So today we are back at Alpha again having had our mid-term break. It seems an awful long time since we did, how and when should i pray? It is funny how that period has affected me as I feel I have been stagnant or possibly even moved a little backwards on my journey. I am certainly not feeling so confident of myself and what I have been looking at now. I can even feel myself at times beginning to question the whole thing all over again and some of the questions from early during the course are coming back.
Overall it has been a real struggle with being without stuff during my week in Coventry and the last week away again but just distant from it all. I guess I have had to look at it on my own and I find that when I am looking at it on my own sometimes it just doesn't seem to be the same.
So relief that we are restarting the course tonight! We are now into How and when should I read the bible? This to me is another fundamental issue that there is with the whole thing is the book is not the most readable in the world. You can't pick it up and just decide "I am going to read the bible". I imagine I am not the first person in the world to try to read it and fail. You find that you don't get a flow and it can be extremely bitty.
So the only thing I know about this is that reading it in very small sections and picking relevant bits to your life is the way to go. But how do you navigate round a book the size of the bible. Finding something in particular for me is completely impossible. Hey lets be honest if someone said to go and read Jeremiah chapter 1 verse 5, the first place i have to go is the contents page to find where Jeremiah is. I don't know the order of it and what comes where. It also appears you need to understand who the people were who wrote their bible and their backgrounds to fully understand the whole thing.
I have a study bible which I have to say does make the process a lot easier but I have sat there with the bible during the last week going what shall i read? I don't know. What is a good bit to read, what is interesting. The study bible even splits it into topics to read about and describes a little bit of detail around some of the key areas.
However i look at it though, If I said right now I was going to look at the bible for 10 minutes I wouldn't know where to start and that to me is the biggest problem. My guess about how Alpha is going to go tonight is that you should read the bible every day at a regular time, similar to prayer I guess, as it is God's word (that is a guess... I don't really know) but them read what...
Then I have spoken to other people who say it is a good idea to memorise God's word.. and I am thinking memorise the bible. I can't see the benefit of that to be honest. If I have got one I can always look things up .... and ok I didn't have one in Coventry but I have resolved that on a permanent basis.
Anyway it will be good to challenge these things again and start journeying all over again because it really has felt distant especially in the last week. I know it has been difficult as i have not been talking about it as much at home which is a shame. I guess I really feel a lot of the momentum has come out of my journey at the moment. Maybe I can pick it back up again tonight. There is only one way to find out and that is to go, which hopefully will be exciting.
Until tonight....
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