Growing in Christ
disciplines
Thoughts on changing my Bible reading plan
09 months ago
Bible reading plans tend to be the funky uncle of Christian discipleship. You know, like, you should love them and benefit from them… but you tend to feel a little awkward about reading plans if you’re not doing them. It’s been an area of thought and struggle for me too, and I think as a part of getting older, I’ve kinda chilled about about them.
My wrap sheet with devotion plans
My history with devotion time Bible reading plans really starts a few years ago when I jumped into the Discipleship Journal reading plan midyear. I’d had a devotion time before that, but it was a mere meal to say the least. I was inspired by John Piper’s use of the reading plan, which covers the whole Bible and a few sections twice in a whole year. After that I moved over to the ESV Bible reading plan. I preferred it to the DJ plan because it followed the themes of redemptive history a little more closely.
But after that year was up, I began to think more Bible in my devotion time would be helpful. Though I’d scoffed at it before, I resonated with the aims of the Horner Bible reading plan. The purpose of the plan is to continually rotate through 10 different places in the Bible every day. One chapter per day in ten different places. It sounds daunting at first, but I think most people could get used to it with a little encouragement. The aim is to familiarize you with the entirety of the Bible and how it all fits together using just the Bible. When you’re reading in Leviticus, you might also be moving through Hebrews or the Prophets and see allusions and connections on your own that you’d never seen before. (You can download the plan here, and see the Facebook page here.)
Troubled waters
His plan really is, in my opinion, quite remarkable, and very attractive. It should be our aim as Christians to know the whole Bible through and through. It’s God’s very word to us. I enjoyed the challenge of it. It really did help me see the terain of God’s Word better, and I was able to recall sections of Scripture better.
But, I was my own worst enemy. There were times I’d rather sit and just enjoy a passage. Or times when the Spirit would convict me and I’d need to reflect some more. Or times when I just honestly didn’t have the time to finish all 10 chapters. Over time, I began to abbreviate the plan to my own system, which really wasn’t a system, but more of guided wander. I’d do 5ish chapters a day, or really just 3 most days, but I’d draw 3 from across the 10, which means that I could read John 1 at the beginning of May, and not read John 2 until a week or so later. And I really didn’t have a problem with that. I knew full well that God didn’t command a Bible reading plan, and that I was being met in my devotion times, one way or another.
I began to feel that maybe I’d lost my way in how to make the most of my reading plan. I was feeling adrift with the anxiety of needing some sort plan to keep focus… But what?
How Edwards helped
One of Jonathan Edwards’ resolutions that has stuck with me through the years holds out the following:
Resolved, to study the Scriptures so steadily, constantly and frequently, as that I may find, and plainly perceive myself to grow in the knowledge of the same. (#28, Online, Hard Copy)
What Edwards is saying is this: I am resolved as a Christian to so study and be regularly in God’s Word that I can recognize a consistent growth in my knowledge of Scripture. As I stewed over that godly principle, my application of it turned into this question:
Do I know the Bible better now than I did this time last year? If not, what needs to change for this next year?
In reflecting, I began to see that my growth in Bible knowledge wasn’t directly linked to my Bible reading plan – even in it’s frankenstein format. Most of my growth in Bible knowledge came from separate studies, sermons, books, etc. So if I wasn’t growing consistently and regularly with my bible reading plan, what should I do?
Steady, constant, frequent
This touches a little on the entire purpose of a Bible reading plan. We know it is good to read the Bible, and generally people feel guilty for not reading it regularly, but why should we read it? I think Psalm 119, verse 18 gives us a little insight into the reason:
Open my eyes, that I may behold
wondrous things out of your law.
Here David engages with God’s Word in such a way that he’s, 1) Dependent upon God to see clearly, 2) Pleading with God to open his eyes, and 3) Convinced that there are staggeringly wonderful things to behold – be enthralled with – in God’s law.
In my mind, this is where Edwards is drawing his desire to “steadily, constantly and frequently” be in God’s Word in a way to see measurable growth. Certainly David had read God’s law regularly (as all Israelite Kings were commanded to do). But here we see that David still needs God’s grace and favor to see the wonder contained within. The flavor that sticks with me is that of faithfulness. Faithfulness to steadily, constantly, and frequently be working through the Scriptures, not frantically working through sections trying to muster up something as I had been doing.
