Today, we focus on tools to help your people read or listen to their Bibles in chronological order. Many people express a desire to read through the Bible, and we can support them in achieving this goal.

I will share resources that explain why reading in chronological order is beneficial, the reasons people may struggle with it, and practical ways to implement it. This approach helps to understand the whole story of salvation and makes sense of God's actions throughout scripture.

The resources I mention are available for free, so we can equip ourselves and our communities without any cost.

Takeaways:

1. Reading the Bible in chronological order helps us see the unity of God's message throughout history.
2. People often struggle to read the Bible due to its complex arrangement and historical context.
3. Chronological reading allows for a deeper understanding of salvation as it unfolds through biblical events.
4. Utilizing free resources can enhance the experience of reading the Bible in order and motivate others.
5. Listening to the Bible is a valid way to engage with the text without the need for traditional reading.
6. It is important for teachers to guide their communities in understanding the Bible's structure and significance.

Links referenced in this episode:

1. bible805.com
2. bible805.com
3. amazon.com

Companies mentioned in this episode:

1. Bible805.com
2. Bible 805 Academy
3. Amazon.com

Welcome to the Ministry Miscellany Podcast A collection of tools, strategy and challenges for Bible teachers from me, Yvon Prehn, someone who's been teaching the Bible ever since as a third grader, I started to teach the kindergartners at my church about Jesus.

I've never quit doing that, and along the way I've picked up some practices, strategies and resources that might be useful to you. Our topic for today is Tools to help your people read or listen to their Bibles in chronological order.

Studies have shown that one of the biggest goals people have for the New Year after losing weight and related goals is to read through the Bible, even if it isn't the first of the year. It's a goal many people, Christians and non-Christians have. It's a great goal and one you can help your people accomplish.

I did a previous Ministry Miscellany podcast where I talked about the book Start Here as an easy way to get into reading the Bible and I continue to highly recommend it. But in this podcast I want to recommend one other way to do it, to read your Bible in chronological order.

In this podcast I'll share resources you can share with your people that will help them understand why do it, why they haven't, how to's, schedules and motivational materials. And don't worry, everything that I'm going to show you is free.

I have three main lessons in this series, all available on the Bible805.com and the Bible 805 Academy sites. I'm going to share the titles and in a minute I'll tell you the highlights of each lesson.

The first one is the Nine Benefits of reading or listening to the Bible in chronological order.

Next, I have Five Reasons why you probably haven't read your Bible in chronological historical order, and the last one Why our Bibles aren't in chronological historical order and why it matters.

Now if you don't have time to watch all three videos, which is really good and I highly recommend it, but I did do two shorter two single session shorter ones to motivate people to read through the Bible in chronological order. Each of these covers the main points of the longer lessons.

Now let me share from lesson one the nine benefits of reading your Bible in chronological order. This isn't the complete lesson, but you hear a few of them.

I talk about how benefit number one reading or listening to the Bible in chronological order.

We can see how God is truly author of the entire Bible when you read how everything fits together when you particularly when read it from beginning to end. You hear one voice, you see how God is the author of all of it.

He prophesied things, they come true, prophesied something else, either good or bad, it comes true. And so much of the prophecy in the Bible is actually fulfilled in the Bible itself.

And this way you can really see how God is the author of all of it.

Benefit number two. Reading or listening to the Bible in chronological order, we understand the whole story of salvation as it unfolds.

We begin in Genesis with people turning their back on God. We see him call out a people who would care for his message, through whom the Messiah would come.

We see their history and how God taught people all about Himself through how the Jewish race progressed through history. And then when Jesus actually comes in the New Testament, we see the final story of salvation come together.

But reading the whole thing, you can see how your salvation is not just some afterthought, some footnote or whatever, something tacked on to a sad and tragic death of a great teacher. No, something that was foretold for millennia, and how God very carefully put the entire story of salvation together.

Benefit number four. Reading or listening to the Bible in chronological order will make sense of God's actions. If we don't understand that he prophesied certain things, we don't understand what happens later.

God told the people, if you do not obey Me, these are the consequences. And we must read things in order, in chronological order to see how God works and that he does not act arbitrarily or in a cruel way.

The people agreed when they came out of Egypt to follow him, to be his people, and then when they disobeyed, he told them what the consequences would be and they happened. One more benefit of reading or listening to the Bible in chronological order is we won't skip the hard parts.

It's very easy to ignore the prophets and some of the other things that might be a little bit difficult for us to read. But if we are committed to reading the entire Bible in chronological order, we won't skip those areas.

Lesson two, that's available from Bible 805 is Five Reasons why you probably haven't read your Bible in chronological order. Reason number one is I don't like to read.

For many people, this is the reason they haven't read their Bible in chronological order or in any order.

And the solution to that is so easy. Listen to the Bible. There are many excellent resources out there that you can just get on your phone and you can listen to the Bible.

