Bible reading plan

Last year, I wrote this post about reading through the Bible in a year. 2011 was not the first year for me to do that...in fact, I can't honestly remember when I began reading through the Bible each year. But I do love each December picking out the new plan for the next year.

Do I think there is something magical about reading the Bible in a year? No. But I do think that we should the Bible regularly, daily even, and over and over. Reading it in a year gives us a time frame to work within...and when you can see the goal posts, it's alot easier to kick the ball straight through them. I do believe that "ALL Scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness," (2 Timothy 3:16)...and so even though I don't understand why we need to read the book of Nahum, I do think it is God-breathed and there for a reason that I haven't figured out yet. So I'll keep reading the WHOLE Bible, and not just the parts that make me feel good, until I get to heaven. Cause it's only There that I'm gonna figure it all out.

This past year, I used the chronological plan that the Church at Brook Hills used when their church did the Radical Experiment in 2010. I listened to the sermons that went along with each week. (I still have a few sermons to go; I got a little behind in December.) I'm not going to lie: I didn't enjoy the chronological plan.

I liked the amount of reading per day. I liked having Sundays free, so that if I needed a catch-up or reflection day, I had it. I liked how the story, for the most part, flowed. (Reading multiple accounts of a story all at the same time, like in Chronicles/Kings, and the Gospels, was sometimes difficult, and sometimes drove the point home.)

What I didn't like was 9 months with no Jesus. I didn't get to the New Testament until October, and oh man...that was rough. I suppose that I got the sense of longing for the arrival of the Messiah the way the Jews did/do with just the Old Testament...but I know He comes and I want Him daily!

As far as Bible reading plans go, the problem is that I don't like reading hopscotch all over the place so that I get a little bit of New Testament in every day. I suppose it's the only way to get NT and read the whole Bible in a year without going chronological again. But because it felt like I didn't get enough NT this past year, I decided for 2012 to read through the NT slowly, so I'm doing a several part plan.

I'll be reading through the NT a chapter a day with this plan.

I'll read a Proverb a day every day (they fit so nicely into 31 day months!), and a Psalm a day (twice in the year).

I'll start the year off with a 10 week Bible study, and finish the year off with some other Bible study that I haven't picked yet.

In between the two Bible studies, I'll read through the Bible in six months with this plan.

If the hopscotch reading doesn't bother you, I highly recommend this plan. It gives you 4 types of readings per day, for 25 days per month (which is plenty of catch-up days if you miss some), and even has pretty little boxes to check off that you've read something.

Happy Reading!

Radical December

I mentioned in my Radical mid-December post that I wanted to blog about the Bible. Well here we are.

One of the challenges in the Radical Experiment is to read the whole Bible in one year. For some people, this is radical. They've never read the Bible all the way through. They don't read the Bible every day. Maybe they just read it on Sundays at church, or maybe not at all. To pick up the Bible on a daily basis and commit to read the whole thing in one year is extreme. It's radical.

For some, it's not radical. But still a little bit of a challenge. They read their Bible every day, but they've never read it all the way through. They do different Bible studies. They camp out in particular books. But Levitcus? Obadiah? Forget about it. (Obadiah, if you can find it, is actually not all that intimidating, because it's only 21 verses long.)

For others, like me, it's not radical, and not a challenge. I began reading the Bible in a year several years ago, and enjoyed doing it so much that I committed then to attempt to do it every year for the rest of my life. Some years (like 2009), I just don't quite finish. Other years (2005, 2010), I finish in plenty of time. This year, I finished on December 15 and just haven't known what to do with myself for the last two weeks!

So as the year is ending, and you are maybe thinking about new year's resolutions, I'd like to encourage you to try reading the Bible all the way through in the year 2011. You'll be amazed at the beauty of God's story and His Word to you that are tucked away in places you never imagined. (Zechariah, anyone? Titus?) You'll be blessed by meeting with the Lord on a regular, daily, basis...and that alone could make 2011 the best year yet! I'd also like to offer a little advice to help you stick to it...

1. Schedule a time and a place. For me, it's 6am on the couch with a pot of coffee ready. I set two alarm clocks to make sure I'm up (at 5:30--so I have time to wake up beforehand). When I'm not in language class, that hour moves to a little later in the morning, but it's still first thing, and it's still on my couch. That's what works for me.

2. Have a plan. Here's where I want to make my Radical December offering to you. In 2010, I used a plan that worked better than any other I'd ever tried. This plan gives make-up days! There are 25 days of scheduled reading per month, so if you miss a few days, it's okay. Sometimes, life happens. Your doorbell rings unexpectedly at 6am, and that scheduled time doesn't happen that day. The problem with 365 day reading plans is that as soon as you're behind one day, it begins to snowball and you feel overwhelmed. This plan, however, gives time every month to make up the days you missed. And if you don't miss any days, then you have a few days at the end of every month to camp out in a passage that really spoke to you.

It also has little boxes for you to check off what you've read. It makes you feel like you've accomplished something. So, if you get bogged down in Hezekiah (kidding), skip ahead and read a bunch in Ephesians, check it all off, then go back to Hezekiah (still kidding).

You can download this plan, called the Discipleship Journal Bible Reading Plan from this website. (It's the third one down the list, but hey! Try whatever one works for you!) Or check out THIS website that has quite possibly every plan known to man, and therefore...one that can work for you!

3. Get some accountability. We all know that we make resolutions and then break them within a few weeks. A great way to stick to them is to have someone hold you accountable. That means, tell someone you're going to read the Bible through in a year, tell them which plan you're going to use, and what you're scheduled time is, and then...have them ask you every once in awhile if you're sticking to it.

In fact, if you're planning on reading the Bible all the way through in 2011, why not post a comment and let me know? I'll ask you how it's coming each time we talk on Skype. I'll get the ball rolling by saying: I am planning on reading the Bible through in 2011. This year, I'll be reading it chronologically, using a 6-day-a-week plan.

Happy Reading!