One time I walked into the wrong movie theater, where the movie I had paid to watch was already halfway through. A sea battle was ensuing with swords clashing and cannons blasting in surround sound. The audience gasped as they watched their beloved characters struggle to survive. As for me, I sat with cold indifference.<\/p>\n
I didn’t care. I had missed the beginning.<\/p>\n
Movies are meant to be viewed from beginning to end. Even if you step out just to pop some popcorn, when you get back you will ask, \u201cWhat did I miss?\u201d because you might have missed an important chunk.<\/p>\n
You don’t cheer for the hero who has no history, and you don’t cry at the funeral of a complete stranger.<\/strong><\/p>\n The Bible is not a movie. But why not approach it like a movie? After all, the Bible includes a lot of narratives, and when it is all put together it makes a complete story of God\u2019s grace.<\/p>\n However, it’s convenient to use the Bible as a reference book. When our problematic life is getting us down, we want to pop a couple feel-good-Bible-verse pills and move on. But the Bible was not written like an encyclopedia of helpful tips. Unfortunately, I believe we Christians are often content with walking into the battle scene without first getting introduced to all the characters. We don’t mind getting a fragment of the story during Sunday’s sermon while never thinking to ask \u201cWhat did I miss?\u201d<\/p>\n One of the absolute best decisions I made in my life was to read the Bible from cover to cover.<\/p>\n<\/div>One of the absolute best decisions I made in my life was to read the Bible from cover to cover. I decided to plow through it, stopping for nothing and skipping nothing. Yes, the genealogies were not as exciting, especially when I didn\u2019t understand their importance. Likewise, the blueprints of the tabernacle can get repetitive, but God had a purpose for those details as well. The complexity of the prophets could be confusing, and some of Paul’s writings didn’t seem to apply to me. But I wanted to know what the whole Bible says. By the time I reached the Psalms I found myself highlighting common themes and drawing timelines of Bible happenings. By the time I reached the gospels I was gasping and laughing and crying. I began to care<\/em>.<\/p>\n With a new year upon us, now is a great time for you to begin reading the Bible from cover to cover, here are some tips I learned from my own experience:<\/p>\n —How Should We Read the Bible?<\/h2>\n
Reading the Bible from Cover to Cover<\/h2>\n
Now is a good time to start<\/h2>\n
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\nContributions by Brent Aucoin<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"