I think bible study peaked in the last generation of evangelicalism. I can’t compete with that level of intensity, reading 5 chapters a day or what have you, and there’s more I want to read - and take into consideration - from the available Christian literature than the bible.
How do we keep the pendulum from swinging too far the other way, into ignorance and lack of concern for what our scriptures teach?
That’s all - thought it was time for a short post, possibly with a long discussion to follow. Cheers.
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After I became a Christian there was a lot of pressure to read the Bible every day and all that. I did for awhile, getting up at the ass-crack of dawn and spending an hour reading it (if you include the time I spent asleep in the chair). But after a year or two or that I got burnt out and read sporadically for a few years.
Recently I decided that it was ok to not read every day. I’m going to be reading it for the rest of my life, there’s no rush. I started reading Matthew again about 6 months ago, and I’m in chapter 6. Part of that is because I also read some commentary and different translations (and also read other books, too), but I probably only read about 3 times a week and only 5-10 verses each time. Maybe it’s not as much as it should be, but it’s much better than hating it because it’s a chore or constantly feeling guilty for not doing it enough.
For me, part of the equation has been to listen for God. It’s not all of it, but it’s a real part of it. You see, if I’m away from my Bible study for a while, I can feel God calling me back. It’s not that guilty feeling of “it’s been 2 days! What if someone asks you?”. That actually is a humanistic, legalistic mentality that gets in the way of the Spirit, I think. I had to ignore that for some time and get to where I didn’t care if I hadn’t read in a while.
It was then I started feeling the call back to His word. It sounds all psychic, new age goofiness, but it’s not. It is God drawing me back into His word because there’s more that he wanted me to know.
I dunno.
Maybe keep writing lots about scripture?