How to Read the Bible | The Biblecast Blog
- 7/14/2022

By Jimmy Witcher, Senior Pastor, Trinity Fellowship Church June 2022
Where to Start
Hey there! I’m Jimmy. I’m the Senior Pastor at Trinity Fellowship Church in
West Texas and also the host of the Biblecast, where we spend 10 minutes
reading the Word of God four days a week.
The Bible makes a big promise: Your best life. This doesn’t mean an easy life
or a life without challenges. But life with Jesus is a fulfilling one – and an
exciting one. If you want to make a difference in the world, lead your family
for generations to come, and feel confident and satisfied in the decisions you
make in life, the Bible will teach you how. In fact, it’s the only guide out there
that can TRULY fulfill its promise to transform your life for the better.
Maybe you’re on board with this idea already, but you’re wondering,
practically, how do I start reading the Bible? Or maybe it’s... I’ve tried to read
the Bible but I can’t stick with it or I feel like I’m missing something! Well, I’m
here to help!
If you want a tangible guide for making Bible-reading on your own part of
your regular spiritual practice, I created a simple, free resource you can
download today. It will teach you some history of the Bible, what happens
when we read the Bible, and give practical, achievable steps for getting
started that you can implement right now, today with no wait time at all! I’m
really excited about this.
Something you’ll learn about there is that there are four approaches – or we
might call them kinds of exercise – we can take to read the Bible. This isn’t at
all unlike how we have different approaches at the gym depending on the
health benefits we’re seeking, like running for improved cardio, heavy
weights for strength building, or yoga for better mobility.
The spiritual exercises or approaches to reading the Bible are: Hearing,
Devotional, Studying, and Meditating.
“Hearing” the Bible is what happens on the Biblecast or when you attend
church and hear a message preached. You are invited to hear the Word of
God with me right here on the Biblecast every Monday, Tuesday,
Wednesday, and Thursday! It’s a wonderful community, and I created it to be
a very easy way for you to spend more time in the Word in a format that fits
your lifestyle and schedule. You can also join us at Trinity Fellowship Church
every Sunday in-person or online to hear the Bible preached in a longer-form
message format.
Creating a Connection
I’d love for you to join me on the Biblecast or attend Trinity! However, I also
want to really encourage you – if you’re not already, include one-on-one time
with God as part of your regular spiritual health plan. God will use others to
speak to you – but he always wants time with JUST YOU. Imagine if you were
trying to get to know someone better, but every time y’all hung out they
brought someone else along. You’d get to know each other, sure, but the
relationship would have a growth limit.
I detail the activities and spiritual health benefits of the solo approaches to
reading the Bible – Devotional, Studying, and Meditating – in the
downloadable resource. Here’s a quick summary:
Devotional reading will engage your spirit and your soul. If you’ve been
around Christians for a large portion (or even a small portion!) of time, you
might associate the word “devotional” with devotional plans or devotional
groups – but that’s not quite what I mean. “Devotional” is kind of a churchy
word nowadays. But let’s break it down, one definition of the word
“devotion” is, “the fact or state of being ardently dedicated and loyal.”
Essentially, we engage in devotional reading when we come to the Bible
simply out of loyalty to and love for God. You’re only goal in devotional
reading is to discover God’s purpose for your life. You can use a devotional
guide – but, remember, that’s still kind of like bringing another person along
into your journey. Consider just picking a verse, story, passage, or one book
of the Bible to read.
Studying the Bible will engage your spirit and your intellect. This is an
opportunity for you to uncover and unpack the authors, contexts, and
cultures represented in the Bible. This exercise should include some trusted
outside resources, as you will be studying linguistics and history alongside
the Bible. I recommend selecting a resource to guide you, especially in your
first few years of study. Studying the Bible will strengthen your faith as you
gain better contextual understanding of the specific meaning of vocabulary
used in the Bible or how transformative Jesus was to the culture he was born
in as a few examples.
Finally, Meditating on Scripture is not only a beautiful practice, but also one
that we are repeatedly commanded to do in scripture! Meditation is about
truly just getting scripture into us. It’s reading the same verse again and
again. It’s listening to it in the car. It’s reading a passage and thinking on it
throughout the day.
Your Turn
If there’s one takeaway I can give you, let it be this: Don’t overthink, just get
started. Reading the Bible regularly will change your life!
I hope this was helpful to you! To learn more about all of these practices and
more you can download my How to Read the Bible for free. See you on the
Biblecast!
Feel free to reach out if you have any questions or comments we would love to answer them!
