Keeping God's Word with us

We really enjoy using YouVersion Bible App on our smartphones. We are both using plans that take us through reading the whole Bible in a year (we're using the same one, so we can discuss what we have learned from it). We are also doing a plan that leads us through reading a chapter from Psalms and a chapter from Proverbs each day (going through the Psalms twice and Proverbs almost a dozen times in a year). Generally, we both grab our phones and do our Bible reading before we even get out of bed in the morning!
https://www.youversion.com/

Patti adds to this a specific technique to concentrate on obedience to the scripture:

• Each day, the Bible app sends a "verse of the day".
• Patti highlights that verse using the tools in the app.
• She then goes into a "notes" component of the app, and starts a form that makes her look at the particular verse in more detail.
• She writes an overall statement about the verse
• "God :" - what does this verse tell her about God
• "Man :" - what does this verse tell her about humans
• then she "in-SPEC-s" the verse, looking for what the verse says about a
• "Sin to avoid :"
• "Promise to claim :"
• "Example to follow :"
• "Command to obey :"
• "Honor / shame :" - She has recently added this new item. Since most non-western cultures are characterized by an honor/shame dynamic (instead of our western "guilt/innocence" or "accounting" dynamic), Patti is trying to see how perfectly scripture fits with honor/shame for effective non-western culture witnessing. If you look for it, it is easy to find honor/shame throughout scripture!
• "Obedience :" - every day, Patti prays for God to show her what He would like for her to do on this day - sometimes it comes directly from the scripture she has read, often it is something that God is working on her about. She tries to make it specific - not just "be nice to Dwayne", but "specifically thank Dwayne for doing 'x'" or "try to engage 'y' in conversation about Jesus" or "share on blog about using YouVersion" (thus, this post!)

Now, each verse will not necessarily have something to include in each point of the "form", but by examining the scripture looking for those items, it makes her look more carefully at the scripture. And writing down what God impresses on her for obedience (and checking the next day how she did) is great for accountability.

Note: The scripture study questions are based on a technique that we learned through e3 Partners Simple Second Bible study. It is designed for small group Bible discovery: http://e3partners.org/resources/learning-resources/