Reading Through The Bible - 1 JOHN

Some Books of the bible are very short and some are very long but this one is one of the shortest.

1st JOHN  -  NEW TESTAMENT  -  EPISTLE

23rd book of the NT 

62nd book of the Bible

It starts with the eternal one - Jesus Christ

  in 1 John ch.1 v 1-3

1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life 

2 the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us 

3 that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. 

and quickly takes us to the assurance of Salvation in Jesus by verse 9 of that first chapter

What is it?

The Book of 1 JOHN is one of the EPISTLES in the New Testament which means it is a Letter.

How Long is it?

It has 5 chapters.

When was it Written?

It was written between 90 & 95 AD

Who Wrote it?

John the beloved disciple of Jesus

The name of the letter tells us the writer.

Other letters in the bible are named to show who the recipients of the letters were specifically intended to be but these were letters written by John son of Zebedee and brother of James.

one of the three disciples who Jesus often took with him apart from the others. 

Teach Sunday School  tells us the following

"John wanted people to know that Love is most important.  Love comes from God.  He also wanted people to know that it is important not to listen to false teachers."  

 

Who was it Written to?

It was a general letter written to all believers not just those from one nation or city

What is it normally well-known for?

Many of the verses about love are widely quoted and memorized such as

verse 15 of chapter 2

 

verse 1 of chapter 3

verse 18 of chapter 3

verse 8 of chapter 4

Why was it Written? 

It was written to encourage and remind the believers of what they have in Jesus and to recognise false teachers.

The Overview Bible  tells us the following

"John writes a letter to Christians about keeping Jesus’ commands, loving one another, and important things they should know.

1. So that he and the church may have joy (1 Jn 1:4)
2. So that they would not sin (1 Jn 2:1)
3. Because their sins are forgiven (1 Jn 2:12)
4. Because they know God the Father (1 Jn 2:13)
5. Because they know Jesus (1 Jn 2:13)
6. Because they have overcome the evil one (1 Jn 2:13–14)
7. Because they are strong (1 Jn 2:14)
8. Because the word of God abides in them (1 Jn 2:14)
9. Because they know the truth (1 Jn 2:14)
10. Because no lie or false teaching can come from the truth (1 Jn 2:21)
11. Because some would try to deceive them (1 Jn 2:26)
12. So that they would know they have eternal life (1 Jn 5:13)"

Teach Sunday School  tells us the following

"1 John was written to combat false teachings called "Gnosticism".  Gnostics taught that Jesus was a spirit and never really had a body and other errors."

Which other Epistle teaches about Gnosticism?

Colossians

see Reading Through the Bible - Colossians

Which other books of the Bible is this linked to? 

John wrote three epistles of which this is the first and is followed by 2nd John and 3rd John

How does it end?

With evidence of how God shows His love for us in chapter 5 v 11

 

and encouragement in 

chapter 5 v 14

Quick outline of 1 John

Disclaimer: this may be the toughest book of the Bible to outline. With all John’s reasons to write, scholars have a hard time forming an outline from John’s letter. But the central focus of First John seems to be distinguishing the false teachers from children of God, so here’s my take:

1. The children of God keep His commands (1 Jn 1–3)
2. The Spirit of God affirms Jesus’ first coming (1 Jn 4:1–6) 
3. The children of God love one another (1 Jn 4:7–21) 
4. Things the child of God can know (1 Jn 5)

OTHER BOOKS OF THE BIBLE ARE ADDED REGULARLY AND AN UPDATED LIST CAN BE FOUND AT OUR READING THE BIBLE PAGE 

10 Things to Thank & Praise God for that will Encourage Your Heart - Coffee & Conversation

Do you want to be encouraged?

Do you want to encourage others?

Let's have a little thought around how we can use these 

10 thoughts for Encouragement.

Do you want to grab a coffee first but don't forget to come back?

Here's what we need to remember and to share with others

1. His Everlasting Love

2. His Abundant Grace

 
3. His Great & Tender Mercy  
 

Psalm 145 v 8-9

 

The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and great in mercy. 

The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works. 

