regularbiblereading.com
Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked ... but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. (Psalm 1:1-2 ESV)
Is the habit of daily (or even regular) Bible reading a dying art? Many of us may have a sense that this may well be the case, even amongst those who would claim the name ‘evangelical’—perhaps from our own personal experience as much as anything else.
Yet most Christians would agree that for the sake of the health of our soul we should be reading God’s Word regularly—if not every day. The frequent biblical image of the Word of God as our ‘food’ or ‘milk’ reminds us of the need to seek ‘nutrition’ from it regularly.
No doubt the pace of modern life has sucked us in and affected our priorities in unhelpful ways, and we need to pause and recalibrate our lives and time. But having done so, what practical steps can we take to start back on the path of regular Bible reading?
Online resources: The End of Quiet Times (coming soon)
As the famous proverb says, “two are better
than one … for if they
fall, one will lift up his fellow” (Eccl 4:9-12). Bible partnerships,
where two Christians covenant to help each other and so meet regularly
to read the Bible together and pray, are a very effective means of
getting started.
Short Steps for Long Gains and ONE2ONE are two Matthias Media resources designed for exactly these types of partnership meetings.
Further reading: The One Minute Bible Study (coming soon)
Those with young children are particularly prone to having Bible reading slide down the priority list. With the helter skelter of school and other activities, family prayer and Bible times can seem like a lost cause.
Of course there’s no substitute for commitment to the goal of leading
your family spiritually, but creativity to make it interesting and at a
suitable level for the kids can be a tough ask at the end of a busy day
at work. That’s where Table Talk can help. Table Talk is a simple
program of family Bible reading with discussion starters, application
questions and suggestions for prayer. (Better still, it neatly ties in
with XTB,
so that, even if you can’t have the family time, the kids can
still read the Bible passage for themselves.)
We know it's not easy, so here are some resources and articles to help you in this rewarding task.
Using Table Talk in your family is a PDF File that will show how you can use this great family-oriented resource to have your whole family reading the Bible together, and sharing the riches of God's Word with one another.
Dad's devotions is a great article by Phil Wheeler, sharing some of the pitfalls and joys of leading the family in Bible reading, from a Dad's point of view. It shares practical tips and advice, and encourages every Dad to be a leader.
Understanding children is printed from our popular Sunday School teacher's resource, Their God is So Big. It's an easy-to-read guide behind the mindset of younger age-groups, and shares how you can help to keep them interested, and entertained.
Surprisingly, there are still many Christians who are yet to discover the benefits of being part of a home Bible study group. Knowing you have a weekly meeting to study a part of God’s word can be a real spur to deeper study and reflection. The key is preparation: making sure that you prepare for the study by reading the passage in advance and thinking about the questions. If you do that, it means that at least two out of seven days that week you will be reading God’s word. And that’s a good start!
Matthias Media’s range of Interactive Bible Studies are ideal for these home groups—although they can work just as well as an in-depth study of God’s word on your own or with one other person.
As good as it can be to meet with others, there is a very important place for meeting just one-on-one with God.
Bible Brief is a monthly Bible reading program for adult Christians. It guides you through a part of the Bible each month, asking questions to help you understand the passage, and prompting you to ponder and pray about what you have read. Each month there are 20 readings enough to keep you regularly reading God’s word, not too many that you can’t keep up.
Bible Brief is published each month in The Briefing.
And now some of the Bible Briefs have been collected into portable daily devotion books which we call The Daily Reading Bible (click to see a PDF sample of the first 5 studies). The Daily Reading Bible collects about sixty readings in each volume, as well as the associated Bible text. It’s light and portable, so it really is all you need to do your quiet times in those between times, like on the bus, in your lunchbreak, waiting for the train, etc. Each study also contains relevant ‘points to ponder’ as well as ideas to launch you into prayer.
Currently, Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3, and Volume 4 are available. Enough to keep you busy for a while?