Bible Intake in 2008

Here are some resources to help us profit from God's Word in the new year:

• Robert Murray M'Cheyne's Daily Bible Reading Calendar (this .pdf file would be great for distribution among church members; it is one page that easily folds in two and would fit inside the Bible)
  

• D. A. Carson's two volumes of For the Love of God go through the Bible using M'Cheyne's calendar and add Carson's devotional (usually on one of the passages read) - Volume 1 - Volume 2.  A free email version is also available:  visit http://www.christwaymedia.com/sampledevotional.htm to sign up for a free daily email.

• Bible Reading Record and Bible Reading Plan from Don Whitney

• Read and Meditate and Methods of Meditation on Scripture from Don Whitney (MS Word .doc) (.pdf)
  

• Memorizing Extended Passages of Scripture by Andy Davis
  

If you want to get on a fast track, check out the plan at Said at Southern to read through the Bible in a month.

A Challenge to Memorize Scripture

I was contemplating Scripture memory sometime last year when it dawned
on me (probably not for the first time, but enough to leave more of a
lasting impression) that the elementary students I was teaching were
memorizing Scripture regularly and I was memorizing . . . none. But I
need it just as much as anyone else!

The suggestion in Andy Davis' chapter of Dear Timothy: Letters on Pastoral Ministry to
memorize not simply verses, but entire books of the Bible led to some
men in our church attempting 1 Timothy. My class in Biblical
Hermeneutics with Dr. Rob Plummer has an assignment on Psalm 119 (in
which we are to categorize each verse into one or more of the
following categories to help us better interpret the Bible: prayer,
meditation, trials). Our professor noted that another professor had
required incoming seminary students to memorize Psalm 119, so I
thought . . . hmmm . . . should I? I decided yes, and am into the
second section.

Psalm 119 is an acrostic poem divided into 22 sections of eight verses
each, corresponding to the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. This Psalm
about God's Word was designed for memorization. It has already been a
great blessing to go to sleep or wake with these words on my mind and
heart and to have them shape my prayers: "Help me seek You with my
whole heart" (verse 2); "Help me to treasure Your Word so that I may
be kept from sin" (verse 11). If you are interested in memorizing
this Psalm with me and receiving and providing accountability in this
discipline, please email me at glorygazer@gmail.com.