  

4. His Powerful Gospel

1 Thessalonians 1 v 5

 

For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance, as you know what kind of men we were among you for your sake.

 

  

5. His Blessed Comfort

 

6. His Sending Strength

 

Psalm 71 v 16

 

I will go in the strength of the Lord God: I will make mention of Your righteousness, of Yours only

7. His Plan of Salvation 

God’s Plan of Salvation from the book of Romans: 

Romans 3:23 – For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Romans 6:23 – The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 10:9-10 – If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.

Romans 10:13 – For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

 

 8. His Unfailing compassion

 

 

 9. His Cleansing Forgiveness 

 

Download this FREE PRINTABLE of many of the verses above & "God's Plan of Salvation"

 

 10. His Gift of Eternal Life

 

YOU CAN FIND MORE FREE PRINTABLES IN

SANDRA'S ARK RESOUCE LIBRARY 

Reading Through The Bible - Ephesians

Some Books of the bible are very short and some are very long but this one is one of the shortest.

Ephesians  -  NEW TESTAMENT  -  EPISTLE

10th book of the NT 

49th book of the Bible

It starts with a reminder about the redemption & forgiveness we have in Jesus and His grace in

  chapter 1 v 7

What is it?

The Book of Ephesians is one of the Epistles in the New Testament which means it is a Letter.

How Long is it?

It has 6 chapters.

When was it Written?

It is generally thought to have been written between 60 & 62 AD.

Who Wrote it?

Apostle Paul

Chapter 1 v 1 tells us the answer straight away 

"Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God,"

Who was it Written to?

It was written to the church at Ephesus as we see in

ch. 1 v 1

 "To the saints who are in Ephesus, and faithful in Christ Jesus"

Why was it Written? 

Paul had visited Ephesus twice and this letter was written while he was in Prison to encourage the Christians he had met there and the others in the church.  

The Overview Bible  tells us the following

"Paul writes to the church at Ephesus about how to walk in grace, peace, and love."

 

What is the main theme? 

It focuses on being called by Grace 

and how to walk in the Faith

The Overview Bible  tells us the following:

"Paul wrote Ephesians to accomplish two things:

1. Describe the Christian’s calling. The first half of the letter focuses on the Ephesians’ calling. They were chosen by God, sealed with His Spirit, and saved by His grace. 
2. Prescribe the Christian’s walk. The second half teaches how to “walk in a manner worthy” of the Christian’s calling (Eph 4:1). Paul outlines what the Christian walk looks like in various facets of life."

Teach Sunday School  tells us the following

"Paul encouraged the believers telling them they were the adopted sons of God ....  picked before the foundation of the world."

"Paul encouraged the believers to walk in a manner worthy of their calling."

What 2 special relationships does Paul teach about in Ephesians?

Parents & Children.

Husbands and wives.

What very well-known passage in included in this Book?

The Christian Armour in Chapter 6 v 10 - 18

This is where Paul tells the believers to know their enemy and how to stand against him.

This ends with the order to Pray continually in

 verse 18

How does it end?

It ends with the announcement that Paul has sent Tychicus to comfort them and tell them all the news of Paul.

and then a Blessing in ch. 6 v 23-24

23 Peace to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  

24 Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen.

 

Quick outline of Ephesians

1. Our calling in Christ (Eph 1–3)
   • Identity in Christ (Eph 1)
   • Grace in Christ (Eph 2:1–10)
   • Peace in Christ (Eph 2:11–22)
   • Paul’s calling (Eph 3:1–13)
   • Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians (Eph 3:14–21)
2. Our walk in Christ (Eph 4–6)
   • Walk in unity (Eph 4:1–16)
   • Walk differently from the world (Eph 4:17–31)
   • Walk carefully (Eph 5:1–21)
   • Walk in love (Eph 5:22–6:9)
   • Stand firm in the armour of God (Eph 6:10–24)

OTHER BOOKS OF THE BIBLE ARE ADDED REGULARLY AND AN UPDATED LIST CAN BE FOUND AT OUR READING THE BIBLE PAGE 

Psalm 19 v 14 - Memorizing the Bible

I could never do it!

