Racing, Crawling and Power-Walking: My Adventure with the Word

When saying that I’m led to “study” through the Bible this year instead of “read” through the Bible this year, am I inferring that there is something wrong with the goal to read through the Bible in a year? No.

This issue of an annual race through the Bible is one I’ve wrestled with for years. I am allergic to legalistic religion and the way this concept has been presented to me through the years, does, I must admit, smack of legalistic religion. A checklist, if you please, to make me “feel good” about my walk. I’ve resisted. Since Bible College days I’ve had a passion to inductively study the Word. Crawling through the Bible some would say. {Grin} Wasn’t that far better than simply racing through the Bible year after year? Wasn’t the 15 – 20 hours a week that I spent in the Word to prepare to teach Precept courses ENOUGH time in the Word? I reached the conclusion that it was and that I would not fall into the legalistic trap of checking boxes as I read. This was my “former position”. My “current position” has evolved over time.

Quite a few years ago a godly woman made a comment that resonated in my spirit. Nelda Thomas is a Precept Area trainer now in her upper 60’s. I consider her to be one of my mentors. I first met her at a workshop I attended in Ekalaka, MT. We met again at a ladies retreat at Diamond Bar X and it was my joy to host her at a ladies retreat in Alaska and a workshop at Elmendorf AFB in AK. She is quite a lady. Nelda loves the Lord, loves the Word and loves the body of Christ. She KNOWS her Bible. She explained to me that she has a daily STUDY time. She explained that she also (in addition to her study and class prep time) has a DEVOTIONAL time. SHE reads through the Bible at least once a year. Hmmm…of course I had to explore her reasoning? God has given her the gift of teaching His Word to the body and therefore she must be immersed in it, intimately acquainted with it. She must handle this gift well because of her love for the Lord and for His family. (These are my words to explain her challenge to me).

After prayer, I began to race through the Bible year after year. I have learned there is much to be gained through reading the Word over and over. You develop a sense of context that you miss even when you are careful to place individual books into context. You also find yourself reading obscure passages that are often not chosen for local studies.

Someone once told me that in reading through the Bible in a year I should read it "like a novel" and when I study a book inductively I'm studying more "like a school assignment". Racing or Crawling? I believe both approaches are valid and both are needed in the body of Christ. I race through the Bible and I glean context and familiarity. I crawl through specific books of the Bible and I mine the gems beneath our cultural understanding of what I've read. I learn to accurately handle the Word of truth and I glean accurate and powerful applications for my life.

Regardless of our chosen approach, we all need to be in the Word. Recent surveys have shown the majority of those who claim the title “Christian” are NOT spending time in the Word, in prayer, or in fellowship with the body of Christ. It's sad. It’s been my practice each year to race through the Bible while I crawl through 3 - 4 books.

As I’ve prayed about the plans and goals that God would have me set for the upcoming year, I'm led to begin a survey/study of the entire Bible. I believe there are seasons when the Holy Spirit will lead us to do something different than we've always done or different than we'd planned to do. This is one of those seasons for me. I will not be racing through the Word this year, because I am led to “Power-Walk” (cross between my normal paces of racing or crawling) through the Word this year. I’ve reached this conclusion not because reading the Bible in a year is a worthless endeavor but because I want to be even more familiar with the obscure sections, I want to be more comfortable with context. I’m not attempting (at this time) to do an in-depth, inductive study of each book of the Bible. I want more depth than the typical survey which includes historical background, main theme, date and author. I also want to study it personally and not simply read another's summary and commentary(good as they may be). I'm certainly not sure I can accomplish my Power-Walk in a year (most plans I find are scheduled to take 3 years), but I believe my desire to begin this Power-Walk is God-pleasing, Spirit-birthed and will produce fruit in my life regardless of the date when I reach the finish line. I'm excited that I will shortly be even more familiar with the Word that I've come to love so much.

