Wednesday, March 31, 2010

A model from the mountains

Are you enjoying a regular feast of God's Word in your diet of daily disciplines? Personally, I find a reading plan or structure of some kind helpful as a guide to set my study on a given course to give me direction. Sometimes, the most enriching way to study the Bible is to choose a single book and soak in its pages long and deep. That doesn't have to involve reading commentaries (though it could). It might just involve reading and re-reading until the message of the book is part of you. Our good friend and Colorado church planter, Vince Black, recently let me know what his current study of God's Word looks like:

"I took the month of March to read and study through the book of Galatians in my personal reading. I don't have a schedule to get through a certain amount of reading but I try to read through the entire letter in one sitting. I've done that now for 31 days. It has been extremely helpful in my understanding of the argument of the letter. I think I will start in on the Minor Prophets in April in much the same way."

Intricate study of the book of the Bible using outside sources is helpful in many ways, but it's hard to beat simply reading and re-reading and then reading again a book all the way through to get a clear sense of how its entire message hangs together. May Vince's example inspire us to take up the Book and read, re-read and then read again.

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