I’ve been using my navy blue, leather-bound Bible for years. Flipping through it shows the marks of my relationship with it: the frayed bookmark, the pocket I added to the back and the scuffed cover that make it mine.

If you were to browse through Matthew, you would see where as a senior in high school I underlined my way valiantly through the wisdom of Jesus’ words. You can achieve a similar look to your copy of Matthew by taking a black pen willy-nilly to the bottom of every fifth verse.

Thing was, at that time, I could have cared less about the translation. I was full of the vitality that comes along with a renewed interest in one’s faith. You could have given me the Precious Moments Bible, and I would have loved it.

Which raises an interesting question to me now: What would I be doing if I didn’t speak English?

Well, your options become severely limited, or you don’t have any options to begin with. If one speaks English they have a myriad of choices to read the Holy Bible (most of which you can find on a little site we call BibleGateway.com).

If you’ve ever wondered if a country does have the Bible, let me point you towards WorldMap.org. They’re a ministry that publishes evangelistic statistics, including whether or not the country has the Bible in their language.

Take Angola for example. There’s still a large chunk of that country that needs a translation of the Bible, which was news to me.

There are a few ministries in the Gospel.com community that are devoted to the gargantuan task of Bible translations like IBS and the Lutheran Bible Translators (check out their list of translations).

If you’re interested at all in this part of spreading the Word of God, you might want to check them out so you can know how better to pray for them and support them. You can also read some of their efforts in other langauges via the BibleGateway.

The massive cyclone destruction in Myanmar has occupied world attention in recent weeks—but the earthquake that struck central China has wreaked havoc and left a horrifying body count as well. Mission Network News has a story up about Christian ministry efforts to bring aid to the quake victims:

Baptist Global Response’s Jeff Palmer says they’re partnering with the Southern Baptists in an emergency response. A needs assessment is ongoing. “The first thing we’re going to do is get water, food and shelter to those who are in need. That in and of itself, people coming from halfway across the world, is a testimony to the people who are there. It’s the love of Christ that compels us, and we are commanded to help those who are in need.”

Even as Christian relief teams are being assembled, Palmer says, “Prayer is the strategy that we want to mobilize, first and foremost–praying for those who are in suffering, those who’ve lost family members, those already responding to the effort, [and] also pray for wisdom and knowledge of how to respond.”

Another story includes quotes by an International Aid representative who says that they’re standing by to help as well. If and when we learn of other Gospel.com ministries working in the area, we’ll post an update here on the blog. In the meantime, the ongoing relief efforts are certainly something to add to your prayers this week.

So you’re interested in reading the Bible… where do you start? The Bible’s not like a novel, or a history book, or most any other book—it’s a collection of many different stories, in many different literary genres written by a wide variety of authors, each with a unique background and motive for writing.

In other words, while it’s certainly possible to start reading on page 1 of the Bible all the way through to the end, that’s a pretty challenging undertaking even for a dedicated reader.

This question “how do I go about reading the Bible?” is one we’ve talked about here in the past. Here are a few highlights to help you get started actually reading the Good Book:

• Scripture Union has a nice series of articles about how to read the Bible. They start with the basics and move on to more in-depth Bible reading.
• The Navigators has an essay that suggests the best way to read the Bible is in very small chunks, rather than trying to dive through numerous chapters and books all at once. They recommend spending seven minutes (no more, no less) of time in the Bible each day—you can increase the time later if you want, but if you’re just starting out, the most important thing is to make it a daily habit.
• Dr. Jim Samra of Calvary Church has a four-part series of audio messages about how to study the Bible. You can listen to them for free in MP3 format.
• Many people find it helpful to follow a Bible reading plan as they make their way through the Bible. Such plans usually spread the task of reading the entire Bible across a year, so that after 365 days you’ve made it all the way through. One nice thing about many Bible reading plans is that they organize your reading according to a set theme (chronological, topical, historical, etc.) rather than telling you to just start with Genesis 1 and read straight through. We’ve collected a lot of links to free online Bible reading plans from around the Gospel.com community; there’s almost certainly one that matches your reading preferences.

Once you take a look through some of these resources and get started reading the Bible for yourself, you might find yourself surprised at how easy and enjoyable it is to read the Bible—far from being a laborious literary task, it can be a refreshing and inspiring way to start (or end) each day on the right spiritual note. So don’t be scared away by the Bible’s page count—dust off that old family Bible and try fitting some Scripture reading into your daily routine.