In my ministry with women through PWOC, I’m often asked where I find the time to read through the Bible in a year, participate in local Bible Studies, and study a book or two in-depth. The sad thing is that many Christians don't find time to even participate in a local study that will require more than 10 or 15 min a day of their time. Many don't find the time to read even 10 minutes a day. I was challenged to rethink my attitude toward the time it takes to be a woman of the Word by Nelda Thomas and Jan Priddy (Precept Trainer/Workshop Teacher and on staff at the National office of Precept Ministries). Both have made the comment that there are 24 hours in the day and we can certainly give God an hour of our day! This convicted me. The next step came when I began to realize that I could at LEAST tithe of my time..... That would be roughly 2.5 hours a day. Previously I've been able to race through my reading plan and participate/teach inductive studies locally within this daily time frame. Because I'm often the teacher it has been easy to combine my crawl through a book with local teaching responsibilities. Sometimes I was doing what I would call "fluff" or "milk", an in-depth course and reading plan and it has always been able to be accomplished in less than 2.5 hours a day. However, computer time and communicating with others often have to take back burner to bigger goals for the day or week.

I’ve been led to the realization that I need to do all I can to make sure MIKE has the opportunity to tithe his time in personal time with the Lord. I’m possessive of the few hours he has at home, but we are discussing and praying over schedule changes that will make a set “study hour” in our home for all those who need it. He may stay at work even later a few nights a week to have this time. I believe it is important, as his helpmeet, that I do all I can to support his goal in this area.

I hope this clearly explains why I’m doing what I’m doing and why I feel that any time in the Word will be beneficial. As you read the Word this year may you come into personal contact with the Lord of the Word, may you develop an accurate view of who He is and what He requires of you, and may you be transformed by the time you’ve spent in relationship with Him through study of His Word.

http://blog.honeypot-hollow.com/ This is the blog of a friend of mine. She reads through the Bible twice a year and has listed links to many reading plans

Personally, I will be using the New Inductive Study Series and the plans in my New Inductive Study Bible for my power-walk. http://www.precept.org/newindex.html here is a link to Precept Ministries.

Another great site to download FREE inductive studies and information is http://collegelife.grace-bible.org/html/download_bible_studies.htm

Day Eleven of Vacation – 31 December 2005

Wow – the year is drawing to a close and so is our vacation time.

We spent today attempting to take this year’s family picture. This took a long, long time. We took 29 picture and then took a Stacia mandated break. We had the kids vote on pictures and we all liked one – except Nolan. Obviously, he was wearing a less than perfect expression in this photo. He asked that we try for a better shot.

Back to the living room and 19 shots and who knows how many minutes later and we have a few more shots to pick from. We are still not sure which photo will win. We all like the one with Nolan’s silly face best of all…but we want to honor his feelings as well. ONE of these pictures will become the new Family Picture hanging on our wall and mailed out in our “After Christmas Cards”. OK - one photo uploaded before blogger tells me that the page isn't available...so I'll post whichever picture we finally choose, later.

We had hoped to make it to the lake and such this afternoon…..but that photo session took much longer than we expected. By the time the session was over I had the raging start to a migraine. Mike and the kids decided to spend the couple of hours they had playing Ultimate Football at the school down the road. I took drugs and slept.

We had all planned to ring in the New Year at a friend’s with a game night. It became apparent that if I hope to be functional tomorrow I need to avoid light, noise and being overly tired tonight. I took more drugs and stayed home. I am going to bed now….and I’ll bring in the New Year in style in the a.m.

Almost a Family Picture....

After hours of posing, running back and forth from the tri-pod to the pose, breaking for bottles etc., the kids are voting on which picture will be our "family photo". We had one but Nolan wanted it redone...so we had another session.

I'm quite sure it will not be one of these:

Severe case of PPSS (Post Photographic Stress Syndrome)

Eager Expectations - A New Year's Reflection

Excerpted from an article I wrote for our local PWOC newsletter

My family teases me for having "calendar issues". At any given time I will have at LEAST five calendars in use at my home....two on the fridge, one in the bedroom, a desk top one beside the computer and a PDA in my purse. In addition to these calendars, I'm teaching two students how to use calendars (great way to learn so many things) and those daily lesson plans x5 can look suspiciously like a weekly calendar. No doubt about it, I like a well-thought out PLAN, and I probably do have calendar issues.