The new plan
I’d received the challenge before from a friend, and I’d known that Luther had done it, but I wasn’t envisioned until a separate friend commented on his own plan to see the mission through: Have committed to memory a summary of every chapter of the Bible.
This made sense to me in some way. It resonated with a desire I had to know my Bible well, as a regular friend in life that contained the oracles of God. There are only 1189 chapters in the Bible, and to be honest, I probably know more than 1189 useless factoids about 90′s pop culture, and more than my fair share of 1200+ random, but funny movie references. So once the shock wears off, getting a summary of 1189 chapters doesn’t seem so bad.
So here’s the plan of what my devotion times will look like:
- Summarize one chapter
- One chapter of the Gospel Accounts
- One chapter of Proverbs (matching whatever date it was)
- One eight verse section of Psalm 119
- Option: One other psalm in sequence.
It’s beautifully simple, if I may say so myself. The plan (taken from my friend) for memorizing a summary of every chapter of the Bible is pretty basic: One note card for every chapter, with the basic gist of what’s in it (i.e. Genesis 25 – Abraham’s Death and His Descendants; The Birth of Esau and Jacob; Esau Sells His Birthright). In the end, that’s 1189 chapter summaries. For right now, I’m putting off starting this until September. I don’t want to impulsively change my reading – impulsive Christian living isn’t godliness – but I think this a healthy direction for my own life in Christ.
In the end, I think this new direction is a little less rigid, and for me, aiming my soul in the direction of longer-term faithfulness. I don’t want something that’s awkward, or something I just have to grit my teach through to know God better. I don’t want a funky uncle reading plan. I want to steadily, constantly and frequently grow in my knowledge of God’s Word because in the end, I want to steadily, constantly and frequently grow in my knowledge of and intimacy with God.
Don’t waste your ears
31 year ago
by Jacob
in disciplines
A couple years ago my wife blessed me with an iPod for my Christmas gift. For my job and the type of things I do, an iPod (or like device, but seriously, why go for less?) is essential. I’m a computer technician, which means that for a large portion of my day, I build and work on computers, with little interaction with other people, and a lot of listening time. So my iPod has become quiet the friend.
Lately I’ve had this nagging conviction swirling around, “Why don’t you use your audio time more productively?” To be honest, I kinda waste my ears. There’s always some funny podcast to delve into, or new music to strive after getting. But that stuff doesn’t really encourage me. I certainly get a good laugh out of them, and learn a lot, but it doesn’t really make me happy in Christ. If I can learn some good stuff at work through my iPod, but neglect to make my soul happy in Christ, what does that say about my priorities? I think this is just a plain conviction of the Spirit: Don’t waste your ears.
The Apostle John started his Revelation with these words:
Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near. ~ Revelation 1:3
What John is holding out here is the blessing of grace that God promises for hearing the Word and seeking to follow it’s teaching. Why? Because the immanence of the return of Christ and the blessing of his kingdom is always upon us. Life is severe. We need God’s blessing to love and obey him. The Puritans considered it an essential aspect of godliness for a believer to be “grave and sober”. Not morbid, but clearly. The reality they saw was that life is war, and we’re battling with unseen forces all day, every day.
How this gravity and sobriety of life manifests itself in many different ways for people, but what John holds out is a blessing for those who orient their needs to the Bible. Do you need help in seeing Christ in all things and walking in joyful obedience after him? Go to his word. Read it out loud. Listen to it. Don’t waste your ears, get his Word in them. God promises to change you through his Word.
Paul tells us:
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. ~ Romans 12:2
This isn’t some magical process, it’s simply by reading the Bible. John Piper once made a passing comment that really lit this up for me. Have you ever noticed that Paul opened his letters “Grace to you” and ends them “Grace be with you”? It’s the opening and closing of all his letters. Why? Because the grace we need is between his opening and closing statements. The grace of God is in the letters. This means that the grace wants to give us is in his Word to us. Need grace? Read the Bible. Need help reading the Bible with joy? Read the Bible. Need change to not get angry with your spouse, to stop lusting, to grow in deep affections for Christ? Read God’s Bible. Get the grace God’s holding out for you. Think on that, it will change your life.
