Tag Bible

Coming Soon: Bible in a Year

Todd R Leave a comment

Fellow travelers,

Have you ever read the Bible in a year?  If you haven’t, have you ever wanted to?  If you cover 3 chapters a day on weekdays and 4 on weekends, it almost exactly comes to the 1,189 total chapters over a full year.  2024 is a leap year, so there’s an extra day.

Beginning on Sunday, I’ll be posting here every week a guide for the following Monday – Sunday.  My personal approach is to study 2-3 chapters per day in the morning along with a study bible or commentary, and just read or listen to audio for the remaining chapter at night.  I start every year with one Psalm a day, plus something else in the morning, and a different book in the evening.  I find the variety helpful.  It doesn’t always work out that way, but that’s the plan.

Weekly I will post Morning and Evening chapters, but readers could follow along any way they want.  They could just read the one chapter per day (the “Evening” reading), or just the 2-3 chapters (the “Morning” reading).  They could use an audio Bible for all or part of it.  They could swap the Morning and Evening chapters if that’s a better schedule.  Everyone knows best what works for them and what they’re likely to stick with, even if it’s not the whole Bible in a year.

This year will start with Psalms and 1 Samuel in the morning, since so many Psalms are based on David’s life, which is covered in 1 and 2 Samuel.  The evenings will start with the Pentateuch.

Looking forward to 2024!

Bible in a Year?

Todd R 1 Comment

Fellow travelers,

It’s very early to write about 2024 plans, but have you ever read the Bible in a year?  If you haven’t, have you ever wanted to?  I’ve read, or at least listened to, all of the Bible in some years and find it a valuable practice.  In addition to doing it myself in 2024, I’m considering blogging each Sunday what I plan to cover the following week in case anyone wants to follow along.

If you cover 3 chapters a day on weekdays and 4 on weekends, it almost exactly comes to the 1,189 total chapters over a full year.  2024 is a leap year, so there’s an extra day.  My personal approach is to study 2-3 per day with a study bible or commentary, and just read or listen to audio for the remaining chapter.  It doesn’t always work out that way, but that’s the plan.

Readers could follow along any way they want.  They could just read the one chapter per day (the “PM” reading), or just the 2-3 chapters (the “AM” reading).  They could use an audio Bible for all or part of it.  They could swap the AM and PM times if that’s a better schedule.  Everyone knows best what works for them and what they’re likely to stick with, even if it’s not the whole Bible in a year.

A typical post would look something like this:

Weekly reading:
AM: Psalms 1-7, 1 Samuel 1-9
PM: Genesis 1-7

Daily:
Mon, Jan 1: Psalm 1, 1 Samuel 1, Genesis 1
Tue, Jan 2: Psalm 2, 1 Samuel 2, Genesis 2
Wed, Jan 3: Psalm 3, 1 Samuel 3, Genesis 3
Thu, Jan 4: Psalm 4, 1 Samuel 4, Genesis 4
Fri, Jan 5: Psalm 5, 1 Samuel 5, Genesis 5
Sat, Jan 6: Psalm 6, 1 Samuel 6-7, Genesis 6
Sun, Jan 7: Psalm 7, 1 Samuel 8-9, Genesis 7

Once the Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon are done, the AM reading would come from only one book. If anyone thinks this would be helpful, I can work up or find a schedule and make this a regular post in 2024!

The Bible: A Quint of Quotes

Todd R 2 Comments

Dear fellow travelers,

Here is another “Quint of Quotes” from my collection, on the theme of the Bible.  I hope you find these five sayings interesting and thought-provoking.  What quotes about the Bible do you like?

Image by u_zscsfn7pja from Pixabay

“This book will keep you from sin or sin will keep you from this book.” – D.L. Moody wrote this in the front of his Bible

“If people treated other books the way they treat the Bible, they would never learn anything.” – Warren Wiersbe

“Do I feed on the Word? That Word would be no food for me unless the Lord made it food for my soul, and helped me to feed upon it. Do I live on the manna which comes down from heaven?” – C.H. Spurgeon

“The New is in the Old concealed; the Old is by the New revealed.” – Saint Augustine

“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” – 2 Timothy 3:16-17

In Pursuit of Fruit

Todd R 2 Comments

What fruitful habits do you have for spending time with God?  Are there personal patterns in your relationship with Him through prayer, Bible study or other means?  Note that I write “fruitful” instead of “enjoyable” because although we’d like to enjoy every moment with God, as our Father He sometimes has to tell us things we won’t like immediately.  As Jesus said in John 15:2 – “Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.”

