There are so many benefits to having your Bible on a device. It is small and easy to carry. It is always with you, so you can read your Bible anywhere. You can have dozens of commentaries and study helps at your fingertips. You can even have multiple translations all in one place. But I still carry my physical Bible to church. I don’t do this out of habit, but I intentionally grab my Bible every time we are heading to worship.
Practical Reasons
There are some practical reasons for carrying my physical Bible to church. As advanced as we get, technology still fails sometimes. It may be due to a low battery, lack of Internet, or just a glitch in an app, but there is always a chance I will not be able to access my Bible on a device.
Also, technology is distracting. Of course, I can put my device in “do not disturb” mode so I’m not receiving notifications from apps on my phone, but I usually have to receive a notification before I remember to shut them off, so I have already been distracted. It is so easy to get sucked into a texting conversation, a twitter thread, or just scrolling through countless posts on Facebook or Instagram, not to mention sending pictures of yourself (yes, even pictures of you sitting in a service at church) through Snapchat (is that app still around?). But I can turn off my ringer, put my device away, and open my Bible for the duration of the message, and those distractions disappear.
Beyond staying focused during the service, I want my kids to see me reading my Bible. When someone is reading on their device, they could really be reading anything. No one around you knows whether you are reading your Bible or the latest dystopian novel to hit the market. Even if I can control myself and pay attention while using my device as my Bible, I don’t know that my kids will have the same self-control. Using a physical Bible eliminates the temptations and sets an example for my kids to follow.
More Complex Reasons
There are also some more complex reasons I carry my physical Bible to church. I remember sitting through religion class one rainy afternoon at the Catholic school I attended overseas (I was exempt from religion class, but it was raining that day, so I had to stay in the classroom). When the teacher handed out the Bibles and told the class which passage they would be reading, I immediately turned to the right page while all of my classmates turned to the table of contents. They were amazed that I knew where to turn. Having my physical Bible in church helps me become familiar with it. I learn where the books are, and when I’ve had a specific Bible long enough, I can even recall on which side of the page a particular verse is found. I have grown very comfortable knowing where each book is even when the pastor chooses a more obscure passage to preach.
Because I take notes in my Bible, be it on sticky notes or in the margins of my journaling Bible, I have my sermon notes available during my personal study and my personal study notes available during the sermon. I have often been pleased to see that the pastor mentions things from the passage that were of particular interest to me during my study time. And I’ve also been able to add notes as he preaches from a marked up, familiar passage.
Having a physical copy of the Scriptures also keeps me aware of context. When I am reading a passage on my phone, I may see one or two verses at once. But when I’m reading a passage in my physical Bible, I can see all of the verses around it. I am aware not only of the immediate context, but also the context that is the entire collection of 66 books. Each passage we study is a small part of a much bigger picture. The very practice of holding the weight of Scripture in my hands versus scrolling through a passage on my phone is a reminder that all of Scripture is the metanarrative of the Bible. There is an overall message supported by each passage I study.
While there is definitely nothing wrong with using the Bible on a device during church, I hope this has given you some things to think about as you walk out the door next Sunday to head to your local service. I would love to know if you have more reasons to add to this list.
Updated. This Bible study post teaching you to pray the passage was originally published on June 5, 2020.
I know, I know, you thought we were done. But I couldn’t end a series about Bible study without bringing it back to prayer. And I couldn’t make this step 7 because it can and should be happening throughout the entire Bible study process.
One of my favorite ways to pray is to pray Scripture. The Bible is living and active, and as such, there are no more powerful words we can speak. Once you have spent time in the passage and have walked through all of the steps, your understanding of the Word will bring new light and perspective to it. When you pray the passage back to God, you know you are praying His will and His way since you are praying His words.
Simply take the content from the passage along with your understanding of it and reword it as a prayer on behalf of yourself, your loved ones, your nation, etc. Pray that the Holy Spirit will show you the best way to apply what you have learned and give you direction for how it should change your life.
We could do a whole different series on prayer, but for now, take a minute to write out a prayer that incorporates what you’ve learned in the passage you’re studying. Again, there is something that happens in our brains when we put pen to paper. God wired us that way.
Ok, now I’m done with the series. I pray you have come away from this process walking closer to the Lord.
Please reach out to me with any questions I may not have answered.
If you would rather download this entire Bible study process in the free workbook, you can enter your information below, and it will be delivered directly to your email.
In this step, it is time to transfer your notes to your Bible. If writing in your Bible gives you an anxiety attack, that’s ok. There are some work arounds for marking up the passage. Feel free to print out a copy of the verses on a piece of printer paper. Another option is to handwrite the verses in your notebook, and mark that up instead. Don’t stress if you don’t want to write in your Bible.
