Bible Reading versus Bible Study (sneak peak at 2024)

What is the difference between Bible reading and Bible study? 

Bible reading involves reading from the Bible, typically a set number of pages or chapters. This gives a person a familiarity with the Bible, its stories, and teachings.

Bible study involves more in-depth work. That might be journaling along with the Scripture and listening for God's teaching. It could involve cross-referencing that day's passage with other parts of the Bible. It might even involve breaking out some extra-biblical resources to learn more about the historical context, other events at that time, or similar threads.

This year (2023) was more of a flurry of Bible reading, followed by a flurry of studying the names of God. From Dec. 2022-Nov. 2023, I read through the entire Bible (NIV), recording the different names, titles, and descriptions of God. I recorded it in a spreadsheet every week, but I foolishly decided to wait until the end of the year to crunch this data. 

Next year (2024), I am hoping to blend Bible reading and Bible study together. 

Part of the Bible study will be summarizing the Names of God in the Bible. We'll fit the 66 books into the 52 weeks of the year. 

The word cloud is not quite what I visualized. I was hoping that each line of text would be treated as a unique input. I wanted "Lord", "the Lord", and "the Lord God Almighty" to all be different entries in my word cloud. However, the word cloud instead looks for the most frequently used keywords and makes a word cloud based on overall frequency. 

Note: I recorded the names of God as they appeared in my daily reading. I did not keep tallies and add up EVERY time a name appeared. If it appeared multiple times in that day's reading, I recorded it once, but if it appeared multiple times in multiple day's readings, I would record it each day.

	1st Sat	2nd Sat	3rd Sat	4th Sat	5th Sat
Jan	Genesis	Exodus	Leviticus	Numbers	n/a
Feb	Deuteronomy	Joshua	Judges	Ruth	n/a
Mar	1 & 2 Samuel	1 & 2 Kings	1 & 2 Chronicles	Ezra	Nehemiah
Apr	Esther & SOS	Job	Psalm	Proverbs	n/a
May	Ecclesiastes	Isaiah	Jeremiah	Lamentations	n/a
Jun	Ezekiel	Daniel	Hosea	Joel	Amos & Obadiah
Jul	Jonah & Micah	Nahum & Habakkuk	Zephaniah & Haggai	Zechariah & Malachi	n/a
Aug	OT Summary	Matthew	Mark	Luke	John
Sept	Acts	Romans	1 & 2 Corinthians	Galatians	n/a
Oct	Ephesians	Philippians	Colossians	1 & 2 Thessalonians	n/a
Nov	1 & 2 Timothy	Titus & Philemon	Hebrews	James	1 & 2 Peter
Dec	1 & 2 & 3 John	Jude	Revelation	NT Summary	n/a

If you want more information on ways to study the Bible, there are multiple resources below that I have used and benefited from.

The Discipleship Place has an elective course on how to study the Bible, under their study tab at the top. 

Secret Church 3 is all about how to study the Bible as well. 

Pleasure and Profit in Bible Study by Dwight L. Moody is a phenomenal book that equips believers in how they can study the Bible better. (Free on Kindle and Project Gutenberg) 

 

What methods of Bible reading do you use? 

What methods of Bible study do you use? 

What resources have shaped how you study the Bible? 

Which allows you to better hear and connect with God? 

Self-Reflection Questions

I love introspection, the discipline of reflecting on my actions, speech, thoughts, and attitudes. Below are some questions that I recently asked myself and recorded my answers in a journal.

Ideally, each year, I will re-ask myself these questions, as the season I'm in continues to grow and change.

Who am I?

Who do I want to be? 

What do I want my life to look like? 

What rhythms and habits do I want to have? 

What non-essentials do I want to cut out? 

What virtues do I want to have?

What vices do I have? 

How can I live out my ideals? 

What are some self-reflection questions that you ask yourself?