I have been extraordinarily lazy this weekend. I had all these wonderful plans of things to do — and got nothing done. Some of this was my fault. Some was not. I made the mistake of venturing out with my roommate to visit her mom. That trip that was supposed to take — at the most — three hours, ended up lasting all day. Plus we got a visitor for the week out of it. Not complaining, he seems to be a pretty cool guy. But things unexpected happening always set me off center.
But it wasn’t ALL my roommates fault. After we came home I ended up playing computer games ALL night, and then reading well into the morning. WELL into it…I think I got to bed about 9am. But it was a good book. A fiction book by Isabelle Alllende. Old school christian fiction — very old school. I forget the title, I think it was Man of the House. It’s a feel-good book, no question. With a very moralistic intent — nothing wrong with that. I enjoyed it.
But what I really REALLY wanted to do this weekend was make a plan for prayer and bible reading. And clean out my car. Cleaning out my car may or may not get done, but the prayer and bible reading WILL. I need it desperately, I have been so far off course of where I want to be, and am ashamed of my behavior when I think of God.
So let’s discuss bible reading.
My problem is I want to read it all at once, and I am overwhelmed so don’t start at all. I have read a good portion of it in the past, but not as a christian. I have read all sorts of recommendations of how to read it, and have settled on the following schedule.
Every morning and evening I will dedicate 1/2 hour to bible reading and study. I will make notes of favorite verses, what was interesting about it, what I didn’t understand, etc. I may discuss some of those things here.
Each morning I will read a chapter of Proverbs, use the chapter that corresponds with that day of the month. Example, tomorrow is the 26th so I will read the 26th chapter of Proverbs.
Mornings will otherwise be dedicated to the New Testament.
First book I will read is the Gospel of John. I was hesitant here, because I have read all the Gospels previously. But what could be more important than reading the words and actions of my new Savior? And in my research John is recommended by most, so I will start there.
Second book I will read is Romans, because it is doctrine heavy and I am uncertain on many doctrinal points.
Third and fourth books will likely be 1st and 2nd Corinthians. I am not entirely certain on that one though, it may change. I have no real reason to choose those, so am leaving it open to negotiation with myself.
Evenings will be focused on the Old Testament.
I will start off with reading a Psalm.
I really struggled here with how to read the Old Testament. I know the least about it, so it is the most interesting to me in a way. But I think I will read the Old Testament in the order it was written. So starting off with Genesis and proceeding on. Along the way I will make note of books where I have a lot of confusion or I want to dig deeper, and later I will tackle those in a deeper study. This is primarily going to be a survey reading. So I won’t let myself get TOO bogged down or follow TOO many rabbit trails.
What type of Bible shall I use? Easy. KJV. I have heard rumors that other versions are changed for the worst. But that is not my primary reason for my choice. It is the version I am most familiar with, it is the version I have, and it is the version I like best. I LIKE the archaic language. Sue me.
Memorization: I plan on memorizing bible verses…and chapters. If muslims can memorize the entire Quran, why should we do less? I will take memorization verses from my reading — minimum of five verses a week. Thats a verse a day.
A possibly unpopular decision: I LIKE how muslims respect their Quran so much they purify themselves before touching it. I think a big miss on Christianity today is more a focus on “Abba Father” and not enough “Fear the Lord”. So to instill in myself the respect and fear I think is appropriate I will make sure before I touch the Bible that I am decently dressed (no sleepwear, casual shorts, etc) and my hands are washed, and I will pray before beginning a reading or study.
Extemporaneous Reading
I am a reader. I have a plethora of books, and will be reading other books as well. I have a lot of bad books, books I knew were bad for me even before I became a christian. I am going to do my best to stay away from those. But there are some classics that are not christian books I will be reading, as well as some nonfiction books. That being said, I am going to focus primarily on christian books — both fiction and nonfiction.
Right now I am reading “A Little Book on the Christian Life” by John Calvin. After I am finished with that, I want to read a collection I have on my kindle of Spurgeon’s works on prayer. The Power in Prayer,Praying Successfully, The Golden Key of Prayer, Finding Peace in life’s Storms, and Sturgeon on Praise.
After that, we will see. By then my collection of choices should have grown, right now I don’t have many christian nonfiction books.
Prayer
There is a lot about prayer I have to learn. If I wasn’t already a little over halfway done with the Calvin book I am reading, I would switch over to the Spurgeon books, because I feel woefully inadequate in discussing prayer. Up till now, there has been no “real” prayer, just a few minutes here and there talking to God expressing my…confusion and desperation.
But there are several points on prayer I have learned in my small amount of reading and research:
I know God said in the Bible somewhere to “pray without ceasing”. We are supposed to pray together, and we are supposed to pray in private. We are supposed to ask God for his aid, and we are supposed to thank him and praise him.
So…here is my conclusion on how I shall pray going forward.
But it wasn’t ALL my roommates fault. After we came home I ended up playing computer games ALL night, and then reading well into the morning. WELL into it…I think I got to bed about 9am. But it was a good book. A fiction book by Isabelle Alllende. Old school christian fiction — very old school. I forget the title, I think it was Man of the House. It’s a feel-good book, no question. With a very moralistic intent — nothing wrong with that. I enjoyed it.
But what I really REALLY wanted to do this weekend was make a plan for prayer and bible reading. And clean out my car. Cleaning out my car may or may not get done, but the prayer and bible reading WILL. I need it desperately, I have been so far off course of where I want to be, and am ashamed of my behavior when I think of God.
So let’s discuss bible reading.
