Dive In: Joyful Reading

It took me two hours to make my selection at the bookstore because I searched every shelf and every aisle. I was newly stirred in my faith and hunted in this Christian bookstore for the magic key to the Bible.

I knew there was a book that would pry the meaning out and give me the wisdom I longed for. I bought a book that day but I could have saved my money. I had what I needed at home – in quadruplicate.

It was my Bible, in several translations.

The first secret to diving deeper into God’s word is to read it. I wanted to ferret out all the deep truths but I didn’t want to do the work of digging. I thought if I found a trusty guide, I didn’t need to read the Bible much.

I wanted to do a little verse pulling, assuming that would make me wise and knowing. The chapter-verse breakdown of the Bible is not inspired but was established a few hundred years ago to make things easier as we studied. Chapter and verse markings are handy but they can also cripple us.

We sometimes pull a verse out and assume it is a complete unit because it is a complete verse. No. A verse always has to be read in context of the verses – and often the chapters – around it. That means that verse pulling – reading a single verse as my daily devotion – largely misses the meaning of the text. We have to read larger units and read carefully.

I want to challenge you this week to establish a daily reading plan. Think of it as Joyful Reading, rather than bland busywork. Reading God’s love letters is joyful and life-bearing work.

You choose your plan. If you want to read the Bible in a year, there are many plans available (and I will be happy to point you to some if that’s what you want to do.) Maybe your idea is to read a chapter a day. Maybe simply read for 30 minutes (or 20 or 10 or 60!). Maybe you want to alternate between the Old Testament and New Testament. I once used a Bible that incorporated an Old Testament and New Testament text for each daily reading. It was amazing to see parallels!

You may use different tactics for different seasons in your life. It can be changed as you go, but you need to start a daily strategy.

Please pray this week and select a plan.

Also select a time. I used to complain that I couldn’t get up any earlier in the morning or I was exhausted all day. But God clipped my wings. At a teen conference as a sponsor, I heard the speaker address the topic of daily devotions. He challenged the teens to get up at 5 am to meet with the Lord there at the conference.

In a moment of conference giddiness, I told God that I’d do the same if he got me up. (God, not the speaker.) I don’t wake up at 5 am on my own and I didn’t set an alarm clock so I thought I was pretty safe.

You guessed right. The next morning, I was awake at 5 am. After arguing with myself and trying to craft an excuse, I crawled out of bed and had the most amazing time with the Lord I’ve had in years.

Ask God to help you select a time. Get out a Bible and a notebook, read and write. As God reveals insights or questions, write them down. Date this journal and keep it. I do my devotions on my computer and write prayer requests, spiritual insights, questions in a Word document. Some love the feel of fine paper and a nice pen to do their journaling. Ask God to show you what will work for you. And you will probably adjust as you go along.

The important thing is to start.

This is the first step in diving into God’s word. You have to read it to recognize the patterns and the parallels in texts. Today could be the first day in a rest-of-your-life joyful reading of God’s love letters.

If you’d like some accountability on your Joyful Reading Plan, I’ve included a form below where you can log on your own blog what your strategy is. If you’d like, enter your blog url and others can visit your blog.

Dive In with a reading plan.

Next time, we’ll start the discussion on observing the design of a text.