How important is Bible study to the average person? What does the bible mean to most Christians? Most Christians have a Bible and even many non-Christians have a Bible in their home. How often does a Christian read or study the Bible? I wonder if Christians truly believe that God wrote the Bible. Do Christians take Bible truth seriously by living according to all that it states? If the Bible was truly written by God then you would think that All Christians would want to live by a standard that came from a perfect being. I would expect non-Christians to live by their own code of life but you would think that Christians would live by the words of their God that save them and gave them eternal life in heaven.

Is the Bible a book that Christians hold dear to themselves hanging on every word or a book that provides suggestions for particular problems one may be having? How often does someone use a bible commentary to better understand the Bible showing to God that the Bible is something that holds value to him or her? Is the Bible a book that holds ALL of the answers to life? Do Christians have the right to call themselves Christians and live contrary to the Bible? Some may consider the book as a guide to life picking and choosing what they want to live by. Wouldn’t that make them a god to themselves?

What if the Bible is the very Word of God and God requires all who are in His family to live by every principle and even by every word written. bible study would be very important to the one who treasures God. Do we really love God or are we just people who want to be like everybody else? Maybe we just don’t like the way the world does things or how the world looks and we just want to be in another category? Maybe many people who call themselves Christians are just masquerading as a Christian because Bible truth is not important. The world is becoming way too evil and people who want to be good for the most part are looking for a new life that they can call good. A good Bible commentary would help us to understand the standards that God requires for mankind to be like.

Many so-called Christians will not make a total commitment to Christ and His Word because the way is very extreme from the life in the world system. Are we as Christians to take the wisdom of the Bible when it comes to the right living?

If the Bible were not actually important to you then maybe it would be a good idea to just get rid of it and be who you really are. At least if your honest before God maybe you’ll have a chance to be saved instead of just pretending that you are a Christian.

I think God wants a real family who truly loves Him and obeys what He says. If you really have an appreciation for God and all He has done for you then you would automatically return your love towards God and not think of yourself but think about what God wants. The Bible is the standard for a true Christian and the ones who are really saved by the blood of Christ have an uncompressing devotion to live by every word written in this holy book and the rest of mankind are lost or are just masquerading as Christians. Maybe we need a campaign to get the so-called Christians saved starting with many of the Pastors in our churches. Put the Bible on the shelf of your heart!

Gen Wright
http://www.articlesbase.com/metaphysics-articles/is-the-bible-relevant-for-today-727570.html

I believe that Bible reading can be as enjoyable as anything we do under the sun. It should anyway because after all, it is the Bread of Life for our soul. But it takes a little extra effort, and perhaps investments, to grab the attention of say, the children, and make them see the importance of the Bible.

the bible of course is not just any ordinary book. It is a rich resource of spiritual insights and wisdom that can only be understood with the help of th Holy Spirit. Paul argued this effectively when he said:
For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. (1 Corinthians 2.11)

Even then, the Bible should not be misunderstood as a puzzling book that only smart men can decipher. Indeed, God has revealed His plans, not to the wise, but to babes in heart. (Matthew 11.25) The Bible is simple enough for even the least educated to understand.

Here are my simple ideas that can help anyone get back their passion for Bible reading.
Decide to read the Bible for your own spiritual benefits. What do eating, working, playing, and watching TV have in common? They are actions that we decide to do every day. Why not reading the Bible? Why not read the Bible when you can learn so many things from God from its very ages? I’m convinced that unless we make a decision to step into a spiritual journey with the Book. (If you want to know what the Bible means to you and your faith, read this article.)

Set a time and a place for you to read your Bible. There is a saying that goes, “a place for everything, and everything in its place.” In a world that’s getting more crowded and noisy, God’s Word requires that we set aside a place and time if we want to gain the wisdom It offers freely. Find your self a corner where you can focus on your reading. It can be any place in your house, in a park, or a coffee shop. In my younger days I used to bring my reading materials outdoors, usually under the shade of a tree, where I read for hours with nothing to disturb me (except the chicken in our back yard). When I moved to the city, my favorite reading hangout was any coffee shop that is cozy and quiet. (Starbucks!)

Now, one reason we cannot stand reading the Bible is because we usually reserve the time when we are most tired, stressed and totally spent. Why not give the most active time of your day to Bible reading? The early morning is also a good time to spend with your Bible.

Bring your tools with you. Consider Bible reading as a task as well as an adventure. Why? Because when you go on an adventure trip, you will want to bring tools with you to help you along the way. That’s why. Read your Bible with a pen and a notebook and probably a dictionary and other reference materials that can help you discover and understand the meaning of words and things. You will also want to write down your questions, the ideas you discovered, the wisdom you learned, and things to do later. Now that’s an adventure!

