Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Bible & Ministry Reading Project

It is likely that this plan is overly-ambitious, but I'm going to attempt a creative Bible & ministry reading schedule. The idea is that each day you read 1 chapter of the Bible, 1 Life-study message, and 1 chapter in a ministry book. So here goes...

I'm currently reading 1 John w/ footnotes; with the help of the Read His Word website. This aspect of the schedule is simple. It involves reading just the verses in the morning, and coming back to read the footnotes later in the day. Whether we do a whole chapter a day or less is insignificant. My main priority is that each morning begin with a nourishing time in the Word. And ReadHisWord.com is helpful because I want to set deadlines and (attempt to) keep them.

For a few months I've been reading through the Life-study of Hebrews, by Witness Lee. Today I'm slated to read message forty-four (that's 44) regarding our coming forward to the Holy of Holies rather than shrinking back to Judaism - which actually is surprisingly relevant to our Christian living today. Anyway, the idea with the Life-study reading is nothing too fancy, just read, highlight, underline, enjoy, etc. The days of outlining Life-study messages (often on a Monday) are now just a treasured memory.

The real highlight of this schedule is the daily ministry reading rotation. This may turn out to be overwhelming, but I consider it nothing more than a solution to a daunting, even life-threatening issue (i.e., which ministry books to read and where to begin). So each day (Monday - *Friday) receives a ministry book assignment based on five, okay, maybe six categories:


1. High Peak books
2. Witness Lee classics
2. God-ordained Way messages
3. Watchman Nee classics
4. Ministry of the Word Magazine
5. Secular reading (give me a break)
6. *Whatever I want to read

Okay sure, there could obviously be overlap between these categories. Strictly speaking they are not mutually exclusive; a book I consider as a "Witness Lee classic" could possibly be a high peak book or a GOW book, but I'm making the rules, not you. 

So each of these categories will correspond to a day of the week. There could possibly be significance to the matching of day and category (like a delicate wine and cheese pairing, if you will). For example, if you select the Ministry Magazine that matches your HWMR it may fit well on Saturday as you begin to compose your prophesy. A GOW book might be fun to read on Friday. You could read it before your home meeting to figure out what to do, or after the home meeting to figure out what you did wrong. Of if you're slick you might just start your week in the GOW.

Obviously these pairings need more consideration and thorough prayer. Each day this week (starting tonight) I'll have a post to introduce the "book of the day" and explain why it was selected. If you are lucky there may even be a frameable (spelling?) quote or tasty excerpt. Stay tuned...


*Saturday is still under consideration,

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