So, how does this connect with my iPod? Enter audio Bible. Yesterday as I was reflecting on my own struggles at work, I realised an easy step I could take to better use my time was to not waste my ears. I have the real blessing of having the Bible on my iPod. Why do I neglect the help that God means for this to be to me?
So here’s what I’m doing. I’m setting to listen to entire Bible in 3 months. That right, the Bible in 90 days. Well, it’s actually 60 days since I’ll just be doing it at work, 5 days a week. It may sound rather aggressive at first, but check this out. There are 1189 chapters in the Bible, and if you divide that over 12 weeks, 5 days a week, that makes 20 chapters a day. Seriously, just 20 chapters a day. Wanna know how much audio time that is? Just about an hour; some where between 60 to 75 minutes. That’s it! The ambition may sound aggressive at first, but for somebody like me who has literally 8-10 hours a day of audio listening time, it’s really not that much for such a great gain!
So here’s what I’ve done. I’ve created a new folder on my iPod called “90 Bible” with 60 play lists in it. To keep things interesting, I’ll be doing 15 Old Testament chapters a day, and 5 New Testament chapters. And just to be nerdy, I’ve used the order of the Old Testament books in the Tenach. The reason being that the Tenach is set up a lot better than our Western Bibles, and shows the redemptive history purpose of the Old Testament story. What’s its the purpose? Jesus.
So that’s what I’m doing. My friend “Augustine the iPod” is going to be a better friend now.
If you work at a job like mine where you have a lot of listening time, I encourage you to give some thought to this. God’s given you lots of great resources to use in helping your soul be happy in Jesus Christ. Don’t waste your ears!
By the way, if you’re interested in some more discussion on the order of the Old Testament books and how they structurally point to Jesus, check out Stephen Dampster’s Dominion and Dynasty.
The Once a Year Date Night
02 years ago
One a year Michelle and I have one big date. We do regular date nights, one a week that is set into the budget. But this date is different. It’s a special restaurant, the type we could really only afford once a year. For now we call it the “Young Year in Review Date”. It’s a big deal. We’ve done this every year’s end since we’ve been married. We’ve been married a staggering two and a half years, so this was our third YYRD.
Structure
On the date, we go over a set of questions that I think through before hand. Rarely are they specific. They are questions seeking to look at the major themes of the past year, analyze what happened (positively and negatively) and from this discern what direction God is leading us for the year to come. The questions themselves aren’t rocket science (I went to public school you know).
I started us out by simply looking at what we’ve learned in the past year. Here, there were three simply categories: self, marriage, church. These are in some ways just following categories of responsibility (following C.J. Mahaney’s simple outline on productivity). We don’t have children, and our responsibilities with our jobs are relatively small; the struggles we do have with them fall more under personal issues than work-related (i.e. I’m lazy v. my boss asking me to work 70+ hours p/week). Under self, we talked through where we saw grace, growth, weakness and life with God. Under marriage, we talked through growth and challenges. Under church, we addressed what the most impacting sermons were of the year (and why), how things are in our community group, and the issue of sense of pastoral calling. Each of these are interconnected, and in some ways it’s helpful to answer the questions for each other when possible – especially to identify evidences of grace. (As a note here, the question of the most impacting sermons of the year really opened up a helpful window into God’s activity in our lives over the past year. I highly recommend the question for mediation.)
This set of questions provided a good amount of conversation, some interesting insights into ourselves, each other, our marriage, and the goodness of our Heavenly Father. The questions from here were: How did I do in romancing Michelle this year? (How can I grow? Are there habits/traditions I can put into place to grow this area?) What are our financial goals for this year? (If a couple has debt, this must be a priority in family budgeting. Debt must die, or a family is seriously hindered in serving God in many ways. Dave Ramsey’s material is very helpful in getting clear vision on this front.)
