Helpful Resources

Over at Revive Our Hearts there are some useful resources available for downloading and printing. Here are some, but you can find more here.

• 10 Reasons You Can't Afford Not to be Hospitable
• A Call to Biblical Womanhood
• Biblical Portrait of Womanhood
• Men & Women: Similarities & Differences
• 10 Questions for Explore & Understand a Church
• 31 Days of Praying for Your Pastor
• 31 Days of Praying for Your Pastor's Wife
• Follow the Leaders
• 15 Ways to Please Your Husband
• 30 Day Husband Encouragement Challenge
• 31 Days of Praying for Your Husband
• Personal "Hedges"
• Mirror Mirror On the Wall: The Decision to Live Your Life for God's Glory
• Sexual Purity
• 23 Great Questions to Ask Your Kids
• 12 Ways to Pray for Your Child's Future Mate
• 15 Ways to Make Prayer a Natural Part of Family Life
• 31 Biblical Virtues to Pray for Your Children
• How's Your Love Life?

"Never in January?"

Since our first few posts of 2007 have been typically reflective -as befits the time of year - I thought I'd carry on in this vein. Yes, it's that point in the calender when many of us resolve to get our bible reading in check: aiming perhaps to read the bible through in the coming year.

If you are anything like me, normally by the end of the first month I've failed miserably, falling behind in my readings and generally trying to play catch up. Nothing worse to dampen the enjoyment of what reading God's Word should be.

Having just flicked over to Desiring God, I noticed an article by Noel Piper: "Never in January". In it Noel describes her difficulties in reading the bible through in a year and how bible reading plans never seemed to work for her. Instead she offers her method of bible reading in which she found the following "results":

This time I can truthfully say that I never dragged myself dutifully on to the next chapters. I loved it and it pulled me back day after day. What made this attempt different? I'm certain God's Spirit provided the inspiration, because I was the same stumbling Christian I have always been. But I did decide to take a more creative approach to my "walk through the Word".

So what was this "more creative approach"? Here are a few things that struck me:

• Noel didn't necessarily start in January, but started "anytime now".
• She didn't start "in the beginning" but in "unknown territory".
• She didn't read the bible "in sequence".
• She didn't split her reading into 365 "equal segments".
• She took only the bible along with her for "reading material".
• She became a "hunter" in which a blue highlighter became her "weapon".

Please do take time to read this article. I found it both comforting (that such a godly woman who I have much admiration for struggles with the same things I do), and encouraging, as Noel has creatively sought and achieved to do that which we all strive to - read faithfully, and joyfully, God's Word.

Read One Page Per Day

After a discussion last night with some friends, the topic came around to reading books. With a variety of different folks there, some who struggled to read, others who couldn't put books down, there was a consensus that there is tremendous value in reading. But how do we get beyond the hurdles of time, tiredness and TV which prevent us from picking up a good book, even The Good Book?

I came across some excellent resources recently on Don Whitney's website, Spiritual Disciplines. There are some articles and excerpts from some of his books that are well worth a look. One such excerpt addresses practically this difficulty with reading. Don writes:

"When life gets too complex, one of the first parts of a healthy spiritual life to decline is reading. I talk to well-intentioned Christians almost every week who confess to growing piles of books by their “reading” chair, desk, nightstand, and other places, but who never have time to read. Reading for sheer enjoyment was long ago forsaken. Reading for Christian growth rarely happens. Most days, a few minutes in the Bible is all that’s left of their reading. Those who love to learn and those who want to grow grieve the loss of reading like the loss of a close friend. “But what can I do,” they sigh, “there are only so many hours in a day.”

To these overwhelmed believers I usually ask, “Do you think you could find the time to read one page of a book each day?” No one has ever told me they couldn’t, no matter how busy they are or how many children they have. It might mean sneaking a page during a visit to the bathroom, sitting in the car an extra two minutes at the end of the morning or evening commute, or standing by the bed to read a moment before crashing into the pillow at night.

By reading one page per day you can read 365 pages in a year, or the equivalent of two full-length books. That may not sound like much, but it’s far better than not reading at all. Moreover, by some accounts this would place you above half the U.S. population in the number of books read each year.

Furthermore, if you read just two books a year for the rest of your life, think of how many books you’d read if you lived to be seventy or seventy-five. Add to these all the books you might read in your retirement years if you develop the habit reading just a little each day now.

By this means of just a page per day, I’ve seen mothers of multiple preschoolers, homeschooling moms, and overwhelmed executives alike plow through a book every month or two. It wasn’t because they had any less to do. Rather, the secret lay in the simple discipline of making the commitment to read just one page. Invariably, of course, when they read one page they decided to read more. The main problem was just getting to that first page. Once that was done, the rest was not only easy, but enjoyable as well.

Get back to the simple pleasure of good reading, one page at a time."

Excerpted from Donald S. Whitney, Simplify Your Spiritual Life. To read more sample chapters from this book click here.

Keeping the Bible at the Top of the Pile

At titus2talk we spend a lot of time encouraging you to read good Christian books and look at Christian websites. Don't get me wrong, these are extremely worthwhile activities and are certainly a far better use of your time than reading the latest celebrity gossip or watching pointless reality TV shows.

But when are these things not so good? Nicki and I were talking about this recently during one of our "putting the world to rights" sessions while walking back from our church toddler group. We both recognise a tendency in ourselves to read Christian books or blogs more readily than we study Scripture itself. We may know that there is no substitute for reading and meditating on the Bible, but often laziness wins the day, as we prefer someone else to do the hard work for us.

Can I encourage you, as I challenge myself, not to pick up a Christian book or surf the web on any day until you have spent time reading the Bible for yourself. In one of my favourite books (besides the Bible!) A Quest for Godliness, J.I. Packer talks about the Puritans' approach to reading Scripture:

"The Puritans often echo Augustine's remark that, just as there are shallows in Scripture where a lamb may wade, so there are depths in Scripture where an elephant may swim - depths which the most learned and godly have yet to plumb. All Christians, therefore, should approach their study of Scripture knowing that they know but little, longing to learn more and looking to God himself to open to them his own word."

It is easy to make excuses in each of the various seasons of life to explain why we spend so little time studying the Bible for ourselves. But if we want to become "elephants" instead of "lambs" we need to spend time prayfully meditating on Scripture. The washing-up can wait for a little while longer...