The Holy Bible

The Holy Bible
King James Version

I love this book so much! This morning I went to Bible study with eleven other women of faith. It was the best hour of my day. We're each from different churches, but we're in the same BSF small group this year. It's kind of a beautiful thing, to connect and strengthen and share. This whole semester we've been reading in the book of Acts, and it's awesome to learn how the early church grew in the days following the Savior's death and resurrection. God is truly sovereign, and unstoppable in his work. It's been interesting to follow the stories of Stephen and Paul and Philip and Cornelius. Today's discussion was part of a mini study from 1 Peter, and once again I'm reminded that great blessings come from faith, and even from the fiery trial of faith.

Sometimes people wonder if I like the Bible. Yes! Sometimes people mistakenly think that members of my church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, don't like the Bible. We love the Bible! We also believe The Book of Mormon and I wrote about it over here.

Here's part of my journey in growing to understand and appreciate the Bible. A wise teacher once said the following about reading holy scripture: "He who reads it oftenest will like it best."

I first read the entire Old Testament when I was a freshman in high school in Las Vegas. I was in an early morning religion class that started at 6am every day before school. My wise/mean teacher gave me a B+ that first quarter. Maybe she knew it would make me work harder. But at the time I was miffed! How could a churchy girl like me not get an A in a religion class? Well, I was behind schedule in my personal reading. So out of that B+ came the determination to read every single word of an incredibly long book. And I learned to love it. Genesis and Exodus are pretty interesting, Leviticus not so much, it's pretty tedious. But I love Isaiah, I love Job and Jonah and Jeremiah and Malachi.

If I had to pick which Old Testament women I like best: Hannah, Miriam, Naomi, Rachel, Rebekah, Ruth. And then there's Deborah. She's a prophetess, and she might be my favorite. You can find her in Judges 4-5. She sings, she judges Israel.

Proverbs 31:10-31 is also pretty fabulous. We read about a virtuous woman, and that entire chapter is dedicated to women of faith who work hard and love the Lord.

Moving on to my sophomore year of high school, we studied the New Testament in early morning seminary. I read every word it for the first time as well. My family has been reading and studying the New Testament again this year. I wrote some of my thoughts about Paul and what it means to have a thorn in the flesh over here. I love that the New Testament is a record of Jesus Christ, written by his friends and associates. I love learning about the early church, and remembering the miracles Jesus did as he lived and taught the people.

When I was in college, I took more religion classes. I studied the Old Testament again, and then I studied the book of Isaiah from a seriously smart professor. Dr Ludlow pointed out that Isaiah was a poet as well as a prophet and seer. We spent the whole semester learning more about the culture of his day, digging deeper into the Hebrew meaning of some of the words.

We have at least 7 copies of the Holy Bible around my house. We read it. We love it. I'm so glad that I can teach my kids the precious truths in the holy scriptures.

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