Yesterday in my sermon at Asbury, I walked our church through a method of studying Scripture that is called the “SOAP” method.  In this method, the letters stand for this.

S – Scripture

O – Observation

A – Application

P – Prayer

My challenge to my people, and to each of you reading this, is to, each day this week, seriously take some time to really read the Bible.  No rush through it. But, read it.  Listen for God to speak to you through it.  Take time to reflect upon it.

First, S, listen for God when you read.  Don’t rush.  Don’t get in a hurry.  Don’t worry about having to read a lot.  Just slow down, breathe, and listen for God to speak.

O.  What do you notice?  What words stood out? What caught your eye?  What jumped out at you? What really grabbed you?

A.  From what you read, what can you apply to your life today?  What can you carry with you through the rest of your day?  Your week?  Your life?

P.  Pray for the grace to carry through what you’ve learned today.

So, this is the challenge I have for you. Will you do it this week? Will you take the time to really read, listening for God’s voice in what you read?

Do it for a week.  And just see.

And let me know how it goes for you. What did you you learn?  email me, or post on my wall, or tweet me.  I’d love to hear back from you on this challenge!

The question is always where do I start?  Here’s some help.

One thing you can always do is just read through a book of the bible.  If you’d like to do that, I’d suggest starting with the Gospel of Mark.  It’s the shortest of the Gospels and, in my opinion, the easiest to understand.

If you’d like just daily suggested readings, you can use our Asbury Salt and Light bulletin.  If you didn’t grab one yesterday, you can read it online by clicking here.

Or you can use plans from the American Bible Society, suggested ESV reading for the day, on of the many plans from Bible.com, or a whole host of other online options.

Or you can use the passages that I’ll reflect upon each day here!

I hope these are helpful for you. And I hope you’ll take the challenge!

Don’t forget, you can click here to download Asbury’s mobile app and read these devotionals, as well as listen to my sermons on your smart phone.