Bible Roadmaps

I recently stumbled across a fascinating Youtube channel called IMBeggar . From their website: “IMbeggar is about finding new, different, creative, positive, entertaining, hard-hitting, and most importantly, accessible ways to talk about God” What draw my attention to this channel was a video about Lent. Here is a link to it: Lent is a 40 day fast leading up to Easter weekend traditionally practiced by the Catholic and Orthodox church. Starting 46 days before Easter (the fast often excludes Sunday’s), and is intended as a time of preparation and focus before celebrating the Passion week of Jesus. Something that I’ve been doing each year during Lent is writing out one of the Gospel narratives by hand. I call this “Writing for Lent”. This is an interesting exercise as I am forced to slow down and take in every word from the Scriptures. If the 30 Day Bible Shred is a sprint, Writing for Lent is a slow stroll through the park. I can take in every little details and peice of literat...

I think this was my 11th year doing the 30-day Bible Shred. I decided to go for a bit of a challenge and read from a paper Bible rather than a digital or audio Bible. I haven’t don’t that for many years as its takes quite a bit more allocation time and attention. To make things more interesting I used a KJV pocket sized Bible that I found at a second hand book store. I wasn’t able to read through every allocated day. There were 7 days that I struggled to catch up, so I listened via audio Bible, and have since re-read those missed sections. This year’s reading felt different, and I can’t quite articulate why. But one theme that really stood out to me was something that I can only describe as the DIVINE INCONSISTENCY OF GOD. Let me explain. Although God describes Himself as the one who outworks judgement of His people, He very easily averts His judgement if there are those who intercept and and repent. I’ve heard those who object to the claimed good natu...

At the end of each year, many technology based companies release some sort of “year in review” based on the usage data they’ve collected on me over the year. The most well known of these is Spotify’s “Wrapped” playlist which tells me my top songs, artists and newest genres I’ve listened to. For the last couple of years my Spotify Wrapped summary has primarily been a combination of worship music (what’s usually played on our living room speaker) and the Wiggles (what is also usually played on our living room speaker). It’s a fun way to see interaction data from an often used platform. But I’ve been wondering what a report like this would look like if it were to be based on my own spiritual discipline of reading and studying the Bible with the purpose of getting to know God intimately. I’m not talking about Bible app usage, but all the areas that can’t quite be defined by a digital metric. I’ve devised a bit of a thought experiment that I’m using to help me do a personal year in rev...

The Bible Shred 2025 is coming up! Each year this is a personal challenge that many understake to read through the whole Bible (yes, the entire Bible) in 30 days. The goal is to: To overview the whole Bible. Try and get as much of the Scripture into your brain at the start of the year. But the Bible is a very big body of text, and 30 days is not a lot of time. Here are some of my favourite tips and suggestions that I’ve found have really helped me over the years that I’ve been doing this. 1) Find a format that is appropriate for your season of life The three primary formats for the Bible is a physical paper Bible, a digital Bible read through apps or ereaders, or audio Bibles. They all have their benefits and limitations, so its best to find an option that works for you that will help you accomplish your goal. Physical bibles often let you notice a lot more, but take dedicated time and space to read. If you have young kids or travel frequently, then this may not be the ...

We’ve been in our house for just over two years now. Our street is a part of a brand new suburb, and a vast majority of our neighbours are in the same demographic as us who are building their first home. But I noticed that many of my neighbours park their cars along the sidewalk or in the driveway. Many of them don’t use their garage to park their cars. When I’ve gone out for walks and taken a sneakly peak into their garage, I’ve observed that their garages are full of stuff taking up the space where their car should be parked. I’ve been adamant that I wanted to use my garage to park my car, and not primarily for storage. To accomplish this, I’ve done a few things. Firstly I got rid of junk and stuff I didn’t need. Secondly, I organised what was left over into shelves and hooks on the walls to ensure there was enough room to park my car. And thankfully I’ve been about to manage this! I’ve noticed parallels in my own mindset towards making space and time for studying the Bible. ...

During the 40 days of Lent, I wrote out the book of Mark by hand. I have a previous blog post explaining why I did this and how I did it , but I’d love to share with you some of my key takeaways and thoughts. Jesus’s Baptism I kept coming back to these verses at Jesus’s baptism. 9 It came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 And immediately, coming up from the water, He saw the heavens parting and the Spirit descending upon Him like a dove. 11 Then a voice came from heaven, “You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Mark 1:9–11 (NKJV) Jesus’s baptism is an important part of His journey, it is also a powerful indicator of who He is and His role on earth. There are two interesting aspects of Jesus’s baptism that stand out to me. The tearing of the heavens. And immediately, coming up from the water, He saw the heavens parting and the Spirit descending upon Him like a dove. Mark 1:10...

