Amazon For Small Group Leaders
Read my Amazon Guide for Aussies to figure out how much you will save, and by clicking on them from my page and buying them you support a church plant! Here is the list I would make if I had enough power to make some reading compulsory. We all know the helpfulness of the one-page description that introduces books of the Bible in Study Bibles. The below are an expansion of that one page.
They are not meant to be read in one sitting. In fact, you probably will only read 1 chapter of the first two books in the first month. Here is an example of how I would use it:
1. So I’m starting a series on Matthew in my small group. I would read Matthew. I would probably write down all my questions before turning to the first book – "How to read the Bible Book by Book". This gives me 8 pages about the book of Matthew, about it’s author, it’s time of writing, where it was written, who is he writing it to etc… Most importantly it will alert me to things I need to look out for.
2.A few chapters into Matthew I’d find some parables, and want to know what bits are important. Is everything in a parable true? Is it just the lesson that’s important? Are there always parallels between the characters and real life, that we should try and decode? The second book has a chapter on this genre called "parable" – and it gives me the keys to understand which bits are important and which are not.
3. Lastly whenever I came across a term I had no idea about, I’d open the New Bible Dictionary, which is exactly what is sounds like, a dictionary but of Bible words. Done. To understand trickier bits I’d need to turn to a commentary, and I’ll post a list of good ones soon.