Decide which way to take the trip. There are a number of ways you can begin your Bible journey. Basically, the Bible as a book consists of biographies, historical accounts of places and records of ideas and cultures of the ancient days. The Bible is also a book of wise sayings, love stories, doctrinal expositions and prophetic utterances. Whichever way you start the path will surely lead you great adventures with God and His people, and will unravel spiritual riches that are definitely out of this world.

Write as you read. As I’ve mentioned earlier, write all your discoveries because it is one of the surest way of not losing them. Don’t trust your mind.

Don’t end your reading session without giving yourself an assignment. Having an assignment that you will work on helps you look forward to your next Bible reading session. You can take not of things that you might do to supplement your Bible reading. Is there anything you will need to ask to your Pastor or parents? You can use your friends, the library or the Internet to supplement and expand your learning.

Treat yourself afterwards. Better yet, bring your things to your favorite coffee shop so you can read and enjoy your favorite blend.

Also, you can try reading with a group of friends. This is very interesting when you have friends who want to read and share at the same time. This is exciting, I tell you.

Jonathan Togonon
http://www.articlesbase.com/self-improvement-articles/can-you-read-the-bible-and-enjoy-it-729079.html

When I was young, I used to love to go to Sunday school just because I loved to hear the Bible stories. Quite honestly, even at a young age, I realized the church we went to was full of hypocrites, but that didn’t stop me from learning and enjoying the stories that were presented to me. Today, I don’t often attend church because most of the ones I have encountered are just as bad as the first one, and I certainly don’t think worshipping with a bunch of hypocrites each Sunday is going to save my soul.

It wasn’t until college that I realized how many different creeds and religious beliefs actually existed. The list goes on forever. Personally I was raised a Lutheran. Of course this doesn’t mean that I have total faith in these beliefs still today.

Viewpoints change as you age and travel through life. Experiences and acquired knowledge can definitely lead you down an alternate path other than traditional bible books do. Once we’re molded into adults, things tend to become a bit clearer. Our individual ethos and personalities are developed more. Where do you stand in this large spectrum of religions and creeds?

Back when I was in the 7th grade, I began going to confirmation. This was a regular class at my church that I had to attend in order to later become confirmed. I was instantly introduced to bible books.

As a group, we read stories from the books that I now regard as parables. Although many will disagree, I don’t take biblical stores as actual history. I have no idea whether or not they occurred at all. From where I stand they seem to be designed to teach morals and good judgment. They’re a kind of lesson plan. Each one you read, you learn a lesson about what’s considered right and wrong. This is all fine and good. I can’t see anything wrong with it. My wife on the other hand, has no respect for bible books. She feels that they far too often degrade the women. Women are not viewed as equals, but as something created for the men. They are also often blamed when something goes wrong. Basically the softer sex is deemed the corrupt one. I can imagine that many educated women see this as well. So are we actually to believe that bible books come from a higher power, or from men from long ago? Men who were writing things according to their own preferences and wishes.

If you are interested in some form of religion, then you should take it upon yourself to find out more. Attend a church service and see what you think of the sermon. Check out a few bible books on the web. They are on there now days. If nothing else, you may walk away with peace of mind concerning what happens after death. One thing I can say about my religious friends is that they’re generally more jovial and satisfied with life overall. That’s a good thing!

At any rate, there are a lot of great Bible stories out there, and you don’t need to go to church to get them. Not all churches are bad, I understand this completely, but there are many people like me who hang on to their faith, but aren’t interested in joining organized religious churches that make a mockery of what they are supposed to stand for. You can get Bible stories anywhere you look today, and you can get them at a good price too. You can also find coloring books and puzzles that are fashioned after some of your favorite stories.

Some of the best Bible stories are the ones that teach a lesson. These are the ones that have two stories in one, almost, and they can be applied to God as well as to regular life. Bible stories are often meant to teach a lesson, and perhaps that is why they were included in the Bible to begin with. Not only are you learning history, you are leaning a valuable lesson about what God wants for our world. They have a good lesson even for those who do not believe, and can benefit almost anyone in the quest to live a better life.

The best thing about modern Bible stories is that some are now written in a simple language that children can easily follow. I remember some of the Bible stories I heard as a child were so complex in language that I had a hard time following along, as any six-year-old child would. the bible stories remain the same, but the language is easy to understand, and the stories are easier to follow when they are written with children in mind. You can find these books in almost any bookstore, and also in any bookstore that is affiliated with a church.

