
Since it’s almost the New Year (and time for resolutions, fresh starts, and/or recommitments to disciplines that have faded), we wanted to give you some tools that will help you “resolve” to do a better job of reading the Bible in 2012. As a church, this is assuredly one of the most vital practices we can do together. Psalm 119:105 reminds us that “[God's] word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.” Simply said, if we’re not reading our Bibles this year, we’ll be walking in the dark.
The Bible is a collection of ancient manuscripts—66 to be exact—not a book. Several dozen authors wrote these manuscripts. Readers who approach it like a book—beginning with page one and proceeding to the end—can find themselves lost in a bewildering maze of ancient history and lists. Not to mention, busy schedules and limited confidence can end up discouraging us from spending time in these amazing words from God. A good Bible-reading plan will help overcome obstacles like these.
We’d love for you to adopt one of the plans below and use it to structure some of your reading this year. Each approach offers an effective strategy for pushing beyond a limited understanding of the Bible—including how to read the Bible topically (to get a concentrated view of a certain theme or subject), to see a “bird’s eye view” of the high points of the biblical story, or to read through all the manuscripts. See the links below for reading plans we have found to be especially helpful.
—————-
Two-Week Topical Study Plan: Use this link to download a reading plan that contains two-week sections that each concentrate on a different topic. Content includes: the life of Jesus, the life and teachings of Paul, the Old Testament, on becoming a Christian, and many more.
30-Day Plans featuring important biblical topics and stories:
“Bird’s Eye Overview” Plans: The following plans offer a bird’s eye view of the biblical story at three different levels—60, 90, and 180 days. The daily readings consist of selected passages that make up a “guided tour” of the Bible’s high points. This arrangement will convey the Bible’s “plot” without reading all of it.
New Testament Study Plans: These plans help you study the New Testament.
Read Through the Bible in a Year: The link below will give you a PDF that will help you navigate the Bible in a year.
- Straight through the Bible in a year from Genesis to Revelation. Get the PDF here.
- Old and New Testaments together to read the whole Bible, with something from each Testament every day. Get the PDF here.
- Read from four places each day, with passages from two books, Psalms, and Proverbs. Get the PDF here.
Read Online: Lastly, if you haven’t already discovered www.youversion.com, you need to. This is an online Bible (in many translations) with a ton of online reading plans (http://www.youversion.com/reading-plans/all). What’s great about this approach is that you check off your reading each day online. Also, it syncs with many different mobile devices (iPhone, iPad, Blackberry, Android). So, whether you read online or on your phone, it keeps them in sync as to where you are in the plan.
Again, Happy New Year! We are excited about walking together this year using God’s Word as a “lamp to our feet.”
—————-
(Note that the links above are all presented as downloadable PDFs, so you might need to save them in a way that works for your computer. Some of you may be able to download with a simple click of the link and others might need to “right click” and “save as.”)