One example of a fruitful habit for me has been to study more than one book of the Bible at a time.  What do I mean by this?  For example, I currently have a goal to read 1-2 chapters each of the Psalms and the Pentateuch[1] daily, along with study Bible notes.  The idea came from a recent sermon, where the 5 books of Psalms were described as similar in theme to the 5 books of the Pentateuch.  Shortly after, I read that: “Just as Genesis tells how mankind was created, fell into sin, and was then promised redemption, many of these psalms [book 1, or Psalms 1-41] discuss humans as blessed, fallen, and redeemed by God.”[2]  With a little work, I was able to map out a schedule lining up the Psalm readings with the other readings and I’m trying to follow it.  Reading different parts together can help make connections I wouldn’t otherwise.  One connection recently led me to post about frustration with my cat and how it relates to Noah and the ark.

At other times, I’ve been reading a Gospel along with the Psalms, or one of the prophets because changing the pattern over time helps reveal unexpected context or connections.  I wouldn’t talk to a friend the same way over and over again, so why do it with God?  Years ago, when reading Psalm 46:10 and Matthew 21:15-16 on the same day led to a stark reminder that God is worthy of, and will receive, all praise.  These are those verses that nailed the point home:

“Be still, and know that I am God.
            I will be exalted among the nations,
            I will be exalted in the earth!”

“But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant, and they said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read,
             “‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies
                        you have prepared praise’?”

I know I can’t require God to speak to me in a certain way, but these occasional “accidents” from different parts of Scripture have reinforced each other in ways I might have never seen or might even have resisted.  Sometimes, we might prefer to keep certain truths away from certain parts of our lives, but when we make time to be quiet, listen and allow different parts of God’s word to collide in ways we didn’t expect, we may uncover an encouragement or a challenge that bears fruit.

What creative and fruitful habits do you have for spending time with God?

[1] The first five books of the Bible, sometimes called the books of Moses (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy)
[2] Life Application Study Bible, introduction to the Psalms.

Praying Through Road Rage

Todd R 3 Comments

Simple errands can sometimes be aggravating if we let them.  Maybe you’ve had an experience like this: while driving through my community recently, I ended up behind a minivan that was driving well below the speed limit (or at least well below how fast I wanted to go) and seemed unsure of where they were going.  I ended up closer to their rear bumper than I should have been and thought that when I got home, I’d complain about drivers in the neighborhood to whoever would listen.  When the van finally turned right, apparently figuring out where they were going, I also remember thinking that the family in the van might end up talking about the annoying car that tailed them, having no concern that maybe they didn’t live there and had to drive slowly while they figured it out.  This is a lot of aggravation for what should be a non-event, but at the time…

Photo by Joshua Wordel on Unsplash

Somehow at that moment, Romans 12:18 popped into my head, which says: “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.”  My first response was something like “God, what’s that got to do with this?”  But as I regained speed toward whatever errand I was in such a hurry to finish, I thought “God, which part of this problem depends on me?”  Hmm.  The tailgating was definitely unnecessary, and gosh, I might have really wanted to let the van know to get out of the way, but politely, without resorting to honking the horn.  Also, the idea of complaining about bad drivers when I got home depended on me…but what if the other family got frustrated about being tailed?  Is that my fault?  Well, if I had slowed down and been patient, that wouldn’t be a problem either.

When I got home, I didn’t share the story of the cautiously-driving minivan with anyone.  I hope the people in the van didn’t vent on Facebook about the rude tailgater.  Since then, I’ve been slightly better at being patient with slow drivers, because more depends on me than I often want to think.  Sometimes I’m too focused on what others are doing wrong.

“If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.”