When Your Proficient Procrastination Backfires… (Part 2 of 2) PLUS FREE BOOK GIVEAWAY!
Friends! Thanks to all of you who commented on last week’s post. (If you missed this uncanny story, click here) Many of you are jumping in with Liz, Nancy and me on our one-year journey!
There are a couple more pieces I’d like to show you. I discovered numerous methods of Bible study taught by Carole Mayhall in her book, Come Walk with Me: A Woman’s Personal Guide to Knowing God and Mentoring Others.
One method I tried this Spring was super simple and kept my face in the Word once our Bible study group adjourned until fall. Carole suggests we readers take Psalm 119 (Yes, it’s the longest psalm in the Bible!) and read just eight verses per day.
When you look at the text, you’ll notice there’s a word at the beginning of each section of eight verses. These twenty-two sections correspond to a different letter in the Hebrew alphabet.
What began to convict me about this exercise, is of the 176 verses, only 5 do not mention God’s Word. It uses words such as “statutes”, “law”, “decrees”, “precepts”, “commands” referring to God’s Word. The conviction came with phrases like,
“I delight in your decrees,”
“I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches,”
“Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law.”
“My soul is consumed with longing for your laws at all times.”
“I hold fast to your statues, Lord;”
“Your statutes are my heritage forever; they are the joy of my heart.”
I confessed to both Liz and Nancy that while I love doing Bible study, it never occurred to me I should delight over His Word, as in each and every word. I believe this conviction came in a timely fashion to prepare me to finally agree to read the Bible thru’ in a year.
Yet one more book was discovered from researching author Pam Gillaspie. (She’s who authored the book, No More Excuses! An Almost Too-practical Guide to Reading Through Your Bible. It’s the one I found right after I’d found my Mother’s One Year Bible.)
Via Amazon, I discovered Pam has written a number of Bible studies and this is the one that made me gasp yet again: Sweeter than Chocolate! Sweet Words and Real Solutions from God’s Book (a Flexible Inductive Study of Psalm 119)
I gasped for two reasons:
1 – Clearly I’d met my match in chocoholic aficionados, and
2 – This gal is obviously talented and smart to have written so many Bible studies (see below) AND to be published by Precepts Ministries, AND one of them is on Psalm 119!
I quickly ordered Pam’s study on Psalm 119 because I enjoyed doing Carole’s exercise and felt the need to review it. Pam’s workbook is very thorough and I love its layout.
I believe the Lord shows us His sense of humor from time to time and this is a perfect example to couple the study with chocolate. Pam goes so far as to suggest grabbing a piece of chocolate before diving in. Ever obedient, I did as I was told. Smile.
Finally, let’s return to Liz and Nancy and me INVITING YOU TO JOIN US in reading The One Year Bible. Here are TWO more reasons you may wish to prayerfully consider reading thru’ the whole Bible:
1 – Carole Mayhall says, “I wanted to become familiar with the entire Bible because I didn’t like to think of getting to heaven and having Micah ask how I liked his book and having to confess I hadn’t read it! (Well, that was just one reason.) To absorb the whole scope of Scripture, I needed to know the entire panorama of God’s activity throughout history.”
Wow! Imagine if we’d never read letters written by Paul, or King David, or King Solomon, or Matthew, Mark, Luke or John, or James, just to name a few? We wouldn’t want to hurt their feelings, would we? (Plus 2 Timothy 3:16 tells us all Sripture is God-breathed.)
2- Who can argue with Charles Spurgeon? He said, “Many books in my library are now behind and beneath me. They were good in their way once, and so were the clothes I wore when I was ten years old; but I have outgrown them. NOBODY ever outgrows Scripture; the book widens and deepens with our years.” Amen.
Don’t forget, if you comment, “I’m in!”, your name will be entered in a drawing to win the exact same Bible we’re reading. We’ve already had several of you from last week take the plunge. Bravo! (I’ll draw from the names and let you know next week, giving y’all a few more days to comment.)
‘Til next time!
P.S. One of the comments I received last week was from my cute little friend, Trish Roberts. (Those of you who know her are nodding.) Trish taught me about an interesting looking Bible called The Wayfinding Bible. (No, I’ve not ordered it. Yet.)
Check it out as it’s got many different options for navigating thru’ the Bible. Oh, and it’s in the NLT too! Trish said she and Eddie have it downloaded on their phones for when they travel. More great ideas!
SO MANY BOOKS, SO LITTLE TIME…