Monday, May 30, 2005

Getting Started Reading the Bible

It is hard to read the Bible. Not counting figuring out what it actually says, it is hard to know where to start, how often to read, etc. You may be different but I have found that reading on-line is much easier for me. Here is a site that has helped me a lot: www.biblegateway.com. The beauty of this site is that you can instantly go to any verse or series of verses. Check out this link:

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/index.php?search=matthew%201&version1=50

See the box that has "matthew 1" in it? Type in any verse ("mat 12") or series of verses ("1cor 12:1-4"), click on "Update" and you go right to it!

Notice the pulldown menu just to the right of that box - you can read the passage you just looked up in any one of (at this time) 19 different Bible translations!

You can also search for a phrase or word by typing it in the box at the top of the page just above "Email this page". Just type it in and click on "Go".



I've also found that having a well-defined reading plan (whether I read on-line or not) helps me keep going. Here is a good web site that has quote a few different ones, and for some, they'll even email you the verses for that day's reading. See www.bibleplan.org.

My Sunday School class is currently following a reading plan that you might find helpful. It is New Testament plan in chronological order, meaning that instead of starting with Matthew 1, then all of Matthew, then Mark 1, etc. it starts with the earliest times in the new Testament, and proceeds in chronological order, skipping back and forth among the books. If you've never read the NT thsi way, it maybe an interesting change for you. You can download that reading plan from this link:
http://fs1.riscserver.com/~wklowe/Bible/Sunday School NT reading list.xls

It is in Microsoft Excel format. The dates won't be current but you can either a) ignore them, b) change them yourself, or c) if you aren't experienced with Excel, just email me and I'll change them and email it to you.

I've found that having a well defined plan that I've committed to makes it much easier for me to read the Bible consistantly. It is much harder to read it regularly if you are just picking it up and reading some random section. Try one of these reading plans, and if I can help you in any way, don't hesitate to ask!

Monday, May 16, 2005

An encouraging story about the good in people

A friend sent me the most interesting article - it is about a guy who has nothing to live for, and is close to suicide, and decides to do something crazy - ride a unicycle across the USA! The article was interesting to me, but to me it wasn't the unicycling, it is what he discovers about the people he meets along the way. There is also a hint (just a hint) of Luke 9:1-6 in there. It is fairly short - take a minute, check it out, and see that things aren't as bad as the media would have you believe:

http://www.unicycling.org/unicycling/tales/kcash.html