[...]

By Jimmy Witcher, Senior Pastor, Trinity Fellowship Church June 2022
Where to Start
Hey there! I’m Jimmy. I’m the Senior Pastor at Trinity Fellowship Church in
West Texas and also the host of the Biblecast, where we spend 10 minutes
reading the Word of God four days a week.
The Bible makes a big promise: Your best life. This doesn’t mean an easy life
or a life without challenges. But life with Jesus is a fulfilling one – and an
exciting one. If you want to make a difference in the world, lead your family
for generations to come, and feel confident and satisfied in the decisions you
make in life, the Bible will teach you how. In fact, it’s the only guide out there
that can TRULY fulfill its promise to transform your life for the better.
Maybe you’re on board with this idea already, but you’re wondering,
practically, how do I start reading the Bible? Or maybe it’s... I’ve tried to read
the Bible but I can’t stick with it or I feel like I’m missing something! Well, I’m
here to help!
If you want a tangible guide for making Bible-reading on your own part of
your regular spiritual practice, I created a simple, free resource you can
download today. It will teach you some history of the Bible, what happens
when we read the Bible, and give practical, achievable steps for getting
started that you can implement right now, today with no wait time at all! I’m
really excited about this.
Something you’ll learn about there is that there are four approaches – or we
might call them kinds of exercise – we can take to read the Bible. This isn’t at
all unlike how we have different approaches at the gym depending on the
health benefits we’re seeking, like running for improved cardio, heavy
weights for strength building, or yoga for better mobility.
The spiritual exercises or approaches to reading the Bible are: Hearing,
Devotional, Studying, and Meditating.
“Hearing” the Bible is what happens on the Biblecast or when you attend
church and hear a message preached. You are invited to hear the Word of
God with me right here on the Biblecast every Monday, Tuesday,
Wednesday, and Thursday! It’s a wonderful community, and I created it to be
a very easy way for you to spend more time in the Word in a format that fits
your lifestyle and schedule. You can also join us at Trinity Fellowship Church
every Sunday in-person or online to hear the Bible preached in a longer-form
message format.
Creating a Connection
I’d love for you to join me on the Biblecast or attend Trinity! However, I also
want to really encourage you – if you’re not already, include one-on-one time
with God as part of your regular spiritual health plan. God will use others to
speak to you – but he always wants time with JUST YOU. Imagine if you were
trying to get to know someone better, but every time y’all hung out they
brought someone else along. You’d get to know each other, sure, but the
relationship would have a growth limit.
I detail the activities and spiritual health benefits of the solo approaches to
reading the Bible – Devotional, Studying, and Meditating – in the
downloadable resource. Here’s a quick summary:
Devotional reading will engage your spirit and your soul. If you’ve been
around Christians for a large portion (or even a small portion!) of time, you
might associate the word “devotional” with devotional plans or devotional
groups – but that’s not quite what I mean. “Devotional” is kind of a churchy
word nowadays. But let’s break it down, one definition of the word
“devotion” is, “the fact or state of being ardently dedicated and loyal.”
Essentially, we engage in devotional reading when we come to the Bible
simply out of loyalty to and love for God. You’re only goal in devotional
reading is to discover God’s purpose for your life. You can use a devotional
guide – but, remember, that’s still kind of like bringing another person along
into your journey. Consider just picking a verse, story, passage, or one book
of the Bible to read.
Studying the Bible will engage your spirit and your intellect. This is an
opportunity for you to uncover and unpack the authors, contexts, and
cultures represented in the Bible. This exercise should include some trusted
outside resources, as you will be studying linguistics and history alongside
the Bible. I recommend selecting a resource to guide you, especially in your
first few years of study. Studying the Bible will strengthen your faith as you
gain better contextual understanding of the specific meaning of vocabulary
used in the Bible or how transformative Jesus was to the culture he was born
in as a few examples.
Finally, Meditating on Scripture is not only a beautiful practice, but also one
that we are repeatedly commanded to do in scripture! Meditation is about
truly just getting scripture into us. It’s reading the same verse again and
again. It’s listening to it in the car. It’s reading a passage and thinking on it
throughout the day.
Your Turn
If there’s one takeaway I can give you, let it be this: Don’t overthink, just get
started. Reading the Bible regularly will change your life!
I hope this was helpful to you! To learn more about all of these practices and
more you can download my How to Read the Bible for free. See you on the
Biblecast!
Feel free to reach out if you have any questions or comments we would love to answer them!