Let’s Read the Bible

Many people try to read the Bible like reading a novel. They start with Genesis, then proceed to Exodus, get bogged down in all the begats, power on through the rest of Old Testament, then move into the New Testament and go from Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all the way to Revelation.

I am not saying that this is the wrong way to do it, but if it takes you a year to get through it this way you may miss some things. If you are on a three-year plan, you will miss a lot. And on top of that, the Bible is not laid out in chronological order. For instance, the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Amos to name a few, were actually prophesying during the events in 1 & 2 Kings and 1 & 2 Chronicles.

If you follow a reading plan such as the One Year Bible or any other whole bible reading plan like the M’Cheyne plan we are using, where you are reading from multiple sections each day, dots start being connected a lot easier.

Reading the Bible can be Overwhelming

I used to find reading more than one chapter of the Bible at a time (usually at the end of the day) very daunting. I bought a One Year Bible when they first came out but was quickly overwhelmed.

Fast forward to 2018, I picked out a reading plan in the YouVersion Bible reading app. I picked a plan that had one day a week with no readings for a catch-up day because I was afraid that I was going fall behind. The plan I chose had several readings (chapters) from the Old and New Testaments. I missed completing a day’s reading a few times, but in the end, I finished a few days early.

Connecting the Dots

I also found it much more interesting reading it this way. Even though many Bibles have cross references in them, I never really checked them. But reading the Bible from both Old and New Testament each day helps you make your own cross references.

I found that I was picking up on the fact that the passage I was reading in the New Testament was actually a quote from the Psalms or Proverbs or one of the Prophets – because it was not that many days ago that I read that quoted passage in the Old Testament.

The more times I go through the Bible this way, the more and more the dots are connected.

It’s Not Too Late – Bible Reading Challenge

We published the Read the Bible with Me Challenge last week so that those wanting the participate could get ready and find a plan that works for them.

There are many reading plans available, so it is fairly easy to find one that will work for you. We are using the M’Cheyne Reading Plan for the challenge and each month we will post the daily readings here on the blog. Yesterday we published the daily readings for January. Each day the daily readings are also posted on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and MeWe.

It’s not too late. If you want to participate start today.

We hope you will join us next year and read the Bible with us.

If you have not read the Bible and/or are not familiar with the chronology of the Bible, please read the Crash Course in Biblical Chronology so you will have the context for the third and fourth daily readings.

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If you decide to join us, we encourage you to challenge a friend.

Feature image photo by krisanapong detriphiphat via Canva Pro