Daily Habits For Serious Bible Study

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In this episode of Courier Conversations, Jeff and Travis discuss the nuts and bolts of serious Bible study. From daily reading habits and chronological Bible plans to choosing the right translation like the ESV, CSB, NASB, or NIV, they offer practical guidance for building a consistent, life-changing routine in God’s Word. They also share trusted online resources, study tools, and warnings about unreliable translations. Whether you’re new to personal Bible study or looking to deepen your private worship time, this episode will help you get started.

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Transcript

Why Daily Bible Study Matters

Jeff 0:07

Welcome to this episode of Career Conversations. I'm Jeff Robinson, your host, and with me, as always, is my co-host Travis Kearns. And yet again, today, as with last week, we are going to talk about our favorite topic, and that is the Bible. And so, Travis, we want to talk today kind of about, I guess, for lack of a better summary, kind of a nuts and bolts of you want to study the Bible seriously on your own, how would you how would you get started with that?

Travis 0:38

Great topic to talk about. It's something that I think maybe some of our church people might only study their Bibles during Sunday school, whatever small group they're in, or only during Sunday morning sermon, uh, that they count that as their Bible study for the week. Um, but it's really important, I think, that we study our Bibles on a regular basis, on a daily basis. Um, in the same way that you would talk to your spouse on a regular basis more than one time a day, hopefully. Um, you talk to your spouse regularly. Uh, you talk to your children if you have kids regularly, are there family members, friends, coworkers, whatever it may be, you talk to them on a regular basis. In the same way, you want to talk to uh the father through prayer and hear from him, not only through prayer, but through specifically through his written revelation to us. Um, so yeah, I think it's incredibly important, something that's worthy of talking about. And as you mentioned, talking about Bible translations, whether you should get a study Bible, uh, are there other helps you can use, things like that. So, yeah, I think it's a great thing for us to uh to talk about.

Personal Routines And Reading Plans

Jeff 1:43

I think the first uh, you know, what uh what my son asked me is a good question. What what's your practice? And so I can only speak to what my practice. I don't know that there's a the Bible prescribes a particular time of day to do your uh do your Bible reading and prayer and things like that. Uh I think I would say what works best for you. Well, my my practice, and I want to hear yours too, Travis, uh, is I I get up at five o'clock every morning. Uh I pray and uh usually uh always pray and read the Bible, read it systematically. I read through the Bible every year, but I also I have a uh a devotional uh that I've used. I've used actually Tabletop magazine I've used for about 27 years now, I guess, or something, that guides my uh sort of a more focused uh dialed in kind of uh of reading that's me more meditative and uh memory verse oriented. I do a lot of that. But uh yeah, I I do it that early in the morning because and I started that because I had four young children who were not up at 5 a.m. but were up, you know, not long after that. And so uh it was a necessity a long time ago, and it's been a practice I've done now for close to 25 years or so. And so that's that's kind of what I do. Uh, it's still I'm a morning person. I grew up on a farm, so I'm accustomed to getting up early. I worked in newspaper business uh for a lot of years, and I had to get up at 4 a.m. uh then uh when I worked at the paper. And so um I uh I just am accustomed to that. It's a good a good time for me, and so that's that's kind of what I do. I I just uh it's really just simple pray and read scripture uh every single day. And of course I read the Bible at other times and pray at other times throughout the day, but that's my focused time. Uh and really for me, it's been life transforming. It's been it's I think uh I've been asked that what changed you more than anything as a believer, and I think it's been that, that simple practice. And usually for me, it's an hour, hour and a half. I mean, it's it's a a little time. I'm not in a hurry. Uh, and so uh that's why I do it so early, so I don't have to be in and do it quickly. And uh I realize not everybody might have that kind of time, but that's just the way I do it. Yeah, what do you do? What's your practice, Travis?

