Now that I have finished the whole Bible, people in my life are asking me what I thought of the experience as a whole.
I feel like I have a greater understanding of a lot of things as they relate to the Bible.
I better understand the connection between Judaism and Christianity.
I have a full context for Bible passages that are read in church, printed on bookmarks, and sewn on pillows.
I have a much deeper feeling about the Bible being the Word of God.
I feel a deeper connection with my ancestors.
Since my speed-reading days have ended, I have not picked up my Bible in 90 Days Bible, but I have certainly taken my new-found knowledge into action!
I will be taking a few weeks off from the intense-study, but I am planning on going back through and focusing on the sections where I made notes. I hope to chronicle some of my thoughts on this blog, so stop back every once in a while! :-)
Monday, April 5, 2010
Monday, March 29, 2010
Monday, March 22, 2010
Only 8 days of reading left
I am caught up.
I am on track.
I am invigorated and renewed.
Today is day 81. The challenge is to read the Bible in 90 days, but there are only 88 days of reading. I keep forgetting about those 2 extra days. That means that I will be finishing the bible on Monday or Tuesday of next week. WHOA.
At this point, I have not read for today yet, but I do not foresee any problems with staying on track for this last week. Although, I will say that I am starting to get a little sick of Paul. Sorry, man. But first you are focused on in Acts and now Romans and I just know that 1 & 2 Corinthians is coming up. Paul, Paul, Paul! I know you were the head of the new "church" and all, but seriously? Weren't there 11 other apostles? What are they up to anyway?
This whole journey is leading up to my favorite holiday on the church calendar - EASTER! I am ready. I am waiting. And the passages in the gospels describing the FIRST Easter really got me all emotional. I am connecting with the Word of God like never before.
I am on track.
I am invigorated and renewed.
Today is day 81. The challenge is to read the Bible in 90 days, but there are only 88 days of reading. I keep forgetting about those 2 extra days. That means that I will be finishing the bible on Monday or Tuesday of next week. WHOA.
At this point, I have not read for today yet, but I do not foresee any problems with staying on track for this last week. Although, I will say that I am starting to get a little sick of Paul. Sorry, man. But first you are focused on in Acts and now Romans and I just know that 1 & 2 Corinthians is coming up. Paul, Paul, Paul! I know you were the head of the new "church" and all, but seriously? Weren't there 11 other apostles? What are they up to anyway?
This whole journey is leading up to my favorite holiday on the church calendar - EASTER! I am ready. I am waiting. And the passages in the gospels describing the FIRST Easter really got me all emotional. I am connecting with the Word of God like never before.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Explaining myself... to everyone!
Last week was a busy one for me. As a result, I was reading my book in public a lot more frequently than normal. This is what usually happened when people saw me reading:
Friend or Acquaintance: Whatcha reading?
Me: The Bible. I'm in the process of reading it straight through in 90 days.
F or A: *Stunned silence* WHY?!??!
The most interesting thing is that I got this same reaction out of almost everyone who asked me. And it was a rather diverse group of people, but they mostly fell into one of two groups and their stunned silence was for totally different reasons.
1) People from my church (or other religious people that I know) - They wonder why you would want to speed through the Bible. What good could come out of this exercise? No meditating over each passage? How can you think about each passage and what it means coming from the Word of the Lord? Why speed past all the goodness in the Bible?
2) People who are atheists, agnostics, or estranged from their church - They think I am nuts! Why would you subject yourself to such a boring and tedious task? What in the world is so great about that thing anyway? What could possibly be the point in spending so much time with the same book? What fun could that possibly be?
To both groups of people I have a few discussion points that I bring up.
- It's not the first time I've taken on a book that some might find "boring and tedious" for fun, I read The Grapes of Wrath in 9th grade for "fun" and I enjoyed it in the end (not my favorite Steinbeck ever, though). Even though this 90 day challenge is similar to that, I was called to do this. And it has been a spiritual journey for me that I would not be able to experience any other way.
- I want to understand the Word in a deeper sense. I want to understand it as a WHOLE. In church we talk about this passage and that passage, but we don't look at how they truly fit together or even the context of certain passages! God put this glorious book together in a certain way for a reason, and I want to experience it in that way.
- Whether you believe that the Bible is the direct Word of God or it is just a book that some people thing is important, there is such HISTORY here. I find the way that the books of the Bible fit together fascinating and the fact that much of it matches up with historian's idea of the times makes it that much more important.
- This is a pre-cursor for a more lengthy, less structured study of the Bible. I am taking notes, underlining and preparing to start over again and get further and deeper into the Word.
Friend or Acquaintance: Whatcha reading?
Me: The Bible. I'm in the process of reading it straight through in 90 days.
F or A: *Stunned silence* WHY?!??!
The most interesting thing is that I got this same reaction out of almost everyone who asked me. And it was a rather diverse group of people, but they mostly fell into one of two groups and their stunned silence was for totally different reasons.
1) People from my church (or other religious people that I know) - They wonder why you would want to speed through the Bible. What good could come out of this exercise? No meditating over each passage? How can you think about each passage and what it means coming from the Word of the Lord? Why speed past all the goodness in the Bible?
2) People who are atheists, agnostics, or estranged from their church - They think I am nuts! Why would you subject yourself to such a boring and tedious task? What in the world is so great about that thing anyway? What could possibly be the point in spending so much time with the same book? What fun could that possibly be?
To both groups of people I have a few discussion points that I bring up.
- It's not the first time I've taken on a book that some might find "boring and tedious" for fun, I read The Grapes of Wrath in 9th grade for "fun" and I enjoyed it in the end (not my favorite Steinbeck ever, though). Even though this 90 day challenge is similar to that, I was called to do this. And it has been a spiritual journey for me that I would not be able to experience any other way.