You don't have to read it. It is not a more holy or better way to do it. Throughout most of human history, that's how people took in the Bible.

People didn't have little scrolls in their tents that they, you know, pull out for their quiet time. They listened to the public reading of Scripture. And listening to the Bible is a great way to take it in.

Another reason that people give is we think that somehow the Bible is different than any other book and how we should read it.

We would never read a novel, for example, by just dropping into this little passage and that little passage and then another one here and there and go, well, yeah, I read that book. No. People go, no, you have to sit down and read the whole thing in the order that it happened. That's how we read books. And the Bible is no different.

It is one book, one story of our God, our salvation, how he wants us to live. We need to read the entire thing in order to truly understand it.

And then, of course, the biggest reason of all is that our Bibles aren't arranged in Chronological Order.

So it's easy for us to get confused. We have the history and then all the books on the prophets are way in the back and we don't know what fits in where, and all this sort of thing.

So it's really not your fault.

Next, why our Bibles aren't in chronological historical order? The short answer is simple.

Because they've always been arranged in approximately the same order that they are in our Bibles for thousands of years, kind of. It's always been that way. First they are in approximately the same order they were in the Hebrew Bible.

Then it's the same order that they were in the Septuagint.

Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible made around the mid-200bc.

It's also the same order that Jerome put them in when he made his translation into the Latin Vulgate, which is the foundation for many, many translations today. Now, Vulgate doesn't mean it's some fancy sophisticated thing. That is the Latin word for vulgar, meaning common.

And so actually, it was the Living Bible of the day. It was written in the common language of the people, which at that time was Latin. And it was popular and easy to read and very widely accepted.

His order of arranging the books has been kept ever since then. Now, the reason that it's important, we can't just, you know, just stop by saying, oh, it's always been done that way in the past.

People had a better comprehension of the overall story of the Bible. And people don't have that Today.

And so when in the past they knew, for example, that this particular thing happened at this time and whatever, people have lost a sense of that. And so now we really need to read things in their proper historical order for them to make sense to us again.

If you don't have time to go over the lessons, here are two shorter ones that cover the main point for you.

One of the lessons is entitled Read the Bible in Chronological Order and then the other one How to Fit the Bible into a Busy Life and get the Most out of it. In addition to the lessons on the homepage of Bible 805 is a downloadable PDF of schedules and journal pages.

They're in a variety of sizes, full page, half page, different styles, and there are dated ones, ones that are not dated. And you can download any of them that you want. It's a PDF, so you could just print off the PDFs, copy them, do whatever you would like with them.

You have my permission to use them on your church websites. Again, anywhere that you would want to use them. You're welcome to them.

All of this is also on the YouTube channel, so you can go to any of the lessons to go through the entire year. I also have given you resources on the Bible 805 Academy.

I have videos, questions and notes on all of the lessons and the videos don't have any ads or anything like that that you download off the Bible805 Academy. I am in the process of recreating editable PowerPoints, but that's going to take me some time.

But you at least you have the lessons, you have the notes. You have as many resources as I was able to put together for you at the time.

This reading plan is a huge challenge.

It's a sort of a spiritual marathon.

But I must say that nothing that I've done in many years of teaching compares to the life change that happens in people when they read through the entire Bible and understand it for the first time when they see the unity and the power of its message. I pray that you will experience that with your people. The resources are freely available for you to do it.

So please just pick up that stuff, get into training and do that now. One last thing again, if this project is too intimidating for you or your people and you're not ready for it? Try this, my shorter book, Start Here.

It's a plan for curious people to begin reading the Bible. It goes through just 11 books in the New Testament.

It's got suggestions on what Bibles to use, what helps to get it has journaling pages and it's a very easy way to get into reading the Bible. A great introduction to the Bible, Jesus and the Christian faith, and it's perfect for a seeker group or a new believer as an individual or group.

I've given it to, particularly to individuals just starting out in the faith and it's really worked out well for them.

It's available for just $9.99 each on Amazon.com and whatever you decide, if you go through the entire Bible in chronological order or read through a short introduction to is by far the most important thing you can do as a teacher for Jesus.

The most important thing is to get your people into God's Word in the coming year and always.

I trust you found the content in this episode of Ministry Miscellaney useful.

For links to any resources mentioned and lots of free material to help you know, trust, apply and teach the Bible, go to www.bible805.com

Let me close now with a reminder from the book of Daniel 12:3 where it says those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness like the stars, forever and ever.

That's you, someone who leads many to righteousness.

And in doing that, may you may you be ever growing in your reliance on the power of the Holy Spirit, in the deepening of your friendship with Jesus, and in your trust in the goodness of God the Father, never forgetting in all the hard work you do that you have a glorious heritage where you will shine like the stars forever and ever. Amen.