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Tag Archives: Bible reading
Reading through the Bible in a year (or two)
Life, Sola Panel
flickr: jjreade
I’m doing something I haven’t attempted since I was at university, many years ago. I’m reading through the Bible in a year. Make that two years: after twelve months, I’m half way through my Bible reading plan.
There’s something exciting about reading the Bible in big gulps. I feel well-fed, like I’ve been at the richest of banquets all year long. I’ve discovered long-forgotten treasures, and I’ve seen familiar verses shine with unexpected colours in their setting. I’ve been reminded how, verse after verse, chapter after chapter, the Bible tells the same story. I can’t wait to turn the pages and watch the history of salvation unfold.
Finding a “quiet time” in a mother’s life that’s far from quiet
Life, Sola Panel
flickr: bluebirdsandteapots
I used to find it pretty easy to find a quiet time to pray and read the Bible, back in the days when I had two children. This seemed a little unfair. Other mums told me, “It’s so hard to pray and read the Bible! Every time I try, my kids climb all over me! My baby cries! My son wants me! They won’t keep quiet long enough for me to pray!” But quiet times were still “quiet” for me.
Thanks for everything
Resource Talk, Sola Panel
It was more than your average laid-back, phlegmatic Aussie could take: for about the 47th time in one day, an American pastor with a warm smile was shaking my hand and thanking me so much for the work I was doing and the valuable contribution Matthias Media was making to their ministry.
Teaching the Psalms to our children
Up front, Sola Panel
Picture my husband and I sitting side-by-side on the couch in semi-darkness, watching a DVD. There’s the patter of little feet on the floorboards. A plaintive voice says, “Mummy, I’m scared. I can’t sleep!” And as always, there’s the same response: “Do you want me to pray with you?” “Yes.” “Okay, snuggle up and we’ll pray.” (more…)
Laying the foundations at Church by the Bridge
Pastoral Ministry
One to one: The essential ingredient of pastoral care
Drawing on Richard Baxter’s The Reformed Pastor, David Williams explains to pastors why one-to-one Bible reading is well worth their investment. (more…)
Learning to read the Bible one to one
Everyday Ministry
Russell de Vries has known Jesus all his life. He grew up having been taught the gospel by his parents, and remembers car conversations about the sermon and Bible during the trip home from church each Sunday. The Bible was an integral part of church and home life. Yet in spite of all this, the idea of regularly meeting one to one with someone to read God’s word was a totally foreign concept to Russell. (more…)
Women, awkwardness and one to one
Many women find doing one-to-one Bible reading awkward and uncomfortable. But, as Isobel Lin suggests, a little awkwardness can be a good thing. (more…)
Holidaying with God
Up front
This half-term, my wife, Kirsten, and I (with our son Joshua happily in tow) were able to enjoy a fantastic break in Brittany with some good friends. Brittany is a lovely part of France, and we were with great company, enjoying great food and great weather. We had a fantastic time. (more…)
Sick of Bible study? Read on.
Resource Talk, Sola Panel
Are you sick of reading the resource talk column each month?
I know I’m sick of writing it. Here we are again with another 800 upbeat, encouraging words on some aspect of Christian ministry and the resources we produce to support it. It’s tiresome to write and (I feel sure) a bit of a drag to read. (more…)
Reading the Bible with your ears open
Up front
You read what you hear. Even with the Bible, you read what you hear.
Let me explain. Study leave got me to England in 10 inches of snow. Beautiful. Because it closed the airports, it almost got me to France. How would I have explained that to the college board? Then driving around a country not my own just confused me; there were so many signs supposedly telling me what to do, but I didn’t have the right framework to assimilate them so that they actually made sense. On the freeway: “Spray may be possible”. What, was I going to be ambushed by a tomcat? Coming into Colchester: “The oldest town in Britain. Please drive carefully.” If I don’t, will it break? In an alley way in London next to a huge dumpster: “Fly tipping will be prosecuted”. It’s going to take a lot of flies to fill that bin, for sure.
Actually do it
Up front, Sola Panel
These three words are the secret to success in a multitude of circumstances. It’s certainly true of writing. When someone comes to me (as they quite often do), indicating their desire to be a writer, and then asks me how to go about it, I have only these three words to say to them: actually do it. (more…)
The gospel and the quiet time
Life
Many years ago now I heard a sermon on Matthew 6—the section where Jesus tells his disciples to pray behind locked doors to ensure that they pray to God and not to men. It was, in many ways, an unremarkable sermon. It was clear, faithful and challenging, like much of the preaching that, in God’s kindness, I get to hear. But, like most sermons, it was destined for the dustbin of my mind. Except for one thing: it was the first time I had ever heard a preacher ask, “Have your deeds of righteousness become so secret that not even God can see them?” The question stopped me in my tracks. (more…)
The Swedish Method
Everyday Ministry
For 19 years, I worked in Argentina in a context where many university students were unaccustomed to reading. Bible studies in that country (with its strong Catholic influence and practices expressed in the current evangelical style) were often an exercise in glancing at a text and then using ‘authorities’ to prove a point. For example, a youth group would typically read a passage of Scripture, close their Bibles to discuss it, and then one student would then say, “My pastor says ‘X’”. Then another would reply, “But my pastor says ‘Y’”. The argument would then escalate as one and then the other would pull in higher authorities from around the evangelical world to justify their points of view. From rallies, television or radio programmes, they would cite evangelical ‘celebrities’ such as Yiye Avila, Carlos Annacondia, Luis Palau, and then, to clinch the argument, Billy Graham. What they were doing was a Protestant version of Catholicism: they appealed to a higher human authority to win an argument. (more…)