Holy Club 7

Do I give the Bible time to speak to me every day?

This question has a double whammy for me. 

First, it asks whether I've read the Bible every day - I do try!  I've used Andrew Murray M'Cheyne's Bible reading plan on and off for years - it helps you to read the Old Testament once and the New Testament and Psalms twice every year. It usually takes me about 18 months to complete a cycle so I'm not quite as disciplined as I should be. It used to be on a piece of paper tucked into my Bible - now its an app on my iPad.

However, second, the question asks did I get beyond reading the words to actually hearing God speak - much more challenging. Again, I'm hit and miss with that. When the days' passage jumps off the page and speaks into my current situation, it's really exciting.

One of the things that helps me with my Bible reading is meeting regularly with other Christians and asking them to hold me accountable for reading what I've promised (often early in the morning on the day when we're due to meet).

The Holy Club met every weekday evening (and sometimes at weekends). If I've understood it correctly, they didn't all meet every day. It was not quite as ferociously disciplined as I imagined and actually much more organic. A regular time to meet with trusted friends and ask questions like the one above. For this to work, the meeting must be focused on love and support, not competition and judgementalism.

For a long time we had a similar pattern with early morning prayer - myself, Charity and Chas were the most regular, but others came once, twice or more often each week - but we all knew that someone would be there at 6.30am every day and could join in whenever we were able.

These things are best done for a season (that prayer meeting started spontaneously and lasted for over a year - the Holy Club lasted for about five years), but very enriching while they're happening. Hopefully the good habits ingrained during the season become part of who we are when the season is over.

Bible Passage to meditate on:Psalm 1:1-3