One of the gifts I received this Christmas is a Note Takers Bible. It is really neat, the picture doesn’t really go it justice but there are ruled lines on each page for journaling. The way I have decided to read the Bible through in 2016 has been inspired by something I read in Mark Batterson’s book “if.” In the book, Mark talks about how he studies the Bible on a daily basis and I am always looking for new methods and tools to keep me growing.
Here is my plan for 2016 and I would like to invite you to take the journey with me this next year. According to Jewish Culture, a child would begin to study the Bible at a very young age. Six years old to be exact. When that child turned 10, only four years later they would have the entire Torah, the first five books of the Bible memorized. It is said that the rabbi would take the children’s writing slates and put honey on them and have the children lick the honey off their slates while quoting Psalm 119:103, “How sweet are thy words unto my taste! Yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth! (KJV)
The rabbi wanted his students to fall in love with the Word of God. He wanted them to taste and see that the Word is good. In a sense, the Bible is the Land of Milk and Honey. It is our Promised Land.
My first goal for 2016 is to read the Bible through in no particular order. I will probably start in Matthew; go back to Genesis, then rotate NT and OT Books. The goal isn’t to get through the Bible but for the Bible to get through me. The Bible wasn’t meant to simply be read but to be prayed through, meditated on, and lived out.
I plan to read until a verse stops me, for whatever reason. I will think about that verse, it’s context, the people and places surrounding it. I will underline it, circle it, and pray about it and through it, for understanding. Then in the space in the Note Takers Bible I will write my thoughts about that verse, maybe even questions that I have, and things the Spirit says to me about those verses.
Then I have a Gratitude Journal. I plan each day starting January 1st to list and number everything that I am thankful for. Naming at least two or three a day, more or less as I feel led. By the end of the year I will have thousands of things I am grateful for and each one will have a number assigned to it. I plan to journal about each person or things that I list and then at the end of each week I will choose one person to send a Thank You note. I know how great it makes me feel for someone to take the time to send me a personal note of thanks.
You may choose to follow a plan like this or do something totally different but the greatest thing of all is that we fall more in love with Jesus.
Happy New Year
Ronnie