Chronological Plans And Slowing Down

Travis 3:43

Yeah, regular practice, daily reading. Uh I'm not as old as you are, so I'm not up quite as early. Uh so I'm up uh you got me by an hour. But what I do is uh read through text and pray. So I I love doing chronological Bible reading uh and I'll alternate. So one year I'll do a one-year chronological plan where you get through the entire Bible in a year, and then for the next three years, I do a three-year chronological plan. Uh so it gets through the entire Bible in three years. Basically, the one-year plan is two to three chapters a day. Um if it's a shorter book, maybe an entire book in a day. Uh the three-year plan is for the most part one chapter a day, so it forces you to slow down. Um it's uh, you know, the the one-year plan is probably about 30 to 40 minutes-ish uh with reading through the text, thinking through it, what's actually going on, um, and reading through it chronologically for me, it just always helped me think through. Oh, Isaiah, even though he's in his book, is in one part of the text, is a contemporary with these minor prophets over here. And even though there are a few books over in the organization of the text itself, they're ministering at the same time. Um, or you know, reading a harmony of the gospels. Hey, just because Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are in that particular order, doesn't mean they happen in that order. It's the same things being covered from four different perspectives. Um so that chronological reading for me really does help. But again, I'll do uh so this year I'm on a one-year plan and I read through different translations every time, so I'll try to mix it up um just to to not have the same thing over and over because it would just become rote like muscle memory. Um but uh I'm with you. It really does change your perspective, um changes how you look at other people because you realize they are creatures created in God's image just like you are. You treat people differently, you talk to people differently, treat your spouse differently, your kids. And it gives you, I think, a different take on what the church is and how the church should function. So rather than just this group of people that get together to do something, like the Lions Club or whatever it may be, you're getting together for the sake of worship and you're bringing into it what you've been doing and preparing during the week so you can put more into it than you get out of it. And I think really the best way to do so is through daily scripture study and prayer. So, yep, mine is up at six. Uh read either three-ish chapters or one-ish, depending on the uh the plan I'm on, and then uh time with prayer, and then off we go for the day.

Jeff 6:23

And I'm like you, I read, uh, I've used every every consciable plan, Bible reading plan over the years that you can imagine, the McShane plan. I've used that several years. I like that one a lot because it takes you through the Old Testament and the New Testament twice. Uh, and I do the Gospel Coalition has a similar plan with readings from DA Carson that go along with uh that I've done that uh for uh a few years. And and right now I'm doing the ligonier, uh the table talk of following just through the Bible, through Genesis to Revelation. You read three chapters of the Old Testament, one of the new every day. And so that's what I'm I'm doing. And then last year, and doing it again this year. And I'm like you, I've done the chronological uh uh uh reading before. But the thing is, I mean, there's not a right or wrong way to do it if you're reading the Bible. I mean, you're really reading it meditatively and and and not reading it so you can check a box. And that is every one of us is tempted to do that, to say, you know, I did my thing today. God must be proud of me. I'm sure, you know, no, no, it's not, you know, we uh that's not why you do it. I mean, I really I want my it's really a Don Whitney calls it in his book on the spiritual disciplines private worship. And I think that's kind of what mine amounts to. Again, I'm not singing and praising the Lord out loud and anything like that. You can do that if you want to. That's just not my personality, I guess. And so, but but I it's very much, you know, a time of of focused prayer and and and uh unhurried prayer and Bible reading. So it is more like a private worship so that it doesn't become and and even for that it'll become a little rote sometimes, and I don't want it to. Uh, but uh yeah, that but that's that's my practice. Well, let's talk a little bit, you know, about translations. Um, you and I both grew up in the Deep South in places where uh they raised all of us on the King James Bible, and I have great respect for the King James Bible. I grew up on it. A lot of my scripture memories from vacation Bible school in the 1970s, and uh you had uh most of our churches use the King James. And that isn't one good translation, New King James. There's uh the uh Christian Standard Version, which is the sort of the Southern Baptist translation uh in the ESV, which is the one I mainly use now, the new uh uh the Revised Standard Version, New American Standard Version, which is a good uh the living, the living Bible is the living translation, uh and all those uh those non-literal uh sort of uh thought-for-thought translations. So so Travis, what do you what uh what do you use? What do you recommend and why?

