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Christians read the Bible because it tells us the story of God's dealings with the human race, and what happened when people didn't respond in the way God hoped they would.
We call it God's word, a word which people failed to hear fully until at last 'the Word became flesh' and Jesus showed us what being human could be like, and how God's grace would transform us.
He grew up learning the stories, poems, prayers and wisdom we find in the Old Testament, and interpreted them to people of his own day.
That is what the gospels record, and the rest of the New Testament tells what people made of him and his teaching as the Christian Way (the name by which the first Christians were known) gathered momentum.
Ever since, people have worked at applying what the Bible says to the conditions of their own day.
Some things are immediately clear – the requirement to love God and our neighbour runs right through Scripture.
Other things are not so easily applied, because the circumstances for which the words were first written have no counterpart now.
In the January Magazine, the use of some explanatory Bible notes was suggested. Here are some more ideas:
He also aims to give an idea of what lies behind each story, and show things which those who first heard them would have picked up, but which are difficult for us to catch because we live in very different times.
A separate hand-out contains a plan showing the background history to the Old Testament, indicating where the various books we have fit into place.