My problem is I want to read it all at once, and I am overwhelmed so don’t start at all. I have read a good portion of it in the past, but not as a christian. I have read all sorts of recommendations of how to read it, and have settled on the following schedule.
Every morning and evening I will dedicate 1/2 hour to bible reading and study. I will make notes of favorite verses, what was interesting about it, what I didn’t understand, etc. I may discuss some of those things here.
Each morning I will read a chapter of Proverbs, use the chapter that corresponds with that day of the month. Example, tomorrow is the 26th so I will read the 26th chapter of Proverbs.
Mornings will otherwise be dedicated to the New Testament.
First book I will read is the Gospel of John. I was hesitant here, because I have read all the Gospels previously. But what could be more important than reading the words and actions of my new Savior? And in my research John is recommended by most, so I will start there.
Second book I will read is Romans, because it is doctrine heavy and I am uncertain on many doctrinal points.
Third and fourth books will likely be 1st and 2nd Corinthians. I am not entirely certain on that one though, it may change. I have no real reason to choose those, so am leaving it open to negotiation with myself.
Evenings will be focused on the Old Testament.
I will start off with reading a Psalm.
I really struggled here with how to read the Old Testament. I know the least about it, so it is the most interesting to me in a way. But I think I will read the Old Testament in the order it was written. So starting off with Genesis and proceeding on. Along the way I will make note of books where I have a lot of confusion or I want to dig deeper, and later I will tackle those in a deeper study. This is primarily going to be a survey reading. So I won’t let myself get TOO bogged down or follow TOO many rabbit trails.
What type of Bible shall I use? Easy. KJV. I have heard rumors that other versions are changed for the worst. But that is not my primary reason for my choice. It is the version I am most familiar with, it is the version I have, and it is the version I like best. I LIKE the archaic language. Sue me.
Memorization: I plan on memorizing bible verses…and chapters. If muslims can memorize the entire Quran, why should we do less? I will take memorization verses from my reading — minimum of five verses a week. Thats a verse a day.
A possibly unpopular decision: I LIKE how muslims respect their Quran so much they purify themselves before touching it. I think a big miss on Christianity today is more a focus on “Abba Father” and not enough “Fear the Lord”. So to instill in myself the respect and fear I think is appropriate I will make sure before I touch the Bible that I am decently dressed (no sleepwear, casual shorts, etc) and my hands are washed, and I will pray before beginning a reading or study.
Extemporaneous Reading
I am a reader. I have a plethora of books, and will be reading other books as well. I have a lot of bad books, books I knew were bad for me even before I became a christian. I am going to do my best to stay away from those. But there are some classics that are not christian books I will be reading, as well as some nonfiction books. That being said, I am going to focus primarily on christian books — both fiction and nonfiction.
Right now I am reading “A Little Book on the Christian Life” by John Calvin. After I am finished with that, I want to read a collection I have on my kindle of Spurgeon’s works on prayer. The Power in Prayer,Praying Successfully, The Golden Key of Prayer, Finding Peace in life’s Storms, and Sturgeon on Praise.
After that, we will see. By then my collection of choices should have grown, right now I don’t have many christian nonfiction books.
Prayer
There is a lot about prayer I have to learn. If I wasn’t already a little over halfway done with the Calvin book I am reading, I would switch over to the Spurgeon books, because I feel woefully inadequate in discussing prayer. Up till now, there has been no “real” prayer, just a few minutes here and there talking to God expressing my…confusion and desperation.
But there are several points on prayer I have learned in my small amount of reading and research:
- It is absolutely essential. Failure to pray = failure overall.
- It is literally how you build a bond with God. Just like you cannot bond with any person in your life if you don’t spend time with them, you cannot bond with God if you don’t spend time with Him.
- Prayer is how we get the assistance from God that he has promised us throughout the Bible.
- Our prayer can make a real difference not just in our lives, but in the lives of others. Literally life and death stuff.
- It is a command from God that we pray. That should be enough.
I know God said in the Bible somewhere to “pray without ceasing”. We are supposed to pray together, and we are supposed to pray in private. We are supposed to ask God for his aid, and we are supposed to thank him and praise him.
So…here is my conclusion on how I shall pray going forward.
- I will continue my growing habit of constantly, throughout the day, talking with God. Just a few short sentences here and there. Staying in touch, so to speak. But I will try to change those from being so many fearful “Don’t leave me or let me leave you” clinging little frantic bits and speak more on what I am experience. Short little prayers for my customers, coworkers, for my patience, things like that.
- I will have a (minimum)15 minute to half hour prayer session each morning and night. That session will be more intensive than my throughout the day prayers. Like when I read the Bible, I will make sure I am dressed decently, and will brush my teeth and wash my hands. It seems odd, brushing my teeth. But just as I want to wash my hands before reading the Bible to “purify” them, so I will do so with my mouth when I speak to God. It is not something I do for God necessarily, but to remind myself that I am on holy ground, so to speak.
- I will keep a prayer journal in a regular spiral bound notebook. This will consist of people and things I want to pray for (and why I want to pray for them), things I am working on in my life I want to pray for, help I want from God in dealing with things and people in my life. Every day I will try to add a praise and worship element. Not entirely certain how to do this, will require more research. But it will start out with — at the least — some well deserved thank yous.
- During the morning, I will make sure and request God’s assistance throughout the day. And in the evenings I will recount my failures and his successes and thank him or ask forgiveness as appropriate. Kind of my version of the catholic examination of conscience before confession.
- In my prayer journal I will also make notice of how God interacts with me. Not sure what to expect here, and very eager to see what happens. I am hoping for some comfort, illumination, help combating sin, etc.