Reading Without Box-Checking

Choosing Reliable Bible Translations

Travis 8:46

Yeah, I'm I'm always gonna recommend first and foremost, whatever Bible translation you will read, that's the one you should use. Exactly. If you prefer and appreciate King James, go for it. Um you know, there are a lot of people in not just in our area where we are in South Carolina, but across really the English speaking world who are firmly convinced that the King James is the only Bible for English speaking people, which I know is not the topic of our conversation, but we can very much talk about that. Um but uh I I am about as far from as you can be. Uh so I would say whatever translation if you grew up speaking French in South Carolina, then use a French translation uh if that's what's comfortable for you. So use whatever you will read, um, is the first thing I would say. The the translations that I usually suggest, um, I love the Christian Standard Bible, it's a great translation, it's a good uh kind of moderating force, if I can put it that way, between a thought for thought like the New Living and a strict word-for-word like New American Standard or the Legacy Standard. Um, so I either always suggest Christian Standard or the New American Standard, the 95 update. Um I grew up um in the 80s, and our church uh where I grew up was using the King James until 1984 when the NIV came out in '84. And in '84, we switched to the NIV. So I grew up on the '84 NIV. Um was actually saved on the Living Bible, the paraphrase that Ken Taylor did in the 70s, which I've actually had, believe it or not, people question my salvation because I was saved on the Living Bible. Um, which just is a nice little fun side note, uh, in the original edition, Ken Taylor had profanity inside the text uh in uh 2 Samuel. Um in subsequent editions, he put it in a footnote, but nonetheless he had profanity in the text. Um so yeah, I was born and bred on the NIV. My parents always had that. My dad grew up in an independent fundamental Baptist church, so he was King James only as he was growing up. Um but yeah, grew up on the NIV really. That's where I cut my teeth. Um but then I started college uh at North Greenville as a religion major in 1995. And in the fall of 1995, the New American Standard 95 update came out, updated from the 77 into the into 1995, removing some archaic uh uh English language and some idioms. Um but that is the Bible I used all the way through college. Um and and really that's kind of where I did all my Bible memorization was from the 95 update of the New American Standard. Until the Christian standard came out. Um the the thing I appreciate most about the Christian standard is you get modern day measurements uh and money. So it kind of fits the American reading. So instead of denarian shekels and temple measurements, you get pounds and feet and inches uh rather than ancient uh ancient world measurements and monetary um measurements, so that it just makes it a little easier to understand. But yeah, I um I've I've read through New American Standard probably six or eight times through the CSB, I've read through the ESV, uh, I've read through the Legacy Standard, I've read through the NIV. Um I've not read through King James or New King James. Uh I've read through the New Living. Um and like all of them, um you know, I I appreciate what translators are trying to get at and what they're trying to do. Because each translation has its has a particular audience in mind.

Jeff 12:46

I I I I grew up on the uh the King James Bible because really um I think the first non-King James Bible to appear in my home, and my parents were not King James only, and my church wasn't King James only. Uh it was probably King James preferred, I think that's what they would say, would have said back then. But I remember the living Bible. I remember it had a green cover that made its way into my home. My mother taught a teenage girl Sunday school class for years, and that really helped her understand the Bible. She loved my mother's a very devoted student of the Bible, and uh she that really helped her. And I'm like you though, in 1984, I remember my June after my junior year in high school, I went to FCA Camp in Black Mountain, North Carolina, and they gave us there the brand new NIV Bible. And FCA had the little FCA uh logo on it. I was very heavily involved in athletics and FCA in in both high school and college. Um, and uh they gave us that little Bible. And for years, I loved that. I had that Bible, I loved it. I would read it because it's much plainer to me than the King James was uh back then. And uh it would lay on my nightstand at college or over in the at the University of Georgia in Athens. Uh I was there are Christians over there, and and uh I was one, and uh you know, was involved in a Baptist, what used to be called Baptist Student Union there and and uh and uh FCA. But that Bible really made me love the Bible. So it became the like you, the version that I read for for many, many years. Uh and and really until I went to Southern Seminary in 2000, uh, that was the English Standard Version uh came out, and uh I um I started reading that. It's a very readable literal translation, but it's it's it's excellent for being read aloud, and it's good for private reading, good for memorization. And uh I uh uh and of course I knew I think Tom Shriner had worked as one of the New Testament editors, he was my pastor there, and really enjoyed that Bible, and uh that's become what I preach and teach from now uh and uh and and have for a long time. And uh the church I'm a member of, Average Creek Baptist Church, I think that's our our our uh our Pew Bible, and also it's what our pastor preaches from. And so uh I like that and commend that to our listeners, along with all the versions, Travis, that you mentioned, those are all good. And of course, one one issue that arose really around uh 1996, maybe 1994, uh was this uh this um this notion of making Bibles gender neutral, of gender-neutral translation, of making the pronouns gender neutral, of speaking about men and women, still using the universal he, universal male to stand for the whole human race and things like that. So there are some of the newer translations like today's uh new living translation and others that do kind of bootleg some of that, uh some of that language in. And I would, you know, I would warn our readers about that to be on the lookout for that. If you use that, be just be careful about that. But the ones you talked about, the new the King James, New King James, uh the CSV is excellent, of course. Um the living or the the uh I'm sorry, the uh um NASB. We I use that in my Greek class because it's very wooden but very literal. And uh those are those are translations that I like a lot as well and commend to our listeners.

