After Burn: (Week 4)

Last night was the end of the "Understand : Making Sense of the Bible" series.  We talked about talked about a third question to ask when reading the Bible, "What is my response?"  (Here is the first and second questions.)  To me, this is a better question than "What should I do?" because it helps us think more than just actions we should take.  Sometimes our response should be be grateful, have joy, or even rest.  These are things we should do, even though they aren't the typical things that come to mind when we think of what God wants us to do.  So I think the question, "What is my response?" helps us to consider more our lives than just actions. 

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As we've been going through the series I've been challenging you to read the same four passages each week.  Hopefully this helped ease you into asking the questions we've talked about.  But now that we're finished, you might think, "What do I read now?"  Great question.  I would suggest to you finding a reading plan.  There are two types of reading plans: ones that takes you though a topic (anger, joy, self-control, etc) and ones that take you through a book (Genesis, Matthew, Romans, etc.) from start to finish.  If you read though the Bible regularly, you'll probably end up doing both.  Let me recommend a couple of resources to get you started. 

• 23 Bible Reading Plans That Will Satisfy Anyone - Here is a diverse and pretty comprehensive collection of Bible reading plans. All of them are easy to follow and most include a printable copy you can keep in your Bible.  The plans range from two week commitments to year-long commitments, from reading straight through cover to cover, to topical readings, to a mixture of readings each day.

• YouVersion - Here's a link to a popular Bible app.  (Thanks Tyler, Sierra and Danielle for telling me about this.)  You can use the app on any phone or on the website directly.  There are tons of reading plans that are categorized by topic (New / Featured / Devotional / Topical / Partial Bible / Whole Bible / Youth / Family) which you can choose from on the left hand side bar.  It's looks like a pretty cool site, but beware.  With something like this with so many options it's easy to spend lot of time looking at everything and never really reading the Bible.  Sometimes more is too much, and less is better.  You should only spend about 5 minutes finding a plan.  If it takes longer than that, you're too distracted.  Just pick one and go for it.
• 30 Days with Jesus - If you'd rather not do any research and just want a place to start, here it is.  This will take you through different parts of the Gospel books (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) to get a picture of Jesus while he was on Earth. 
  

Between the links above, you should be set for a while.  Remember to read at your own pace; it's not a race or a contest.  Sometimes a verse or two is all I can read, and that's ok.   I've love to hear your questions and what you've been learning.  So let me know.