True Story #7: One month of Bible readings to help you understand what the Bible is about.

Introduction:Over the course of a month, I want to help you appreciate the Bible more by helping you get a better understanding of the story the Bible tells.As Tim Keller has written, “We usually read the Bible as a series of disconnected stories, each with a “moral” for how we should live our lives. It is not. Rather, it comprises a single story, telling us how the human race got into its present condition, and how God through Jesus Christ has come and will come to put things right.”These Bible readings will help you write your own summary of that single story by taking you to various passages throughout the Scripture that clarify exactly how God is doing that.Helps for Getting the Most from Your Study* Read the passages for each day out loud* Get out a notebook and answer the following questions for each day:

1. What stands out to you the most after having read through these Scriptures?
2. If someone asked you what the passages you read that day were mostly about, what would you say?
3. What do you think was the main point of what you were reading?
4. What did these passages teach you about the character of God? What did they teach you about us as humans? What did they teach you about how God saves people?
5. Write one paragraph that summarizes the part of the gospel story these passages tell.

Day Seven1 Samuel 8:4-5⁴ Finally, all the elders of Israel met at Ramah to discuss the matter with Samuel.⁵ “Look,” they told him, “you are now old, and your sons are not like you. Give us a king to judge us like all the other nations have.”1 Samuel 8:7 ⁷ “Do everything they say to you,” the Lord replied, “for it is me they are rejecting, not you. They don’t want me to be their king any longer.1 Samuel 8:19-20¹⁹ But the people refused to listen to Samuel’s warning. “Even so, we still want a king,” they said. ²⁰ “We want to be like the nations around us. Our king will judge us and lead us into battle.”Jeremiah 3:6-7⁶ During the reign of King Josiah, the Lord said to me, “Have you seen what fickle Israel has done? Like a wife who commits adultery, Israel has worshiped other gods on every hill and under every green tree. ⁷ I thought, ‘After she has done all this, she will return to me.’ But she did not return, and her faithless sister Judah saw this.