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One Year Pray for the Persecuted Bible - Flipbook - Page 12

THE ONE YEAR BIBLE user’s guide
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with Scripture. (Since everyone is different, not all of these practices may work for you. And
some of the practices work better for longer passages, as opposed to single verses, and vice
versa.) Use these tools to help you engage with God’s Word more deeply.
Practice 1—Read It Aloud: This practice will slow you down and allow you to focus. Reading
aloud takes about twice as long as silent reading. It also allows you to encounter God’s Word
t wice—t hrough both your eyes and ears—leading you to a more nuanced interaction with the
text. (This is especially useful as you approach a longer passage.) As you read aloud, you could
try to read the text i nterpretively—add color to your expression to help you more completely
take in and express the message. You could even dramatize a scene. And if others are around,
don’t be afraid to share the experience with them!
Practice 2—Copy It: Take out a pen and paper and copy a verse or passage of particular interest. If you are a visual learner, this should help you focus on the text more intensely. It will also
force you to slow down even more and approach it phrase by phrase, helping you savor the
text as you would a meal of many courses. If you have some talent with your pen, express the
meaning of the text with different kinds of scripts and ink colors. This will help you focus on
the meaning in greater detail. Typing the text into your computer and formatting the text creatively could accomplish the same sort of thing. If your rendering turns out really well, frame
it or send it to friends to encourage their reflection.
Practice 3—Summarize It: Take a journal or computer and write a summary for each reading
in this Bible with just a single sentence. This could be a simple content summary, or perhaps a
summary of what God said to you through the passage. Reading with this practice can help you
stay focused and also help you create a personal tool for Bible review. As you finish reading a
Bible book, summarize the entire book’s core message in a sentence or paragraph. Then at the
end of the year, try to summarize the message of the whole Bible. From your perspective, what
is the Bible’s unified message?
Practice 4—Paraphrase It: Take out a pen and paper, or start up your computer, and put some
verses into your own words. Try to capture all the important parts of the passage without leaving anything out. This will help you pay attention to the details and to the rich meanings of the
words. Drink in the text, digest its meaning, and write it again from the unique perspective God
has given you. Don’t worry about the word order; focus on the message. You will likely find that
this leaves you with nuggets of wisdom to take away and to continue to think about.
Practice 5—Divide It: This practice is somewhat the opposite of summarizing the broad
strokes of a passage. To divide a text, choose a particular sentence that is especially meaningful
to you, like “The Lord is my shepherd” (Psalm 23:1). Highlight each word of the sentence successively, and read it over and over again. This will allow you to see the verse from varied angles.
THE Lord is my shepherd.
The LORD is my shepherd.
The Lord IS my shepherd.
The Lord is MY shepherd.
The Lord is my SHEPHERD.
As you do this, you will likely see truths in the text that you were blind to before.
Practice 6—Personalize It: Embrace or claim Scripture personally by taking a verse or passage that clearly applies to you and replacing the nouns or pronouns with your own name.
This will drive home the truth that God is speaking about you and to you. The verse that