I’ve recently finished a book by Dr Tim Chaffey called “Fallen”. In it he explores just 4 verses in the Bible. You may be wondering how an entire book can be written on just 4 verses of the Bible - but these are some of the most misinterpreted and misunderstood verses of the Bible. They are found in Genesis 6:1-4 and go like this: “Genesis 6:1–4 (ESV) When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. 3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” 4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.” If you’ve never read or seen this section of Genesis, then you are likely confused ...

I’m doing something I call “Writing for Lent” starting this Wednesday 14th Feb 2024. This involves Bible scribing during the fast of Lent. Now you may have some questions about this? What is Lent? How do you do it? Should I do it? What is Bible scribing? Why would you do this? Let me explain. Lent is an annual traditional practiced by those of Catholic and Orthodox faith, but has been a part of church tradition for a long time. It starts from Ash Wednesday, and involves 40 days of prayer and fasting leading up to Easter weekend. If you look at a calendar, Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are actually 44 days. The fast doesn’t have to be observed on Sunday’s and are excluded from the count, which results in 40 days of fasting. Fasting Fasting involves abstaining from food and various lifestyle practices for a set period of time to humble oneself and to focus on God. Although some people like to fast more superficial things like social media or movies, I think a proper fast s...

This is my eighth time doing the Bible Shred. For the past 4 years, I’ve completed it primarily with an audio Bible, this is because it's been hard to find time and space to read a physical or digital Bible with little kids. But this year I wanted to commit to reading as much as I can either physically or digitally, and reducing the amount of audio. So how did I do in 2024?? Thankfully, I was able to make the time to do about 80% of the Bible Shred in the form of a digital Bible, and 20% on audio (reserved for times when I had to do a lot of driving). And I am so glad that I committed to this as I noticed a lot more while reading rather than listening. What I found most interesting are certain patterns that I’ve been learning about over the last couple of years becoming more obvious. One of them is the choice that man has to decide if they can live a life using their own ways and insights, or choosing to use God’s way of life and trusting His wisdom. This tension is first...

Hello there. 2023 was a busy year for me. I wasn’t able to do much writing for this blog at all for various reasons. My kids are getting older, various work projects and just life in general has gotten in the way of doing any writing for this blog. One of my roadblocks with writing is feeling overwhelmed that I need to cater to various platforms - website, Instagram posts, Instagram stories, Instagram reels, other potential platforms (YouTube, Podcasting). I don’t have the capacity or desire for making content across all these platforms. But in 2024 I want to create some space to do more writing. My plan is to focus on just the website blog, and the Instagram account. But instead of trying to replicate the content of the blog onto an Instagram post (which was time consuming and isn’t really what social media is designed for), I want to keep long form writing on the website blog and keep short form and bite sized content on Instagram. So rather than copying and pasting a whole ...

It is upon us again, the dreaded Bible Shred. 2024 will be my 8th year partaking of reading through the whole Bible in 30 days in the month of January. I’ve written previously about some tips and ideas on how to do it here: https://www.bibleroadmaps.com/blog/reading-whole-bible-in-1-month https://www.bibleroadmaps.com/blog/bibleshred2021-reading-tips https://www.bibleroadmaps.com/blog/bible-shred-2022-tips https://www.bibleroadmaps.com/blog/bible-shred-2023-tips But I’ve been reflecting on why I do this, and would like to share some insights here. Reinvigorate Every time I participate in this I end up with a bunch of observations and questions for the rest of the year. This builds an excitement and joy for me to go further in my personal studies and commitment to be a life long student of the Word of God. If I’m honest my personal devotions can get stale over the year, but having an extreme focus like this can help a lot. Renew Throughout the year I like to cons...

Lent is a 40 day fast that starts on Ash Wednesday (a symbolic day that remembers Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem on a donkey) and ends on Holy Thursday (or Maundy Thursday, the day before Good Friday and when Jesus had the Last Supper with His disciples). It is also symbolic of the 40 days that Jesus spent fasting in the desert and was tempted by Satan. Most often practiced by Catholic and Orthodox religions, I believe that it is a seasonal corporate fast that the wider church can participate in as well. I’m also very excited to commit to a Bible writing plan during Lent. A writing plan is similar to a reading plan, but instead of just reading the Bible you write it out instead. Whether that's on paper or digitally is up to you, but I know from experience that the tangible act of writing on paper has a very different effect than typing onto a screen. For Lent in 2023, I’m going to write out the Book of Luke. Why the Book of Luke? Two reasons. Firstly, Luke seems to have more ...

My kids are at an age where they are fascinated by the little things. Right now they both love bugs. For his birthday and Christmas my son Ezra received a variety of magnifying glasses, bug catchers, and small containers to observe and admire little bugs. Both my kids squeal with excitement when they see a caterpillar, run to get the bug catcher, carefully put the critter into the container and then loudly describe and exclaim the little things they notice. I love studying the Bible, from the interesting and the technical to the debates and textual criticism. Throughout 2022 I listened to a lot of audiobooks and podcasts, read a lot of content about the Bible, and completed various online theology courses. This was done with the goal of completing a broad sweep of big ideas so I can plan out what sort of personal Bible mapping (see my post “ Bible Mapping ”) I’d like to pursue in the coming year. But at the back of my mind, I’ve had the constant voice of the Holy Spirit ensuring tha...