Are you a "first of the month" type of person? Do you love tearing off the old calendar page? With one mighty rip of the page, 30 days of past accomplishments, frustrations and, yes, failures are crumpled and left behind in the trash can. We get to move on! We get to START A NEW MONTH; a month with somewhat clean spaces and boxes. We get to choose how to fill those spots. We are faced with 30 days full of possibilities! Think of the awesome opportunity and responsibility of "tearing off" a whole year of months! May I challenge you to consider how God would have you fill some of those boxes? Would PWOC play a part in any of your plans?

Starting a new year can cause us a certain amount of uncertainty as well as excitement. We aren't sure what lies ahead in the upcoming year. There may be successes, failures, moves, deployments, joys, births and more that are unexpected as of 31 December 2005. BUT GOD knows the plans He has for you! Isn't that an awesome assurance? One of my all-time favorite verses is Jeremiah 29:11! "For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. (Oh, I can never stop with ONE verse )Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to ME, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find ME when you search for Me with all your heart (emphasis added) I will be found by you, declares the LORD, and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, declares the LORD, and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile." Jer. 29:11 - 14. Is your heart full of joy? Do you feel like you've been exiled? Regardless, the principle remains: God has a PLAN for you. It's a well-thought-out PLAN. It's a good PLAN, a PLAN for your welfare. God is not planning for your downfall - you can trust His PLAN - even if you can't see the purpose of all the details. God PLANS to give you a future and a hope!!!! Dear Sister, you are not hopeless! Are you searching for God with all your heart? He will be found. You can trust His mercy to walk with you along each step of the New Year; you can trust His loving-kindness to guide you. You can trust His strength to sustain you through any unexpected twists you may discover on your path in 2006. God wants to give you a future and a hope. A very basic definition for the Hebrew word translated hope is an "eager expectation". Are their areas of your life that you are clutching close to yourself? Why not consider handing them over to God and letting Him give you instead an eager expectation for the upcoming year? Do you sense an eager expectation in your heart? It's God's PLAN for you to have hope. It's God's plan for you to have an eager expectation for the things He will teach you and the ways He will guide you in 2006. If you find that you have no hope, will you make it a priority to spend time with your LORD today and ask Him for that hope which He promises those who seek Him?

Over 25 years ago I began to ask God to display His mighty miracle- power to turn me into a Proverbs 31 woman. May I leave one more exhortation with you? Proverbs 31:25 "Strength and dignity are her clothing and she smiles at the future." In the quietness of your heart will you honestly evaluate if you are smiling at the future? If not, God stands ready to calm your heart and to give you the grace to smile at the future...to even eagerly expect great things from Him for this year. Journals are great tools - you may want to take some time to write out a prayer to the LORD about those "eager expectations" He is impressing on YOUR heart for the year 2006.

As for those calendar issues, could it be that I'm subconsciously trying to find more time in the month?

Geocaching Pictures - 30 Dec 2005

Pictures simply would NOT open in the message below:

Thanks to Jen who emailed after reading story below and suggested how to do a group cache so that the cache isn't opened until all find it. {grin} I bet we would have eventually worked out a system....maybe.

Josiah opens Altoid Tin - Our first Cache

Picture seems representative of this current season of parenting! Little ones are being helped along by older ones...all taking steps towards independence and seemingly away from me.....I'm chasing behind trying to record their new adventures! {grin}

Josiah finds our second Cache (see it?)

Day Ten of Vacation – Part 2 – GEOCACHING

Geocaching has hit our home. Mike got a Garmin eTrex Vista C for Christmas and the kids got a Garmin eTrex. Mike spent spare minutes the last few days learning how to use the GPS units and I spent time asking questions of friends, like: “What do they mean leave something in the cache – what?”

