I used to lead a single mom’s small group at church back
in 2007 and found this helpful for not only me but all of my ladies in the
group. I just found it in my documents at work and thought I’d share. It makes a huge confusing Bible more understandable.
The Bible is a library of books. It contains 66 different books, which all
together tell the story of God’s wonderful love for people. It also teaches us how to live our life.
The
Old Testament-
This
testament is about how God created the world.
There are 39 books in the Old Testament.
The
first 5 books of the Old Testament are
Genesis,
Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.
These
are the Books of Law because they contain laws God gave to the Jewish people to
keep them pure and holy.
The
next 12 are
Joshua,
Judges, Ruth, 1-2 Samuel, 1-2 Kings,1-2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther.
These
are the Books of History.
The
next 5 are
Job,
Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs.
These
are Books of Poetry.
The
last 17 are
Isaiah,
Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah,
Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi.
These
are about God’s prophets. The first 5 are “major” prophets and the last 12 are
“minor” prophets.
Major
is not considered more important..the books are just longer!
The New Testament begins with the birth of
Jesus. It tells about Jesus’ life and
teachings and how he was killed, buried, and how he rose from the dead and
ascended into Heaven. Also, that He’ll be back someday. There are 27 books in the New Testament.
The first 4 are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. They are
called Gospels. These are the greatest stories ever told. They are all the same
story but told in a slightly different way. That are all about Jesus, His life
and what He did.
The
5th Book is the Acts of the Apostles. It’s the historical account of the tremendous
spread and growth of the early church. The church that began in those pages is
still alive and growing today. (History of the Church)
The
next 21 books are Letters… Romans, 1-2 Corinthians, Galatians,
Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1-2 Thessalonians, 1-2 Timothy, Titus,
Philemon, Hebrews, James, 1-2 Peter, 1-2-3 John, and Jude. The apostle Paul wrote 13 of these letters.
They were written because people were confused about Jesus.
The
last book of the Bible is Revelation.
This is the book of Prophecy. It was written to Christians who were
facing great danger. The apostle John has a wonderful message. He told us
Christians that we should expect hard times and trouble but we’d be winners in
the end. He tells us not to lose hope because we will share in the final
victory at the end of times because He’ll return for us!
Don't let the size of the Bible overwhelm you...God's Word is powerful, Life changing, and Truth. God bless you all ~ Shawna
