40-Day Reading Challenge

[Seanette]

Lost, I find that a combination works for me. Some in-depth study, some reading the whole thing to keep the context of the deeper material in place.

Besides, some of us can use the motivation of a challenge (raises hand).

[KeithLBrown]

Originally Posted by LostSheep

I find you get a lot more out of the scriptures if you don't just read them, but study them. I already read the scriptures twice this past year. So instead of reading them in a certain amount of time, I decided to read between the lines, and use tons of exterior sources. I've been doing this for a while, and am only on 1 Nephi 17. But I've gotten more more out of those 17 verses than I've gotten out of the entire book when I read it in 100 days. It's just my opinion. I think that reading challenges are great, but some people miss the point. I know so much more about 1 Nephi now. Things I had missed by simply trying to just read the book and get it over with. Enjoy the race, not the finish.

LostSheep,

I certainly understand and appreciate what you are saying. I too like to take the time and study portions of the Scriptures as I read them. I agree that it does help to clarify some of that which I have read.

With that being said, in my humble opinion, I do believe that sometimes we can, if we are not careful, spend more time pondering over what has been written about the Scriptures by others, than actually reading the Scriptures themselves. After all, it is the Word of God, which stands firmly on its own, that is the ultimate and final authority. Sometimes I fear that people can get too caught up in becoming concerned about what someone has written about a subject than they do about the actual subject at hand. In short, what I am saying is that there needs to be a delicate balance. Again, the Word of God itself should always be our final authority.

I particularly like what President Ezra Taft Benson taught us about this. He said, "Always remember, there is no satisfactory substitute for the scriptures and the words of the living prophets. These should be your original sources. Read and ponder more what the Lord has said, and less about what others have written concerning what the Lord has said." (Address to educators, Salt Lake City, September 17, 1976.) To me, those are great words of counsel.

I also concur with the strong counsel of President Romney, given to a group of seminary and institute coordinators in 1973. He told them, “I don’t know much about the gospel other than what I’ve learned from the standard works. When I drink from a spring I like to get the water where it comes out of the ground, not down the stream after the cattle have waded in it. … I appreciate other people’s interpretation, but when it comes to the gospel we ought to be acquainted with what the Lord says. … You ought to read the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants; and … all the scriptures with the idea of finding out what’s in them and what the meaning is and not to prove some idea of your own. Just read them and plead with the Lord to let you understand what he had in mind when he wrote them.” (Address delivered at Coordinators’ Convention, Seminaries and Institutes of Religion, 13 Apr. 1973.)

Each of us have our own methods of reading and studying the Scriptures. Please understand that I am not in any way saying that one method is better than another, or that a particular method is wrong and another is right. One of the main purposes behind the challenge is to help motivate those who have never read the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants and Pearl of Great Price in their entirety to pick up those blessed Scriptures and read them and perhaps for some, for the very first time discover what is actually written in each one. Believe it, or not, there are some who have been members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints their entire lives and have never read either of these volumes of Scripture in their entirety. It is my hope, my sincere prayer, that once they read them for perhaps the first time in their entirety, they will gain a thirst to want to read them again and again. I have now in my 11 years as a member of the Church read the Book of Mormon 7 times in its entirety, and the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price each 8 times in their entirety. I find that each time I read them I learn something that I did not learn before. It is indeed a continual learning process.

The Prophet Joseph Smith gave us this great admonition in 1832. He said,"“Search the scriptures—search the revelations which we publish and ask your Heavenly Father, in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, to manifest the truth unto you, and if you do it with an eye single to His glory nothing doubting, He will answer you by the power of His Holy Spirit. You will then know for yourselves and not for another. You will not then be dependent on man for the knowledge of God; nor will there be any room for speculation. … For when men receive their instruction from Him that made them, they know how He will save them. … Again we say: Search the Scriptures, search the Prophets and learn what portion of them belongs to you.” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, comp. Joseph Fielding Smith, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1938, pp. 11–12.)