- I want to understand the Word in a deeper sense. I want to understand it as a WHOLE. In church we talk about this passage and that passage, but we don't look at how they truly fit together or even the context of certain passages! God put this glorious book together in a certain way for a reason, and I want to experience it in that way.
- Whether you believe that the Bible is the direct Word of God or it is just a book that some people thing is important, there is such HISTORY here. I find the way that the books of the Bible fit together fascinating and the fact that much of it matches up with historian's idea of the times makes it that much more important.
- This is a pre-cursor for a more lengthy, less structured study of the Bible. I am taking notes, underlining and preparing to start over again and get further and deeper into the Word.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Caught up, and ahead of the game
For the first time since I started this challenge, last night I was caught up and had time to keep reading. I was ahead! Amazing! I am also seeing the pages after my bookmark dwindle and that is a great feeling! I am coming to learn so many technical type things about the Bible that I never knew.
- Compared to the Old Testament, the New Testament is SHORT!! Wow, it is only about 1/4 of the whole Bible.
- There is a book of the bible that is only JUST BARELY one page long - Obadiah. But that certainly doesn't make it any less significant than any of the other books of the Bible.
- Jonah was inside the "great fish" for only about a chapter's worth of text. That surprised me!
- Compared to the Old Testament, the New Testament is SHORT!! Wow, it is only about 1/4 of the whole Bible.
- There is a book of the bible that is only JUST BARELY one page long - Obadiah. But that certainly doesn't make it any less significant than any of the other books of the Bible.
- Jonah was inside the "great fish" for only about a chapter's worth of text. That surprised me!
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Less than 30 days to go
Less than 30 days to go and this is the first week that I have started off behind. Last night I was more than 4 days behind and now I am only 1 and a half days behind. I did not get to do my catch-up reading last weekend because of being busy and productive in other aspects of life (curtains are hung! yay!). But excuses do not get me caught up! I have a car trip coming up on Sunday, so that should give me 4 hours of reading time, but I have to be careful to not get car sick and I have to remember my book light! I also would rather not come down to the wire again to only have Sunday to get caught up. I've been reading on my breaks at work this week and hopefully that will help - BUT I have to STILL DO MY HOUR of reading at home! That has been a hard thing to fit in and this week is no exception.
As for the reading itself, I FINALLY finished Jeremiah last night and breezed through Lamentations. Sadly, Lamentations was over before it began and now I am trudging through Ezekiel. Ugh. These prophets are only interesting when they are predicting things that will happen in the time of Christ. I am trying to keep my eyes pealed to mark these passages, but it isn't easy since I do not have that much experience reading the New Testament. I am interested to look for a visual time line that shows how the books of the bible line up in history. A lot of the stuff in Jeremiah and Ezekiel is about what happened in Kings and Chronicles. I feel like we are beating a dead horse here sometimes. I know the repetition is for a reason, but the minimalist writer in me is editing this huge book in my head as I go along. "It's the Word of God! Stop editing!" I have to remind myself.
I never really realize how SHORT the New Testament is. It's barely a quarter of the length of the whole Bible. I can't wait to get there!
As for the reading itself, I FINALLY finished Jeremiah last night and breezed through Lamentations. Sadly, Lamentations was over before it began and now I am trudging through Ezekiel. Ugh. These prophets are only interesting when they are predicting things that will happen in the time of Christ. I am trying to keep my eyes pealed to mark these passages, but it isn't easy since I do not have that much experience reading the New Testament. I am interested to look for a visual time line that shows how the books of the bible line up in history. A lot of the stuff in Jeremiah and Ezekiel is about what happened in Kings and Chronicles. I feel like we are beating a dead horse here sometimes. I know the repetition is for a reason, but the minimalist writer in me is editing this huge book in my head as I go along. "It's the Word of God! Stop editing!" I have to remind myself.
I never really realize how SHORT the New Testament is. It's barely a quarter of the length of the whole Bible. I can't wait to get there!
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Catching up on Checking in
I've been on schedule the last 2 mondays... I just didn't get a chance to post here! As much as the biblein90days.org people encourage reading in small chunks each day, I feel like I get the most out of reading sessions if I read for an hour or more completely interrupted. The last 2 weekends involved some heavy-duty "catch-up" sessions and those left me feeling more like I understood and absorbed more than when I catch a little here and a little there throughout the day.
That being said, having to hurry-up-and-catch up the last few weekends is making this whole process stressful. I am pledging to not get behind this week and get back to my reading one-hour-every-day schedule that I was able to maintain in the beginning.
I have de-prioritized this challenge a little in the past weeks which is what pushes me into the weekend flurry mode. Making sure dinner is on the table by 6-6:30 or finishing another 30 Psalms? Dinner wins. Having a mini-date with Mike who I haven't seen all day or trudge through the rest of Isaiah? Mike wins. Not to say that this challenge is not important to me, but I have realized that I have plenty of wiggle room in my schedule to not fall behind but still keep my priorities in line.
That being said, I'm 1/3 of the way through the reading for today already which is a great start for the week!
That being said, having to hurry-up-and-catch up the last few weekends is making this whole process stressful. I am pledging to not get behind this week and get back to my reading one-hour-every-day schedule that I was able to maintain in the beginning.
I have de-prioritized this challenge a little in the past weeks which is what pushes me into the weekend flurry mode. Making sure dinner is on the table by 6-6:30 or finishing another 30 Psalms? Dinner wins. Having a mini-date with Mike who I haven't seen all day or trudge through the rest of Isaiah? Mike wins. Not to say that this challenge is not important to me, but I have realized that I have plenty of wiggle room in my schedule to not fall behind but still keep my priorities in line.
That being said, I'm 1/3 of the way through the reading for today already which is a great start for the week!
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