Bible Reading Plan

One of my goals for 2010 is to grow spiritually. The past several years have started off the same way with a renewed vigor to read through the entire Bible in a calender year. And like clockwork, my dedication wanes as the weeks and months pass by. Satan sure is a crafty one. Whether it's being too tired from work, or chores, or video games, or just distracted by the Celtics game that's playing in the background, there's nothing that he won't try to keep me from reading God's Word. But this year will be different!

Last night, my wife and I agreed to read completely through our Bibles this year. It's such an encouragement and a blessing to have someone to share this journey with.

I started browsing through my "Holy Bible" app on my iPhone and it had a section for various Bible reading plans. One by one, I read through their summaries taking mental notes of each one. I immediately eliminated plans that took exactly a year to complete. It was already January 5th which meant that if I started one of those full-year plans, I'd already be 5 days behind schedule. And to be fair to myself, there will be those days where I probably won't be able to complete my readings.

Then there were those plans that were 90-day bull rushes. Yeah right! I knew right away that I'd have no shot at completing those plans. I'm not much of a reader to begin with and I read slower than Mike Lowell on the base paths.

There were other plans that would have taken a bit longer to follow but were still pretty short because they omitted one of the testaments. However that clearly violates my goal of reading the entire Bible.

And then I read the description of Professor Horner's Bible Reading Plan. It lasts 8 months so I should complete this goal with time to spare. This also allows time for those days where I don't read as much. The basic idea is to quickly read through a single chapter from 10 different books each day. The next day, you read the next chapter from the same 10 books and so on. Some books are much shorter than others so when you complete one book, you are given a new one.

After one day and 10 chapters later, I really like this approach. In the past, I've always started at Genesis and read as far as I could. But Genesis is a beast! And after a certain number of those larger books, I missed out on all of the other treasures that remain undiscovered because I never got to them. What I like about Professor Horner's plan is that it's about breadth instead of depth. I'll get to familiarize myself with 10 books each day. 10 is a nice round number and that appeals to my OCD-ness. Instead of trying to internalize everything, I'll just focus on reading and let God reveal what He wants me to see. By the end of this plan, hopefully I'll know enough about each of the 66 books that I can go back and study my favorites more deeply.

10 chapters down. 1179 more to go. 0.4% complete.