Bible Reading Part I

It has been on my heart for several days to share my Bible reading plan.

Last Sunday my husband Mark taught on Biblical Meditation (which has nothing to do with transcendental meditation and everything to do with meditating on and savoring God’s Word) and to follow up I thought I would post this because I think that reading your Bible (on a regular basis and meditating on God's Word) is not an option for a Christian it is a mandate.

So every Sunday (yes, I know it is now Tuesday, I’m a bit late in deciding to do this) I will try to post my weekly Bible reading. If you would like to print out the whole yearly reading it can also be found here (along with other Bible reading plans if you happen to want a different one).

Now, I have two thoughts about Bible reading:

1.) It is very easy to feel like you should give up if you miss a few days (especially if your plan has dates and you are supposed to read a certain passage on a certain date. I know that it can be overwhelming to try to catch up so you just give up instead). Don’t give in to this. If you miss, start where you stopped. Ignore the dates and move on. Be as consistent as you can, but it is okay if you miss a day here and there, just start again where you left off. Ignore the dates. Missing a day is not a good reason to stop reading. This is about a lifestyle (way of life), not a diet.

2.) You might think that since you didn’t start back in January you can’t start reading right now. Hogwash! Start where you are. Your year can start right now and your year can take two years or three years or however long. In fact, it could be and probably should be a continuous circle or cycle that never ends. The goal is to read your Bible as consistently as you can. If you miss a day or two or three, pick it up again as soon as you can. Just jump in. God isn’t going to turn you away.

In truth God doesn’t care how long it takes you, only that you are consistently reading. One more time...if you miss a day, (I often miss Sundays - which is kind of silly, but happens because that day is super busy for me) pick up the next day. Do a double reading (which is what I do and isn’t as difficult as it might seem).

Final - we often sit down and read several chapters of our favorite novel, but sitting down and reading several chapters in our Bible is for some reason difficult and unpleasant. Hogwash! I think this shows that our priorities are skewed.

Well, as often happens I’ve run too long so I’m going to stop and continue this in another post. Please continue with part II and part III.