It occurred to me the other day that I *really* need to start reading the bible regularly at home (!), especially as I have free time out the wazoo at the moment (heh). Normally I just get by with church + bible studies thru the week, but I need to get into better habits at home.

So there’s two parts to this thread:

1. What are your ‘quite times’ like? What do you find works for you? What doesn’t? Do you just reading through a book at random? Study certain passages? Read a book with a commentary? Follow a book of daily/weekly studies? Morning? Night? Tips appreciated…

2. Is anyone interested in a little experiment where we work through a book and commit to reading x chapters every week or so for a month, or something like that? I’m not thinking it would be a bible study or anything that full on, just a chance to commit with a few other people (3?) to read xyz book over a few weeks, and with a few people committed it should keep everyone on target. I’m not totally sure how it would work (open to suggestions) but it might be an interesting experiment… thoughts?

Re: Quiet times / personal bible reading

Timely topic for me, Luke.  While never being 100% consistent at home, of late I have dropped off quite a bit.

[quote author="Luke Stevens"]1. What are your ‘quite times’ like? What do you find works for you? What doesn’t? Do you just reading through a book at random? Study certain passages? Read a book with a commentary? Follow a book of daily/weekly studies? Morning? Night? Tips appreciated…

This won’t be too helpful, but I tend to take a bit of a each at certain times.

I can (for a few weeks, maybe a month) follow one of those Daily Devotions, or Spurgeon’s 365 Day book [the name of which I’ve forgotten], etc.  I find these helpful in times of struggle or laziness as a lot of thinking is done for you , and you can reflect on the passage and commentary.

When I want to dig into a book I generally try and work my way through the whole book, with commentary and/or Bible dictionary.  I try to vary, e.g. OT History, Gospel, Epistle, OT Poetry, OT History, Gospel, etc.

Mornings sometime work for me, but I often find myself too rushed - and often too lazy to get up. ;-) I try and make evenings, ~ 9.30 or so, my (semi-)regular time.

Other days I might just shatter a few windows by singing a few favourite hymns; or perhaps by reading through a liturgy [Evening Prayer, Compline, Prayers of the Hours...]; or even reading a book by a Christian author and attempting to read passages referred to.

As you can see, I am all over the place.  I find the variety helps me, as sometimes I want to sing; sometimes I want to sit in quiet contemplation with a Psalm; other times I want “real meat”.

[quote author="Luke Stevens"]
2. Is anyone interested in a little experiment where we work through a book and commit to reading x chapters every week or so for a month, or something like that? I’m not thinking it would be a bible study or anything that full on, just a chance to commit with a few other people (3?) to read xyz book over a few weeks, and with a few people committed it should keep everyone on target. I’m not totally sure how it would work (open to suggestions) but it might be an interesting experiment… thoughts?

I’ll sign up.  I think that would be a great idea, keeping us in some form accountable as well as knowing our brothers and sisters out there are reading the same passages.  And we can always use the Bible Study forum for any burning questions we have.

I think we could either set it up as a thread, where one person (leader) can post what we are to read [that way people could join in at any time]; else we do it via PMs or e-mail.

Again, a good idea, Luke.

God bless,
Ian.

My quiet times with God are intimate times of relating to one another, usually starting of with a Scripture and meditating on that, chewing it like a cow chews it’s cud.

Sometimes with a music tape on in the background, singing praises directly to him, sometimes no music, just me singing directly to him a song of praise, a song of love, where I open my heart and tell God just how much I love him and allow his spirit to envelope me. Sometimes the real tangible presence of God comes so much that all I can do is lie on my face or sit in a chair in total silence, sometimes crying, sometimes groaning, allowing God to minister to me.

Once I know I am in the presence of God and my mind is quieted I start lifting various needs up to the lord as they come to mind, sometimes I pray in tongues, other times not - sometimes I feel led to read a passage of Scripture sometimes not.

Sometimes I feel the need for communion and I will have it with the Lord, that has sometimes comprised of a fishfinger, bread, biscuit, port, wine or water, meditating on the work of the cross and often 2 John chap 2 & 3.

