God's Word for Me Today!
Daily Reading Plan Introduction
An Introduction to Daily Bible Study
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Welcome!A note from Dr. Chris E Marshall, Senior Pastor, I am extremely grateful to each of you who will
make the commitment to train to become a fully- devoted and
fully-developing follower of Jesus. A church with a handful of such committed disciples can make an
impact not just in Clinton Township and Butler County but also to the
ends of the earth! After
all, Jesus only had a handful of fully-devoted followers; and they
shared his transforming life and power with the world! May God bless each of us abundantly as we embark on this journey
of faith and transformation to make disciples for Jesus and bring glory,
honor and praise to God!
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God's Word for Me Today! is a vital part of our overall plan for developing fully-devoted followers of Jesus Christ through New Life Christian Ministries. Whether youre getting started with this daily opportunity to read Gods Word in an intentional way from day one -- Sunday, September 9, 2001 or youve joined us along the way, were glad to have you on board! Each reading is related to the overall theme for the week. The first weeks theme is Our Mission: Sharing The New Life Of Jesus Christ! Well be taking a closer look at our mission (sharing the new life of Jesus Christ with the world one person at a time) through the month of September. Then in October and November well examine Our Vision and its five components. Well close out 2001 by Unwrapping a Christ-Centered Christmas through the month of December.
As we start the new year 2002 well use January through August to introduce
our 30 Core Values, usually
introducing one core value each week, but occasionally taking two or three weeks
to cover a particular core value.
Overall Goal
The overall goal for our Worship, Nurture and Discipleship Scriptures is to encourage and equip people to be fully-devoted and fully-developing followers of Jesus, who hold a biblical world view, and who live out their faith 24/7! (twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week) The components of that process are weekly corporate worship and celebration; weekly group study through Wednesday Night Live; LIFE groups; daily Scripture reading and study (accompanied by prayer!) and living what weve learned through mission and service in our daily lives and through special opportunities provided throughout the year.
Put simply: Our goal is for Jesus to transform us through these spiritual disciplines. Our part is to participate whole-heartedly. Jesus part is renew our hearts and minds through His saving love and power. We know that He will do His part, so its up to us to do our part.
Training Provided!
Many churches hope their people will live for Jesus 24/7. Others try to get folks to live for Jesus 24/7. At New Life Christian Ministries were providing training so that, over time, we can and will live for Jesus 24/7! Such a lifestyle doesnt develop in a day, a week, a month or
even a year, but as we invest more and more of ourselves into knowing Jesus,
learning and living His teachings in Scripture, and worshiping, fellowshipping
and serving with brothers and sisters in His name, we become a
fully-functioning, biblical community. The results will be evident in our
lives quickly, but the lasting transformation of our lives and our life together
will be experienced over the long haul. We live in an instant world, where we expect to be able to
get what we want right now. The
life in Jesus Christ cant be micro-waved. It must be crock-potted.
What's
New about Daily Bible Reading?
In focusing on this particular component of our life transformation process Gods Word for Me Today one may ask, Whats so new about daily Bible reading? People have been doing that for as long as there have been Bibles. Whats new about Gods Word For Me Today is that the prayers, readings, questions and brief focus on the theme all relate to the theme for Sunday worship, and Wednesday Night Live. The process is integrated and repetitious. Someone once said, Repetition is the mother of learning. Certainly if our goal is to train to be 24/7 Christians rather than just trying to do it, then repetition needs to be part of that training discipline. In the world of sports, weight training is a discipline. It allows athletes to lift increasing amounts of weight with decreasing levels of difficulty. Running is a discipline. Through the discipline of running daily, an athlete increases her ability to run farther and faster. No one goes out and runs a marathon on the first day of training as a runner. In the same way, as you pick up Gods Word for Me Today for the first time you may be overwhelmed, if youve never read the Bible every day before.. Theres a prayer, a Scripture reading, four sets of questions and closing reflections on the text. You may wonder, How can I do all this? The answer is: you dont have to do it all every day, or any day. In fact, if you do a portion of the study every day, relying on the Holy Spirit to be your mentor, trainer and guide, youll still grow in faithfulness.
Does
One-Size Fit All?
Some of you may find that you need more than Gods Word for Me Today offers. Great! Spend more time in prayer with God, listening as well as talking. Read more Scripture than the text before you. Get a study Bible and dig into the study notes. Get a notebook and record what God is saying to you and doing in you. Gods Word for Me Today isnt intended to be a one-size fits all answer to every persons need for daily prayer, meditation and study with God. Its a tool, a training aide, designed to help all of us become more fully-devoted followers of Jesus today, than we were yesterday.
Nuts and Bolts
Before you start reading, pause and ask God to use the Holy Spirit to give
you an understanding of what you read, and also to give you the power to apply
it to your daily life. Any time we
read the Scripture our first step is to ask God to reveal His will to us through
it. After all, God speaks to us most clearly through His written Word to us! My Prayer Today is offered to
help us turn the process over to God as we start each day!
Our daily readings will be from the New Living Translation of the Bible. While we will print Scriptures each day, you will gain the most from this
daily study if you read from your own
Bible. That way you can
underline those texts that are most meaningful to you, or write reminders in the
margins if you want to return to a text at a future time, or if you gained a
particularly important insight from it. A Study Bible is always helpful in reading and studying the Bible. Two excellent study Bibles are THE LIFE APPLICATION BIBLE,
which comes in various translations including the New Living Translation, and
the NIV STUDY BIBLE which, as the name suggests is based on the New
International Version translation of the Bible.
Each day you will find one, two, or
several verses in bold print and italics. These are the verses on which the text centers. You may want to commit these verses to memory. In fact, if your time is
limited, you may want to focus only on these verses, remember them and ask God
to help you live them throughout the day! After all, it isnt how many verses weve gone through thats important, but how
many verses have gone through us!
When memorizing a Bible verse, say the
book, chapter and verse before AND after reciting the verse. Thats because the hardest part of a Bible verse to remember is its
location in the Bible! For example if you want to remember John 3:3, say, John 3:3 Jesus replied, I assure you, unless you are born again, you
can never see the Kingdom of God. John 3:3.
Following the daily Scripture readings will be four types of questions: Questions for Reflection (which will get us thinking about the topic
in general); Questions for Exploration (which will help us dig into the text); Questions for Understanding (which will help us see how the text
applies to us, or impacts our lives); Questions for Application (which will help us apply what weve read to our
daily lives!) One question in each
group is highlighted for those who have limited time, or for those just getting
started in the daily Bible training.
When (not if, but when) you miss a day its okay. Do the same thing you do when you miss a meal take an extra helping the next
time. We all have days that dont
go the way we planned. Dont let a
missed day sidetrack this vital process. Eating is so important that if we miss it for a day, we dont quit, we
pick up where we left off! Thats
an important analogy for taking in spiritual nourishment as well.
Most important of all: the goal is to let God transform us! If this becomes just one more task to check off our to do list, we will have
missed the true blessing of spending daily time in Gods word. If we know ten times as much Scripture at this time next year as we do
today, will we be ten times as loving? Will we be ten times as forgiving? Will we be ten times more passionate about living for Jesus 24/7? The last thing any of us needs is one more thing to do, which
will result in our feeling even
more hurried, harried and harassed. The goal is transformation, not just
increased information! Gods
blessings!