Walk the Lord's Path in 1998

Trust in the Lord with all your heart
  And lean not on your own understanding;
In all your ways acknowledge him
  And he will make your paths straight.
-- Proverbs 3:5-6

Use this Year to Get into the Bible

    Editor's Note: Heartlight has several different resources to help you get into the Bible this year. Today's Verse is a daily verse from the Bible with an accompanying meditation thought and prayer. Daily Light is a Bible reading plan that takes you through the New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs in one year. Praying with Paul is a daily prayer adapted from the New Testament writings of the Apostle Paul; it will be available in January. Also debuting in January will be WJD! (What Jesus Did!) -- a daily reading from the Gospel of Matthew that will take you through the whole Gospel of Matthew in one year -- each reading has a corresponding thought and prayer. In addition, we will be happy to offer you a blessing from God's word each day, called Refreshing Words. Several of these will be offered to you with direct delivery through email. As with everything on Heartlight, it is brought to free as a ministry of Christians who want to share their closer walk with the Lord with believers world wide so that more can know the joy of living everyday with Jesus as their Lord.

Who wrote the Bible?

The Bible is God's message to people. It was written long ago over a period of many years. The Bible is God's work, but he used many people to write it. Because the events described in the Bible took place at different times, the books of the Bible were written by different people. Men like Moses, King David, Isaiah, Daniel, the apostle Paul, the apostle Peter, and many other people were inspired by God to write the Bible. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John wrote four books that describe Jesus' life while he was on earth.

    The whole Bible was given to us by Inspiration from God. Inspired means that the writers wrote God's words and thoughts rather than their own. God did not speak to them aloud or dictate what they should write, but he did place his Spirit in them so they would write what he wanted us to know. He guided them so that everything they wrote is true.

    The most important story in the Bible is the story of Jesus. In fact, the whole Bible really tells his story. It reveals that Jesus is the Creator, the Lamb of God, the light of the world, the bread of life, the Good Shepherd, and the Savior. From the very beginning of the Bible you can trace God's plan for sending Jesus into the world. Revelation, the last book of the Bible, tells about the time when Jesus will return to earth. The last chapters of the book describe what heaven will be like.

The Bible has two main parts

The Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament was written before Jesus came to earth. The New Testament is about Jesus and the things that happened after he came. One way to remember the two parts of the Bible is to think about them as "before Jesus" and "after Jesus." The word testament refers to the promises, or agreement, God made with mankind. The first part of the Bible, the Old Testament, was written to the Jewish people. It tells about the beginning of the world and the beginning of the Jewish nation, Israel. The stories in the Old Testament reveal a lot about how God works in the lives of men and women. It shows how people in the nation of Israel obeyed and disobeyed God and what happened to them over the years. The Old Testament also contains God' s promises to send his Son, Jesus into the world.

    The New Testament tells the Good News of how Jesus Christ came to earth, just as God had promised in the Old Testament. The New Testament was written mostly by people who had seen Jesus and gives the story of his life and teachings. The New Testaments shows how the Good News of Jesus began to spread through the world. It also tells us that Jesus will one day return to the earth. We are still looking forward to that exciting part of Jesus' story.