How to Read the Bible

HOW TO READ THE BIBLE — a short course from Dardanelle Missionary Baptist Church • Pastor Chuck Trusty • a new lesson every two weeks

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This is a short course for anyone who wants to read the Bible for himself. Every lesson is a five-minute read. Each one teaches one simple tool — a rule for reading — and proves it with one word right out of the verse. Work them in order, and by the end you will have a whole toolbox for opening the Book on your own.

There is homework each time — one verse to work yourself. Do it. That is where it sticks.

Thirteen lessons, one tool each. A lesson’s name becomes a link the morning it goes up.

The Lessons — and the tool each one gives you

1. Lesson 1 — Start With the Questions  (John 3:1-2)
   The tool: ask every verse WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, WHY — and mind the fence called CONTEXT.


2. Lesson 2 — Read the Whole Verse  (Luke 23:43)
   The tool: a verse is a sentence — read it all the way to its last word.


3. Lesson 3 — Every Command Has an Address  (Matthew 28:18-20)
   The tool: every command was spoken to somebody — ask who.


4. Lesson 4 — Let the Bible Define Its Own Words  (Hebrews 10:25)
   The tool: when a word is unclear, let the Book say what it means — it is its own dictionary.


5. Lesson 5 — Let the Clear Explain the Deep  (Hebrews 6:19; Titus 1:2)
   The tool: when one verse is hard, stand a plain one beside it and let the light in.


6. Lesson 6 — Read a Verse’s Neighbors  (Matthew 7:1-5)  •  October 5
   The tool: read the verse before and the verse after — they finish the thought.


7. Lesson 7 — The Bible Agrees With Itself  (John 13:34)  •  October 19
   The tool: it never contradicts itself — when two verses seem to clash, read closer.


8. Lesson 8 — When Our Words Are Too Small  (1 Corinthians 13:13)  •  November 2
   The tool: when a word feels too small for what it carries, ask which word the Book used.


9. Lesson 9 — One Word Can Hold a Whole Story  (Exodus 15:13)  •  November 16
   The tool: stop at the great words and draw them up — one can hold a whole nation’s rescue.


10. Lesson 10 — Watch the Tense  (John 5:24; Matthew 26:41)  •  November 30
    The tool: the tense of the verb tells you whether a thing is still coming or already done.


11. Lesson 11 — Pictures That Preach  (1 Peter 3:21; Romans 6:4)  •  December 14
    The tool: read a picture for what it teaches — but never mistake the picture for the thing itself.


12. Lesson 12 — Weigh the Whole Counsel  (Acts 20:27)  •  December 28
    The tool: never build a doctrine on one verse — gather everything the Book says.


13. Lesson 13 — Wisdom Observes  (Psalm 107:43)  •  January 11
    The tool: the habit under all the others — read watching, and you will see.

The Helper — for when you wonder "how?"

Several of the tools say "find where else the Bible uses that word," or "ask which word the Book used." The Helper page shows you HOW — a free concordance on your phone, in a few taps — and keeps a plain key for the other tools too. Read it any time, and come back to it often.

When you finish the thirteen, the tools do not stop at a single verse. The Bible School carries them up to whole books — the New Testament, one book at a time.

The first step across is Booklet Zero — The Bridge, Reading a Whole Book — the same thirteen tools run over the whole Gospel of John, and the one tool that grows the most when the piece gets bigger.

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"Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." — 2 Timothy 2:15