17:18

Sometimes the best things you take home from a conference come from the conference bookstore. When I was in Minnesota for the Powerful Life of the Praying Pastor conference, they gave us coupons for their bookstore, which I happily used. As I browsed through the available books, I found some unusual journals. I've been using my journal to walk through the Bible, chapter by chapter, but these journals are a little different.

They are called 17:18, taken from Deuteronomy 17:18 - which is talking about rules for the king of Israel.

When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the Levitical priests.

So the journal is laid out like this: on the right page, there is space for me to re-write the scripture, verse by verse. On the left page is space for notes. There are a few leading questions, but not many. It's mostly just blank.

Though the Deuteronomy instructions were meant for the king, I think they are good instructions for any Christian. Writing the scriptures out is a good exercise for retention and understanding. I just started my first journal yesterday (in Colossians, the book my Bible study is going through), and I'm looking forward to continuing it!

*Disclaimer: I bought these journals with my continuing education money. Though I got a $5 off coupon from the conference, the 17:18 makers didn't give me anything for this review. It was just a product I felt drawn to and have been enjoying.

Reading through the Bible

Aside from some times on retreats, I have never spent as much time in the Bible as I have over the past two weeks.  I am currently in 1 Chronicles on my Lenten journey through the entire Bible. There are certain parts I've recently read in depth (the story of Joseph was something I studied again last month in sermon preparation), and I've done a "read through the Bible in a year" program and have studied various parts in depth, but I've found myself experiencing a lot of it as new all over again

When I got the idea to read through the Bible in Lent, it was mostly a personal goal.  It was going to be me and God, me reading, God speaking.  But me and my big mouth - I went and told people that I was going to do it, and then some other people said they wanted to do it, too.  So I created a Facebook group (more for accountability than anything else), and it took off!  Currently there are 104 members of the Facebook group!


And the cool thing about how it all played out was this: people started talking about the Bible, about what they had read, about what they didn't understand, about what they had forgotten, about cool things they'd seen.  I was at a cell group meeting last night and, of the ten people there, six were involved in the Bible reading "challenge" (all of us struggling to keep up with the daily readings). 

Instead of being a personal "me and God" kind of thing, like my "quiet times" have always been, it became a community thing, where the Bible was being read individually and studied and discussed communally.  And not just a community thing among the people who are already gathered together (i.e., the cell group meeting), but among people who have not even met one another face-to-face.  Our group includes self-proclaimed "Bible Nerds" (like me) and others who haven't ever read the entire Bible... and it's fantastic.

Hard Time Blogging

I've had a hard time blogging recently because much of my time has been consumed with other things.  I believe in blogging, and it's a good outlet for me - somewhere to put my thoughts on "paper" - but especially with the Bible reading challenge, that time just isn't as plentiful.

Plus, since January, I've been making an attempt to write in my actual journal as I read the Scriptures.  I've enjoyed doing that as a spiritual discipline in the past, but lately I'd gotten away from it.  But the side effect of writing in my journal regularly and of reading scripture for well over an hour each day is that the blog gets a little less attention.

Thanks for continuing reading!

Do Hard Things and a Bible Reading Challenge

Last week I was working on a sermon about stopping running away from doing tough things, and one place of inspiration for the message was Brett and Alex Harris' book Do Hard Things (incidentally, if you are a teenager or parent (or grandparent) of a teenager or preteen, this ought to be required reading). I checked out Alex and Brett's website (the rebelution) I noticed they had a forum there.  I didn't register or anything, but I glanced at it, and I was struck by a thread there.

Some people there decided to read the Bible through in its entirety... during Christmas break... again.  Yes, I said again.  The person who posed the idea was planning to do it again.  She had done it before.

Now, I've read through the Bible in a year. I've read through the Bible chronologically.  I've read (almost all of) the Bible devotionally or for study (yes, even Leviticus).  But not in such a short time.

Yet as I was running and listening to a sermon and thinking about hard things and about the message I was getting ready to deliver, I thought, "What hard thing am I supposed to do?" and the answer came pretty quickly.  I should read the Bible in its entirety, during Lent.

For you who aren't familiar with the Christian liturgical year, Lent is the 40 day period (not counting Sundays) before Easter, starting on Ash Wednesday. It's a time when we focus on Christ and repentance, often by "giving something up for Lent" (fasting) and/or "taking something up for Lent" (adding another spiritual discipline).  I decided to "take something up" - namely Bible reading.

There are 1189 chapters in the Bible, and 40 days in Lent (Sundays will be days off), meaning each day I'll will need to read 30 chapters (and then the last couple of days will be a little lighter).

Being foolhardy and not necessarily thinking things out, I announced to the congregation at church that I would be doing this.  Both services.  I'm sure I'll have plenty of accountability.

So I decided, if I'm going to be that accountable, I'd might as well make a facebook group, too.  That way maybe some other people could join me in this challenge.  So I did.  You can find it here.  If you are interested, check out the facebook page - there's a little "join this group" link on the left side of the page (under the picture of the Bible).  I'll shortly be posting the reading plan I'll be using.