For me personally, I enjoy the race as well as the finish. Perhaps I enjoy the finish even more than the race itself, because once I have crossed the finish line, I find myself excited, wanting to run the race again and again. The beauty of reading the Scriptures is just as J. Richard Clarke once said, "Brothers and sisters, you don't have to be a natural student to read the scriptures; you just need to love the Lord." (Ensign, November 1982, p.15.)

[changed]

Here are all the institute manuals:
Institute Student Manuals

it does not take long to read through, and I think adds a lot to reading the scripts.

the inst manuale starts with

The introductory pages to the Book of Mormon
contain the following important documents: opening
page, title page, Introduction, the Testimony of Three
Witnesses, the Testimony of Eight Witnesses,
Testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith, and a Brief
Explanation about the Book of Mormon.

perhaps it would be good to start, not with I Nephi 1, but with the introductory materials? a little JSH? Just a thought...

[Seanette]

changed, that was one of my tweaks to the original schedule, adding the introductory material (intro, witness testimonies, and such) as a chapter in the Book of Mormon. JS-H gets covered in the Pearl of Great Price (my version has that cycling several times, Keith's once).

[changed]

thoughts on making scripture reading a habbit
from Og Mandino (a few words changed)

Today I begin a new life.
Today I shed my old skin which hath, too long, suffered the bruises of failure and the wounds of mediocrity.

Today I am born anew and my birthplace is a vineyard where there is fruit for all.

Today I will pluck grapes of wisdom from the tallest and fullest vines in the vineyard, for these were planted by the wisest of my profession who have come before me, generation upon generation.
Today I will savor the taste of grapes from these vines and verily I will swallow the seed of faith buried in each and new life will sprout within me.
The life I have chosen is laden with opportunity yet it is fraught with heartbreak and despair and the bodies of those who have failed, were they piled one atop another, would cast a shadow down upon all the pyramids of the earth.
Yet I will not fail, as the others, for in my hands I now hold the charts which will guide me through perilous waters to shores which only yesterday seemed but a dream.
Failure no longer will be my payment for struggle. Just as nature made no provision for my body to tolerate pain neither has it made any provision for my life to suffer failure. Failure, like pain, is alien to my life. In the past I accepted it as I accepted pain. Now I reject it and I am prepared for wisdom and principles which will guide me out of the shadows into the sunlight of wealth, position, and happiness far beyond my most extravagant dreams until even the golden apples in the Garden of Hesperides will seem trivial in comparison to my reward.
Time teaches all things to him who lives forever but I have not the luxury of eternity. Yet, within my allotted time I must practice the art of patience for nature acts never in haste. To create the olive, king of all trees, a hundred years is required. An onion plant is old in nine weeks. I have lived as an onion plant. It has not pleased me. Now I wouldst become the greatest of olive trees and, in truth, the greatest of disciples.
And how will this be accomplished? For I have neither the knowledge not the experience to achieve greatness and already I have stumbled in ignorance and fallen into pools of self-pity. The answer is simple. I will commence my journey unencumbered with either the weight of unnecessary knowledge or the handicap of meaningless experience. Nature already has supplied me with knowledge and instinct far greater than any beast in the forest and the value of experience is over-rated, usually by old men who nod wisely and speak stupidly.
In truth, experience teaches thoroughly yet her course of instruction devours men’s years so the value of her lessons diminishes with the time necessary to acquire her special wisdom. The end finds it wasted on dead men. I want to live fully in this life, and not wait for the life to come. Furthermore, experience is comparable to fashion; an action that proved successful today will be unworkable and impractical tomorrow.
Only principles endure and these I now possess, for the laws that will lead me to greatness are contained in the words of these scrolls. What the scrolls will teach me is to prevent failure and to gain success. The only difference between those who have failed and those who have succeeded lies in the difference of their habits. Good habits are the key to all success. Bad habits are the unlocked door to failure. Thus, the first law I will obey which precedes all others – I will form good habits and become their slave.
As a child I was slave to my impulses; now I am slave to my habits, as are all grown men. I have surrendered my free will to the years of accumulated habits and the past deeds of my life have already marked out a path which threatens to imprison my future. My actions are ruled by appetite, passion, prejudice, greed, love, fear, environment, habit, and the worst of these tyrants is habit. Therefore, if I must be a slave to habit let me be a slave to good habits. My bad habits must be destroyed and new furrows prepared for good seed.