The 30 Day Bible Shred is a Bible reading plan. But not just any Bible reading plan. It is reading through the WHOLE BIBLE in 30 days. That's not a typo, 30 DAYS TO READ THE WHOLE BIBLE. I’ve written about the 30 Day Bible Shred a couple of times in previous posts “ Bible Shred 2022 Tips ” and “ Reading the Whole Bible In 1 Month ”. So this post will just include some new tips and review a new Bible reading app that may interest you as well. I’ve made my own version of the 30 Day Bible Shred which you can find at: https://www.bibleroadmaps.com/bible-shred What could you get out of it? The reason I believe this crazy reading plan is worth it for the following reasons: You can overview the whole “tree” of the Bible. Rather than stopping and inspecting the leaves, you’re looking at the whole structure in one go. Design patterns are more obvious. When you read the stories of king Saul and king David back to back you notice that the author of Samuel has included details t...

You may be familiar with “red letter text” in the New Testament of the Bible where the words of Jesus are coloured red and stand out against the words of everyone else. But the Old Testament doesn’t have this for the words of God. I’m sure there is an important theological and literary reason for this, but as I’ve been reading through the Bible I’ve taken a purple pencil and outlined the words of God throughout the Old Testament texts. Why the colour purple? Apparently purple is attributed to royalty and divinity, so I thought that would be appropriate for the holy words of God.     Why would I do this? This has helped me do a few things. Firstly I’ve been able to intentionally read through the specific voices and dialogue in the Bible to distinguish between God and other characters. Secondly, it taught me to slow down and isolate what God is actually saying to people in the Biblical stories (rather than assuming or imposing what He says). And las...

What is this course? Bible Word Nerd is an online course created by Dr. Johnny Cisneros, a theologian who has specialised in e-research and technology-enhanced learning. It has been designed to teach anyone how to understand and complete an effective Bible word study and use free online Bible study tools to do this. It's available on  biblewordnerd.com  which offers the once-off purchase single course for US$97 or a two-course bundle for US$127 which includes bonus written material - I purchased the two-course bundle. Who is this for? This is for anyone who is wanting to understand how to do a WORD STUDY. A word study is a specific type of Bible study that explores the meaning and usage of a word in the Bible and its original language. You may be familiar with Bible dictionaries and how to look up a word’s original meaning in Hebrew or Greek, but if you stop at that point then you’re going to miss quite a lot of information that is very helpful to a word study. Propo...

What is Bible Mapping? Bible mapping is simply studying, completing personal projects and tasks, or reading plans that build your personal Bible roadmap. These can be unique little projects or long-term formal studies - but the key is to find something that works for you in your current season of life. Bible mapping is about creating a lifestyle of studying in various increments rather than segregating it into something that only those with time to study should do. You may be in a season of life that allows you to formally study the Bible at a tertiary. Or you may work full time and have kids and only have small moments of time a week. Whatever the circumstance, Bible mapping can be adjusted to work for you. Here are some examples of both short-term and long-term Bible mapping projects I’ve either tried myself or heard about from others: Reading the whole Bible in 30 days Reading the whole Bible in 90 days Reading the whole Bible in 365 days Reading Genesis 7 times i...

There is a famous productivity method called the “Seinfeld Strategy”. Made popular by James Clear’s blog post “ How to Stop Procrastinating on Your Goals by Using the “Seinfeld Strategy” ”, he outlines a habit-building method that Jerry Seinfeld used to beat procrastination and become a better comedian. Seinfeld would write a new joke each day, and whenever he accomplished this he would put a big red cross on a calendar, and over time his calendar would become a long chain of red crosses - a visual representation of keeping the chain going and building a new habit over time. This is a format that I myself have attempted to adhere to, but have encountered a flaw in my own understanding of it. Due to life circumstances such as parenting responsibilities and various projects I’m a part of, there are some tasks I wasn’t able to complete - thus breaking the chain. And a broken chain was considered a failure. And the more times I broke the chain, the less inclined I felt to try and contin...

Throughout the journey of learning to read the Bible better, attempting to understand its context, and how I can articulate the story of Scripture better, I’ve been experimenting with various note-taking systems to help me track my learning and push me to go further. Initially, I started with the classic SOAP system (Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer) which works great for a season, but I struggled to track what I was learning over time and wasn’t able to create a space for further studies. I also tried some more abstract techniques of mind mapping and using a combination of digital apps and physical notebooks to accomplish this. But my notes weren’t connected to help me see what I was learning, where I need to grow in perception, and how my comprehension of the Bible was getting deeper. So I’ve created a very simple system of 3 notes and highlighter types that I store in one digital place. All digital screens are made up of millions of pixels that consist of tiny little ...