Ask a Friend to Read the Bible with You - Resources to help

In his book One to One Bible Reading: a simple guide for every Christian, David Helm mentions a study from 2009 which asked unchurched young adults (20 somethings) to agree or disagree with this statement: "I'd be willing to study the Bible if a friend asked me to." In that age bracket, 61% said they agreed.

Couple that with the fact that the Bible reminds us that the Word of God is what we and our friends need to hear if we would be saved and grow in godliness (1 Thessalonians 2:13-16, 2 Tim. 3:16, Heb. 4:12, Psalm 19, Rom 1:16, Romans 10).

In light of all this, let me encourage you to invite a friend (especially an unbelieving friend) to read through a Gospel with you to see who Jesus is for themselves. You might be surprised how many would not be willing to come to church but who would like to sit and read through a Gospel with a friend.

Here are two resources to help you get started.

1. One to One Bible Reading: a simple guide for every Christian. You can see the table of contents here. You can buy it form amazon here. It is a short book and very helpful. 
2. Christianity Explained is a 6 meeting study that goes through parts of Mark's Gospel to show who Jesus claimed to be, what he did, and the message of salvation. I have used this with several people and found it helpful. I have a copy of you want to look at it. You can see more info here. 

Praying the Bible

This past Sunday night, during our time of praying together as a church, we prayed through the first few verses of Psalm 103 (which, by the way, was the fighter verse / memory verse for last week...I hope you are trying to memorize Scripture with me this year).

Here are three resources on praying the Bible to help you in your personal times of prayer and in praying in groups.

• John Piper just did an "Ask Pastor John" podcast on how he prays the Bible (about 11 min. long).
• Here is a longer (80 minute) video by Don Whitney on praying the Bible (he did this at our Bible conference a year ago). You can get audio from here.
• Also, Don Whitney has a book on praying the Bible. 

On the topic of praying together, Megan Hill has a book that Beth has told me is encouraging on praying together (it is a fairly short read). 

I hope to see you on Sunday nights for our time of praying as a church family (it is ok if you don't know how to "pray the Bible.")