Bible Study Tip

This year, I started a new Bible study. Two years ago I read through the Bible in a year. Actually Daddy and I both did it (but I will say I'm the only one who finished on December 31st..... but then again, I don't work 40 hours a week outside the home). Daddy enjoyed it so much, he read through the Chronological Bible last year and really enjoyed seeing the order and chronology to the Bible (does that surprise anyone? That Daddy would prefer order and structure? Ok, just checking). I didn't have a set Bible study last year, because life was a little topsy-turvy with the farm developments. My plan was to study and meditate on the weekly sermons. And what a great plan it was... I actually do have a really nice system in place for my Bible studies - sermons, small group studies, and personal studies. And that's what I wanted to share with you today, those of you that may appreciate something to make it easier to actually study - go back and look at different contexts for verses that you may like.

I use a program called OneNote. Those of you that have upgraded to Office 2007 have it on your computer, but I believe it's also available to purchase separately. It's a really nifty program, probably my favorite one they have (does anyone want to guess what Daddy's is? Come on, take a guess...... Excel! He just loves all the organized data). It's a free-er version of word designed for office and student settings where you are taking notes, but you may need to add little tid-bits here and there after the fact. The text boxes are free flowing, and automatically generated when you click in a new spot. Bullets are also automatic, making it look nice and neat. The thing I really like about it is the search feature. Rather than searching all of your documents on your hard-drive, you can just search all notes in OneNote and it will find every reference you have in your notes. And there are "notebooks" So I have a scrapbooking notebook that I keep layout ideas, page ideas, etc; and a church notebook, where I keep sermon notes, small group notes, and my personal notes. You get the idea. So what I normally do is during church, I have a notebook and the sermon notes and I write anything and everything that catches my fancy. Then, after I accumulate a few months worth of notes, I put them in the computer, complete with Bible verses so I can easily see references and such. Well, I was going to do that over the Christmas break since Daddy was home. And I looked at my notebook, and noticed that my old notebook had gotten stashed back behind. I thought I was done with it, so I flipped through it and noticed the bulletins were still in it (that's my note that I haven't put that sermon in the computer). The sermon was from last December. So I thought, oh, I just forgot a couple, I'll put those in and then I'll do what I have in my current notebook. So I did that, and then began flipping through my current notebook, and I had only done January and part of February. AACK!

If I remember correctly, I did January and February and God spoke to me about something from those past sermons and I was too excited to continue. And then I never picked it back up again. So in the last 2 weeks I have gotten completely caught up.

And you know what the best part is? God spoke to me. There were a couple of verses that the pastor used several times this past year, and they happened to pertain to something that had been on my heart for over a month, that I just haven't had the guts to do anything about yet. So God showed me, over and over, and over! what I needed to do!

Anyways, 12 months of sermons has got me excited again, and on top of vowing (probably fruitlessly) to keep up with my sermon notes, I know that God will speak to me no matter what. Don't you think it is a little humorous that God uses my procrastination to get his message across? I do.

So what am I doing this year? One - I'm not committing to a major study. I have some major life changes coming up sooner than I'm ready for, and I know I'll get frustrated and toss it aside. Two - I'm doing something that I know I'll enjoy even if it's not what everyone else is doing. So this year I'm doing an 85-day study of Acts and the Epistles. The schedule is written for 85 days, 7 days a week, but I'm doing 5 days a week, so it'll take me a little longer than the study says it will, I'm estimating around the time that little B is born. Daddy is doing something different as well - he's reading through the New Testament using the Message Bible. He's enjoying reading the same passages in different translations to get a better scope of the passage.

So my challenge is this: find something that you want to read, find one that fits your life because otherwise you'll get frustrated and wont' finish, and think about taking notes on the computer so you can easily reference. Just a couple of tips from a novice!