From here, we moved into a forward eye about the year to come. Essentially, we just took the conclusions and observations from looking at what we learned about the year past and asked, in light of all of this, Where do we think God is leading us to grow in the coming year? I know, pure brilliance. That, my friends, is Alabama education at it’s finest. This category is the area to address where we’ve seen sin and how God has been growing us to seek his grace for change. It’s also the place to think about what major decisions are coming up and the growth need (individually and maritally) to meet those challenges.
Resources
If you’re having trouble producing constructive thoughts on the material above, I’d recommend working through these books to prompt some thinking:
Living the Cross Centered Life by C.J. Mahaney
Sex, Romance, and the Glory of God by C.J. Mahaney
-> Or: When Sinners Say, “I Do” by Dave Harvey
Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor by D.A. Carson
A Godly Man’s Picture by Thomas Watson
I would also recommend reading Christian biography. Kierkegaard comments that we should read biographies not for information, but as examples of how to live. Carson’s book about his dad is one of the best on this very subject for all Christians, not just pastors.
Final Thought
For us, this practice helps us center and focus our marriage in the year to come. If you’re single, I think the principles still apply, and the Spirit can move mightily in personal mediation to give direction. But it might be helpful to draw a pastor or close friend in who has a keen eye on your soul. The discipline here is stems from being aware of your life, having a sense of your quickly immanet death, and seeks to “redeem the time” by consciously bringing it before the thrown of grace. We do not drift towards God. We must fight. The discipline should be done, in one form or another, by everyone. But in the end, our hope is not in our analysis, nor in our vision, but in Jesus’ finished work on the cross. Any sight of grace is an awareness of the blood of Christ for his people and an opportunity for gratitude, worship, and amazement.
I will be posting our thoughts on these questions in the days to come. Stay tuned!
Blessedness in Walking in the Law
02 years ago
I so was challenged yesterday by reading of the example of David Platt that I’ve been reinvigorated to memorize Psalm 119. So in my steps on verse one this morning I wanted to make a small note.
Blessed are those whose way is blameless,
who walk in the law of the Lord! ~ Psalm 119:1
What I noted and chewed on here is that those who are called blessed are those who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessedness is in the obedience. There is the overwhelming temptation to feel that we must walk in obedience, grit and grind out teach through it so that we might eventually wind up in happiness in God (blessedness). No, that is not right. To obey God is to enjoy God, to be blessed and delighting in him. Why? Because we are submitting to and enjoying his Law, not our own law. This is what Paul talks about in Romans 8:13 when he says, “if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” David clearly realized his own need for God to help him walk in the Law of God (v.8). Thus, we see with David that the blessed one is he who walks in the Law of God by the power of God to enjoy God in so doing. It truly is a delight to follow God’s law, to forsake out own cravings and desires and find God meeting us with deeper, righter pleasures because his law is founded in him. In walking in God’s law, we enjoy God.
I love Psalm 119…
02 years ago
I just want to say that I love Psalm 119. For about the last month I’ve been committing a section of it to memory, verses 33-40 (and am tempted to do the whole thing!). This is mainly because I saw my own heart confronted and turned to God by the middle line, “Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things, and give me life in your ways!” I liked the whole section which gives me hope for growth in holiness, so I hunkered down in the section to memorize it. A part of this has been making the whole psalm itself my evening devotion, one little verse at a time, right before I go to bed. Charles Spurgeon has a “devotional commentary” on this that I got for free once that I have been reading little by little along with this time (available for purchase here, and for free online reading here).
There have been two main reasons why I have grown in my love for this psalm.
