Category: Growth (Page 1 of 15)

It’s one thing to decide to read the entire Bible this year, but it’s another to prepare to do so. Here’s a few tips I’ve discovered along the way.

Pick a Bible version you find engaging. I’ve read the Bible cover to cover 27 times, and I’ve read at least a dozen different versions. The King James Version, for instance, contains beautiful, classic passages, along with loads of “thees” and “thous.” Other versions read more modern, and thus digest easier. Pick one you enjoy. Personally, I prefer the New International Version (NIV) for reading and listening. I also regularly read the English Standard Version (ESV); the New Living Translation (NLT); and The Message (an American language version). While I prefer reading a physical Bible, I use both the YouVersion Bible app and the ESV Bible app on my phone.

Listen to the Bible. My wife loves to listen to the Bible. Here are two versions she enjoys. The One Year Chronological Bible NLT and the ESV Hear The Word Audio Bible. Both are read by a narrator. For a more dramatic style, try The Bible Experience audio version. Also, the YouVersion Bible app also contains an audio version read by a narrator, and is free.

Choose your best time of day. I find that picking a time of day to read or listen, and protecting that time, helps make it happen. It’s too easy to let my reading slide when “I’ll get to it sometime,” takes over my thinking. I’m an early riser, so I choose the mornings, when I’m first up, with coffee in hand. Others prefer the quiet of late evening. For those who listen, the morning commute opens time to hear the scriptures, or a walk at mid-day. Pick a time that works for you, and commit to it.

Choose a reading plan. Some years I read the Bible from start to finish, Genesis to Revelation. I’ve also read the Bible chronologically, as the events occur historically. This year, I’m using the Five Day Bible Reading Program. I like it because the Old Testament is presented chronologically, and each day contains a New Testament passage. Best of all, you read only five days per week, leaving two extra days for catch-up. Download and print the plan and keep a copy in your Bible.

Keep a journal or note-taking app handy. I find that I retain more from my Bible reading when I jot notes as I go. Don’t think of this as in-depth Bible study, or writing Bible commentary, but a notepad to write questions and impressions from scripture. I’m surprised when I look back over a year and see what God’s shown me. Plus, something good happens when I write down my thoughts. I think deeper and longer, and these thoughts sink below the surface where the Holy Spirit might use them. I write in an blank, unlined journal. Nothing to distract me from my thoughts – except my other thoughts.

I encourage you to join me and investment in reading the Bible cover to cover in 2021. You can do it. If you spend 30 minutes a day on social media, you can read the Bible through in a year. Start the journey – your soul will thank you.

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

Approaching the Bible – the most dangerous book in history – requires preparing our hearts and minds. This is no small or flippant undertaking. Here are 10 attitudes I find necessary for enjoying my time reading broadly in the scriptures.

1. Prayer. I start each reading session asking the Holy Spirit to show me wonderful things from God’s law (Psalm 119:18).

2. Curiosity. What will I find? What might God show me? I open the book with the attitude of a discoverer.

3. Anticipation. I trust the Holy Spirit to work in my life, in some form or fashion, through the words of scripture, and I ask the Holy Spirit specifically to do so.

4. Hope. If the scriptures are God-breathed (2 Timothy 3:16-17), then shouldn’t you and I hope for good results as we invest time in them?

5. Realism. Change and insight come slowly, often imperceptibly. On rare occasions God shouts, sporadically God whispers, but generally God keeps his thoughts to himself. All the time – every minute of the day – the world, my own flesh and the devil screech and howl, attempting to drown God’s voice. I try to enter my reading times with open eyes to this raging battle, ears cocked for a silent voice.

6. Perseverance. Reading the Bible in a year involves work. Remember, when you’re in the minutiae of instructions for constructing a tabernacle, the payoff of David slaying a giant is around the corner.

7. Trust. I believe the Lord holds good things in store for me as I open His book.

8. Open-minded. Withholding judgement, I fight against shutting down just because I disagree with something I read. The Bible remains potent after several thousand years of scrutiny. I’m not the first to struggle in its pages. I ask the Lord “why?” and “what does this mean for me?” constantly as I read the Bible.

9. Unhurried. Don’t rush. Fight the urge to skim. The words of the Bible are too important, too valuable, too solid, to take at a harried pace. This is my biggest temptation when reading – I’m always forcing myself to slow down.

10. Grateful. People have read the Bible for centuries, raised families in it, and created societies based on its wisdom. Believers enthralled by the scriptures died torturous deaths for translating them, handing me the privilege of reading the scriptures in my heart language. And such a privilege! It’s the most printed, translated, distributed and purchased book in history. I approach my learning with the understanding that saints gave their lives and fortunes so I can sit in my comfortable chair, coffee in hand, and enjoy this book.

I encourage you to join me and make the investment to read the Bible cover to cover in 2021. You can do it. If you spend 30 minutes a day on social media, you can read the Bible through in a year. Start the journey – your soul will thank you.

Ready?

Photo by Luis Quintero on Unsplash

This post originally published December 31, 2020

Daunting best describes the Bible. Thick, dense, full of arcane references and minute details. Loads of “begats” and shekels and odd names. However, beauty and wisdom and peace and insight overflow the Bible as well. Every minute I spend in the Scriptures yields dividends. Below are 9 reasons I read the Bible cover to cover every year.

1. I gain an expansive view of God. Left to myself, I shrink God into my own image. I desire a God who reminds me of me, who approves of my lifestyle and choices, and who hugs me despite my subtle disregard of his ways. No such God exists in the pages of scripture, but how will I know if I don’t go take a look?
2. The discipline of daily reading develops my faith. Regular reading creates a spiritual practice and builds spiritual muscle. I did not choose to live the Christian life on a lark. As a serious and devoted follower of Christ, I hope to continually grow deeper and fuller in my faith. Bible reading forms the foundation of that growth.
3. I discover something I’ve never noticed, or thought, on a daily basis. This may be my the favorite part of reading the Bible. I discover new heroes and intriguing villains, new thoughts and challenging ideas, every day.
4. God surprises me. Not always in a comfortable way.
5. God wrestles with me. Or better, I wrestle with the God of the Bible. The Lord uses the scriptures to point out my pride or vanity or loose talk. I don’t like it. In fact, I despise it. But I appreciate the fact that words in the Bible roll me around in the dirt on occasion.
6. I wrestle with the scripture’s approach the world. I don’t understand many parts of the Bible. Why did the child born from David’s sin with Bathsheba have to die? Seems so unfair to me. But that’s what God wanted, and as a result I grapple with my understanding and beliefs about God. I believe questions fuel our faith, just as questions fueled the faith of many in the Bible.
7. The Holy Spirit flows in my life with fresh wind. The Holy Spirit changes us, comforts us, challenges us and builds us, particularly paired with the wisdom of the Bible. The combination of Holy Spirit and Holy Scriptures transforms my heart and actions. Nothing else works in such a supernatural way. I fight temptation, I gain compassion, I get beyond myself when the Holy Spirit uses the words of God in my life.
8. I brag to my friends. Let’s face it – not many people read through the Bible. Let the practice slip at a dinner party and notice the reactions.
9. My soul swells. Psalm 1 tells us, “Blessed in the man who’s delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he propers.” I want such a life – it grows from meditating on the scriptures daily. Comfort and hope and peace grow in such an environment.

I encourage you to join me and make the investment to read the Bible cover to cover in 2022. You can do it. If you spend 30 minutes a day on social media, you can read the Bible through in a year. Start the journey – your soul will thank you.

This post was originally published on December 29, 2020.

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash