Unless you're a book person, one of those natural readers who just automatically defaults to reading - which I am certainly not - then regular reading can be a struggle to get into and easy to fall out of. That is certainly true of me especially when it comes to regular reading of the Bible. I want to do it but I'm definitely not the best reader. I'm very much an erratic compulsive reader. Whether it's the Bible, newspapers, books, even reading blogs and the like on the internet, I usually go through phases where I get gripped and focused on reading for a while. After a few weeks I often find my attention and therefore time and space has moved onto something else and coming back to reading is difficult.
Then around the end of May I came across the Daily Audio Bible podcast. The Daily Audio Bible is at it's core the simple reading of the bible from cover to cover over the course of the year.
So I thought I would give it a go and it has worked really well for me. I have set my phone podcasting app to pick up the download around 6am and so when I wake it up it is usually downloaded and I can listen to it over breakfast or even in the shower (I leave it on the external speaker on max so I can hear it above the sound of the water!). Sometimes I listen as I ride it work or if I haven't been able to listen during the day I put my headphones in and listen as I lie in bed, no need to have the light on or my glasses to read at night (and occasionally I have fallen asleep to it - but I trust that is what God wanted for me at that time!).
Brian Hardin the founder of the Daily Audio Bible has been doing this over five years and in the course of this time a huge number of people have connected with this ministry. Brian has started a church community in his town (based in a coffee shop he setup) and provides a place for prayer and community off the back of what has developed through the Daily Audio Bible (via the website). What I really like about Brian is that he has stuck at doing the core activity - bringing the bible into peoples lives everyday - whilst slowly adding other aspects to the ministry but each aspect is built in a spirit of community in both the general sense of people all across world have things in common but also very much in a local sense, always encouraging people to engage where they are in a local faith community.
So if you think this could help enhance your reading and love of scripture then why not have a listen - click here for a link to the podcast feed.
Is there an audio version of this blog post?
ReplyDeleteIt's coming out soon, look out for the:
ReplyDeleteDaily Audio Finger!