Seeing a heart changed and a life transformed.
Tom, a Bible sharer from London, discusses what his experience of using the Word One to One has been like.
Q. Did you face any challenges in starting with The Word One to One?
I was reading through The Word One to One before opening it up with my friend, and I didn’t see any questions for me to ask them – like you normally might find in a typical Bible study. That’s why I was a bit worried that it would just be me reading John and some notes without much discussion, which would be boring and wouldn’t work very well!
But actually, in the end it was okay. The passage and the notes that accompany it generated a lot of discussion, and questions naturally arose from them. The Word One to One laid out a guiding framework for our conversation about the text – and I think the fact that there aren’t lots of direct questions made it less intense for my friend! He felt comfortable with asking questions himself, and wasn’t simply being bombarded with loads of questions. So yeah, The Word One to One enabled a much more natural discussion to happen.
“The Word One to One laid out a guiding framework for our conversation about the text – and I think the fact that there aren’t lots of direct questions made it less intense for my friend!”
Q. Why did you find it helpful to read through John’s gospel verse by verse?
I was just glad to see that the notes didn’t miss out any bits of John’s Gospel – by only selecting a few bits of the book, it doesn’t fit together as well and you don’t see the progression and the reason why John writes in the way he does. So it’s great to be able to see how his Gospel fits together and get the full picture.
Q. How did you find the experience once you got started?
I was a bit worried at first, but in the end it was really good! I guess it can depend on the person you’re talking to – my friend is naturally quite curious and has a lot of questions anyway, so that really helps our discussions. Some of his questions were definitely quite difficult to answer, so I had to say that I’d go away and find the answers for him.
But The Word One to One had some really helpful notes which gave explanations on the terms, symbols and imagery John uses, which makes reading his text much more accessible. It’s so great for both of us having the explanations right there in front of us, especially for my friend who’s never really read the Bible before.
Now I’m really enjoying our meetings! We’d actually only met once or twice on Zoom before starting to read the Bible together, but even through using The Word One to One we’ve got to know each other really well and have become good friends!
Q. It was amazing to hear that your friend put his trust in the Lord – was there anything that particularly resonated as he read through John’s gospel with you?
I think the main thing he told me was that John seems to have a real genuine understanding of the human condition, and that John’s Gospel really reflected the world around us and what humans are really like – that we’re innately sinful and need a Saviour. So I think that particularly resonated with him.
Just after he put his faith in Christ, we were reading a passage which had a lot of imagery about how, as sinners, we’re in darkness, and how Jesus comes in as the light and shines. When we were reading that, even though we were on Zoom, I could sense his joy in realising that, that he was in darkness but now he’s in the light!
Q. What has reading the Bible with your friend helped you in your faith?
It’s definitely strengthened my faith, and I feel confident in sharing the Word! He was the first person that I personally know who’s come to faith, and at the end of the day, all I seemed to be doing was reading John’s Gospel and offering some explanation here and there!
“It’s definitely strengthened my faith, and I feel confident in sharing the Word!”
But it’s been so encouraging to see God at work right there, and witnessing this complete change of heart before my eyes – my friend was quite a strong atheist when I met him, then a bit more agnostic a few months later, and then just from reading God’s Word coming to an understanding that this must be the truth!
Evidently, God works through any means he wants to – even during lockdown!
Q. What advice would you give to someone who’s interested in starting to read the Bible with others?
It is tough during lockdown, and there can be little motivation to properly evangelise and see friends and have these discussions. But actually, there are some benefits to lockdown – even though my friend and I are in separate places, Zoom has meant that it hasn’t made a difference to being able to ‘meet up’ and chat together. So yeah, if lockdown hadn’t happened, it might have been completely different!
I’d definitely encourage you to get in touch with people you might not have talked to in a while – people are less busy and more willing to try something new, so that might be an opportunity to ask a friend if they wanted to hang out on Zoom and maybe read the Bible with you.
At the end of the day, your confidence has got to be in the fact that it isn’t our work to change people’s hearts, it’s God’s work! Only He can change a person’s heart – so all we can do is share the good news and His Word with others, and He’ll work through that!
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