Reading Plans

You've probably seen one of the numerous plans for reading the Bible in 2013 (if not, there's a big list here). I'd like to encourage you to pick one and go with it. Frankly, I don't care which one you go with, or if you develop your own - just go with something. Why? The old adage remains true: failing to plan is planning to fail.

Whenever an activity is beneficial but unnatural - that is, not something we would do by default - we need to plan to do it. It doesn't matter whether it's reading scripture, praying, exercise, making sales calls (for me - some people actually like that, if you can believe it), if we don't plan to do it and designate time to do it, it won't get done. The time will instead go to something else, or more likely, nothing.

And make no mistake, reading scripture is unnatural. By nature, the last thing we want to know is what God says, as we demonstrated in Genesis 3 and have been perpetually shown ever since. Those of us who are in Christ have been born again with a new nature which loves God - but we still have the old flesh fighting against God with all the strength it has left. The last thing it wants us to do is submit our minds to God's revealed will. So if we don't plan to read God's word, the flesh will do all it can to make sure we don't, and more often than not, it'll win.

Pick a plan, and go with it. I guarantee that if you come up short or fall behind, you'll still be significantly better off than if you never set a plan at all.

Which of those plans did I pick, you axe? This year I made my own, sort of. Last year I spent a few months reading through the incredible God's Glory in Salvation Through Judgment, by Jim Hamilton. Apparently I talked about it so much, my wife decided she needed to read it, too. So this year, we're both reading it as we read through the Bible. That means reading through the Old Testament in the Jewish order of Law, Prophets, Writings, then the New Testament. Each of these four sections is roughly the same length, so that gives us about 3 months on each to get through them all in a year. Of course, we'll continue to read other portions as applicable (what we're preaching through, doing in Bible study, etc).

If that type of plan works for you, great, glad I can help. If something else works better, go for that instead. Regardless, you should get this book - it's only 9 bucks for Kindle, for crying out loud!