BIBLE ROADMAPS (archived)

 

  The 30 Day Bible Shred The 30 Day Bible Shred is one of my favourite bible reading plans. It's an absolute sprint through the bible, rather than a meandering year long reading plan that most people give up on when they get to Leviticus (speaking from experience). But why would you even want to attempt this somewhat intense and crazy experience? I first encountered the Bible Shred in 2017 by an Instagram post from Nathan Finochio . The idea is simple - read the whole Bible in 30 days starting on 1st January. Entire books of the Bible are grouped together into large chunks to get you through it all. For example day 1 of reading includes Genesis chapters 1-42, Day 2 of reading includes Genesis chapter 43 to Exodus chapter 29. The point isn't to take your time and meditate on the word, but to "see the shape of the “tree” as opposed to studying “leaves.”". It is an uncomfortable exercise, but one that has some huge benefits every year I do it. What could you get out ...

  You know you should read the Bible, but you watch other stuff instead. Why is that? We are living in a new golden era of television as streaming giants are producing and creating as much high end content that they can to claim your $15 per month. From the fantasy worlds of Game of Thrones, the sci-fi western of The Mandalorian to the scandal of Tiger King - there seems to be an infinite source of content available to us. As cinematically engaging and thematically profound that these shows can be, it is often the storytelling that is claimed to be the peak point of interest. But for many Christians (myself included), the available intrigue often overshadow's the desire to read the bible - even though we intrinsically know that it shouldn't. Story Telling With "The Hero's Journey" For many Westerners, we are groomed since childhood to a certain pattern of storytelling. This pattern is most commonly know as the "Hero's Journey" as defined by Joseph...

  Have you ever looked up from your smart phone and realised you've just spent the last 90 minutes scrolling through a social media feed and then feel an instant regret that you've wasted a huge amount of time? Or maybe not social media but Youtube or news articles? We often say we don't have enough time to accomplish all our goals, yet many of us live in the most convenient and efficient societies in the whole of human history. Have a look at all the things around you designed to save time from smart phones to dishwashers to cars. None of this was easily available even just a few decades ago. So where is all our time going? Or a better question is, what is wrong with our perception of available time? Where is all my time going? In their book "Make Time", authors John Zeratsky and Jake Knapp refer to infinity pools - the programs and apps that you get easily sucked in to consuming and lose hours a week but don't feel any sense of productivity from them. A...

  To help you study the Bible. Many Christians read the Bible occasionally or for personal journalling, but struggle with the discipline of studying the Bible. This can be because we don't know where to start, how to interpret some of the complexities of the Bible, or we simply get distracted with the infinity pools that are so easily accessible to us. Daily Bible journalling and devotions are a great way to sustain a healthy relationship with God along with prayer and fellowship. But this shouldn't replace setting times aside to study the themes and concepts of the Bible to deepen your understanding of it. I believe that your journalling and devotions should flourish when you get to know God more through the scriptures. We're aiming for this site to provide basic study techniques, review foundational Biblical principles, and help you be a better disciple so that you can disciple others. This isn't necessarily a theology blog, but is intended to teach you how to captur...

  Just start reading. How exactly do you start building your Bible Roadmap? The same way you learn how to get somewhere new - you just need to start moving and ask some crucial questions as you go along: Am I going in the right direction? If I need to go west, but I'm driving east, I may not being going the right way Does this current direction make sense? Not all roads are straight, but its good to keep those weird paths in mind because I may need to navigate them later Does this direction seem familiar? Sometimes you may have driven somewhere before without realizing it, and going over those roads may help you recognise them Now lets convert these ideas to reading the Bible. Just like driving or moving actually gets you to a destination, you'll need read the Bible to start building your roadmap (use a Bible plan if that helps). Ask these questions as you read: How does this apply to me in my current season? Dont worry about questions like "Why did this...

What are Theological Street Directories? When I first started driving, I sort of knew how to navigate a few local areas from watching how my parents drove to places throughout my childhood. But if I needed to get somewhere new, or if I needed to tell others how to get around, I had no idea what to do. Street Directory Before we had free apps with GPS maps and turn by turn directions built in to our smart phones, we used books called a "Street Directory". These were large books as each page was a smaller part of a map of the whole roadmap of a city. And the back of the Street Directory had an index of all the addresses in your city with which page you'd find it on the map and with coordinates to the address on the page. The fun part with a Street Directory is that you could easily see the layout of all parts of a city just by flicking through a few pages. But you wouldn't read it from page to page like a book, instead you'd use specific tools to help navigate t...