Tools
I figured the easiest way to show you the tools I use was to make a video. Click here to watch the video where I talk about pens and highlighters:
In the video, I talk about Sharpie pens, Bic pens, and Ink Joy pens. I also talk about the pros and cons of highlighters and gel highlighters.
Color Coding
This is a question I get often, and it’s very important to me that you know I don’t follow any color-coding system. If I tried to highlight certain themes, speakers, promises, etc. in their own colors, the process would become more of a project for me than Bible study.
My system for color is simple: no two sections that are back-to-back and have their own separate notes should be highlighted in the same color. That’s it. So as long as you have at least two colors, you can follow this process to mark up the passage.
Notes
I made a video where I have added my notes to Proverbs 3:5-8 in my Bible. Feel free to follow along as you add your notes to your Bible. You can watch the video here.
That’s it! You’ve made it to the end. I would love to know if you have learned anything new about the passage along the way.
If you would rather download this entire Bible study process in the free workbook, you can enter your information below, and it will be delivered directly to your email.
Often, we jump to apply a passage too quickly or we do it in a selfish way rather than a God-honoring way. When we seek to apply the passage, we should not ask the question, “what can I get out of this passage?” or “how does this passage help me?” Instead, we should ask “how should my understanding of this passage change my life, thoughts, and actions from now on?”
Read through your notes
Read through all of the notes you’ve taken so far. This includes any journaling you did at the beginning. It also includes the answers to the questions on the worksheet and the notes you took from your research. Don’t forget about the cross-references you chose for each verse.
As you read through the notes, ask yourself how the information should change you. It might be a behavior that needs to change. It could be a belief you’ve held that this passage disproves. It could be that the passage reinforces something you’ve known all along. Maybe God has a promise for the believer or a generally true statement.
Your answer may match what you wrote on the application section of the worksheet, or it might be a completely different Truth you find. This doesn’t have to be some grand revelation you have never heard before. In fact, in most cases, I find it is something I know to do but am not doing.
“So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.”
James 4:17
This is the most important step. If we take all the other steps but fail to apply the passage, the exercise has been pointless. We will have accumulated knowledge but not made it useful.
We can take this a step further by writing down when or with whom we plan to practice this application. This isn’t always possible as it depends on the type of action the passage asks us to take, but sometimes it helps to keep us accountable to what the Word is teaching us to do.
Tasks
Read through the notes you’ve taken for Proverbs 3:5-8 and write down the application.
If you can, write down when or with whom you plan to take this action.
If you would rather download this entire Bible study process in the free workbook, you can enter your information below, and it will be delivered directly to your email.
Updated. This book review of Praying for Your Husband from Head to Toe was originally published on January 10, 2020.
Although 2019 brought many memorable events in my life and our family, I will be honest and tell you I was not sad to see 2019 come to an end. It was a tough year. Mainly, it was a tough year for my marriage.
A major change in 2019 was moving our business from a small building we rented to a large building we purchased and remodeled. Mark and I had different expectations of the process and our roles during that time, and when those expectations weren’t met, it took a toll on our relationship. I vividly remember sitting on a couch in an Airbnb, pouring my heart and my tears out to a new friend who happens to be a marriage counselor.
I went searching through my bookshelves for books I had on marriage, and I found Sharon Jaynes’s Praying for Your Husband from Head to Toe. I had bought it several months before based on a friend’s recommendation, but I hadn’t cracked it open yet. I had no idea what I had been missing!
This book teaches a pattern of prayer that has been a game-changer in my marriage. There have been many times I have cried through the prayers and many more times when I have prayed the prayers for myself and not just for Mark. I have even modified them to pray for my children.
It’s very easy to get stuck in a rut of prayer, especially when praying for those we pray for repeatedly. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve prayed, “Lord, be with Mark today.” This book has put words to my thoughts, paired Scripture with those words, and reminded me of things I’ve forgotten to pray for a long time. But it is not the book itself that is life-changing, it is the practice of prayer paired with Scripture.
I do not agree with nor endorse everything Jaynes includes in the book, but the prayer pattern she teaches, of praying for your husband literally from his mind to his feet and including Scripture for each part of his body along the way, has transformed my prayer life. These prayers can be modified to pray for anyone in your life. With small tweaks, they can be prayed for your children. You can use the pattern to pray for your parents, your siblings, your best friend, members of your Sunday school class, etc. You don’t have to be married to understand the benefits of having this tool in your arsenal.
Jaynes pairs Scripture with each prayer, which is so powerful because the Word of God is living and active. There is no better way to communicate with God than to pray His Word back to Him.
