Get to know your Bible - PDF Free Download

Get to know your Bible Bible Basics Curriculum www.missionarlington.org No part of this curriculum may be republished without permission. Please feel free to copy for classroom use. Bible Basics Lesson 1/page 1 of 8

1 Lesson Title: Introduction to the Bible Scripture: Deuteronomy 6:7-9, 2 Peter 1:16-21, Deuteronomy 4:2 Scripture Memory: All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching and for showing people what is wrong in their lives. It is useful for correcting faults and teaching how to live right. 2 Timothy 3:16 How many of you have a Bible in your home? How many of you have your own Bible? Do you know how to use it? Do you read it every day? There is no wrong answer right now, but by the time we finish our study of Bible Basics I want your answer to each of those questions to be, Yes! Let s grab a Bible. (Make sure every student, or at least every other student, has a Bible. As you teach, open your Bible and show your students. Help them find things, as well.) The Bible is divided into two parts. Each part is called a Testament. There is an Old Testament and a New Testament. These are not testaments like the Last Will and Testament your grandparents or great-grandparents might have written to share their possessions with others. The Old and New Testaments are really covenants. A covenant is an agreement, or promise. So the Bible, in its two parts, explains and old agreement and a new agreement between God and humans. The Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew and Aramaic and the New Testament in Greek. As well as being divided into testaments, the Bible is also divided into separate books that work together as one whole book. When you read the books of the Bible it may seem like one book has nothing to do with another book, but that is not true. From the first book to the last, God shows His love for us and His desire to have us with Him forever. There are a total of 66 books of the Bible. The Old Testament contains 39 of those books; the New Testament contains 27. You can find a list of those books in the front of your Bible. The list is called the Contents. The books of the Bible are then divided into chapters and verses. It may sound very confusing, but let s think of it like an address. If you wanted to visit a friend at his/her apartment and had never been, you would ask for their Bible Basics Lesson 1/page 2 of 8

address: 1315 N Cooper St., Apt 116, Arlington, Texas 76010, USA. With only that information, you could find your friend s apartment. It is the same with finding books, verses, and passages in the Bible. Let s say I wanted you to find and read John 3:16. The Scripture Reference, John 3:16, gives you all the information you need. The name of the book, John, is like a street name. It gets you close to what you are looking for. The 3 is like the street address 1315. It tells you what chapter to look in, which gets you a little closer. In the same way that you need an exact apartment number to know which door to knock on to find your friend, you need the verse number 16 to find exactly what we are looking for. (Have someone read John 3:16.) Testaments, books, chapters, verses. Did you know that the Bible didn t always look like the ones you and I have in our homes? In fact, at first the Scriptures were shared verbally; People handed down God s Word to their children by talking about what God had said and done. They were instructed to Teach them to your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and walk along the road. Talk about them when you lie down and when you get up. Write them down and tie them to your hands as a sign. Tie them on your forehead to remind you. Write them on your doors and gates. (Deuteronomy 6:7-9 ICB) Those verses show us how important God s Word is; it is important enough to remind yourself of from the time you get up in the morning until you go to bed at night. It is important enough to have written down and posted everywhere. When the Scriptures began to be written down, God was probably the first author. Did you know that the Bible says He wrote the Ten Commandments with His finger (Ex 31:18)? Moses then authored the first five books of the Bible and for over a thousand years or more other men, about 40 of them, were prompted by the Holy Spirit to record the rest. The books were joined together according to God s promises with His people the Old Covenant with Abraham and his descendants and the New Covenant ushered in by Jesus birth and death on the cross for every one of us. That doesn t mean that, if we are not Jewish, we should only focus on the New Testament. All Scripture is inspired by God (2 Tim 3:16) That means every bit of it! The Old Testament was the only part of the Bible that Jesus and His disciples had in their day because the New Testament was just beginning to be lived out. But we have all 66 books now! So let s get busy learning how to use this amazing book that God has given us! How do you put this into practice in your life? If all Scripture is inspired by God, does that mean it is unimportant or important? Important, right? How important? Important enough just to sit the Bible out on a table in the living room and never look at or important enough to read every day? Do you remember what Deuteronomy 6:7-9 says? The Word of God is important enough to talk about when you get up in the morning and when you lie down at night as well as when you are coming and going. To talk about it, though, you must know it and to know it you must read and study it. Deuteronomy 4:2 warns us, Don t add to these commands. And don t leave anything out. But obey the commands of the Lord your God that I give you. We study and talk about the Bible so that we can obey. Are you ready to get started? Bible Basics Lesson 1/page 3 of 8

Memory Verse Activity: Our only memory verse throughout this curriculum will be 2 Timothy 3:16-17. We will emphasize a different part of it each week. You may choose to begin memorizing it in its entirety or phrase by phrase, whichever works best with your students. Try creating hand movements to aid in memorization. For example, for all Scripture you might choose to raise your hands above your head, touch your fingers together and arc your arms out in a circle while bringing them together, palms up in front of you, to form a book. Start Bible Reading Journals. Choose a book or passage that you will all be reading. After each daily reading, have your students answer the following questions: 1) What happened in this passage? 2) What does this passage teach about God? 3) What does this passage teach about my relationship with others? 4) What does God want me to do in response to this passage? Begin practicing the books of the Bible. Print each book of the Bible on a separate index card or on cardstock. Make small sets to be studied individually or one large set to be reviewed corporately. Play hopscotch with the books of the Bible. Make two playing fields, one for the Old Testament and one for the New Testament. Practice the books of the Bible by providing two bags or containers. Label one Old Testament and the other New Testament. Provide a deck of Books of the Bible cards that has been shuffled. Encourage and help your students put each card in the correct container. Play a cup game. You ll need 66 disposable cups. Turn the cups upside-down and write one book each around the lip of each cup. Stack the cups or build pyramids, but put the books of the Bible in order. Learn the books of the Bible by song. Bible Basics Lesson 1/page 4 of 8

All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching and for showing people what is wrong in their lives. It is useful for correcting faults and teaching how to live right. Using the Scriptures, the person who serves God will be ready and will have everything he needs to do every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 Bible Basics Lesson 1/page 5 of 8

All Scripture is inspired by God... 2 Timothy 3:16-17 Bible Basics Lesson 1/page 6 of 8

C R O L L S A M E N T E S T A G Y B D E N R I P S N Y N E W R D B R W E R B E H E R E W A E O R C S W T E S T A T E N T K G H I S T O R Y T W E N P E K Y T E L E T T E R S O S O G I B Y H I S T O L L S P C E N N D S T O T T R E S E L R T O S E E P S A O G O T T E O G M P R T N E M A T S E T D L O A I I R G R E E K E H I S L S T R P O R G N S R T P R W S P S E S L E O T P C T O E R A E E D N L E T T E S E R W E L L T B I N S P I R E D P Y G O S D LAW HISTORY POETRY PROPHETS GOSPELS LETTERS OLD TESTAMENT NEW TESTAMENT INSPIRED BY GOD HEBREW GREEK SCROLLS Bible Basics Lesson 1/page 7 of 8