Week 1, Day 2, Mark 1:1 Continued
A CONFESSION ABOUT MARK 1:1: I WANT TO SLOW DOWN AND ABSORB EACH WORD AND MEANING
I don’t know about you, but I could meditate on each of the words of Mark 1:1, plus the entire verse, and all of its meanings, for days, if not weeks and months. There is a great deal of information to glean in such a short verse. So, I do not want to short-change it or rush through it.
I’ve also decided to give up the idea of twelve verses per week and see what happens. I think it’s far more important to get as much out of a verse than check a box and say, “Studied twelve verses this week. Check.”
Umm… No. I refuse to do that. So, this means this could very easily become a much longer study than six years—or who knows. It could be a six+ year study, but not too many days beyond the six year mark. It depends. I’m not going to sweat it. I would rather slow down and get as much as possible out of each and every word and each and every verse than have the checkmark and checklist kind of faith. Moreover, the more we try to soak in each word, each verse, and all of its depths and meanings, the more we’ll get out of this study of the Four Gospels and the more we will learn how to live a life of Jesus.
I don’t want to rush. I would rather be in the Word than miss something because of rushing.
Once a month, my husband, whom I will call ‘B’ and I go to Historic Jamestowne. I have three family members who went through there in 1607 and many more thereafter. So, it’s quite meaningful to me to see the place and hear all about the latest findings with the archaeological dig. When we get there, we check in at the ranger’s desk and we then leave the building and walk about fifty feet or so, where a walkway of cement and metal takes us to the monument and to the dig site.
It’s along the walkway that B and I have seen more critters than you could imagine: turtles, beavers, muskrats, herons, fish, frogs, snakes, raccoons, woodpeckers, mocking birds, finches, robins, deer, etc. What absolutely amazes us is how as we stand there, looking for or at critters, how many people fly by without slowing down, let alone stopping. I cannot tell you how many cool critters people have missed through their rushing.
I cannot tell you how many blessings people have missed because of their short-sighted rush.
And, I cannot tell you how many blessings I know I’ve missed in my similar state.
The same thing has happened at Virginia Beach, when B and I walk up and down the boardwalk. There have been four times at least, where we have seen several hundreds to a thousand to three of people all along the beach, and suddenly several dolphins come close to the shore and play in the water. Do you know how many people have stopped to watch them of all the hundreds of people along the beach? The max amount of people we’ve seen stop and watch the dolphins is ten. Ten out of hundreds.
We are just too caught up in our own world that we miss tons of blessings, right in front of our noses—or worse, we see them and don’t stop and enjoy the glory of God we see in the blessings.
I do not want to do this with the Four Gospels. I don’t want to rush through so fast we miss all of the blessings. So, this “Six+ Year Four Gospel Project” will probably take a great deal more than six years to get through.
I don’t want to shortchange God.
And, I sure don’t want to shortchange the Word of God and the blessings He wants to show me and us through each word and each verse of all Four Gospels.
PRAYER JOURNALING:
Are you the rush type? How many critter sightings do you think you’ve missed in your rush? What can you do to stop and smell the tulips, so to speak? What can you do to avoid missing the blessings of God and His Word, the Holy Bible?
MOST BIBLE STUDIES ARE SHORTER, LET’S BE HONEST
Let’s be honest here. Again. Most people don’t want to do a Bible study that takes more than three months, let along six+ years. In fact, the shorter ones sell better than the longer Bible studies, unless you’re David Jeremiah, Charles Swindoll, Beth Moore, or Kay Arthur (for example). Longer studies are avoided because of the time commitment they require.
Rush, rush, rush.
We are just flat-dab in too much of a hurry today we miss numerous blessings God has for us each day.
We are not going to fall for that trap. We will do what we can each day, will keep going, and will do our best to learn to slow down and catch every single blessing throughout our day. We will do what we can to get the most out of each word and each verse of the Four Gospels.
In doing so, we will do what most have not. Let me prove it to you. List ten people you know of personally who have studied the Four Gospels for at least years. If you know of a New Testament scholar, add them to that list. Do you ten of them? Most of us do not. In fact, most of us haven’t studied anything for six years in a row from the Bible. So, in doing so, we will learn more than most. We will slow down and allow the Four Gospels to become parts of our lives and we will learn how to live a life of Jesus.
A life of Jesus isn’t rushed. It is one of the Word of God, for Jesus is the Word. Let’s not minimize this and let’s realize the importance of being in the Word and absorbing every morsel of every word and verse, passage and chapter, book and testament.
