How you approach reading the Bible is crucial. You must do two things: <\/p>\n
(1) Approach it with integrity.<\/i> When a new Christian in a Bible study group said, \u2018I\u2019ve had a hard time believing some parts of the Bible,\u2019 the others smiled and applauded. They didn\u2019t do it because unbelief is good news; they did it because he\u2019d finally been honest enough to admit his doubts. Don\u2019t worry; God\u2019s not upset with you. Until you\u2019re willing to talk about your doubts, you can\u2019t resolve them. When Thomas questioned the resurrection, Jesus showed up just to convince him. And He will show up for you too! It\u2019s a mistake to try to force yourself into believing something or avoid reading it so you don\u2019t get disturbed. Jesus said, \u2018When He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth\u2026 He will glorify Me because it is from Me that He will receive what He will make known to you.\u2019<\/i> (John\u00a016:13\u201314\u00a0NIV) <\/p>\n
(2) Read it with expectancy.<\/i> Once you\u2019ve been to a book signing, met the author and got his autograph, you feel very different about the book. You treasure it. And when you read the Bible with an expectant heart, the author shows up. As you read His words you begin to sense His presence and realise He is speaking to you personally. Jesus said, \u2018The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you\u2014they are full of the Spirit and life.\u2019<\/i> (John\u00a06:63\u00a0NIV) When you come to the Scriptures with a hunger and an expectancy, you never go away disappointed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
How you approach reading the Bible is crucial. You must do two things: (1) Approach it with integrity. When a new Christian in a Bible study group said, \u2018I\u2019ve had a hard time believing some parts of the Bible,\u2019 the others smiled and applauded. They didn\u2019t do it because unbelief is good news; they did […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1625"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1625\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}