Though I grew up in a Christian home, I never really read the Bible in a daily, consistent nor consecutive way, nor saw any importance or meaning in having a daily habit to read the Bible. But after coming to UT and meeting with Christians on Campus, I found myself surrounded with students who loved to read their Bible a lot! This was surprising to me and made me curious as to why they were reading their Bible so much. After meeting for a while I began to appreciate the Bible more and more. Firstly, I was reminded that the Bible is the word of God! (2 Timothy 3:16-17) And just like you can read someone's diary (or blog) to get to know them, you can read the Bible to get to know the Person of the Lord Jesus!
Knowing this, I became more open to reading the Bible more myself. So at the beginning of the semester, Christians on Campus started a club-wide Bible reading schedule challenge to read the entire New Testament in 90 days! I saw this as the perfect opportunity to start developing a habit to read the Bible in a consistent and consecutive way. Trust me, at first it was not easy. Like developing any habit, it took persistence and perseverance. But something really cool about the schedule they gave us, was that on the bottom there were blank spaces for names and numbers of people we could put down as companions to encourage and check up on one another to help each other along the way. This was really a BIG help.
So as the semester progressed and I was going through the Bible reading schedule, I noticed that little by little, it became easier and more natural to read the Bible everyday. It even got to the point where I would look forward to the day's reading and if I missed it, I would notice.
This made me think of this verse...
"As newborn babes, long for the guileless milk of the word in order that by it you may grow unto salvation, if you have tasted that the Lord is good." 1 Peter 2:2-3 I really began to see the Bible as a nourishment and supply that I needed everyday just like I needed physical food everyday. And just as physical food causes us to maintain our physical health and growth, reading the Bible helped maintain my spiritual health and growth!
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| This basically is us :) We need to milk of the word in order to grow! |
If you have a similar experience of realizing how wonderful the Bible is, please share! :)
Also, if you ever want to make your own Bible reading schedule, there's a really great site you can do it with. (Bible reading schedule maker!)
Being in Austin with you for a week gave me a similar experience in that I was like "okay wow, Danielle really loves reading the Bible! There must be something awesome I've been missing out on!" So when we read the Bible together that week, the riches of the Bible were really opened to me and for the first time I saw how AWESOME the footnotes are! Anyway, thanks for the Bible reading schedule maker site! I'm about to make myself a schedule =)
ReplyDeleteAmen! I really enjoyed your reading of the bible and texting us of your enjoyment! This is a real encouragement for me to read my bible regularly as well! Miss you Danielle!
ReplyDeleteLydia: It was so nice to have someone to read the Bible with when you came to visit! :) Trust me, its so much more enjoyable to read with others! We should continue reading together even throughout the semester!!!
ReplyDeleteNikki: I miss you too! I enjoyed sending you texts and receiving texts from you as well! :)
My experience was somewhat different, in that since I was a child my parents put in me a love for the Bible and reading the Word. I basically didn't read any other books until I went to school - only the Bible... and I loved it! Now I am relatively surprised to hear that you can actually grow up in a Christian family and not read the Bible! But - that's how the Lord is sovereign.... and I need to have my love for reading the Bible renewed every year, every month, every week, and even every day!
ReplyDeleteThat is very encouraging! The Bible is such a wonderful book, but I never appreciated it growing up. I'm glad I have the realization now of how important it is in our daily Christian life, but it's good to hear that even as children we can have a love for the Word. And you are right! We need to have our love for the Word renewed day by day! :)
ReplyDelete"And just like you can read someone's diary (or blog) to get to know them, you can read the Bible to get to know the Person of the Lord Jesus!"
ReplyDeleteI really liked that sentence... the more we read the Bible, the more we get to know the Lord Jesus! I recently started to use this website: http://lettheword.com which really encourages me to be consistent in our reading the Bible. I've really been so happy to get to know the Lord more and more recently by reading the Bible :)
(Just like I am getting to know you through reading your blog - hi there!).
DANIELLE!
ReplyDeleteThat PICTURE, HAHAHAHAHAHA!
amen.