How to Use Your Bible

Supplies:

• Bibles, concordance,
• Bible dictionary,
• a bulletin from a past Sunday showing the responsive reading/Psalm,
  (Make sure your emphasis is on the concordance, dictionary, and how to look up Bible verses when you don’t know where they are at.)

Today we are going to study how the Bible works.
What do you know about the Bible? Get a feel from the kids what they already know.

• Divided into 2 parts
  o Old Testament
  o New Testament
  
  
• Divided into different books.
  o Each book divided into chapters.
  o Each chapter into verses.
  
  
• If you are quoting only part of the verse, it is written as the verse number followed by a ‘small’ letter – like ‘a’ for the first part, ‘b’ for the second part, or ‘c’ for the third part. Example: “Now the earth was formless and empty…” Genesis 1: 2a
  
  
• How many books does the total Bible have? 66
  
  
• How many books does the Old Testament have? 39
  
  
• How many books does the New Testament have? 27

Jesus promises us that He will guide us to understand what is true. Be sure to ask God to help you every time you study God’s Word!

Let us pray: Dear Lord, Thank you for giving us the Bible so that we may read and understand what You want us to do. Help us to find time to study it and find answers to our problems. Help us to learn all we can about the Bible and about You. Amen.

Bible Dictionary• A dictionary contains definitions of words or phrases found in the Bible.

• Could be located in the back of your Bible or could be a separate book. “The Illustrated Bible Dictionary” by George W. Knight is a good reference.
  
  
• Look up…. in the dictionary
  o Petition
  o Passover
  o Lord’s Prayer
  o Foot washing

Concordance

• Is a special index – contains a list of words in alphabetical order that is used in the Bible.
  
  
• By looking up key words, you can look up verses when you only remember a word or two, but not their location.
  
  
• If you look up a word (Like baptized), the concordance will give you the reference (Like Mk 1:9 – meaning Mark 1:9), then site part of the verse using a ‘letter’ to signify the word you are looking up (Like ‘and was b by John in the Jordan’)
  
  
• Look up
  o Say your friend has been upset and afraid. You want to have some Bible verses to help calm their fears. Look up “afraid” in the concordance. Are there any verses that might fit?
  o ‘Needle’ – Mt 19:24 – ‘go through the eye of a n’
  o ‘Methuselah’ – Ge 5: 27 – ‘altogether, M lived 969 years’
  o Isn’t there a verse that talks about ‘loving your neighbor as yourself’? What would you look up? ‘Neighbor’, ‘love’
  o Lev 19:18 – ‘but love your n as yourself’

Internet

• Is a special way to look up a Bible verse.
  
  
• Make sure you have your parent’s permission and they approve of the site you are using.
  
  
• There are many choices you could use for verse look up.
  o http://www.christnotes.org
  o http://www.bible.com
  o http://www.biblegateway.com
  
• Many of the internet sites also have a ‘daily Bible verse’ or a ‘daily devotion.
  o What is your ‘home page’ that is set up to come on when you turn on your computer to the internet?
  o If you are on the internet at home, what better way to start your day or start your time on the computer, than to first go to an approved site and read a verse before you move on to a game or chatting with your friends.
  o See if you could set one of these sites up as your ‘home page.’
  o What a great way to bring more of God into your life.
  
  
• Look up
  o ‘Needle’ – It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. Mark 10:25
  o ‘Methuselah’ - And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years: and he died. Genesis 5:27
  o ‘Neighbor’ – lots of choices, narrow the search by adding ‘love’ - And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Matthew 22:39

The Old Testament
The Old Testament is divided into 4 main parts.

1. Pentateuch – it was called the Torah or the Law of Moses by the Hebrew people
   a. The first 5 books of the OT (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy)
   b. Written by Moses
   c. Tells of the creation of the world and how a family grew into a nation – Israel. Tells how God freed Israel from slavery, their wonderings for 40 years, and the laws given by God.
   
   
2. Books of History
   a. Next 12 books (Joshua, Judges, Ruth, I&II Samuel, I&II Kings, I&II Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther)
   b. Contain the history of the Israelites as they moved into the Promised Land/Canaan and established a kingdom that lasted almost 500 years. When Israel obeyed God, He defeated their enemies. But lots of times, people disobeyed and got into serious trouble.
   
   
3. Books of Poetry and Wisdom
   
   a. Open your Bible to the middle. What is the book are you looking at? Usually Psalms. What do you know about Psalms?
   i. They are prayers, songs, and poetry.
   ii. It is in the ‘Poetry and Wisdom’ portion of the Bible. (Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon)
   iii. Many Psalms were used for worship services. Thousands of people gathered together from all of Israel. The leader would sing (or read) one part and the people would respond with the other part. We read from the book of Psalms every Sunday during our responsive reading. (Show them a bulletin from a past Sunday.)
   iv. King David is connected to 73 of the 150 Psalms – either as a writer or a recipient.
   
   b. What is one of the most well known Psalms? Psalms 23 –see if they can say it without looking at the words.
   
   c. What is the center verse in the Bible? “It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man.” Psalms 118:8 – Put God in the center of your life!
   
   d. What is the book before Psalms? Job
   
   e. What is the book after Psalms? Proverbs
   
   
4. The Books of the Prophets – the last section of the Old Testament.
   
   a. God sent many messengers, called prophets. God spoke through the prophets to His people. Some prophets predicted future events, but their primary job was to call God’s people back to him.
   i. Major prophets – The first five books – Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel
   ii. Minor prophets – Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi
   
   b. Which prophets predicted that the messiah was coming? Isaiah, Jeremiah, Micah, Malachi – Malachi 3:1 , Micah 5:2 , Isaiah 7:14, Isaiah 9: 6-7, Isaiah 11: 1-5, Jeremiah 31: 15, Isaiah 35: 4-6

The New Testament
The New Testament is divided into 2 main parts.

1. The Books of History
   
   a. The Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John)
   i. Gospel means ‘good news.’
   ii. On the life of Jesus and the good news he brought to man.
   
   b. Acts of the Apostles
   i. Continues the history into the time after Jesus left earth.
   
   
2. The Letters
   a. Paul’s Letters
   i. To Churches – Romans, I&II Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, I&II Thessalonians,
   ii. To Others – I&II Timothy, Titus, Philemon
   
   b. Other Letters
   i. Hebrews, James, I&II Peter, I, II, &III John, Jude
   ii. Revelation – a Prophecy – an Apocalypse writing, a Greek word that refers to an unveiling of the hidden things known only to God.
   
   
3. The Book of Revelation reveals the end of what we know now and the coming of God’s future kingdom through symbols, visions and numbers. It’s hard to understand, but the big promise is clear – Jesus is coming back to Earth and everyone will know He is King!

Key points to emphasize:

• Concordance
• Bible Dictionary
• Internet to look up Bible verses
• Four main parts of the Old Testament
• Two main parts of the New Testament
• Gospels – ‘good news’

Written by Rachel Haugland

Reference: The Quest Study Bible/NIV by Zondervan, The Illustrated Bible Dictionary by George Knight, published by Barbour Publishing, Inc.

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