At the beginning of this year I made several goals, one of those goals was to read through the entire Bible in one year. In order to complete this task I found an online One Year Bible Reading Plan that I wanted to follow. In my opinion, reading through t he entire Bible at least once is absolutely essential, especially for those who claim to believe the Bible is the inerrant, infallible, word of God. How can you really know unless you have read it for yourself? The beginning of the year was the perfect time to get started.Month in Review: Throughout the month of February I found out that exactly what I thought was going to happen, happened. It wasn't so much that I didn't have the time to read, I did, but it didn't always happen. I ended up reading several days at a time from the New Testament, and several days at a time from the Old Testament, and the same with Proverbs. This was obviously less than ideal. In an effort to adjust and make up for this I did decide to go through much of the New Testament by listening to it on CD while in my car. I have many hour plus commutes were I am able to really go through a lot of chapters. As a result I am way ahead of where I should be in the New Testament. In addition, since I am no longer reading the New Testament, but instead I am listening to it, I am able to devote much more time to reading the Old Testament. This really helped me get back on track with my reading. At one point I was at least ten days behind on my Old Testament reading. However, with my focus now primarily on Old Testament reading, I am now fully caught up with both my Old Testament reading and my Proverbs. In some ways it may come across as cheating my way through the New Testament by only listening to it on CD, however I find that it's not the case. Sometimes while driving I will get distracted and not fully listen to the CD, but I can just replay that chapter and I am back into the flow of the CD. Also, I can get distracted reading also, sometimes I will go a paragraph or two before I realize I am no longer focused and not sure what I am reading anymore. In these situations I also try to go back and re-focus. In addition, sometimes hearing the Word as opposed to reading it will trigger different responses. This happens while reading also, but I find there are many things I have read, but when I hear them, they open my eyes to things I hadn't thought of before. It's something I would encourage you to do, you can find the Bible on CD here.
Chapters Covered: In addition to finishing Exodus, I read all of Leviticus, some of Numbers, finished Matthew, and Mark. One of the things that stood out to me this time around was in Leviticus. When Leviticus talks about the laws, many times it seems legalistic. However, this time around I was really struck by some of the laws. For instance, when someone curses God they were to be stoned to death, the same with the sexually impure, and there are the eye for an eye laws. It occurred to me in a way that it had never occurred before, that many of these laws were to instill Holiness into the people of God, since God is a Holy God.
Your Progress: If you have decided to take the One Year Bible Reading Challenge, how are you doing? Have you been successful in completing all you reading? If not, what are you doing this month to be more successful? If you have, what was the biggest key in completing your reading? And finally, what stood out to you most about the chapters you read?
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