The Bible is like a library of books that can show us God’s heart if we’re willing to do some work. After all, the Bible can be very confusing and bizarre. It’s one connected story made up of thousands of stories and pieces of writing from thousands of different people, times, and places. The more we see of this connected story, the more we’ll see God’s heart.

Here’s a good beginner exercise for growing with God through the Bible.

• Find a quiet place, inside or out, a place that helps you feel peace.
• Now, say a prayer asking God to help you understand what you’re about to read.
• Read Jesus’s story in Luke 15:11-32 (which simply means the book of Luke, the 15th chapter, verses 11 through 32). Click here to read now.
• Now just take a minute to consider what struck you–what inspired or challenged you.
• Now turn what struck you into a prayer. For example, if you were struck by the father’s forgiveness, maybe that means you’re hoping God forgives you, and you want to say, God please forgive me for what I’ve done. Help me to know your forgiveness. In Jesus’s name, amen.

If you wanted to go even deeper, you could seek resources to help you understand more of what’s going on in this story, which could change how you see God through it. For instance, you could go to a website called The Bible Project and watch this video .

Then, you could read the story again and see what changes.

Jesus gathered with people around meals all of the time. It was his favorite image for what God’s kingdom on earth will look like. One book of the Bible says that the first followers of Jesus also ate meals together as a spiritual practice. This practice is easy, sort of.

• Eat a meal with your family or friends.
• Don’t rush the preparation of the meal. Thank God for the ingredients as you prepare it.
• Don’t rush eating the meal together.
• Add in a spiritual reflection like going around the table and sharing something you’re thankful for.

There is a most special meal Jesus ate with his followers we call the Last Supper. If you want to learn more about that, watch this video (link to one of our Sunday videos with communion.)

One of the best ways to know God is through serving people and seeing people as God’s masterpieces like God does. You can literally do this anywhere, anytime. You can call the person in the checkout line by name and see them as God’s creation and show them kindness. You can do something to care for your neighbor or coworker in an extraordinary way. You can check out our Partners page and contact them to serve. And/or you can serve with our church in one of our church-wide initiatives. But don’t wait! You can serve someone with God’s love today. Ask God to show you whom you can serve, and just go do it.

A life-changing practice is giving, because it can help us experience the freeing truth that the earth and everything in it belongs to God, as the Bible says. Jesus talked about money as much as he talked about any other topic, with a couple of exceptions.

This exercise is pretty simple:

• Read this quick perspective from Jesus.
• Say a prayer, like God, help me to be generous. As an act of faith, I would like to give some of what You have given me away. Will you help me know how much I should give?
• Then, if you would like to give to the mission of HeavenEarth Church, you can do so here.
• If you’d rather give it to another organization, consider one of the organizations on our Partners page.