What should I study?

There's an old joke - if you want to get a guitar player to turn his instrument down, put sheet music in front of him. The sad truth is, the quickest way to get the average church goer to be quiet is to say "where is that found in the Bible?"

We live in an era where we can tell you our favorite web pages, tell you what happened in every Will Ferrell movie, quote the stats of our favorite athletes, even explain why we like or dislike certain politicians, but are hard pressed to explain what we believe when it comes to our Christian faith!

I admit it, the Bible is big. 66 books spanning thousands of years. There are cultural differences that don't seem to make sense in today's time and so many strange names and places. Most of us read devotionals, and can probably quote a handful of scriptures - but how can you really understand more?

I've never been one for checklists, but I'll provide a few suggestions:

• Read an entire book.
• Read all the way through whole books in the New Testament in one setting, like Ephesians, Hebrews, Romans, or Luke.
• When you read a devotional that has a single verse or 2 extracted, take time to read the whole chapter that the verse is in. 
• Read the chapters before or after as well to get an understanding of what the author was really trying to address
• Get a good chain reference Bible
• follow the references to see how the story of the Bible unfolds and how the Old and New Testament share so many of the same truths

2 Peter 2:15 (Ampliphied)
15Study and be eager and do your utmost to present yourself to God approved (tested by trial), a workman who has no cause to be ashamed, correctly analyzing and accurately dividing [rightly handling and skillfully teaching] the Word of Truth.

The first and most important thing to do is to start reading your Bible. Even if you don't understand it... read it. Think about the things that your read, ponder them, pray about them.

When you're faithful in this, God's Holy Spirit will help it all make sense to you. That was one of the last promises that Jesus left with his disciples:

John 14:26
New Living Translation (NLT)
26 But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.

God promises to send us the Holy Spirit that will teach us what we need to know and help us to remember it so we may grow and disciple others.