How to read.

The Gospels are the right place to start. You are not studying a text — you are watching Jesus. Pick a chapter, or half a chapter, and read it the way you would read a letter from someone you love: slowly, looking for the person behind the words.

When something catches your attention — a repeated word, an unexpected response from Jesus, a detail that seems out of place — stop there. That friction is worth something. Don't smooth it over. Ask: what does this moment reveal about who God is? Not yet what it means for you. That comes later. Right now, just look.

Some mornings, a single verse is enough. Others, the chapter opens wide. Follow the text, not a quota.

Examination is not the same as study. You're not writing a paper — you're pressing your finger into the passage to feel what it's made of.

Start with the obvious questions: Who is speaking, and to whom? What just happened before this, and what comes after? Then go one layer deeper: Why does this detail appear? What would be lost if this verse didn't exist? If Jesus says something that surprises you, lean into that surprise — it usually means your picture of him needs adjusting.

Context matters because God spoke into specific moments, to specific people, with a specific point. He still means what he meant then. Your job is to understand what he meant before you ask what it means for you. A passage examined well feeds a week of prayer.

Most texts are making one main point. The details, the sub-clauses, the characters — they all serve it. Train yourself to find it. Once you do, everything else in the passage snaps into place around it.

The journal is not a to-do list. It's a record of what God is doing in you as you read. Keep it open beside your Bible — not to fill pages, but to catch what the Spirit surfaces before it slips away.

After reading and examining, work through SPECK. Most days, K is the entry that matters most — a glimpse of God's character, his ways, his weight. The others will sometimes be obvious and sometimes absent. Don't manufacture them. One honest note is worth more than five forced ones.

You've read. You've examined. You've written something down. Now you turn from the page to the Person. Prayer here is not a new task — it's the natural end of the whole movement. You've been listening. Now you speak back, or you let him speak.