The first is that in seeking to memorize verses 33 through 40, I have had a lot of time to reflect on the structure of the psalm. A quick glance at the psalm shows a lot of activity being done in the section: Teach, Give, Lead, Incline, Turn, Confirm, Turn, and Behold. But the key to the section is seeing the active agent in these verbs: God. David prays for great things (not only to keep the path of God’s law with a pure and whole heart to the end of his life, but also to delight in it, enjoy it, and to feel the weight of God’s glory and holiness), but we should note that it is the Lord that he demands to be the source of its affectation. “Teach me, O Lord… and I will thus, and only by your divine, gracious teaching, keep your holy way to the end.” This isn’t a legalism of giving thanks to God for producing the fruit and taking credit for it (like the Pharisee of Luke 18:9-14). It is an acknowledgment that apart from God, he sucks and will continue to in depravity if God does not teach him in his school of grace that changes people for life, continually, all to the glory of God. This is all from the explicit and implicit things being said in the structure of the section. Another is verse 36: “Incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to selfish gain!” My selfish gain is being contrasted with God’s testimonies – his redemptive history. What does this say about what I am trying to do in celebrating my own achievements and fame? That’s what the structure of God’s holy Word here is asking us to ponder.
The second reason is that I’ve seen God’s power working in my through this time I’ve committed to memorization and meditation. Subtly, and unintentionally, I’ve noticed that the “furniture” of my mind has been shifted. I have noticed in retrospect how the language of 119 has come out in my prayers. I find that the psalm comes to mind in not only fighting temptations (i.e. “turn my eyes from looking at worthless things” is a pretty good measuring rod to evaluate my internet activity by…ahem, Facebook?). It’s also subtly changed my inherent, gut desires for holiness. I find my mind going more towards spiritual affections for Christ as expressed in this section of Scripture (i.e. the “promise” of verse 38 refers to God’s covenant with David in 2 Samuel 7, which is realized in Jesus Christ – talk about giving me hope!).
The Word of God has been more deeply lovely to me. It has been, as Jesus prayed, been my sanctification because it is the very truth of God (John 17:17). God’s word is living and active, and meditating on it has been a banquet of grace for the stirring of my soul for a deeper love for Jesus Christ that is filled with the glory of God.
Morning Devotions
03 years ago
by Jacob
in disciplines
As I mentioned in my last post, I decided to change my morning devotion reading plan this year (which you can download here if you’d like). For me, this is just another move of learning what works for me in the mornings in spending time with Jesus. I’m rather excited about it for the following reasons:
- Honestly, I just love the Bible. More and more I find that I really love reading it. And what is more interesting to note in my heart is that I’m not doing my morning reading of the Bible explicitly to change, that’s implicit. I’m reading the Bible because it’s about God, it’s God’s story. I personally just find it encouraging to see God’s work in my life that I really do just enjoy the reading of his word because it’s about him first, and therefore about me. Thus, point #2:
- I chose this reading plan because in its structure it caters to the redemptive history told within the Bible, and not the thematic segmentation that our modern editions hold to. What I mean is this: The order of the books in our printings of the Bible segment the Bible thematically (i.e. Law, Prophets – major and minor – poetry) with little to no regard for their chronological location in redemptive history (the story of God’s work to redeem a people for his glory). This is easily seen in the separation of the book of Acts from the Gospel according to Luke – they’re really parts one and two of a single book Luke wrote. Or, more importantly, you’ll notice with just a little reading on the prophets that their order our Bibles is not related in any way to their chronological order of writing in history. Anyhow, the reason I like the ESVSB reading plan is because it acknowledges and follows the chronological order and placing of books in redemptive history. So what you have are actually two tracks in redemptive history in this plan. One starts in Genesis, one starts in 1 Chronicles, and goes through the prophets in historical order. This is actually one of the main reasons I chose this one.
- The selections for reading are manageable. I did the Discipleship Journal reading plan last year, and honestly, it was tough going at times. The DJ plan was killing me with such huge sections to read from the prophets coupled with little passages in the NT (I mean, 3 chapters of Jeremiah at 5am! Seriously?!). In the ESVSB plan, it’s essentially a chapter of one of four sections a day.
- Some sections are done twice. In the plan, you read through Psalms, Luke, and Romans twice. Good, rich sections of Scripture.
So those are my reasons for looking forward to God’s grace meeting me in my devotion times in the morning. It is such an amazing privilege to have a Bible in my own language – one that is the Word of God to me and my people now, to be able to read about who God is, and his glory in doing such amazing things through history to save a people, of whom, by his deep unfathomable, unsearchable love and grace, I am one. So here’s to the Bible in the next year, let its main character reign: King Jesus.