Translation Philosophy And Readability

Travis 16:01

Yeah, one of those gender-inclusive translations you have to watch for, especially is the newest edition of the NIV, the 2011. And of course, the um the TNIV, today's New International Version. So definitely watch out for that one. Uh you know, if you have questions, uh I would say to those listening about Bible translations to use or not use, contact the Baptist Courier, uh, contact our association, the Three Rivers Association, talk to your pastor. Uh your pastor's gonna, you know, if you trust him as he teaches the Bible, you trust him on translations to use. Um usually the way it goes is this if you've never heard of it, maybe stay away from it. If you have heard of it, maybe talk to your pastor about it, um and you'll be good to go. Um there are always translations coming on the market. There are always translations going out of print. Um the ones that you've likely heard of King James, New King James, New American Standard, NIV, um the Christian Standard, the Legacy Standard, the English Standard Version. Those are just good um and I may have missed one here or there. Um but those are good translations. We've I would venture to say, Jeff, correct me if I'm wrong from your uh your history knowledge, but I would venture to say that never in the history of Christianity have we, especially as English speakers, had so many translations to pick from. Uh, you know, for a long time it was the Geneva Bible. And then 1611 hits, the King James comes out, and it just goes it explodes for hundreds of years. Uh and really you know, you know, Luther's German Bible in the 16th century, uh Tyndale's edition, uh, on and on we go, but there were only one or two at the most at one time. And now we could have upwards of 15 to 20 uh just in English uh that are all very faithful and very good translations that's from which we can choose to study our Bibles. Uh so you know, if they're all written on different grade levels, uh usually King James is considered a 12th grade level, NIV is usually around a sixth to seventh grade level, New American Standards about 10th or 11th grade. So pick a Bible that you know and you trust, your pastors counseled you on, um, and just read it. What whatever translation you can find that you like that you can understand, just pick it up and read it.

Jeff 18:19

And one of the new realities, which uh you and you and I have talked about, there's a debate whether as to whether listening to the Bible being read is reading the Bible. And uh uh you you and I, we we've talked some about that, but that's not what the podcast is about. But you know, some of the some of the programs like Audible, Spotify, things like that, you can actually get, you know, you can get free translations on there of all all the one, all these uh versions that we've uh that we've mentioned here. Uh and even if you have you know most of a lot of us have iPhones, you can get a program that reads the Bible to you there. You know, if you're in the car, I wouldn't recommend this for your quiet time because I don't know that that would be a way to meditate. But one of the things I've done, uh one time I was on a trip, uh I was going from here over to Georgia through the mountains, and it was going to be in the car about three hours and so I listened to Romans and Hebrews. I just wanted to hear the word. I'd already had I'd study the Bible that day, but and I found that really helpful. Uh Max McLean, I think, was the reader, uh, an excellent uh reddish reader, and then uh I listened to those two books and and really benefited from it. Uh again, I don't know that that's the same as reading. That's another debate for another time. Uh, and I wouldn't I wouldn't want that to replace your reading. But if you say, well, I either I'm going to use Audible or nothing, well then put your put get a Bible on Audible and listen to it. I know you I'm I'm old and you're old at heart, so we we tend to do things the way we used to do things. Uh but uh you know, just like you said, read the Bible, listen to the Bible, in intake the the Bible, you know, in in any way you can. And so uh, you know, that that's that's the that's the bottom line. And I think we live in an age today of the internet. There's never been uh as many resources, good, solid, meaty resources out there. You could almost get a seminary education on the internet now. I mean, you can get one from a uh a school, but I'm I mean educating yourself. If you you know you don't feel called a vocational ministry, you don't need to go get a seminary degree, but there's so many good resources out there that will teach you the Bible, teach you theology, teach church history, all these things that really will supplement. And I know, I I know uh I've had uh I said one of the one um one of my favorite uh armchair theologians was uh a man who was in a church I served in Indiana years and years ago. He drove a Pepsi truck uh across the Midwest during the day. He'd drive like nine hours a day, and he was home at night. He wasn't a long haul trucker, but he was in church every Sunday as one of our deacons or and he he just got get gave himself a biblical education by listening back then to CDs on you know RC John MacArthur and John Piper and all these things, people and he'd take his Bible with him, and he'd you know he'd uh have to stop uh you know while the truck was in load for a couple hours, he'd do his reading, do things like that. And really knew the Bible, and amazing how much theology he knew. He even had learned a little bit of Greek and was working on that uh uh my last uh bit of time with them. So there's really no reason why you can't, if you want you want to understand the read the Bible, understand the Bible. Uh nowadays there's really and and you don't have much money even to spend on that, you you can get a lot of this for either nothing or next to nothing uh on the internet if you've got uh you know computer or your phone, internet connection. So there's it there's it's accessible now, probably in an unparalleled uh in a way that's unparalleled in human history. And yeah, no that stuff too, gotta be careful, gotta be discerning.

