest of the new Testament except Revelation. Revelation talks about the end times and is mainly prophetic. The Epistles are letters to the churches on different issues. It includes teaching about the Christian faith, encouragement to put that faith into practice and God's desire for us.
So why did I go thru all this? Because we need to be Bible literate. Just like we became MX "literate". How can we be or become genuine believers if we don't know anything about the word of God? We have to know how to learn the word of God and where to get started, that way when we read the passages below, we know what they mean.
Jesus said:
JN 10:9 I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.
AC 2:21 And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.'
AC 16:31 They replied, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved
RO 10:9 That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Do you know what they all meant?
If yes, great. If not, you probably don't know Jesus as your savior.
If you want to know Jesus as your savior, please study the Bible and find out if you think it is true.
God will reveal himself to you. I guarantee it.
Better yet, the Bible guarantees it.
PR 8:17 I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me.
If you already are a believer, please take the time to study God's word to understand him better and to see how he wants us to live.
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