|
|
|
You can start most of these Bible reading plans at any time (so many choices!):
- Click here to read through the Bible in two years (Old Testament the first year, New Testament the second year), and to have daily questions to understand and apply what you read.
- Click here to read through or listen to the Bible in three years (about five minutes a day)-- all online.
- Click here for a Bible reading plan for "shirkers and slackers" (a tongue-in-cheek title for an approach to keep the average Christian from getting discouraged, by reading different parts of the Bible different days of the week-- more background here)
One helpful acronymn for your regular time in the Bible is the ROAD method:
Read: Read/ listen to the Bible section.
Observe: Pause. Ponder. Write down what you notice about the passage. You could even rewrite the passage in your own words, or ask questions aimed at getting at the meaning the author intended to convey.
Apply: Think about/describe what God wants to result from what he has shown you (see below).
Depend: Pray (or even write out) a prayer based on how God's Word applies to you.
As you meditate on God's Word, ask yourself:
- For what does this teach me to be thankful?
- What does this teach me to confess?
- For what does this teach me to ask?
- What does this teach me to do?
Finally, helpful encouragement about Bible-reading plans, from Siegbert Becker:
"One of the greatest hindrances to the proper study of the Bible is the horrible way in which our Bibles are printed. Somehow or other some of us were brought up on the idea that the ideal way to read the Bible is at the rate of a chapter a day. Like the proverbial apple, this is enough to keep the devil away.
"I can still remember how, as a boy, I was finally convinced by my conscience to read a chapter of the Bible every evening before I went to bed. As though it were yesterday I can remember also how I read Acts, chapter 21, which ends with the words, 'He spake unto them in the Hebrew tongue, saying,' and having read those words, I closed the book wondering what it was that Paul said. It was the next night that I discovered that the chapters of the Bible are not isolated units but that they belong together.
"It is no wonder the people find it difficult and stale to read the Bible. If you would treat the most interesting detective story as we treat our Bibles and read a page or two a day, it would be rather difficult to sustain interest for very long. We ought to form the habit of reading longer sections, if not whole books.
"Try reading all the words which Jesus spoke on the evening of His betrayal, as those words are recorded in John 13‑17, and then compare the impact of these words when they are read in this way with the impression that they make when they are read at the rate of a chapter a day. The remarkable thing is that the Bible can be read in this way and still be profitable.
"But many of the books of the Bible can be read in less than a half hour, and many of the longer books fall naturally into two or more sections, which can easily be read in one sitting.
"For example, the first twelve chapters of Acts form one unit, telling the story of the church in Palestine, the next eight and a half chapters tell the story of Paul's missionary journeys, and the last seven and a half chapters present the account of his imprisonment and the journey to Rome. Each one of these sections can easily be read in about a half hour. And there is no better way to an understanding of the Scriptures than this constant reading.
"If a man will live in France for a year, he will learn to understand French. If a man will live in his Bible, he will learn to understand both the language and the message of Scripture."
|
|
|
|
|
