One should read the bible systematically...... here is a funny story of someone who read randomly, asking for God's guidance as to what they should do with their lives.... first they opened up to Matthew 27:5 (KJV) And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself." He quickly thought that this can't be God's will for his life so he opened up randomly again, this time to Lk 10:37b Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise." Really shaken, he decided to try this "method" of getting God's guidance once more... and he turned randomly to John 13:37b That thou doest, do quickly."Of course there are stories of people turning directly to a passage and that was exactly what they needed to hear, the most famous story being that of Augustine as he struggled and prayed because of his lust and war with the flesh, he felt God telling him to go over to a bench in the garden and pick up the bible and read it through the chanting of a children's song he had never heard before which said "tolle lege, tolle lege", which means 'take and read, take and read", where he then turned to Romans 13:12-14 (KJV) Ro 12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. 13 Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. 14 But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof." This changed Augustine's life and he went on to become one of the most important and influential theologians in the history of Christianity. So I guess I am saying that we ought not put God into a box either way, to insist that He always works one way or the other, that He wants us to use His word like a Magic 8 Ball or Ouija Board, opening the bible at random, closing our eyes and laying our finger on the page to "see what God has for us", the story above illustrates well, albeit humorously what can happen if we approach God's word in this way.That being said, God is not a God of chaos, of random thoughts and haphazard communication, typically. He typically expects us to read and meditate on His word, to work hard at understanding what we are reading. The best way to understand, from the human perspective, is to understand hermeneutics, which is just a 10 dollar word for "the development and study of theories of the interpretation and understanding of texts." Of course we all need the Holy Spirit as we read as well, but God typically does not whisper in our ear the correct translation and interpretation of every passage of Scripture we read. Since there are many many Christians, and many many different interpretations of individual passages, (even from those who only read the KJV!!! lol
) and presumably all these Christians have the Holy Spirit, since not having the Holy Spirit means not being a Christian, there must be another way to resolve the contradictions in biblical interpretation. And that way is hermeneutics. One writer puts it like this:"Many skeptics have complained that the Bible can't tell us anything of any real value because every person interprets it differently. While this is surely an overstatement - there is a great deal contained in the Bible that many Bible-believing Christians do in fact agree on - the reason why there are so many different interpretations is because interpreters don't follow any sensible or consistent method. This naturally leads to inaccurate, inconsistent, illogical and naive interpretations.With so many different interpretations available, how is anyone supposed to know which is the correct one? By examining the nature of the Bible, the events it records and how it was written, it is possible to come up with a method of interpretation that is sensible and understandable.The Bible is an historical book - it records people and events in history. Therefore, if we want to correctly interpret it we must understand its historical background and context. The Bible is also written in human language (Koine or Hellenistic Greek, Ancient Hebrew and Aramaic). Therefore, if we want to correctly interpret it we must understand the language (ie. word meanings and grammar) in which it is written." So in answer to the question: "How do you read your bible?" I read it through the Grammatical-Historical method. "The historical-grammatical method, also referred to as grammatico-historical or grammatical-critical, is a component of Biblical hermeneutics that strives to find the intended original meaning in the text. This original intended meaning of the text is drawn out through examination of the passage in light of the grammatical and syntactical aspects, the historical background, the literary genre as well as theological (canonical) considerations. The historical-grammatical method distinguishes between the one original meaning and the significance of the text. The significance of the text includes the ensuing use of the text or application." (wikipedia) In conclusion, probably the best thing someone could do is to study hermeneutics. Even if someone were to read the bible 50 times through, if they are wrongly interpreting it every time, they could have made far wiser use of their time. Of course it is always good to read God's word, but one can do so in as diligent and respectful way as possible by simply understanding basic interpretive principles.Some resources:To get started, one could hardly do better than read the following short article by JI Packer called The Interpretation of Scripture, its at
http://www.bible-researcher.com/packer1.htmlA couple of excellent introductory books on this subject are"How to Read the Bible for All It's Worth" by Gordan Fee and Douglas Stuart"Knowing Scripture" by R.C. Sproul"A Basic Guide to Interpreting the Bible: Playing by the Rules" by Robert H. Steinthere is a whole set of smaller books called "Interpreting the Parables"; "Interpreting the Gospels", "Interpreting the Psalms"; "Interpreting Paul's Writings" that would probably be beneficial as wellseveral older books I have not personally read, but I have often heard commented on positively are "Protestant Biblical Interpretation: A textbook of Hermeneutics" by Bernard Ramm"Hermeneutics - Principles And Processes Of Biblical Interpretation" by Henry A. Virkler for those wanting to go a bit deeper I could recommend a couple of my textbooks in Hermeneutics class..."Introduction to Biblical Interpretation" by William W. Klein, Craig L. Blomberg and Robert L. Hubbard"Introduction to Biblical Hermeneutics" by Moisés Silva"Exegetical Fallacies" by D. A. CarsonOnline, and free(!!!) one could check out these complete books available freeHermeneutical Manual By Patrick Fairbairn
http://books.google.com/books?id=tFExAZlX4O0C&output=htmlGod-Centered Biblical Interpretation by Vern Sheridan PoythressINTERPRETATION OF THE SCRIPTURES by AW Pink
http://www.pbministries.org/books/pink/Int...erpretation.htmA seminary level syllabus/course outline/class notes is available from Allen P Ross on Old Testament interpretation/exegesis at
http://www.christianleadershipcenter.org/dvot616main.htmFinally, on the issue of hermeneutics, there is a "mega-page" is
http://home.comcast.net/~rciampa/And lastly, there is an simply OUTSTANDING series of free audio lectures available through Gordon Conwell Univ. via the Harold Okenga Institute that I have gone through as a refresher course since I graduated from college in 1996, I can't say enough about this series, it is given by first rate conservative bible believing scholars on all sorts of topics. The name of the course is called "Dimensions of the Faith", at
https://www.gordonconwell.edu/ockenga/dimensions/ And the very first course offered is by one of the authors of a book I recommended above, how cool is that!!!
Its "Biblical Interpretation with Dr. Douglas Stuart". Great stuff!!!! This has got to be equivalent of at least one years education at the college level, given by a first rate Christian school, and all free!!!! You should not miss this....Hope this helps...blessings,Ken