This biblical teaching is a production of The Walk Ministries with Pastor Jeno Shaw. You can watch the video below, and then read the teaching notes that follow.
Overview
To eat an elephant …
How do you eat an elephant? Well according to my fellow brother in Christ, Thomas Wimmer, we eat an elephant, well, one bite at a time.
Don’t take on the whole Bible
One of the worst things you can do is attempt to read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. It’s very daunting and often you’ll stop or get sidetracked and eventually stop reading the Bible. Don’t do that!
The Bible is filled with milk and meat and we must cut it up.
Strategies
- Ask the Holy Spirit to lead you to a verse; then, as you go about your day, look for clues
- Some will say read the book of John first
- Some will say read Romans first
- I would recommend reading the Gospels first (Mathew, Mark, Luke and John)
Now upon reading the Gospels, you will be confronted with something. Things in the book of Mathew will appear different from Mark and Luke and John. Then you’ll have the question like, “ Is the bible not consistent?” Why?
In the case of a car accident at an intersection between a blue car and a red car, you will have a bunch of witnesses. This will be their observation.
Witness 1: “I saw the red car run a red light and hit the blue car.”
Witness 2: “I saw the red car enter the intersection, but the blue car was speeding.”
Witness 3: “I saw a plane come down and distract the drivers, and then it flew away.”
Now, when an event occurs, our brain needs to process what just happened, and if we didn’t see everything or if our brain can’t make sense of the data, it will sometimes add things that we didn’t see just so it makes sense to us.
This is why police will separate witnesses at the scene. They don’t want them to compare stories because then the true data of what they saw will become clouded by the story they just heard from another witness. Our brains filter things in different ways which is why three people at a car accident can see three different things or angles.
Eventually, you will get to a maturity of believing the Bible from cover to cover even if you don’t understand everything. The sooner you can come to this conclusion and trust the word of God the better.
What version should I read?
When I first started out, I couldn’t understand the King James Version. Now, it’s one of my favorites! Due to its poetry with words and sentences, I just love it.
Starting out, I would recommend the NLT or Amplified version. Those are great, and I still use those today.
I would like to read the Bible, but I’m struggling with my faith
Listen. The closer you get to God the more of Him you want. The further away you get from God the less of Him you want in your life.
Romans 10:17 (KJV) “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing byO the word of God.”
You just can’t get around reading the Bible for yourself. When you read the Bible, you’re actually eating the Bible. The Bible is a supernatural book that is true, and you need it to get down into your soul and into your heart. You will never find a substitute for just reading the Bible on your own! So if you’re asking for faith, what you’re really telling me is you are not reading the Bible because here it clearly states faith comes by hearing, hearing the word of God, and when you read the word of God aloud that’s exactly what happens.
Now, it’s good to listen to sermons, but you really need to get into the word of God for yourself.
Redeem the time
In our busy schedules we may need to travel 30 minutes to work or more. Lets add that up: 60 mins to/from work everyday Mon-Fri. That’s five hours a week. That’s 20 hours a month.
I want to share another strategy with you. You can download an audio Bible to your phone. You can find some free ones on the internet. My favorite is the dramatized version. With that, you can listen to the Bible while driving to/from work, and you will not be the same, in Jesus’ name!
Once you get into the swing of things, you will develop other strategies that will work for you. You don’t necessarily need to read the whole book of Romans once you’ve read it several times. Just pick out a chapter and read the same chapter over and over every day. This will allow you to become laser focused. But why the same chapter everyday? Because the first day and the last day will always be different! Quite often, the Holy Spirit will reveal something to you that you missed the first few times you read or listen to it. Let me tell you, when the Holy Spirit gives you revelations, it’s sweet every time!
Another strategy is to get a verse, just one verse, and do the same thing!
And remember, when reading the Bible, try to use your imagination and put yourself in that timeframe. What would you do?
Here are some questions to ask when reading the Bible:
- Who is it addressed to?
- When?
- What is the context of what happened before and after the section I’m reading?
- What was the culture of that time?
- If you were there, would there have been a different outcome?
Be honest with yourself, and you will find yourself growing in the Lord.
Another thing I like to do is to have a buffet. When I’m reading a chapter, sometimes I will bring out the Amplified, the Kings James, and the NLT and just compare! You will find that some verses in the bible are better in NLT and other verses will be better in the Amplified. God is so good!
I also like to bring my Bible to the meetings that I attend so it can soak up the anointing as well!
I have to admit, I have about three or four Bibles. I just love different translations, and there’s just something about marking up a new Bible or highlighting a new Bible. I like to highlight certain verses!
In all of today’s technology with the Bible being on every smartphone, for some reason there’s just something holy about a paper Bible that you just don’t get from an electronic Bible. It’s just not the same. Even though you can highlight an electronic Bible, it’s just not the same as a good ole paperback or hardcover Bible!
And remember, the Bible is written in layers. You can take a verse at face value or you can dig deep into it.
Let’s look at Genesis 1:1
Genesis 1:1 (KJV)
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”
If you were to take this verse at face value like a little child, that’s good. There’s nothing wrong with that. this verse still tells you a lot of information, but it also has layers to it. It has depth, and we can go deeper.
God operates outside of time. Now I want you all to put your science hats on and remember the relationship of space, time, and matter. Let’s apply science to this verse.
In the beginning = Time
Heaven = Space
Earth = Matter
When God did this, He created a trinity within a trinity.
Time = past, present, future
Space = length, width, height
Matter = solid, liquid, gas
In order for this all to work correctly, time/space/matter must come together at the same time at the same instance. The BIG BANG perhaps!? See how science is trying to catch up to the Bible?!
All of this has to come to fruition at the same time because if there’s matter but no space then where would God put it? If there’s matter and space but no time then when would God put it?
Genius! See how God has truly thought of everything! God is so good! Let’s celebrate His goodness in our lives. HALLELUJAH!! I hope this blesses you.
I love you all!
Take care,
Pastor Jeno
