Book Review: Enjoy Reading Your Bible

Review: HOW TO ENJOY READING YOUR BIBLE, Keith Ferrin, Bethany House Publishers, Minneapolis, 2015

This is a delightful little book to read. It is reader friendly, brief but not in content, and very practical guide. He divides the content into 10 tips and guides the reader through each. Each is clearly and concisely explained, and leads the reader though how to practically work through each tip. The book could be used by an individual or a group study. You are given a guide on how to use each tip.

There are three things I especially like about this book:

1. Its emphasis on reading to enhance your relationship to God. It is so easy to fall into what I call the academic trap and center our reading on content and overlook or downgrade the relationship thinking it comes from being content center. We must realize that content is to lead us to the person of Christ and enhance our relationship with Him. One of his tips is to pray for your reading.
2. His emphasis on daily Bible reading, not study. There is a difference. He advises us to read the word, not the commentaries. Let the Bible speak for itself. He does not want you to ignore the commentaries, but first grasp what the Bible says for itself before the commentaries. I had a man in one of my churches who always said that he found the Bible shed a lot of light on the commentaries.
3. It advocates reading the passage repeatedly, silently and out loud, alone and with someone. It will keep you focused and aid your memory.

His last two tips are really challenges and guides to aid in reading. There is a 60 days challenge (which he calls adventure), then two 4 month challenges. He suggests keeping a journal of observations of your reading. The book reminds me of an old friend who use to say—Read it out, pray it in, and write it down. This is a aid for all for the beginner it will lead him into good habits when reading the Word and the older saint will be reminded of things and help restore the enjoyment of reading.

Thanks to the publisher Bethany House for providing a copy of this free of charge for my review. This did not influence my review.