Thursday, January 21, 2010

Not Too Late to Read Through the Bible

For those that would like a few choices in regard to reading through the Bible, David Mathis over at Desiring God Blog posted this last week. Click here for the link to the links for the websites offering the various Bible Reading plans.

We’re now a week and a half into 2010, but it’s not too late to start a read-through-the-Bible-in-a-year plan. After all, you have more than 50 weeks to catch up on what you’ve missed. Or treat your year as January 10, 2010, through January 10, 2011.

Below are several good options.

Discipleship Journal
NavPress’s Discipleship Journal plan has been the most used at Bethlehem for years. I’m back at this one again in 2010, and I would highly recommend it. There are four daily readings (the year starts with Genesis, Psalms, Matthew, and Acts), but it’s only 25 days each month—which leaves some margin for missing here and there when life gets busy.

For Shirkers and Slackers
If “margin for missing” is what you know you need, then this plan from Ransom Fellowship might be right for you. Maybe you’ve tried the other plans in the past and stalled out again and again. This plan assigns certain genres to certain days of the week and breaks biblical books up into sections you can read in one sitting—so without reading everyday, you can still make measurable headway. Pace yourself well and do some extra reading, and you might even finish long before 2010 is over.

M’Cheyne
This is the classic plan, designed by Robert Murray M’Cheyne (1813-1843), the well-remembered Scottish minister who died before his 30th birthday. The plan has readings for every day of the year and will take you once through the Old Testament and twice through the Psalms and the New Testament. (Don Carson’s daily devotionals called For the Love of God are based on the M’Cheyne plan.)

ESV Study Bible
Like the Discipleship Journal plan, the ESV Study Bible plan has you reading in four places: 1) Psalms and wisdom lit, 2) Pentateuch and Israel’s history, 3) Chronicles and prophets, and 4) Gospels and epistles.

Chronological
With a reading for each day of the year, this plan from Back to the Bible aims to take you through Scripture in chronological order.

Engage Scripture
This new plan from The Journey in St. Louis looks very good. Also check out The Journey’s Engage Scripture page for videos and pdfs giving background info on the biblical books, as Pastor Darrin Patrick takes his congregation through the Bible in 2010

No comments: