Getting into the Bible in 2008
8 Jan 2008
Last year I wrote about how I felt challenged to me more formed by the bible in my life, and that of my church community.
So amongst my decisions and resolutions for 2008, I’m committing to a year of orientation with scripture, using these different methods/resources:
1. Memorisation: I began last year with the Topical Memory System, to memrise bible verses. I have been recalling them as I take my runs each week.
I’ve found the rhythm of exercise, with music, and the recall and reflection of the bible to be so refreshing, and prayer inspiring. It’s wonderful to carry the bible around inside me more than it was before.
2. Reading the Whole Bible: The International Bible Society (IBS) have a version of the TNIV bible called The Books of the Bible, and I got hold of a copy over Christmas.
It’s got several great features, including the removal of verse numbers, footnotes, and the books are ordered according to literary type and chronological order. This to help people read whole books of the bible as books, rather than reducing them to atomized verses etc.
The IBS provide several reading plans, but the one I am going to use is
provided by Winn Griffin.
You can sign up for this on line, and have an email sent to you with the reading plan. In other words you get an email each week reminding you which pages to read, with the goal of reading the whole bible in 100, 200 or 300 days.
3. Overview of the Bible Story: I’m also going to read the book I referenced last year by Winn Griffin called God’s Epic Adventure.
Winn uses Tom Wrights 5 act play approach to scripture (which I think was derived from Urs von Balthasar’s theodramatic theory). Don’t be put of by that technical background, the book is not a heavy theological book, but easily readable.
Providing an overview of the bible as Story, with the key themes of the Christian faith, and guidance on how to locate ourselves in the bible story, this is one of the best overviews of the bible I’ve seen.
4. The Bible Experience (Audio):Then there is The Bible Experience from Zondervan, an audio presentation and reading of the whole bible.
I think I’ll be listening to this when I’m out running. It is simply stunning. If you want an audio version of the bible, get this!
5. Gospel of Mark: I’m also going to teach through the Gospel of Mark in our church community over this year, and try immerse myself deeply into one book of the bible.
I’ll also be talking with our church community about getting to the bible and seeing if anyone wants to keep me company with all or some of these ventures.
Anything you’ll be doing with the bible this year?
Tagged: Bible, Resolutions, Study
14 comments
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Comment by Bryan Riley
7.10 pm on 8 Jan 2008
Great ideas. It is such a foundation upon which to stand.
Comment by Graeme Smith
7.18 pm on 8 Jan 2008
These ideas look good. Does anyone know if The Books of the Bible is easily available in the UK?
Comment by Jason Clark
10.44 pm on 8 Jan 2008
The International Bible Society (europe), can get hold of it, if you email them at GHooper@eur.ibs-stl.org, otherwise the IBS will ship from the US to the UK.
Comment by Graeme Smith
9.24 am on 14 Jan 2008
Thanks Jason! I’ll try the e-mail as they quoted $60-$70 shipping from the States which seems prohibitively high!
Comment by Jonathan Brink
7.19 pm on 8 Jan 2008
The most significant insight for me when I learned the chronological order was that Galatians was written very early. In other words, the first concern was for freedom from religion for followers of Jesus. Nice.
Comment by brett jordan
10.07 pm on 8 Jan 2008
last year i went through the bible in a year using carson’s ‘for the love of god’ book (using the mccheyne method), i’d done it before, but enjoyed it so much that this year i’ve decided to plough through it from start to finish, approximately 3 chapters a day…so far, so good!
Comment by Jason Clark
10.46 pm on 8 Jan 2008
I hadn’t heard of that, I’ll look it up, cheers Brett.
Jason
Comment by missionseeker
2.32 am on 9 Jan 2008
Praise the Lord.
Comment by Laura
9.34 pm on 9 Jan 2008
In 2007 I took up Joe Carter’s challenge to read each biblical book twenty-times (which I modified to listening, as I am a seminarian and have a ton of reading). I continue the journey this year, beginning in Kings. Next up is Isaiah (I’m reading in TaNaKh sequence). This will be a multi-year project, but it has been quite fruitful, so far.
I’ll also be teaching through James, 1 & 2 Peter, and not sure what else yet.
Comment by Alan
11.20 am on 11 Jan 2008
All great ideas. Personally I am reading through the whole Bible in Chronological sequence;something I did many years ago but think it is worth repeating. There are quite a number of versions available through Christian bookshops.
I wish you all well, and God’s blessing.
Comment by Bryan Riley
4.54 am on 13 Jan 2008
YWAM has a class called the School of Biblical Studies where you read through the bible 5 times in 9 months. It’s intense study.
Comment by James Prescott
7.52 pm on 13 Jan 2008
Jase,
These all sound great, though had a look at the ‘Reading the whole Bible’ stuff and to get the whole package was quite expensive and also seemed to be only available in the US.
Can you merely get the e-mails and read your own Bible, or do you need their version?
I tried reading the ‘cover to cover’ version last year, only to get stuck in Kings!! Though I’m sure it does work with the right amount of effort.
This all sounds pretty good anyway, hope that you can connect us at VCS with all this over the year.
Comment by Jason Clark
8.12 am on 14 Jan 2008
Hi James, the bible is $10 (£5), and the book by Winn Griffin is on Amazon.co.uk for a normal book price (£9.89).
Also there is a link in the comments to getting the books of the bible direct in the UK.
Jase
Comment by James Prescott
10.01 pm on 15 Jan 2008
Thanks Jase, very useful.
James
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