Reading the Bible versus Studying It
‘To me the Bible is a manifesto, a guide, a love letter, a story.’
-Shauna Niequest in Savor.
I have just got back home from a relaxing, wonderful time in India with my family. I was pampered with delicious home cooked meals, heartwarming conversations and surprises and treats aplenty. I am so very grateful. But the highlight for me was joining in with our son, daughter in law and their sons in their family prayer time. I was so happy to see this tradition instilled in this fledgling family. Nivin at 6 delights in reading stories from the Bible. When I saw him look for a bookmark to mark the page and get a pencil to highlight verses (words/ phrases) I knew we had a Bible study leader in the making.
“The difference between studying the Bible and reading it is a pen and a paper.”
-Courtney Doctor, Author and Bible teacher
Have you ever found yourself in a ‘my quiet time routine is dull and boring’ phase. Recently I faced this and so decided to switch things around. I took out my journal, coloured Bible markers, post - it notes and chose a Psalm to study and dig into. It was Psalm 18.
Psalm 18 has 50 verses so I read it in short chunks of 5 verses daily. As I read I marked out repeated phrases, highlighted words/ phrases which jumped out at me.I wrote out verse 1 on a sticky note and decided to learn it by heart.
“I love you O Lord, my strength.”
-Psalm 18:1
At times I listened to the Psalm being sung on www.thesinging.bible Here I could choose my passage and pick out the type of singers/ music. The words washed over me as it was sung and I loved it. More words jumped out at me now and I noted them down in my journal.
I had highlighted ‘according to my righteousness’ in vs 20 and24. ‘According to the cleanness of my hands’ was also a repetition in the two verses.
I usually like to carry a verse as my Verse of the day. Psalm 18:16 was significant to me.
“He (God) reached down from on high and took hold of me, he drew me out of deep waters.”
-Psalm 18:16
I remembered a time in my life when the Lord had rescued me and I was filled with joy reading it. I wrote a short prayer thanking God for reaching down to me, taking hold of me and drawing me out of deep waters.
I marked it as my ‘Helicopter Verse.’( I had recently read about how helicopters were used to save people who were helpless and hard to reach!)
I parked at vs16-19 for a couple of days.
I read them in a couple of versions.
I read it in my home language, Tamil.
I prayed using them, chewed on them and shared them and my testimony with a few friends when I talked to them.
The freedom to go slow on the verses and study at our own pace is freeing and often refreshing. During Covid I joined a group of ladies in Seattle, US to study the Bible using a video link. After studying a passage for a week, our leader Susan Keene gave us the second week to soak in the same passage- to write a poem, draw a picture or sing a song to help remember a verse / verses which stood out. That gave us time and space to pause and ponder, which I loved.
“Studying the Bible before we start the day is like putting on the oxygen mask for yourself before you step in to help someone else.”
-Melissa Kruger, Author and Bible teacher
Ephesians 2:10 says we are God's poiema (Greek word meaning poem), the NIV says we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus. Studying His word will make us more like Jesus every day so we can be poems imitating Jesus (Ephesians 5:1) at home, at work, at church and in the community.