# What's your routine for Bible time/study?



## J. Dean (Dec 15, 2011)

Do you read it alone? Read it with a commentary? Read it and check the notes in your study Bible? Do you read X amount of chapters? Morning? Noon? Night? Do you vary your time or approach at all to avoid a rote "auto-pilot" monotony?

I'm just curious as to everybody's own way of doing it, seeing what works best for different people.


----------



## VictorBravo (Dec 15, 2011)

No particular routine for me. I always seem to find about 4 hours each day for reading. Usually 1/2 hour in the morning, 1/2 hr around noon, and 3 hours in the evening.

On the Lord's Day I usually have a block of 4-6 hours.

I read other things as well in that time, and vary the amount given to each work. Usually I have at least 1/2 hour reading Scripture straight through. Many of the NT books can be read completely through in that time (Hebrews usually takes me 35 minutes). I have a little notepad that I note passages I want to go back to.

On the Lord's Day I'll often read Scripture straight for about 3-4 hours. I fairly often take on the longer OT books. I'll read Isaiah or Jeremiah in one sitting--Ezekiel always seems to take me longer. Again, I have a note pad to jot down passages that catch my eye and demand further study.

I have a photocopy of my Bible's table of contents on which I can jot the dates I've read things, so I can keep track of what I haven't read for the year. 

After doing a block of Scripture reading, sometimes I look at my notes and go to commentaries, sometimes I look at the passages in Hebrew or Greek, and sometimes I get carried away with one of the original language passages and keep reading there. My skill in Hebrew and Greek is not as good as it ought to be, so I have a lexicon in my lap as well--and still the note pad.

When I look at my notes, I see I typically spend about an hour to two hours per weekday doing the above. The rest of the time is spent on other projects.

Saturdays depend on the project. I'm doing some translation work that occupies about 4 hours at a time. But even then, I seem to find another hour to let me do the 1/2 hr block and note review of Scripture reading.


----------



## Jack K (Dec 15, 2011)

Does "haphazard and easily broken" qualify as a type of routine? If so, that's mine.

To answer some of your questions... when I read for devotional purposes I almost always read without commentaries. I like to read through a Bible book, or shorter section of a book, several times in the course of a month. I find that by re-reading I (1) keep seeing new things and (2) really learn the contents of that book. I work from home and vary my reading times a lot based on the day's work. I skip it some days and go long on others. Sometimes I'll finish a book and not start another for quite a while. Often I'll just study a passage I'm teaching on or writing about and use it as devotional fodder as well. More discipline might be good for me, but this way I do enjoy my devotional Bible reading. I seldom look at it as a chore.


----------



## M21195 (Dec 15, 2011)

With my Reformation Study Bible: About 3 chapters of Old Testament, 1 Chapter of Psalms, Job or Proverbs, 1 chapter of a Gospel and 1 chapter of an Epistle. Every Morning before leaving for work. Gets me through the word in about a year...


----------



## gordo (Dec 20, 2011)

I usually read a devotional every morning from Spurgeon. He usually has passage at the beginning that after I finishing reading I look up in my ESV Study Bible or reference in my Matthew Henry Commentary to get its full meaning.

At night I read my Bible whenever I can. Usually 10-20 mins here and there through out.


----------



## gordo (Dec 20, 2011)

Your routine is almost exactly the same as mine Philip. 

As for the Bible in a Year method, I tried one of those last year. I am sure everyone has a different experience with them, but I didn't like it. I found I was reading stuff I didn't really feel like reading at the time. It turned into almost feeling like 'work'. Not that God's Word is ever 'work', but having a list of something you have to read kinda made it feel that way. My current routine takes me all over the Bible and I like it. But as I said, to each his own.


----------