(15 MINUTE STUDY) ANOTHER METHOD OF STUDYING THE BIBLE: TRANSLATION STUDY METHOD
On top of Emphasizing, focus, and cross-references, there’s another method of studying the Bible. It’s studying several versions of the Bible, which I will call the Translation Method.[1]
The Translation Method is where you first look up your favorite version of the Bible and then you do the Bible study methods of: INITIAL READING AND PRAYER JOURNALING, EMPHASIZE, FOCUS, and CROSS-REFERENCES. Then, you look up the same verse in ALL English versions or translations. Pick at least three you want to focus on, preferably nine or more. (P.S. Now, you see why I said yesterday you will in time need at least nine translations of the Holy Bible.)
For those of you who are willing to use the internet, check this out. It makes it easier to look up all English translations in a very easy way. Here’s what you need to do:
1 Click on this link: http://www.biblegateway.com/
2 In the search box, you can only use ONE verse at a time, or the “in all English translations” feature will not work. So, since we’re studying Mark 1:1, put that in the search box. Choose your favorite version/translation. Hit “Search.”
3 Go to underneath the verse which is not written out on the screen. Do you see the feature, “in all English translations”? Click on that.
4 Your new screen opened and it should look like this:
Do this with every verse we study and you’ll glean great insight and can do this translation study. After all, there are well over thirty English translations for us to read, glean from, and deepen our understanding of the verse.
DO THIS WITH EACH NEW TRANSLATION OR VERSION YOU CHOOSE TO STUDY
We’re going to look at somewhere between three and thirty translations, and we will want to do each of the following with EACH translation we read and for EACH verse we study. While it may seem time-consuming and complicated as you look at it, once you try it, you’ll see it goes pretty fast, particularly if you copy and paste these steps into your prayer journal.
Do this for a total of 15 minutes:
PRAYER JOURNAL EACH OF THE FOLLOWING FOR EVERY VERSE AND FOR EVERY TRANSLATION YOU CHOOSE TO STUDY:
1 Answer each of these questions for each translation you read and study: What jumped out at you? What was different from this translation than from the last one (or ones) you read and studied? What was the same? What did you learn? What more can you apply to your life? What did you say to God? What did God say to you? What more did you learn about Jesus, if anything? How can this passage deepen your knowledge of Jesus Christ? How can this help you live a life of Jesus?
Keep reading and studying another verse until you reach the ten minute mark.
There, It’s really that simple.
2 Then, do this: Write a summary of each of these questions in your prayer journal, combining everything you prayer journaled from this translation method:
PRAYER JOURNALING
Answer each of these questions: What jumped out at you? What did you learn? What can you apply to your life? What did you say to God? What did God say to you? What did you learn about Jesus, if anything? How can this passage deepen your knowledge of Jesus Christ? How can this help you live a life of Jesus?
3 Write a summary or final prayer.
CONCLUSION OF 15-MINUTE STUDY
Here are all the steps of the Bible Study Method we will use for this this “Six+ Year Four Gospel Project”:
1 INITIAL READING AND PRAYER JOURNALING
2 EMPHASIZE
3 FOCUS
4 CROSS-REFERENCES
5 TRANSLATIONS
6 REFERENCE
7 SUMMARY
8 FINAL PRAYER
So, you see… Fifteen minutes a day will simply not be enough time to get as much out of a verse or passage as you can. That’s why it’s imperative to build up to more than 60 minutes a day in time, and that you use the weekend to play catch-up.
By the way, this is also why I want to build up to at least three hours per day on the weekend of studying and build up to at least four hours Monday through Friday. The truth is, I don’t think even this will be enough to give any given Bible verse. But, from what I figure, I can always do another six+ year study later of the Four Gospels. (I’m not kidding.) And, as it is, I know for a fact I will refer back to the prayer journaling I do for this “Six+ Year Four Gospel Project” often in the future even if I don’t do it again.
Just something to keep in mind yourself. Fifteen minutes a day is simply not enough time to do a true study of the Word of God, the Holy Bible.
30 MINUTE STUDY
Do more of translation study until you reach 30 minutes. Do all three steps.
45 MINUTE STUDY
Do more of translation study until you reach 45 minutes. Do all three steps.
60+ MINUTE STUDY
Do more of translation study until you reach 60+ minutes. Do all three steps.
[1] By the way, before I go any further, translations and versions are the exact same thing. They are synonyms of one another.
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