SOAP Bible reading

Keeping a SOAP journal may help make your Bible reading stick. Dave deVries posted about it recently and I want to share it further. Scripture-Observation-Application-Prayer (SOAP). Give it a try and see if it will help you stay spiritually fresh and clean!

Dave deVries, writing at 'Missional Challenge' a week ago, recommended SOAP Journaling. It seems like a good idea that might help many of us read and digest the Bible more effectively, so I thought I'd pass it on.

Not only that, SOAP can help with discipling others and if you are doing that (and you should be) it's a technique you can teach them so that they in turn can teach it to others.

Like all simple ways of doing things it's easy to understand, easy to learn, easy to describe and easy to teach.

There is a caveat, however. Like all methods it's what you make of it that counts. There is no benefit or value in going through the motions; methods are tools, not an end in themselves.

So what is SOAP? How does it work? You can read about it in more detail in Dave's article. A brief outline and my own thoughts are below.

SOAP - The acronym stands for Scripture - Observation - Application - Prayer.

Begin by consciously clearing your mind. As with CO2's Virkler, one way to help with this is to jot down in your notebook every intrusive thought about things you need to do. Write things down as they occur to you and dismiss them until later.

Once your mind is clear and calm, ask the Holy Spirit to speak to you, then read the Bible passage from a version that flows easily for you. Consider what you are reading, ask the SOAP questions and write down the thoughts that occur to you.

The questions are listed in Dave's article, he provides several for each letter of the acronym.

Scripture - the questions focus on the context. When it was written, who wrote it, why they wrote it and to whom. Write down verses that speak to you strongly and personally.

Observation - Look for commands and promises. Consider anything concerning the nature and actions of the Father, Son and Spirit. What questions arise in your mind?

Application - What effect does this have, what changes are necessary, what will you do today as a result of what you have read and considered?

Prayer - Aim to cover your needs for help and forgiveness. Be thankful. Write them down as a prayer.

It's easy to read in a vague way and remember almost nothing later. Using a method like SOAP will help you lock in some of the things you read. Writing things down (or sharing them with someone else) are effective ways of getting them to stick in your own mind and heart.

SOAP is more than an acronym, it's an idea. What do you use soap for? To help release the dirt when you wash your hands, to stay fresh and clean. So remember, using SOAP regularly will help you stay spiritually fresh and clean! But as with ordinary soap it's of no value unless you use it.

Questions:

• Are there ways you can improve your Bible reading? Might SOAP help?
• What do you think of the SOAP questions? Can you add more of your own?
• Have you some experience using SOAP? If so, please leave a comment below.

See also:

• Are you listening? - Journeys of heart and mind
• Church of two - Journeys of heart and mind
• Reading the Bible - Journeys of heart and mind
• SOAP
• SOAP Bible reading and journaling - Scripture Engagement
• Start SOAP journaling in 2013 - Missional challenge

Bible Tools - Index

(See indexes on other topics)

For anyone wishing to read or study the Bible there are many good tools available to use online or install locally. To help you decide which to investigate further, this series of articles briefly reviews some of the offerings and explains their capabilities and scope.

This list below includes my own articles about online tools and Frank Viola's material on locally installed software.

• Bible Gateway - Web, apps - http://www.biblegateway.com/
• BibleWorks 9 - PC, smartphones - http://www.bibleworks.com/content/
• Bible Hub - Web - http://biblehub.com/
• Olive Tree Bible Reader - PC, Mac, smartphones - http://olivetree.com/
• Online Bible tools - Web - some pros and cons of the online tools
• WORDsearch 10 - PC, Mac, smartphones - https://www.wordsearchbible.com/

THOUGHT - Reading the Bible

I've been reading the Bible regularly or irregularly for about forty years now, and early in that process I discovered that it was useful to have a plan to follow. Having a plan makes sure that everything gets covered, and it can be used in conjunction with just dipping into favourite books and passages when I feel like it.

There are many published Bible-reading plans and aids but none of them seemed quite right for me. So in my late twenties or early thirties I devised one of my own and I've followed it ever since. I offer it here for you to use, adapt, or ignore as you will. But even if you don't decide to use it perhaps it will encourage you to adopt another reading plan, modify your current one, or devise one of your own. You can find a full list of the books in the Bible and the Apocrypha on the Bible Gateway website.

If you've read this far you will probably want to know how my plan works. So here it is. An explanation follows.

