4 weeks of exploring prayer. 4 weeks of exploring fasting. The next one in the book is 4 weeks of bible study.
Now I have a reasonable knowledge of the bible. I am by no means a biblical scholar but I know enough to be able to quote encouraging verses, and I know a lot of the stories and characters which I can channel into teaching and relating the bible to present circumstances.
So in order to get the most out of this for me, I read through what Jo Swinney’s had done (in God Hunting) and I dipped into Richard Foster’s book ‘Celebration of Discipline’. As per the previous disciplines, Swinney uses a different style every week to explore the bible. Foster sort of splits the bible into meditation and study, but goes quite deep into each. For this 4 week exploration of the bible I’ve decided I’m going to focus on the study element and bring mediation in for a future discipline.
Foster splits study down further into study of books and study of ‘nonverbal’ books (basically the world around us and ourselves). He talks about studying the bible by reading whole books to appreciate the shape of the narrative as you would any other book (not just taking a chunk out of context), he talks about reading a shorter book daily for a prolonged period (he suggests a month) which will get the structure in your mind and bring forward different bits of the book in each read through. He suggests supplimenting reading the book by reading other Christian literature by theologians. He talks about studying nature, properly (not just looking and saying “nice flower”) and he suggests studying other people, not with a view of judging them (biblically called splinter and plank) but in order to learn and understand. And he talks about studying ourselves, our triggers, what controls us. Again, not to be introspective or to beat ourselves up but with humility to experience grace.
OK, tall order! What do I currently do? I follow the ‘bible in one year’ app (although I’m a little behind) which includes an old testament passage, a new testament passage and a psalm/proverbs passage plus commentary, and I get a daily bible reading emailed to me (although again, I don’t manage to read it everyday…) I have a book of bible verses I dip into when I need reminding of who God is and who I am to him. I am part of a monthly bible study group working through Mark’s Gospel, and a weekly group who sort of do bible study every week. It sounds a lot, but honestly I’m not sure how much I get out of the weekly bible study and I struggle to keep up with the monthly one. So what can I usefully do to deepen my understanding of God this month?
I am going to try some different things and see what actually helps me. I have a stack of books by theologians to keep me busy, I’d like to spend time reading through Titus (because I don’t think I’ve ever read it… and it’s quite a small book!) I’m going to try and be disciplined with the bible app and listen everyday. And… well, maybe that’s enough for now. There are only so many hours in a day and I don’t feel led to withdraw from everything and become a recluse for the next three weeks!
But I spent some time Week 1 reflecting on what the bible means to me. My bible is genuinely one of the key things I own. It’s one of the first things packed when going away and I (almost) always know where it is. I believe all of it is ‘divinely inspired’ (many human authors, God speaking through all of them). The types of books within the bible range in genre (poetry, history, law…) and the original audiences varied too (hence four gospels telling the same story – each was writing to a different set of people). I believe it is important to know some context, such as what was society like when the book was written and who is Jesus speaking to/Paul writing to. But I also believe there is relevance to us today which we can glean from the pages by being wise and by discussing with and learning from others. I find hope in reading the bible because when you take all of it together, it is a story of God’s love for us and his faithfulness to us through the ages. Some times it looks like God has left his people but then you keep reading and you see there was a plan all along. That gives me hope to keep going myself. God has always had a plan, and I trust that plan. And I find the bible is a good way of learning about God, but also about how I should behave as a Christian. I trust the bible is God’s words.
When I spent a month exploring prayer I learnt to be honest and found joy and peace. When I spent a month exploring fasting I learnt humility and developed self discipline. I’m looking forward to seeing what develops through this month of studying the bible.
The Reason for my Hope Blog 