I will form good habits and become their slave.

And how will I accomplish this difficult feat?
Through these scrolls, it will be done, for each scroll contains a principle which will drive a bad habit from my life and replace it with one which will bring me closer to God. For it is another of nature’s laws that only a habit can subdue another habit. So, in order for these written words to perform their chosen task, I must discipline myself with the first of my new habits which is as follows:

"I will read each scroll for for the rest of my days in this prescribed manner;
- First, I will read the words in silence when I arise.
- Then I will read the words in silence after I have partaken of my midday meal.
- Last, I will read the words again just before I retire at day's end, and most important, on this occasion I will read the words aloud with my family.
On the next day I will repeat this procedure, and I will continue in like manner for the rest of my life. I will continue until I have lived with each scroll and my reading has become habit.

As I repeat the words daily they will soon become a part of my active mind, but more important, they will also seep into my other mind, that mysterious source which never sleeps, which creates my dreams, and often makes me act in ways I do not comprehend.
As the words of these scrolls are consumed by my mysterious mind I will begin to awake, each morning, with a vitality I have never known before. My vigor will increase, my enthusiasm will rise, my desire to meet the world will overcome every fear I once knew at sunrise, and I will be happier than I ever believed it possible to be in this world of strife and sorrow.
Eventually I will find myself reacting to all situations which confront me as I was commanded in the scrolls to react, and soon these actions and reaction will become easy to perform, for any act with practice becomes easy.
Thus a new habit is born, for when an act becomes easy through constant repetition it becomes a pleasure to perform and if it is a pleasure to perform it is our nature to perform it often. When I perform it often it becomes a habit and I become its slave and since it is a good habit this is my will.

Today I begin a new life.

And I make a solemn oath to myself that nothing will retard my new life’s growth. I will lose not a day from these readings for that day cannot be retrieved nor can I substitute another for it. I must not, I will not, break this habit of daily reading from these scrolls and, in truth, the few moments spent each day on this new habit are but a small price to pay for the happiness and joy that will be mine.
As I read and re-red the words in the scrolls to follow, never will I allow the brevity of each scroll nor the simplicity of its words to cause me to treat the scroll’s message lightly. Thousands of grapes are pressed to fill one jar with wine, and the grapeskin and pulp are tossed to the birds. So it is with these grapes of wisdom from the ages. Much has been filtered and tossed to the wind. Only the pure truth lies distilled in the words to come. I will drink as instructed and spill not a drop. And the seeds of faith I will swallow.
Today my old skin has become as dust. I will walk tall among all and they will know me not, for today I am a new person, with a new life.

I will be reading the above along with my scriptures in order that I do not forget their importance, that I remember what blessings lie within, that I would joyfully drink from their fountains. I will read the above and my scriptures until they are a continual part of my thoughts, until I have fully understood and made these words a part of who I am. Through making these words a part of my every waking moment, I will control who I am, and what I am to become. I will grow closer to God and to all those around me, go forth with faith and joy. May these words become actions, and the actions become a life fully and deeply lived. Through these words may we all unlock the mysteries of Godliness, and through them be guided back to our heavenly home, is my sincere prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

[pam]

For those participating, I have set up new threads:

40 Day Reading Challenge - LDS Mormon Forums

[KeithLBrown]

Thanks Pam! Only three more days to go and then. . . .let the challenge begin!!

[ruthiechan]

Has anyone formulated this sort of challenge for the Old and New Testaments?
I'd love to do those after this challenge.

[Seanette]

Originally Posted by ruthiechan

Has anyone formulated this sort of challenge for the Old and New Testaments?
I'd love to do those after this challenge.

I really don't think those are doable in 40 days , but I plan to read the entire OT at least once next year. Hmmm, need to start figuring......

[pam]

Originally Posted by ruthiechan

Has anyone formulated this sort of challenge for the Old and New Testaments?
I'd love to do those after this challenge.

Would be interesting to try and figure that out.