Apr 13
Continuing from the last post, we finish up a list of ideas for different ways to approach reading through the Bible. Of course, how long it takes you to complete any read through, depends on how much you read on a daily basis. The key will always be daily attention to God by listening to Him speak to you directly via His Word (ouch!). Read more
How much has your aversion to school contaminated your concepts of learning and study? Especially, in the sense of Bible study, personal devotions, and Bible reading? For far too many people, the word “study” conjures up visions of difficult tests, poor grades, dull work in subjects holding no interest whatsoever. If there was ever any thrill to learning, it died so long ago, not even a distinct memory of it remains. The end of school meant NEVER having to study again; NEVER being forced to read another book; NEVER having to spend MY own time doing HOME WORK and BOOK WORK! Read more
Long ago we were encouraged to read something from the Bible every day. Not another devotional book or a commentary, but the Word itself. At least five minutes. Since the Harvard Classics could be mastered with fifteen minutes a day, over a lifetime, five minutes certainly seems like it ought to be doable. Of course, to actually get through the entire Bible in a year takes more than a five minute daily investment: maybe twenty minutes? Four chapters every day. But as we’ve discovered, even that seems to be too much for some people.
One of the best parts of en suite is taking the time to read the Bible. Part of my motivation for a cleaning routine, and children being in order, and having a designed schedule was to make certain that time for Bible reading would not be frittered away. The benefit to thinking is immeasurable. So much so, we’re going to stay in en suite long enough to send along some ideas about Bible reading. Read more
Think about this: we have long-range goals, and short-terms plans for every aspect of our lives. We have a five-year plan for saving for the down payment on our dream house. We have the forty-year plan to prepare for financial independence at retirement age. We know the very year both our careers and our finances will merge to make it reasonable to start a family. But when it comes to our personal responsibility to master the Bible, the catch-as-catch-can plan is by far the most popular.
The most far-sighted of us may maintain the four-chapters-a-day-habit to read through the Bible in a year, but sad to say, even this worthy project is often set aside after one completion (or even before!) or becomes a ritualistic habit maintained year in and year out with little conscious thought. We wait for some mystical sense of where to arbitrarily begin reading (in five minutes or less) in order to find Scripture’s pertinent counsel for our pressing immediate needs. The enormity of Scripture, the overwhelming responsibility of mastering it all, our own laziness to remain spoon-fed babies, its demand that we “do” it and not just “hear” it, our great ignorance of how to proceed in a personal, voluntary pursuit of learning apart from the forced school-test-required reading setting—all this has had a part in paralyzing us from immersing ourselves in His Truth. Read more
“So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom” (Psalm 90: 12).
What does numbering our days have to do with becoming wise?
The numbering, does not simply mean to keep track of how many days a person has lived. It means valuing each day, acting as if each day might be the last, being certain that each day counts, and that no day drifts aimlessly into another without purpose or cause. You could say we are to attend to each day as a treasured commodity, not as if days are available in endless supply. Read more
Priority Stewardship 