What is important though is that our quiet times are just that a quiet time of intimacy between us and our living God, a time of honesty, a time of meeting God face to face.

As too the way our fellowship group operate we are reading 2 chapters at a time through the Book of Matthew and allowing God to speak to us thorugh that, we than share what God spoke to us through those scriptures, we discuss how to apply those to our lives, and end up in a time of prayer praying for each other in the area where those Scriptures spoke to us and for other areas as well such as mission etc.

Then I have other times of study for Sermons etc.

WE need to ensure that we do not mix up our study for ministry with quiet time with God, one is sharing ourselves with God - the other is for sharing ourselves with each other craig.

;-)....

quietly imagining Craig with a fishfinger and a glass of port…

and remembering the time I officiated over rasberry cordial and vanilla wafer biscuits....hehehehehehe

Sign me up… I think it would be a great thing for a number of us to do together :)

Hey Luke -

My quiet times are in the evening once I’ve gone to bed.  I’m much more a night person than a morning person so it’s much easier to make it part of my going-to-bed-routine.  The following is The Plan, which is often abandoned or modified, but is what I aim for. 

My reading usually begins with a chapter or so of whatever non-Christian books I’m doing at the time, fiction or non-fiction.  (I’ve just finished my first re-read of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - McGonagall rocks my socks!)

Now starts the quiet time proper.  I start with reading bits of the Christian books I’m going through.  I’m trying to make a dent in the considerable mound of stuff next to my bed before I start on the hierachy of bookshelves ;-)

In about June I started going through My Utmost for His Highest, which has been interesting.  Certainly not something I’d give to a new Christian!  I think it’s something where you already need a basic understanding of the Bible as a whole (possible oxymoron?!) in order to understand where he’s finding his stuff, as there’s only one verse printed for each day.  Some of them have been quite timely for me, though. 

Next I read a chapter of my French Bible, which has more to do with improving my French than anything else.  I tend to go through books that I know fairly well already so I don’t get too lost!  (Would you believe it took me ‘till chapter 13 of Mark to figure out that “Royaume de Dieu” meant “Kingdom of God”?? Sheesh...) It has, however, given me a renewed appreciation for Bible translators from all the ages.  Yay God’s work through Tyndale!! 

Since my church sermons and small group studies tend to be on the insanely detailed side (eg - we recently spent considerable time discussing the significance of one particular “and” in Romans 12 - not that I’m at all complaining! <g>) so I’m going through a Bible in a year thing too keep the big picture in view.  Last year I did an alternating OT/NT thing, but after doing Biblical Theology this year I wanted to go straight through.  I try to do 5 chapters a night - makes it easier to keep track of where I’m up to.  I also made up an excel file with one box per chapter so I can keep it in the cover of my Bible and have that very human satisfaction of crossing them off as I do them.  (If you want a copy of it PM me and I’ll send it over.) I think once I finish this one through I’ll spend a bit of time in the New Testament. 

You’ll notice this hasn’t touched at all on my prayer life which has, quite frankly, perpetually sucked.  Feel free to offer me hints/tips/strategies for that area...please! 

Sorry for the lengthiness.
SJK.

[quote author="Sophie J. Kunze"]Next I read a chapter of my French Bible, which has more to do with improving my French than anything else.  I tend to go through books that I know fairly well already so I don’t get too lost!  (Would you believe it took me ‘till chapter 13 of Mark to figure out that “Royaume de Dieu” meant “Kingdom of God”?? Sheesh...) It has, however, given me a renewed appreciation for Bible translators from all the ages.  Yay God’s work through Tyndale!! 

Indeed!  I (sometimes) read “Die Bible (Luthertext)” [German language], as it not only helps my German, but also makes me ponder the words a bit more as I have to re-arrange sentences and other grammatical structures [and like you, Sophie, I stick to well-read books! ;-)]

I second your Yay! for Tyndale and all Bible translators.

