Rubbish at Bible Study 8: Practical tips and ideas

Here are some notes from the last couple of RABS discussion evenings, which focussed on practical solutions to problems people have with making Bible Study happen in busy lives:

• If you have set yourself a goal for how much time you will give to Bible Study, and then find you haven't managed it, or haven't even started, firstly have grace for yourself rather than beating yourself up, and secondly change your goal.

• Reduce the amount of time, or break it into smaller chunks. e.g. 3 x 10 minute sessions, rather than 1 x 30 minutes.

• Be imaginative about when you make time, e.g. when you are walking to/from work, by listening to audio versions of the Bible, and using a phone/ipod voice recorder to record your thoughts and notes.

•  I'll suggest some audio download versions of the Bible in the next post, but if you search on Amazon etc, you can find MP3/CDRom versions available. You will probably find that you will simply have to get used to the by now indisputable fact that God has an American accent! You will tune in and stop noticing this more quickly than you think.

• Put a Bible/notepad somewhere you visit on a regular basis each day and might be able to take 5 or 10 minutes alone to read/think/pray while completing your normal activities in that place. I've made this as subtle and polite as possible for some people's benefit, but make sure you don't come out only when you're shouted at each time you pay a visit, or you'll end up unpopular in your house, especially if you only have 1 of these facilities on the premises!

• Save notes on a PC so that you can easily keep adding to them. If you have an online document store (e.g. Google docs) then you can access it from anywhere. This is a good way of keeping a journal, especially if you're handwriting is as bad as mine!

• Find a quiet place to get into the right frame of mind, e.g. a Library, Wetherspoons, Starbucks, Costa, or Cafe Nero (whose coffees are immeasurably better than their rivals!)

• If you think/process visually, start by studying passages that contain narrative, storyline, plot, character, and visualise the content. This works for OT narrative history, much prophetic imagery, Gospel accounts, Parables, Acts, and Apocalyptic writing (like Ezekiel, Daniel or Revelation) although that last category can - possibly should?! - leave you befuddled. In fact, never trust anyone who claims to completely understand the last book of the Bible, they must have missed something. If you don't understand Revelation - don't worry, it's not the end of the world.

Feel free to add practical advice, comments, ideas.

Thanks,
Jez