Happy New Year, one and all!
This is the time of year where one traditionally pauses to take stock of the year that has passed, and to make resolutions for the year ahead. There is nothing wrong with this at all, provided of course that your assessment and resolutions are good and made from a position of faith.
One resolution, whether it is called that or not, that many Christians will be making at this time, will be to read through the Bible in one year. An excellent endeavour whatever the reasoning behind it. As believers we should be thoroughly acquainted with all of God's word, not just the bits we are already comfortable with. Reading the Bible through in one year is a great way to do this; one that I have done several times [Though, I confess, I have started reading the Bible through in one year about twice as often as I have actually finished!]
If you have just started on such a journey, can I point you towards an excellent resource: the Bible Tour Blog. Here you will find insight and resources along the way that will help you to view and appreciate the landscape of Biblical revelation. There is space for your comments too, so you may meet some travelling companions for the journey too.
My own reading plan is reading the Bible through in two years, and I'm pleased to report that on my third year of doing this, I am still ahead; over half way through second time round. You don't stop reading the Word just because you have read it all! There is always more to discover, learn, absorb, and put into practice.
But whatever your reading plan, or resolutions are this year, make sure this is a year soaked in God's word.
Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
He is like a tree
planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.
(Psalm 1:1-3)
5 comments:
Great Post Chris - The Bible Tour is an excellent site to help read through the beauty, majesty and power of God's word through the year - may you know the blessing of God as you read God's life giving word this year...look forward to more great blog posts of Kingdom Revelation throughout 2007!
I've never managed to follow a bible reading scheme on a website. Probably just me though.
However, I do have two 'bible in a year' books, one of which I have managed to sucessfully follow for an entire year (five times!).
I have one (called simply 'the daily bible') which has the entire bible arranged chronologically and split into 365 specified daily readings. Thus Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers & Deutoronomy are all spliced together, as are the books of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles - which break off occasionally while a prophet writes a book. Similarly there is only one long gospel account and some of Paul's letters are interspersed within the book of Acts.
I like this arrangement. As I've said, I've completed it 5 times.
The other bible in a year book I have has a chunk from the OT, a chunk from the NT and a psalm (or bit of a psalm) for every day. I never managed to read this for more than a couple of months - it jumped around too much.
But whatever works for you, I suppose...
Good post.
Reading the Bible through in a year is doable with enough discipline to spend say 20 minutes a day at it. The risk, however, is reading without a lot of comprehension.
Callmeteem,
That's why I switched to a two-year programme. I like to think I am fairly disciplined, but even with the best will in the world there are days when you cannot squeeze 20 mins of reading in. Days of travel or other disruptions to the routine that come along. You then have to read 40 mins to stay on target. Another missed day and the target becomes 60 mins. Very quickly you can fall so far behind that it's easy to become discouraged and give up. Most one-year programs are locked pretty tightly into a this-reading-is-for-this-day approach which doesn't help when you fall behind.
By switching to a two-year programme, and reading morning and night, my readings have become about 5 mins each. Much smaller bites that encourages more meditation and reflection, and makes it much easier to catch up on a missed reading. As I'm using a One Year Bible, the dates at the top are irrelevant, which helps a less legalistic approach, that can speed up or slow down as appropriate.
Having said all that, I do think that reading the Bible through in one year is an incredibly rewarding experience that every Christian should do at least once. But for those who find it too much, or fall behind - they shouldn't feel condemned or give up on the goal of becoming familiar with all of God's word, but switch to a different programme to attain the same end.
I agree entirely about no condemnation for those who find the 20 minutes a day difficult.
I would rather encourage those who aren't reading the Word to aim at a small bite daily rather than the intimidating goal of reading the whole Bible in a year.
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