[quote author="Sophie J. Kunze"]
You’ll notice this hasn’t touched at all on my prayer life which has, quite frankly, perpetually sucked.  Feel free to offer me hints/tips/strategies for that area...please! 

Mine “sucks” equally.  My priest gave me the idea of going though the Psalms, and making their cries my own...which works quite often when I try it.  Also, I have found grabbing a Prayer Book and going through a short Daily Service works.  As does saying “The Lord’s Prayer” - meditate a bit on each petition and see what it may be saying to you. 

Not that I follow these all the time...I am far too much a lazy sinful person. 

God bless,
Ian.

Sophie, you wrote.

You’ll notice this hasn’t touched at all on my prayer life which has, quite frankly, perpetually sucked. Feel free to offer me hints/tips/strategies for that area...please!

I think you need to change your attitude about what prayer is and isn’t.

1stly most Christians think of prayer as something we must do. We need to repent of this attitude, because prayer is not a chore we do, prayer is something that comes out of our relationship with God.

We need to honor God for who he is, at the same time realise that he is a person, and so converse with him, like you would with a real normal human being.

Prayer / or if it helps “Conversation” with God becomes a dynamic part of our life when we realise God is there listening so intently to our every word, knowing our every need, ready to give us what we need. Not only is he ready to give us what we need, he wants to know what we know about our lives, often for example I say to God,

“Father I feel really tired, or Gee that person irked me tonight - help me to get over it - or Why do i feel so worked up etc etc”

As well I often ask god, “Father who do you want me to pray for at the moment? who is on your heart? - I am often suprised at who comes to mind and how it is that I start praying for that person, often if I tell that
person they have been placed on my heart they tell me what to pray for”

Sometimes the Holy Spirit will grab hold of us, sometimes I ask the Holy Spirit if he will pray in me and allow me to pray in him - Oh what bold prayers and intercession flow when we do this.

Thankfulness in prayer is another way to enjoy our relationship, we ask God, then before it manisfests we thank him for answering those prayers, this comes out of “asking & believing before recieving”

Hope this helps craig

Thanks for sharing guys, you’re bi-lingual personal bible studies are an inspiration! ;)

I haven’t forgotten about my initial suggestion, I’m keen to start, so Dani, Ian, Jason and whoever else, what book do you want to start with? I think if we choose a book, aim to read x chapters / week, I’ll post a thread about which book and who’s reading it, and we can report back at the end of each week to keep each other motivated and on task. Its just meant to be easy and informal, but enough to keep us going…

My suggestion is the gospel of John, mostly because I have a handy dandy commentary thing I’d like to read :) But I’m not fussed, if thats too easy/boring/you’ve just done it already or have another book in mind (ecclesiastes ! ;), new or OT, let us know, and we’ll get started. Dani, Ian and Jason post back to let me know what you think, and last call for anyone else who wants to be involved…

Hi Luke,

[quote author="Luke Stevens"]Thanks for sharing guys, you’re bi-lingual personal bible studies are an inspiration! ;)

You haven’t heard my pronunciation or seen me struggle over “Jesus wept.” for 5 minutes… ;-)

[quote author="Luke Stevens"]
My suggestion is the gospel of John, mostly because I have a handy dandy commentary thing I’d like to read :)

A good a reason as any!  Interestingly enough, John is a Gospel I do not know very well [not that I know the others by heart - for some reason I’ve read Matthew, Mark and Luke more!] so I am for it.  Ecclesiastes might be a good second one to have if all goes well with this.  Your suggestions on how it may be run sounds good to me as well.

Ian, eagerly awaiting the command to Go!

Paging Dani - your presense is required in this thread, stat! :)

Jason I wouldn’t mind knocking over John as a whole, but those breaks seem good, so I’ve started a thread about it here .

Which means… Go!! :)

I’m sure Dani wont mind, but if there’s any objections I’m flexible. Also if anyone else wants to join up, now’s your chance…

Yes I will join up, I have not done a study on John before, apart from chapters 11-16.

craig