Where Do I Start?
3/01/2009 | Author: RCW
As a minister in the local church, and someone who is passionate about helping people grow in their walk with Christ, I get asked the question quite a bit...."Cole, I have a friend that just became a believer. I am looking to give this person something to start them in their walk with Christ. Do you have suggestions?" Or sometimes a new believer will approach me themselves and ask the same sort of question: "Where do I start?"

I WILL be brief because a long answer only complicates.

HOW ABOUT...THE BIBLE?
To begin with, most people find the Bible to be an ideal starting point. Specifically, I find that the Gospel of John to presents a great starting point. There is simply no replacement for what God can do in someone when they simply read the Bible for themselves. Many times we underestimate peoples' ability to understand the simple message of the Bible. The Gospel of John is perfect to demonstrate this since it has often been said in a variety of ways that John's Gospel is deep enough that the most intelligent Bible scholars can plumb its depths and never get as deep as they would like, and yet it is not so deep that an infant in Christ will drown. As for English translations, there is a great pamphlet put out by Rose Publishing that helps distinguish between translations. My advice is to pick the translation that best suits both your purposes as well as where you are at in your walk with Christ. A New Living Translation or Message may be a great help to a new believer who hasn't spent a whole lot of time in church, but someone engaged in deep study of the Bible would want something like the NASB. An in between may be NIV, RSV, or ESV. Every translation is an interpretation...it just depends how much you want interpreted FOR YOU and how much you want to do the dirty work of interpretation yourself. If you are stuck and can't choose a translation email me by clicking the link under my picture at the top left corner of this webpage. Need a Bible reading plan? That's simple. Search the web and you'll find plenty. NAVPRESS, one of my favorite Christian publishers (who by the way publishes ONLY resources that aim to help believers grow in their faith), has some great ones you can view here. Others are available here, here, here, and plenty of other places too.


To be continued....

-RCW
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1 comments:

On April 14, 2012 at 12:12 PM , RCW said...

And now YouVersion is a free app that you'd be silly to not use for a Bible reading plan.