Audio Bibles And Intake On The Go

Travis 21:40

Yeah, there are some great resources available online. I I would urge caution, first of all, uh, because there are resources available if you were to do just a a basic internet search that are going to come from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints, so the Mormons, uh, they're gonna come from the Watchtower Society, that's Jehovah's Witnesses. Uh, they might come from uh Uh Church of Christ Scientists, so that's Christian Science with the Mother Church in Boston. Uh, you're probably not going to find anything from Scientology because they're not much into strict Bible study. Um, but there are online resources available, especially from those three big uh cult groups that will lead you astray very quickly. So urge out those. Also, just quickly back to Bible translations. Uh, one of those groups has created its own Bible translation. That's the New World Translation created by the Watchtower Society of Jehovah's Witnesses. So if you've got a New World Translation, don't use it for reading. If you want to use it for comparison's sake with an actual Orthodox translation of the Bible, do so. But otherwise, don't read that one. That one will lead you astray and into heresy very quickly. Um, but yeah, Jeff, on to your point, I think it is an incredible time in which we live because you have resources like, and this is not an endorsement, I'm just thinking of things off the top of my head, like Blue Letter Bible uh that you can find online with lots of free helps, uh, number of translations that you can see for free. Um, your church might have um a subscription to a particular service online where you get free access to resources. There's a great website that's uh cce l uh.org, the Christian classics ethereal library. That's a lot of old, uh no longer copyrighted books, so books that are at least 100 years old or older. Uh, ton of material on that website. However, you have to be careful there too, because there's some Catholic material on that one. Um but just almost an inordinate number of resources available. Um, or you know, um download your favorite uh Bible software program, maybe look at Logos or something like that. Uh Accordance is another good one that's very popular, more of a language-based one. But I mean, just Logos, I use that one every day just as an example. There are tens of thousands of study helps and books and commentaries and Bibles and original language resources uh available there, obviously not for free, but available there. Uh, should somebody get a wild hare and want to really do some in-depth study, you can study until your heart's content. So, yeah, plenty of resources available. A lot of times, too, churches might have a library with some resources there. Um public libraries sometimes have things, but you should be a little cautious using public libraries because there's no telling what may be in there. Uh but again, just like with which translation to use, uh, talk to your pastor, ask for his advice on what a good commentary might be, or Jeff, as you said, use Table Talk uh magazine from Ligoneer. Um you know, even something like our daily bread, which I remember my grandmother using decades ago and my parents using when I was a kid, even something like that is is gonna be better than nothing. Uh so yeah, ask your pastor for some advice and and hit the pages and go to reading.

Jeff 25:06

And as you find a way to focus that reading, don't just you know, sort of turn open the Bible and start reading there. You could do that. That's not a good approach to foot, but make it a focused reading uh and be intentional about how you read, you know, and what the order and just how you study the Bible like that. And you can uh there's a lot of joy and learning to be had that way. A lot of good websites, a lot of sermons out there, a lot of good uh if you have questions about you know any of this stuff, whether it can be trusted, or whether, you know, if you want recommendations, you're welcome to uh contact us at the Baptist Courier, contract the three association. We'll be glad, glad to help you with that. We love that. Uh, you can look on our website. We usually refer to a lot of these uh ministries, uh like Ligeneer that we talked about here in Nine Marks or uh uh Desiring God. And there's just uh there's a lot of uh other websites out there that have so many good articles and sermons, lots of sermons. I mean, Martin Lloyd Jones, one of my favorite dead preachers from uh from the the 20th century, uh a British uh preacher. Uh his sermons are available online now. In fact, there's I think uh uh there's an app and they're about to start his down uh offering his sermon series on Ephesians, which it's uh wonderful, and he's got a wonderful, a wonderful accent uh from the UK and uh that uh he's Welsh actually, delightful Welsh accent, and so uh just so many things out there. No, no reason not to be a student of God's word now. But if you want any, and if you have any questions about those cults and things like that, Travis uh has given a lot of his adult life to studying and those things and writing about it and warning Christians about it, studying in some ways I think he knows their theology better than they do, which is a good thing. Well, that's all the time we have for this episode. We're gonna continue talking about the Bible in future episodes. If you have questions, please uh let us know, and we will look forward to seeing you next time. Thank you for listening to this podcast of the Baptist Courier and Couerer Publishing. Be sure to follow us on all social media platforms, give us a five-star review, and send any question you want us to consider to Courier Conversations at gmail.com. If you prefer to watch our conversations, check us out on YouTube by clicking the link in the description.