3 ways to read the Bible in 2014

 

In the last post I considered the one resolution that the Apostle Paul calls Christians to at all times, in all places – to know Christ.

How do we get to know Jesus? Well I guess a relationship means simply spending time with someone. And when life is busy it means intentionally setting aside time to be with them. When it comes to God, we call this the ‘quiet time’.

And yet, if you’re anything like me, I don’t often know what to ‘do’. I can have a ‘quiet time’ but everything just moulds into one thing – reading something, praying and if it’s a good day not falling asleep! I get distracted. I get legalistic about having to read a passage a day. And it can get a bit discouraging.  

So what a relief in a way to find that the Apostle Paul did not necessarily find it easy to know Christ. He strains ahead, he presses on. This is not easy work. This will take some effort. And so as we resolve this one thing, to know Christ, we need to work at it.

 

3 ways we can do this are:

Reading the Bible

Memorising Scripture
Prayer

And so in the next 3 posts I’ll consider these 1 by one, starting today with Bible reading.

 

Firstly, before coming to God's word it is key to pray and ask God for His help. I have found more and more a helpful an acrostic that John Piper suggests called IOUS:

I. Incline my hear to your testimonies. Psalm 119:36 (Since my heart is inclined to sleep and to work and to lots of things other than the Bible.)

O. Open my eyes to see wonders in your word. Psalm 119:18 (Since my heart is so often dull and blind to the wonders of the word.)

U. Unite my heart to fear your name. Psalm 86:11 (Since my heart is often divided and distracted in many directions)

S. Satisfy me with your steadfast love. Psalm 90:14 (Since my heart is so tempted to be satisfied in other things.)

 

So here are 3 ways (I’m sure there are more!) that we can read the Bible

 

1.       Just read it

·        You can read a book in one sitting – last year I did this for Job, Isaiah and Deuteronomy – and they made much more sense than reading them a chapter a day. I really got a feel of the flow and pattern and got to grips with the place of the book in the Bible. For example, reading Job all the way through has changed my view of suffering immensely.

·       You can read the Bible in a year. Or quicker. If you devour books, why limit your Bible reading to 5 minutes a day. Read all of it. In large doses. Read it as fast as you can. I’ve done it for the last 4 years and it has been great. This is a great article listing lots of different plans to help you do this. My favourite is Bible Eater.

·        You can choose a book of the Bible. And just read it. And read it again. Immerse yourself in the text. You’ll really know it when you’ve read it several times. You’ll deepen your knowledge of the Bible as a whole. This article brilliantly sums up advantages of doing this along with some advice as to how to get going.

 

·        An alternative is listening to it. Youversion on your mobile will help you do this. An alternative is MP3 Bibles. At the moment you can download the ESV audibible here FREE for January 2014 only!

 

2.       Devotionally

This involves choosing a verse or a short passage (you might gradually make your way through a book for example). Again, you read it. And re-read it. Chew it over. Ask God to speak to you,  to nourish you, encourage you, give you direction, joy, conviction and peace.

Reading devotionally (or meditatively) helps us to slow down and ask God to speak to us plainly from the text Pss. 1:2, 119:97, etc.). This is especially helpful if you are academic and lean towards study. Or if you tend to skim over the text to ‘get through your reading for the day’.

George Mueller a 19^th Century English evangelist and one of my spiritual heroes said this:

"I began to meditate on the New Testament, from the beginning, early in the morning . . . searching into every verse for the sake of obtaining food for my own soul. The result I have found almost invariably is this, that after a very few minutes my soul has been led to confession or to thanksgiving, or to intercession, or to supplication; so that though I did not, as it were, give myself to prayer, but to meditation; yet, it turned almost immediately more or less into prayer."

 

Some questions I sometimes use when reading devotionally:

1. What does this passage tell me about God?
2. What does this passage tell me about myself/humanity
3. How does this passage lead me to Jesus?
4. Based on this passage are there things I need to repent of?
5. Based on this passage are there things I ought to do/change?

 

There are resources out there that can help us read devotionally, but none of them should replace doing it for ourselves. Youversion again has a whole bunch including Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening, My Utmost for his Highest (Oswald Chambers) and Our Daily Bread.

 

3.       For study

The principal here is going further than devotional reading. It is diving deeper, reading perhaps more academically. And yet you don’t have to have gone to Bible college or own a library of books to do it!

It is an effort to understand even more about a text – it’s genre, context, how it fits in to the Bible narrative etc.

 

A structure with some questions you might ask here are (thanks to Oz Power for these):

Context - What comes before and after the text? How does it fit into the chapter, book, Bible? What is the historical and literary context?

Observation - What does the text say? Identify structure, key words, characters,

Interpretation - What does it mean to the original audience? What are the main meanings of the passage?

Application - What does it mean to us now? What should I take away from this? SPECK - Is there a Sin I need to avoid? Is there a Promise from God I need to claim? Is there an Example for me to follow? Is there a Command I need to obey? How can this passage increase my Knowledge about God?

 

Perhaps have a wide-margined Bible at the ready, or at least a notebook. Pick up a pen, or if you like colours, pick up several. Then read the text. Go through your questions. Make notes. Jot down your findings.

You can use various aids to help.

      ·        Use a ESV/NIV Study Bible

·        Logos has a free mobile app with a lot of Bible study tools on it enabling you to look up words, parallel translations along with tons of commentaries and e-books. I find this really helpful.

·        You can refer to commentaries (e.g. The Message of …. Bible Speaks Today Series (IVP), Bible dictionaries, sermons and other books/online

 

·         Refer to works on doctrine e.g. Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem or Know the Truth by Bruce Milne

Some other tips for Bible study:

1. Go for variety. Acknowledge seasons in life where you might be hungry to study more; or where you feel you need to just read through a book – you might vary day to day, week to week or month to month. Use different resources as I’ve linked to above.

2. Journal and share – write things down. Revisit them. Ask someone to check in with you to see how it is going, perhaps.

3. Plan it in – preferably morning but will vary. You need to ring-fence time. This means getting to bed at a decent time so you can get up in the morning. Your day starts the night before. If you see me out of bed later than 11pm you have permission to shout at me, because I won’t be up the next morning!

4. Know yourself - do you tend towards legalism or licence? If legalism you will tend toward doing it to tick the box, and get very dry. If licence you will probably have no problem in missing a few days here and there. Be aware of this and challenge yourself to read the Bible to know God rather than to satisfy a legalistic tendency to tick the box or forget about it altogether.


I'm aware much more could be said on this. Please do share any tips or experiences you have below, I will enjoy reading them as I know others will!