John Pawlett
http://www.articlesbase.com/religion-articles/bible-stories-92371.html

Is the Bible the Word of God? Or is it just a collection of human writings? How can we know for sure? Any google search on the inspiration of the Scriptures will bring up a surprising amount of results from people who do not believe so. These people can be convincing. However, these arguments are merely the opinions of their authors, with no evidence to back them up. In fact, the evidence stands against these convincing arguments–and evidence always speaks louder than persuasive words.

Perhaps the most compelling evidence for the inspiration of the Scriptures is the unity of the Bible, especially when one considers all the writers involved. The Bible does not have a single contradiction. Not even one. Yet several people, over the course of thousands of years wrote it! Most of these people did not know each other, and they came from a variety of backgrounds. If I asked ten people today to write down their thoughts about God, chances are, there would be some contradictions. Yet forty people wrote the Bible! The odds of forty people over thousands of years writing a book as vast as the Bible are astronomical. The only logical explanation is that all were inspired by one God to pen the words of what we now know as the Bible.

Another compelling reason to believe the Bible is the Word of God is because of its scientific and historical accuracy. The Bible mentions many scientific principles that were not known until long after it was written. For example, the earth was generally believed to be flat until the time of Columbus. Yet Isaiah 40:22 mentions “the circle of the earth.” This is but one of many examples. Keep in mind, the Bible writers were not scientists! In addition, archaeological finds continue to verify many of the historical facts mentioned in the Bible. Archaeology has yet to find anything in history that contradicts Scripture.

One of the more fascinating proofs of Biblical accuracy is the fulfillment of prophecies in the Bible. Archaeology has verified that the book of Isaiah was written hundreds of years before the coming of Christ, yet Isaiah accurately described the crucifixion, the promise of salvation, and many detailed aspects of Jesus’ life. Many other prophecies in the Bible have come true also. For example, the Bible predicted the rise and fall of the Persian and Roman empires in Daniel. The book of Daniel also talks about the increase of knowledge in the last days, and vast amounts of travel. And this is the tip of the iceberg. Literally, hundreds of prophecies have been fulfilled.

Some argue that the Bible isn’t inspired because man decided which books would be considered “inspired” and which wouldn’t. They also argue that some of the books that have been left out were recognized by the original disciples as Scripture. While it is true that these other books were well-known to the disciples, it is important to remember that these writings were considered Jewish literature, and the original twelve were all Jews. They were historical documents.

The men involved in the canonization of the Scriptures did not “decide” which Scriptures were inspired. They simply recognized the Scriptures that were inspired. To be considered inspired, they had to pass certain criteria. For example, any prophecies that should have come true by that time had to be fulfilled. The work had to be accepted by the church at large as inspired. The work had to be a first-hand account, or very close to it. While this sounds like man “deciding” what qualifies as Scripture, one has to remember that these men were chosen by God before they were born, to canonize Scripture, just as the Bible writers were chosen to write what would later become Scripture. Time has shown that these men correctly identified those books that were inspired, and those that were not.

In fact, the book of Isaiah foreshadowed the final Holy Bible as we know it today. Amazingly, the Bible has 66 books, 39 in the Old Testament, and 27 in the New Testament. The Old Testament takes place before the coming of Christ, when men were still in bondage to the law, while the New Testament begins with the birth of Christ and focuses on the freedom we now have in Christ. In Isaiah, the first 39 chapters are parallel to the Old Testament, in that they talk of judgment and captivity (bondage), while the last 27 chapters contain the messianic promises, which were fulfilled in the New Testament. One could perhaps write this off as coincidence or accuse the men who canonized the Bible of setting it up that way on purpose. However, the bible is so full of these types of “coincidences” that the odds are against it

No one can prove the Bible is the inspired word of God. However, the evidence is compelling. In the end, we must make a decision to accept the Bible as the inspired Word of God by faith. This is necessary to live a victorious Christian life. Either the Bible is completely true or completely unreliable. If one little line is untrue, the whole Bible becomes unreliable. Throughout history, the Bible has consistently been the best-selling (and most controversial) book of all time. It has been the most enduring book, passing every test of time. Yet no one has ever been able to prove a single line or even word of the Bible to be false. For a book as vast and complex as the Bible, this seems to be far outside the powers of man to accomplish, especially the powers of forty very different men who didn’t know each other and who didn’t realize they were writing the Bible.

Candace Marra
http://www.articlesbase.com/religion-articles/is-the-bible-really-the-inspired-word-of-god-131640.html