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| 1. Confuse Bible READING with Bible STUDY. |
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Well, I started reading my Bible. It is thick with notes. At first it was really interesting to study information in the notes, but soon my daily Bible reading time was taking me way too long. It was so burdensome, well, it was just too much to keep up with. So I quit.
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But then...I had an idea! Why quit? Right then I decided it was important to JUST READ IT. Read the Bible all the way through. I would separate READING from STUDY. So I did. I set aside a time for Bible study-a special time on a special day-when I would look at the notes in my Bible and consider the questions I’d written down and look up answers. So that’s how I succeeded in reading the Bible all the way through! What me quit?
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| 2. Long lists, like genealogies! |
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These are tough! And they appear in several places. Not only are there genealogies, but what about all that census taking in the Old Testament. How do you get through that? My solution—not going to read it! Then I felt guilty about not really reading through the whole Bible. So I quit!
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But then…I had another idea! I decided to skip over sections that had little or no meaning to me. After all, the next time I decided to read through the Bible I could spend more time on these lists, and maybe then they would have more meaning. So I continued reading!
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| 3. Passages I just can’t understand! |
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What on earth is Obadiah talking about?? And why was Jeremiah so gloomy? Has anyone ever really made it all the way through this stuff? Well, I tried it, couldn’t understand what on earth they were talking about, so I quit! What else could I do?
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But then…this great idea came to my mind. So what if I don’t understand something. All I have to do is cast my eyes on the words. If I don’t “get it” now, it’s not worth quitting over. I could just continue and hope I would understand it later. So I continued reading!
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| 4. I couldn’t remember what I’d read! |
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Some times, especially when I read late at night I finish reading and I have no memory of how I got from where I started to where I was (when I woke up.) Oh well. This is all rather dry and boring. So I quit!
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But then…I remembered my goal which was to READ through the Bible. It wasn’t to remember everything I’d read. It wasn’t even to learn from everything. My goal was to READ everything. So I kept going. I remembered what I could and didn’t concern myself with what I couldn’t. And that’s how I succeeded in getting through the whole Bible—cover to cover.
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| 5. Some of the sections I read really upset me! |
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I really hate to admit this, but I thought the behavior of some of these people was so awful, that I just couldn’t stand it. I even got upset that God did not do something more about it. How can stuff like this be included in the Bible? I decided I’m not going to read this. So I quit!
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Whoa! If you’ve ever read the Bible all the way through you know what I mean Some of these stories are just hard to read! How could these people do these things? Between you and me, there were times when I mentioned to God that I was not happy with what I was reading.
Each time I read through the Bible I get a larger frame of reference for these more difficult parts. I can honestly say I am glad I continued!
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| 6. I’m not very organized and before you know it, I lost my place. |
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This was a tough one! Really!! Not only could I not remember what I’d read the day before, but I lost track of where I was in this whole reading project. I do remember, in general what book I was in, but why should I have to run the risk of reading something twice—so I quit.
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Yep, you would not believe how disorganized I can be! But then I really wanted to complete this project—at least once in my life time—so I decided to put my reading list in my Bible and check off the passages as I read. Even if I read a few sections twice, it just does not matter. I’ve now finished. That feels better than quitting did!
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| 7. I wanted to keep a “spiritual journal” and, well, this just takes too much time! |
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So I had this really neat idea. Not only did I really like reading through my Bible—at first—but, I decided it would be great to keep a journal of my spiritual growth. One day it took me 2 hours to do my reading and write down my thoughts. This is just way too much for me to keep up with! So I quit!
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But then…you know what…I so-o wanted to complete reading through my Bible that I determined that no other so called “spiritual” activity would side-track me. No matter what else I was tempted to do that would keep me from my reading, I first did my reading and then fit in the other. That’s how I did it. I read the whole thing!!
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| 8. What about prayer? |
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Now really, what is more important: Reading the Bible? Or prayer time? No really. By the time I read my daily selection, spend time in prayer, write in my journal—you get the picture. I decided prayer was more important! So, I quit my Bible reading and devoted myself to prayer.
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Good grief! What a sneaky way of getting sidetracked. Even though prayer is important, my goal was to read through the Bible. As soon as I figured out how goofy it was to get off track with this glorious excuse, I got right back to work. Oh I pray. In fact, sneak a peak at my page on prayer and you’ll see what I mean. But, just as important as that is, I finished my reading. And by doing so, I have learned how to make my prayer life more effective.
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| 9. I got behind and thought I’d never get caught up! |
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How discouraging this is. I was two months behind at one point. That’s a lot. I figured I could never complete my goal on time, so I quit!
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But then…I got this idea. Actually I got TWO ideas. Yep! First, I could just extend my goal date out by two months. What difference did it make? What mattered was that I finished, not that I met some impossible (in my own mind) goal. So, I kept going!
But remember, I had two ideas. Here’s the second one, and looking back this was the best idea. For a while I doubled up my reading on days when I could squeeze in more time. If you can believe it, there were a few days when read four or five day’s portions at once. Not only did I catch up with my goal, I passed it! I finished reading through the Bible early. It was exciting! |
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