The other day I finally got around to fixing my Bible cover – it’s getting a bit old, and the lovely fresh coating on the covers has become a crumbling mess around the edges. This means that a Bible study session tends to leave me looking like I’ve contracted some weird disease that has fluorescent pink spots as its only symptom…
Thankfully, I have also had some random ribbons kicking about the house for some time. Why not use them to keep the pink from shedding?
Voila! 🙂
At the same time, I’ve also been reading through my old Bible, which I unearthed a little while back. I retired it some years ago… it’s been around the world a few times, dropped in the bath at least twice, and has bits hanging off it. It also has notes and underlinings from years past, so I’ve been reminding myself of those times. It’s still quite sturdy…
…though crinkly!
Over the years my Bible reading has waxed and waned. There are times when I’ve read it voraciously, jumping from one text to the next, remembering some other verse that relates to the one I’m reading and finding that.
There are other times where I hardly read it at all… whether through busyness, or illness where I find it hard to concentrate. When that happens, it can be hard to get back into it. The best thing at that point is to just do it! Push through the resistance and read – I find that the more I read, the more I want to! 🙂
The other thing is to write down what I hear from God, both to remember it later, and to clarify in my own mind what I’ve heard. I used to write straight into my Bible, but haven’t done that with the ones I use now. I have a little book I write in, with day and date for each entry.
At the moment I’m reading Jeremiah.
If you want to ease into Bible reading, have a look at the Psalms, or the Gospel of John. Proverbs is good too. Find a translation you can easily read and dive on in!
Many, many years ago I was a glass engraver. One of the ways I “wrote down” some verses was on a glass, which we now use for Communion while we have church at home.
It’s very hard to get a legible photo… there are three verses engraved on the sides –
“The Lord you God is with you,
He is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
He will quiet you with His love,
He will rejoice over you with singing.”
Zephaniah 3:17
“Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland.
The wild animals honour me,
the jackals and the owls,
because I provide water in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland,
to give drink to my people, my chosen ”
Isaiah 43:18-20
“But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,
whose confidence is in him.
They will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit.”
Jeremiah 17:7-8
It’s been fun looking back at the promises and revelations from former years. Looking ahead is good…but looking back can also inform our future – whether the past is good or bad. Use the lessons learned to move forward, into growth and harvest.
❤
