Wednesday in the Word: Summer Challenge

 

If you are one of my early morning readers, you probably wondered where I was when you arrived this morning. This week has been quite laden with plot twists, and last night, as I scrambled to get all my regular things done, I just simply failed to write a blog post. Ryan and I crawled into bed a little before midnight, the sky practicing a strobe light routine, hearts weary, and I said, “I completely failed to write the blog.” And I just didn’t have it in me to get back up and start.

                So thanks for your grace, you early morning people.

                It probably won’t surprise you that doing deep dive studies pre-coffee is possibly NOT the best idea, so for today’s post, I have decided to extend to you the same challenge I gave our church a couple of weeks ago. I shared a message on Bible study, and at the end, I had a challenge for every age group, designed to encourage them to spend some time in the Bible itself every single day. Not in books ABOUT the Bible. But in the actual Bible.

                For the adults, I left this pretty open-ended. I presumed they would know what they were capable of doing, both in a time commitment and in a desire for depth of study. I have to tell you, it has been the sweetest surprise to hear from so many already who are eager to share their ideas. (And we have some pretty creative people!)

                I know we’re a week into June already, but I would love to challenge you for the rest of June, and then July and August, to spend some time in the Bible every single day.

                Maybe you’ll do a reading plan.

                Maybe you’ll study one book or passage in depth.

                Maybe you’ll memorize something.

                Maybe you’ll handwrite something.

                Whatever it is, I hope you learn and grow in ways you didn’t expect!

                Can I tell you what I’m doing? After I had written my message and knew this would be my challenge, Beth Moore announced she was doing a summer study on Job. She releases a teaching on YouTube each Monday in June (free) and also provides a small study guide to accompany it. I’m going to study all three months, so I’ll be a bit behind her actual released study plan, but I’m excited to learn.

                In her first video, she quoted a gentleman who had translated the Hebrew Bible (Law, Prophets, and Writings) and provided some commentary over his translation choices. She mentioned him because he translated the first verse of Job as “A man there was, in the land of Uz – Job his name.” That did not cease to make me smile just to say it out loud.

                I looked up the Bible and found it’s actually a three volume set, and it was on a deep sale when I looked. I cashed in some reward money to buy it, and it arrived just yesterday. Maybe I spaced writing the blog because I was lost in one of these beauties!

                You don’t have to buy a fancy resource…but can I encourage you to choose a summer study and dive right in? You won’t be sorry!