Biblical Reading Guide

The best way to grow closer to Christ is by reading his word. Starting out as a Christian may cause you to look at the bible and grow intimidated. Truthfully there is no “correct” order to read the bible since each book focuses on different things, but I wanted to make a suggestion on how I would start out in order to understand the basics of sin and the church. 

Personally I would start in Genesis Chapters 1-3. The first 3 chapters of the bible establish God and how He created the earth, created all living things on the earth, the fall of man into sin, and the consquences of sin. This is a great starting off point to understand why sin has such an impact on our lives and establish the significance of Christ’s sacrifice for us.

Secondly I would jump forward to the gospels of the new testament; Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. All four of these books talk about Jesus’ time on earth from four different accounts. These multiple perspectives help us to develop a clear understanding of Jesus’ message and significance.

After reading the gospels I would suggest reading through the rest of the new testament which contains some history of the church and several letters that were written about the church and how to maintain God’s holy standard. The last book (Revelation) talks about the end of the world and the second coming of Christ.

By this point you should have a strong understanding of sin, Christ’s message, several standards to be held by the churches, and the end times (what to look out for). 

From here in order to grow I would suggest reading through the rest of the old testament which will establish alot of the church’s history before Christ and demonstrate some truly incredible people and the miracles that God performed by putting their faith in Him. 

Below is a breakdown of the bible and what each book features. While I’m not the original creator of this image, I feel it does a great job breaking down the bible into easy to understand chunks.