Tips for reading the Bible

I was provided with some tips that I thought I would share. They are questions that you can ask as you spend time with the daily reading. My pastor gave me these suggestions when trying to understand what you are reading...

Observation: What does the text actually say? What's in front of me? (printing out the text and writing on it, underlining, circling, and writing down any questions can be helpful here) Interpretation: What did the text mean in its original context to its original audience? Application: What does the text mean today for us? How should I respond to it in my time and situation?

He also said, "Remember that genre is important (Prophecy is different than Paul's letters; Psalms are poetry/prayers/songs; Narratives like Exodus or the Gospels have a story arc with intro, conflict/tension, rising action, climax, and resolution). We read the sports page of the newspaper differently than we read a mystery novel. The same is true of different books of the Bible written in different genres. For instance, the Proverbs are meant to teach us wisdom, not make specific promises of how things will always turn out if we act a certain way. Poetry uses a lot of figurative language, whereas historical narrative usually does not".

I thought that this could be useful information considering the reading plan that we have chosen. I have also made a Bible Study document folder where we can put documents that we want to share. I have added the Bible study that we are doing as well as some of the reading suggestions that the pastor has shared with me.