Historical	Prophets	New Testament	Apochrypha	Psalms
Genesis 50	(Ezra 10)	Luke 24	(1 Esdras 14)	1-150
Exodus 40	Nehemiah 13	Acts 28	2 Esdras 16	Ps 151
Leviticus 27	(Esther 10)	Romans 16	Tobit 14
Numbers 36	Job 42		(Esther 10)
Deuteron 34	Proverbs 31	Mark 16	Judith 16
Joshua 24	Ecclesiates 10	1 Corinth 16	Wisdom 19
Judges 21	Song of S 8	2 Corinth 13	Ecclesiasticus 51
Ruth 4	Isaiah 66	Galatians 6	Baruch 6
1 Samuel 31	Jeremiah 52	Ephesians 6	Susannah 1
2 Samuel 24	Lamentations 5		Bel and dragon 1
1 Kings 22	Ezekiel 48	Matthew 28	1 Maccabees 16
2 Kings 25	Daniel 12	Philippians 4	2 Maccabees 15
1 Chronicles 29	Hosea 14	Colossians 4	3 Maccabees 7
2 Chronicles 36	Joel 3	1 Thessal 5	4 Maccabees 18
	Amos 9	2 Thessal 3
	Obadiah 1	1 Timothy 6
	Jonah 4	2 Timothy 4
	Micah 7	Titus 3
	Nahum 3	1 Philemon 1
	Habakkuk 3	Hebrews 13
	Zephaniah 3
	Haggai 2	John 21
	Zechariah 14	James 5
	Malachi 4	1 Peter 5
		2 Peter 3
		1 John 5
		2 John 1
		3 John 1
		Jude 1
		Revelation 22
403 chapters	376 chapters	260 chapters	204 chapters
1/day=13.4 mon	1/day=12.5 mon	1/day=8.7 mon	1/day=6.7 mon
2/day= 6.7 mon	2/day= 6.3 mon	2/day=4.3 mon	2/day=3.4 mon

There are four columns which are designed to contain something like 300 chapters each, a fifth column contains the Psalms. The number of chapters in each book is shown after the name in each case, ie there are 50 chapters in Genesis. The idea is to read something from one column, then something from the next and so on. When you complete a column start again at its top even though you are part way through the other columns. I prefer to read more New Testament than anything else so the pattern I follow is

• Column 1 - Old Testament (historical books)
• Column 3 - New Testament
• Column 2 - Old Testament (prophets)
• Column 3 - New Testament
• Column 4 - Apocrypha
• Column 3 - New Testament
• Column 5 - Psalms
• Column 3 - New Testament

Reading this way 50% of my reading is New Testament, 25% is Old Testament (minus the Psalms), 12.5% is Psalms, and 12.5% is Apocrypha. However, there are more verses in the Apocrypha than in Psalms, so I cover the Psalms more often than the Apocrypha. This balance suits me quite well.

The information at the bottom of the columns shows the exact number of chapters and the time it will take for the entire column reading one or two chapters daily. For example, if you read one chapter from column one every day it will take you nearly thirteen and a half months for the entire column, just over a year. At a rate of two chapters per day the column will take less than seven months.

To change the balance you can simply change the sequence of columns or the number of chapters you read each day. If you miss a few days or want to read more each day you will cover the pattern slower or faster.

Let's take a look at what's in each column and why.

Column One

This contains the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testament) and the historical books. In other words it includes all the books from Genesis to 2 Chronicles. This column covers creation, the Law, and the history of Israel until they were taken into captivity by the Babylonians.

Column Two

Here you will find all the Old Testament prophetic, wisdom and poetic books (except Psalms), mostly written after the return from Babylon. There are notable exceptions - Job, for example, is a very much earlier book. Ezra and Esther are in brackets because the same chapters (and more) are included in column four. You can choose to read Ezra and Esther in both columns, or leave them out of either column two or column four.

Between them, columns one and two will take you through the entire Old Testament. If you read a chapter a day from each column you'll cover the Old Testament in just over a year.

Column Three

Unlike the Old Testament columns, I have rearranged the order of the books in column three. They are presented in four blocks with a similar number of chapters in each. There are several reasons for doing this.

The four gospels are separated so you don't read them one after another. This means you will dip into a gospel book more frequently. It also makes it possible to read Acts immediately after Luke's gospel, and as Luke wrote the two books as a consistent account to be read in sequence this seems a useful thing to do.

Arranging the books this way also brings John's gospel close to his letters and to Revelation.

Column Four

If you don't want to read the Apocrypha just leave this column out of your reading pattern and include the bracketed book of Esther in column two. But I think there are good reasons to cover the apochryphal books now and again. For one thing the books of Maccabees cover some of Israel's history between the Old and New Testaments and this is interesting in its own right.

There is no agreed order for the additional material in the Apocrypha, the Roman Catholic version is differently structured than the Anglican version, not only in terms of the books but even in terms of chapters and verses. Psalm 151  would often be included here too, but I've added it to column five instead.

Column Five

Good old Psalms! I've put them in a column of their own so that they are not read as a solid block but are interspersed in your reading. If you want to read through Psalms faster, put the column into your reading pattern more than once.

How it all works

Reading according to my choice of column pattern (1, 3, 2, 3, 4, 3, 5, 3) I began as follows.

Genesis 1, Luke 1, Ezra 1, Luke 2, 1 Esdras 1, Luke 3, Psalm 1, Luke 4 (then following the pattern again) Genesis 2, Luke 5, Ezra 2, Luke 6 and so on.

So you can see how the pattern works out. You can read just one chapter a day (or even less than a chapter) or you can read several chapters. You can break the pattern whenever you wish and come back to it. You might, for example, want to read right through a single book or part of a book for a Bible study. Simply make a note of where you are in the pattern and come back to it later.