          Do what?

Memorize a whole Psalm from the Bible!

          Yeah that's not so easy,  BUT  you can learn one verse of a Psalm.

Let's look at Psalm 19

Many people think they could never manage to memorize a whole Psalm or a whole chapter of Scripture.

It is a rather daunting challenge especially if you have never learned any scripture before.

So we are not going to tackle all of Psalm 19 here but we will take on verse 14.

So in memorizing this verse we will look at 3 things:

• Memorising Tips
• A Video of Psalm 19 v 14
• Some Freebies to help you.

Before we start let me say that I am using the King James version here for 3 reasons

1.   I like to stick to versions that I know are not paraphrases because I want to concentrate on the Word of God and not adding in other ideas.

2.   I was brought up learning from the KJV as a child and so those verses and passages have remained in my mind and I do not mind the somewhat older type language most of the time.

3.    Often the KJV gives a more poetic feel to the verses and that makes it easier to learn.

• Memorising Tips

If you read the Top 10 Ways to Learn Scripture you will see that I give 10 tips to help in this process but we don't have to use all 10 of them on each verse - just the ones that suit best with the verse.

For Psalm 19 v 14 I'm going to advise using tips 1, 2, 7, 8, 9, 10

1.  Read the verse often, every day, multiple times in the day.

This verse (and many of the verses in the Psalms) has a kind of rhythm or flow to it because of course the Psalms were written originally as songs so it is easy to read so if we write it as follows we can feel the rhythm

" Let the words of my mouth, 

and the meditation of my heart,

 be acceptable in thy sight,

 O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer."

2.  Write out the verse several times.

Writing helps us learn anything.

Use the 4 lines as in tip1 above for the reading when you are writing and naturally you will be saying it in your head as well.

7.  Understand the meaning of the verse.

We will never memorize anything properly without having understood the meaning of it and knowing the meaning helps us remember the order of the parts of the verses.

In the verse we have a prayer to God.

The first 3 lines (as written in tip 1 above) are asking God for help to speak, think & behave properly as God would want us to.

Then the last line is acknowledging who God is and that we know He is able to do as we request.

8.  Make it easy to see the verse clearly and regularly each day.

We cannot have our Bible at hand every moment of the day so if you feel you need frequent readings of the verse like pop-up reminders then do the following:

Get a post-it pad and write the verse out clearly on it then tear off the post-it and stick it on

• the mirror you will use first thing each morning and last thing each night
• the front cover of your Bible
• the front cover of the book you are currently reading
• the door of the fridge
• the door of the cupboard where you go to get your favourite mug for that cup of coffee

9.  Make or use Bible Verse Graphics 

The picture of Psalm 19 v 14 near the start of this post is an example of a Bible Verse Graphic.

A picture with the words written on it clearly.

By making these yourself you will learn as you create them.

I post a bible verse graphic every morning on my Facebook Page for Sandra's Ark  so if you want to be encouraged by a verse each day or have a graphic you can Share to your timeline or Save in Facebook then click through to my Facebook Page and be sure to like and follow the page to see those graphics in your feed each day.

or Colouring Pages

While colouring in a Bible Verse Page you will be spending time around the words and this also helps to learn the verse.

or Phone Screensavers / Wallpaper

What better use of your phone - to keep that verse in front of you each time you go to check your messages.

For this you will need it to be a suitable portrait shape and size so most of the normal verse graphics you see will not suit.

I have a few verses made out for screen savers & you can download them from

 My Resource Library

and finally my favourite way but it is not always possible to use this method

10.  Sing it.

It is well known that in singing a song you can easily learn the words of the song.

Fred & I have made several short videos of songs/choruses to help you memorize certain verses and you can watch the one for Psalm 19 v 14 below 

• A Video of Psalm 19 v 14

I've also prepared a playlist of Short Songs to memorize Scripture on YouTube:

  Sandra's Ark Youtube - Bible Memorization

• Some Freebies to help you.

Don't forget that many of my posts on the blog have bible verse graphics and I have some of these available as free downloads in my

RESOURCE  LIBRARY