Walking with the Bible

Still WAY too cold (-11°C /12°F ) , but I went out anyway (she da man!) I’m having trouble getting my Garmin to read my heart rate. It’s given me an average heart rate today of 61bpm. I wish I was in that kind of shape! I think the strap is actually too loose – probably made for a man. I’m going to shorten it, and then try again.

It did “beep” me through my workout, though, and I did an interval workout to get some more of this fat blasted off.   Woohoo.  Toes are still thawing out, but otherwise I’m feeling pretty good.

I thought I’d share what I’m listening to.  Last year I started listening to the Bible while I walked, and this year I’ve decided I want to go much deeper into the scriptures.  Here’s how I’m attempting to do it:

My walk is about an hour each morning. Last year  I set up a listening program based on Prof. Horner’s Bible Reading System. I set up 10 playlists on iTunes based on his ten divisions, and I set up 7 playlists – one for each day of the week. I simply drag and drop a chapter from each of the 10 divisions into the day’s playlist. You get to explore the whole Bible each morning. Kinda cool. This takes about 30 minutes of listening time.  I use “The Word of Promise” dramatized version of the NKJV for the New Testament readings (interesting to listen to the drama – I like this!), and Max McLean’s NIV version for the Old Testament (tends to swing from dull to over-dramatized, but it works.  I don’t have the “Word of Promise” for the OT yet).

I also have a challenge this year to memorize the book of Ephesians using “An Approach to Extended Memorization of Scripture” by Dr. Andrew Davis.  Once the general Bible readings are over, I then listen to the whole book of Ephesians (I work on the actual memorizing before I go for my walk).  This takes about 15 minutes.

When that’s done I’m working through Dr. J. Vernon McGee‘s verse-by-verse study of the book of Ephesians for whatever verse I’m memorizing that day.  He’s kind of fun to listen to.  I don’t always agree with him, but it’s good to hear what he has to say.  This is anywhere from 5-10 minutes, and usually wraps up my walk.

When I get home, I work through one of  iTunesU’s university classes on Ephesians.  Currently I’m working through a course on Ephesians from Dallas Theological Seminary taught by Prof.  Ron Allen.  I want to get several theological perspectives on the book,so I’m listening to whatever I can find.

I’m also pulling out my Inductive Study Bible and I’m going to work through Ephesians with the Precept upon Precept study guide.

It will take me 7 months approx. to learn Ephesians at 6 verses a week, and I figure by the end of that time I’ll have a pretty solid working knowledge of the book.  I’ve never studied a single book to this extent, so it will be interesting to see how it works.

I’ll keep you posted.

In the meantime, go take a walk.  Your body will love you for it!

Darlene