Bible Study
     Bible study requires an open heart.  If you are not a believer, read and drink deeply from God and His Spirit.  It will change you and you will begin to understand truth, redemption, and forgiveness.  I don’t believe any person can go to the Bible with an open mind and come out unchanged for the better.  There are many good books in the Bible to start with, but I might suggest the book of John. John is called the book of belief.  One of my professors once said, “John is like a lake where a child can wade or an elephant can swim.” What he was saying was that the beginner can learn easily and the devoted follower can be challenged by reading it.

     If you are a believer, but can’t accept that you don’t have it all together and you need to constantly become more like Jesus, Bible study won’t have a great impact on you.  Ask God to open the eyes of your heart and allow Him to shine in with His light and show you the way.

Keys to having a good devotion discipline:

1. Find the time that works with your peak attention span.  Whether it is early morning or late evening, work with your body clock.  Also, find a time you can do this every day. Consistency is important.
2. Try to check the cares of the world at the door.  It’s OK to give them to God, but don’t let them interfere with your God-time.  Remember, worry is nothing more than a lack of trust in God.
3. Find a quiet place where you won’t be interrupted.  If you have the option, build a prayer room.
4. Shut off the phone and other distractions.
5. If worship music is one of your worship languages, feel free to have it on in the background.   At one home where we lived, we built a prayer room and determined not to have any electronics in it so we wouldn’t have distractions.  But after talking it over, we agreed that music was a big part of our worship experience. We put a sound system in the room and played worship music while we prayed and studied.  There were times we would just go to that quiet place, hold hands and listen to the words in the worship songs. It brought us closer to God and this made our marriage stronger.
6. Change up what you do.  There are times where a good devotional is beneficial, but we also enjoy going through the Bible.  A good, deep devotional I like is My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers.  I’ll put a link to it below.

     When Kim and I do devotions, we sit in the office with Kim in a recliner and me in a rocking chair I’ve made.   We usually read a chapter a day. Right now we are reading through the New Testament. Kim reads out loud from the NIV and I follow along in a Parallel Bible that has NIV and The Message.  If there is something I find that adds color to the reading, I will interject from The Message. Either of us stops the reading and starts a discussion when the scripture impacts us in a way that we want to talk about it.  

• Maybe it is something we have read before and we discuss how we have embraced it and how our life/marriage is better because of it.  
• Maybe it is something that we never realized before and we want to talk about how we should incorporate it into our lives.
• Perhaps it is something we struggle with and we talk about how to implement this truth into our marriage.  
• Sometimes we point out a friend who struggles with this issue and we discuss how we could possibly help them in this area.

     When Kim and I  talk about how God has done something significant in our lives, we call it our trophy case.   Recently we were reading from 1 John chapter 3 and we only made it through three verses that day.  We talked so much about what we were learning and how we could apply it to our lives! It took so much time that we agreed we’d stop there and start over beginning at the start of chapter 3  again the next day.

Discussion About How God is Leading Us

When Alone

     The reason communication is important is that you are the only one who knows you.  Maybe you and your spouse talk about what God is doing in your life and maybe you don’t. Before we were married, Kim and I didn’t talk much about our faith and what we believed and we are so much closer now that we do.  We wish we would have started doing this sooner! We’d like to encourage you and your spouse to open up on this topic.  I love it when Kim comes home and says, “God impressed on me to give something or say something to this person today.”  I love knowing when God is working in Kim in this way. 

When Together

     When I left the family farm, my mom said she wasn’t worried that I’d spend my money, but she was concerned that I would give it away.  I considered that a compliment because I have a big heart. There is a great movie called Christmas Angel with K. C. Clyde and Kari Hawker which showcases a person who has made it his life’s ambition to give his fortune away.  If you get a chance, watch it. I’d love to be like the guy in that movie! 

     When Kim and I are together, it’s not uncommon for me to suggest blessing a person.  We talk it over and decide what amount we should give. When we do this, Kim is always glad to be in on it.  I think it is good when God prompts us to do something to let our spouse know on the spot. 

     Devotions aren’t a one-way street.  They are like prayer in that we talk with God and then He talks with us.  Get used to communicating with your spouse about how God is talking with you. This will open up your spouse to talking about it with you too.  

Prayer

     Not only are devotions like prayer, but they also consist of being in the attitude of prayer.  We each pray at the end of our devotions together. It is good to hear what is on Kim’s heart and how she expresses herself lets me know how her life is going.  It’s a barometer of how she is doing inside. I study Kim and this is one of the best times to study her. I can tell if she’s anxious or happy or sad, just by how she prays.  This time studying her allows me to help her and support her. I know she appreciates this.

Helpful information

     Every time we do a blog post, we also do a video of the same topic.  These are located on YouTube at keepingthevows. Sometimes the video has some illustrations that come across better than the written blog post.  You can check out the video of this topic here.

Link to video of this blog  

Link to buy My Utmost for God’s Highest by Oswald Chambers