If
you have never read the bible, and are interested to give it a
go, but have no idea where to start, may I make some
suggestions?
The
bible is a volume that is made up of 66 books, written by many
different authors, but collectively making up what Christians
believe to be the inspired word of God. The bible comprises an
Old Testament (which has 39 books) and a New Testament (which
has 27 books), and the story that is told is of the creation of
Man, his fall from grace, and his salvation and redemption
through Jesus Christ.
While all the books of the bible are worth reading because they
are all the word of God, starting at the very first book and
trying to make one's way book by book from the front cover of
the bible to its back cover is not necessarily the best way to
go, especially if you are completely new to the bible and/or to
Christianity.
Because the heart of Christianity is Jesus Christ, I find that a
good place to start is often with one of "the gospels". "The
gospels" is the term Christians use to refer to the first four
books of the New Testament - Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
These books are named after the people who wrote them, and they
give four independent but converging and overlapping accounts of
the birth, life, and death of Jesus Christ. If you want to know
what Jesus did while He was on this earth, what He said, what He
taught, how He lived, how He died, these books will tell you.
Here is a link to one of the gospels: (The links will take
you to the first chapter in each book. Click on the little
buttons at the bottom of each page to go to the next chapter.)
The book of Luke in English
The book of Luke in Chinese
The
other books in the New Testament after the gospels tell of the
continuing work that Jesus's disciples and followers did after
His death, and they continue the message given in the gospels
that believing in Jesus and following Him is the only way for us
to live truly meaningful lives now while we are on earth and for
us to go to heaven to be with God when we die. Many of these New
Testament books are in fact letters by various disciples
of Jesus, written to encourage others. Although written so many
years ago, it is quite amazing that these letters are still so
relevant to what we are facing in the present day. The "book" of
Philippians, for instance, is a letter written by the disciple
(or apostle) Paul to encourage and teach the people in the city
of Philippi:
Paul's letter to the Philippians (in English)
Paul's letter to the Philippians (in Chinese)
If
you are interested to read specifically about what the bible
says about the sinfulness of human beings, the righteous anger
of God, and His love in sending His only son Jesus to make
possible our salvation, then you might try reading Paul's letter
to the Romans. It is not the easiest book to understand, but
it's well worth reading:
Paul's letter to the Romans (in English)
Paul's letter to the Romans (in Chinese)
I
hope that your reading of the bible will not stop at just these
three books, but these are just some suggestions as to where to
start reading if you are at a loss.
The
Alpha Course is a course that aims to present the basic
principles of the Christian faith to anyone who is interested to
find out more about Christianity and to offer a
informal setting for people to raise any questions about
Christianity that they have. It first started running in an
Anglican Church (Holy Trinity Brompton) in London in the late
1970s. Over the years, the course spread across the UK and then
internationally, and there are now Alpha courses being conducted
in over 160 countries around the world, in workplaces, schools,
universities, neighbourhoods, homes, prisons etc.
The
person most visibly associated with the Alpha course these days
is
Nicky Gumbel,
who is now the vicar of Holy Trinity Brompton. After taking over
the running of the Alpha course in Holy Trinity Brompton in
1990, he published the Alpha materials in a book entitled
Alpha - Questions of Life. This became an international bestseller.
I find it an excellent introduction to the Christian faith, and
have given many copies away to anyone who is interested. I would
highly recommend the book.
And
I was so excited to find that the Holy Trinity Brompton, which
still runs the Alpha course on a regular basis, has uploaded to
their website fantastic
videos of speakers covering each of the topics on the course.
(Each topic / video corresponds, by the way, to a chapter in the
Alpha book.) If you're a person who prefers watching or
listening to something rather than reading about it, this is
wonderful. It's like having your own private Alpha course
delivered to you wherever you are, and the bonus is that all the
different speakers bring their own unique personalities and
experiences to the material.
Week 1:
Is there more to life than this? (Speaker: Charlie Mackesy)
Week 2:
Who is Jesus? (Speaker: Nicky Gumbel)
Week 3:
Why did Jesus die? (Speaker: Archie Coates)
Week 4:
How can I have faith? (Speaker: Jamie Haith)
Week 5:
Why and how do I pray? (Speaker: Charlie Mackesy)
Week 6:
How and why should I read the bible? (Speaker: Kitty
Kay-Shuttleworth)
Week 7:
How does God guide us? (Speaker: Paul Cowley)
Week 8:
How can I resist evil? (Speaker: Rebecca Stewart)
Week 9:
Why and how should we tell others? (Speaker: Hayley Bisofsky)
Why and how should we tell others? (Speaker: Archie Coates)
Week 10:
Does God heal today? (Jamie Haith)
Week 11:
What about the church? (Jamie Haith)