To those who aren’t familiar with geocaching, it could best be described as a cross between 19th century treasure hunting and 21st century hide n seek. A cache is hidden. The owner of the cache logs onto http://www.geocaching.com/ and lists the coordinates of the cache, how hard it is to find, encrypts any clues they want to leave and gives a description of what they placed in the cache. You choose a cache, enter the coordinates on your GPS and set out. When you find the cache you sign in the log book, take anything you want and replace the items you’ve taken with like items. When you get home you go to the website and log your find and comments.

This afternoon we headed out to try to find our first three caches. I’m not sure how Mike picked them. I was all for finding the level 1 caches but he found the 3.5 ones for us. I think he picked the interesting sounding titles. We went to one that was outside a military cemetery in the really old section of town that we didn’t know existed. That cache was right near the road and Josiah found the actual Altoid container that was full of goodies. Arielle and Nolan voted to take a squishy, water-filled palm tree and we left a smiley face Italian Charm. I had navigated to this one and Mike had driven. Since I had no clue how to read the directions on Mike’s GPS I suggested that I drive to the second one. We headed out to find our second Cache in high spirits.

With Mike reading the directions – it does NOT say “turn right” etc….it’s an arrow headed towards a destination and you get to guess which way to turn and WHEN – I headed back onto the loop. We were surprised to eventually find ourselves back in our own neighborhood. This cache was called Chapel Hill and we couldn’t remember any chapel near our home…..but….if you go to the end of the dirt road and then hike about a mile on a dirt road and then take off across the cactus/mesquite infested plain….you see a lovely view of a chapel on a hill…and you find our second cache. Josiah AGAIN is the one who first spotted the hidden cache. This time we took a lens cleaner and left a bracelet. On our way out of this site we saw 5 deer. The sun was setting so we decided to save cache number 3 for another day. This one promised ducks and water…..THIS I’ve gotta find!

We had a BLAST with this. It’s family fun. It’s cheap. It got us outdoors and to two new areas of town we’d not seen before. We all enjoyed trying to follow the coordinates to the hidden container. I think this sport appeals to families with one or more outdoor-loving techno-geeks in them….we have several. {grin}

Some things we observed: In AK they grow fern…in TX they grow all manner of prickly vegetation. In AK the ground would have been covered in snow this time of year and in the summer you’d have to deal with Grizzlies. In TX the ground was covered with cacti, the weather was a wonderful 70* or so and in the summer you’d have to deal with rattlers. I, De’Etta, am planning more park and grab caches and mall caches for the summer….AIR CONDITIONING!!!! Personally, I learned that there are dire consequences to trying to “brush” cactus thorns off your pant leg with your hand. My hand was covered in the nasty things. Then I tried to bite a few thorns out of my hand and got a thorn stuck on the inside of my lip. We’ve decided to gather a geocaching backpack with water, Band-Aids, tweezers (for pulling thorns), garbage bag to haul out cans, bottles and such that we find etc. Stacia will ride in a back pack.

Below are some pictures of the adventure! {No, we didn’t take a family picture today. Tomorrow I will venture to Wal-mart and buy white t-shirts and then we’ll head out to find scenery for a picture}. Pictures won't upload will try again in the am.

Day Ten of Vacation – 30 December 2005

The day is off to a very slow start. It is currently 10:35 and 60% of our family is still in BED. I will let you guess which 5 are up. {grin}

We had discussed going out with the tri-pod to get a family picture while the girls are home. If we are going to do that it will have to be today or tomorrow. Sunday will be full and then they leave. I wonder what the day will hold. I wonder what the score of the Spurs game was and I wonder how long 60% of the family will pretend to sleep through the racket of the other 40% of the family. {big grin}

I’ve spent several hours searching for an “inductive survey” to use to study the Bible through this year. Most plans are going to take significantly longer than one year. I’m not looking for an in-depth inductive study of each book. I want a survey but more than a skim-the-surface survey. I want to get a deeper understanding of the overall context/structure of the Bible as a whole so that when studying and teaching specific books of the Bible I will have a good foundation to “hang it on”, a deeper understanding of the context of the book. Having spent all this time doing internet searches, praying, reading, enjoying my devotional time…it is time to hit the shower and see if any of these others can be raised. {grin}