Why study the Bible?
Christians believe in a God who is not distant and disinterested but closely involved with the workings of our world and deeply concerned with our individual lives.
We believe that God wants us to know Him – His character and His plan for us – and that is why the Bible is so important. In it we read about the character of God, His plan for our broken world and most importantly, His Son – whom He sent into the world in the person of Jesus.
God gave us the Bible – a written record of His dealings with humanity across many centuries – so that we could come to know Him and understand how much He loves us. Without these words, we would be scrabbling around in the dark, trying to make sense of the world without any guidance.
That said, the Bible does not claim to be a ‘paint-by-numbers’ handbook on life. (You will not find an index of tricky situations with step-by-step instructions to navigate safely through them.) What we are taught are the core principles that we need to hold on to when life gets complicated – which is easier said than done…
But that’s precisely why it’s important to set aside time to really study the Bible – not just skim through the passages you already know. All too quickly, we can forget those glorious Bible truths unless we take the trouble to remind ourselves of them. Sometimes we are even reluctant to put in enough time and effort to understand how the teaching of the Bible needs to impact on our lives. This would be a regrettable mistake.
At St Nicholas we take the Bible seriously and aim to furnish our church members with a variety of resources to support their own personal Bible reading. Read on for more details.