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10 Ways to Celebrate Scripture

Over the last 40 days, I’ve spent time exploring the garden with Adam and Eve, wrestling lions with Samson, visiting churches with Paul, and falling more in love with God with each turning page of his beautiful story. A few thousand crazy-pants friends and I went on an adventure through the entire Bible—about 30 chapters per day. (You can read about what this taught me, here).

After those 40 days ended, I felt spiritually full—like the buttons on my jacket were going to pop off. It’s a feeling I don’t want to let go of.

I’ve collected 10 ideas to celebrate the wonder of Scripture every day and wanted to share them with you– whether you read the whole Bible during Lent or want to lay hold of its treasures each day of the year. Feel free to add your own in the comments below and share this page with others:

1) Carve out time. I don’t know about you, but I can make every excuse in the book not to read God’s Word—I may have good intentions, like reading books about reading the Bible, but there is nothing like opening the pages and letting Scripture saturate you in God’s mercy, grace, and love.

During the last 40 days I’ve learned that I do not naturally have extra time to read Scripture. I must carve out time. [Tweet this] That may mean less time on Facebook, Pinterest, and Airbnb (Uh-oh, if you haven’t discovered Airbnb yet, forewarning: it may become dangerously fun). It may mean waking up 30 minutes earlier or going to bed 30 minutes later. It may mean putting down the remote when an episode of Parks and Rec or Downton Abbey comes on. Spending time in God’s Word is something to sacrifice for.

Every. Single. Day.

2) Download the free 40 Day Bible Reading Guide and begin the journey with a neighbor, Bible study group, significant other, BFF, mailman, or in-law. Encourage one another along the way and hold each other accountable to keep up on the reading. Several people who read the Bible during Lent are turning right around and starting again. Make a commitment today to read and re-read God’s Story each year.

3) Listen to the audio Bible. Check out this article for several ways to download and listen to the Bible on audio for free! Instead of listening to the radio during your commute or favorite playlist on the treadmill, download the audio Bible. Listening for about an hour each day will enable you to read the entire Bible in just under 80 days.

4) Dive into a specific book of the Bible. Now that you’ve traveled at 40,000 feet, it’s time to dig in. Let’s go back to the beginning! Pursuing God’s Love 6-Session DVD Bible study and accompanying workbook explores the entire book of Genesis. Pick up a copy, here. Pursuing God’s Beauty 6-Session DVD Bible study and accompanying workbook explores the entire Gospel of John. Pick up a copy, here. Psst… this summer we will be going on an adventure with Midday Connection using the Pursuing God Bible studies. Starting on June 6th, Midday Connection will play radio segments each week exploring these two Bible studies. Will you join us? Pick up your copies, here.

5) Memorize Scripture. Ann Voskamp offers tips and tricks to Scripture memorization. Sweet Ann and Liz Curtis Higgs are memorizing a few chapters of Romans this year. Select a book, passage, or single verse and start memorizing. Committing God’s Word to your heart allows the wonder of Scripture to come alive in new and fresh ways! Click here to download the PDF for the Romans Project. You can even use websites like Scripture Typer to help with your memorization.

6) Set an alarm reminder. YouVersion allows you to create alarms to remind you to read the Bible. Getting caught up in work? Watching too much of your favorite show? A reminder on your phone or in your email may be just what you need to grab a glass of sweet tea, snuggle up in your favorite chair and read the Bible.

7) Watch The Bible. Mark Burnett’s The Bible has been airing for the last 5 weeks on The History Channel. If you haven’t gotten a chance to tune into the episodes, you can purchase a copy of the DVDs from amazon, here.

8) Go back. Review. Dig Deeper. If you joined us for the 40-Day Bible Reading Challenge, you may be left with a lot of unanswered questions, stories you want to re-read, and themes you want to explore further. Flip back through the pages and spend time finding answers to your questions. Maybe pick up a Bible study on themes that stood out to you. Utilize helpful sites like BlueLetterBible.com.

9) Try a new translation. If you followed along during the 40-Day Bible Reading Challenge, you may have noticed that I was reading through The Message translation. In reading so much of the Bible in a small amount of time, I wanted a fresh translation to open my eyes and hearts to familiar passages I may have just glazed over. I was blown away by Eugene Peterson’s beautiful language and imagery in The Message. What different translations do you recommend?

10) Take a break. You may be a little burnt out after reading the entire Bible in 40-Days. Don’t feel guilty taking a pause from gorging on Scripture and pick up a light devotional or spend your quiet time practicing other spiritual disciplines like prayer or solitude.

What ideas do you have to encourage others to celebrate the wonder of Scripture? [Tweet this]

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