What Is Your Plan?

I want to invite you to make a plan for reading the Bible, but first I want to tell you a story.

After I graduated from high school, I moved from California to Iowa to attend a small Bible College.  I wasn't a believer, but I chose to go anyway because Dubuque, Iowa was as far as I could go away from home and still have my mom pay for it.

What a crazy year - I went from beaches to corn fields and pigs, from the 80's punk-skater subculture to the 80's Christian subculture, from never opening a Bible to being immersed in intense theological study and discussions and even the study of Koine Greek.  I had no idea what I was getting into.

I hated high school - and most things about my life in San Diego at that point - and I thought an escape was in order.  I had no plan to actually believe this stuff.  But while it wasn't part of my plan, I became a believer that year (thankfully, it was part of my Father's plan!).  It was a strange thing - the more I studied the Bible, the more I came to love it.

One of the college requirements of first-year students was that each of us had to read the entire Bible over the course of the school year.  I didn't pay much attention to that because, at the start, I really didn't care and had no plan to do it.  After becoming a believer, though, and really digging into my studies, I found that my appetite for the Word increased the more of it I read.  

So, I ended up binge-reading the whole Bible over spring break.  While my friends in San Diego were getting slammed on the beach, I stuck my face in my Bible and read.  I didn't really plan it this way, but I ended up voraciously consuming the Bible much like I read other books that grabbed me.  I have never been one to do things slowly and methodically - I am more of a sprint-and-rest kind of guy - and I sprinted through the Bible.  

And it was awesome.  I loved it.  It shaped me as I started to see the shape of the big story of God.  

But it dawned on me this week that, while I have probably read the whole Bible through many times since then, I haven't read it through purposely at one time, and I think it is time to do it again.  

I spoke to my family about it, and we've all agreed to take up a Bible reading plan in 2014 to read the Bible all the way through.  

And I would like to invite you to join us!  I guarantee you won't regret it.

Here are a few resources you might find helpful:

This is the plan I am going to give my family (the ESV Bible reading plan).  It is great if you are goal oriented and motivated by checklists, since you can print it out and check it off as you go.  

If you aren't a list and check-box kind of person (and more of a sprint-and-rest reader like me), check out this blog from Peter Krol.  I think it is insightful in that it takes the pressure off the rigid structure of typical Bible reading plans.  I still think the ESV plan is a good tool to use in conjunction with your binge-reading because it will help you stay on course if you break your binges up over the year.

If, on the other hand, you are a slow-and-steady reader, you might be interested in the two-year Bible reading plan.  It is much like the plan I will be sharing with my family, but spread out over two years to make each day's section lighter to give more time for reflection and meditation.

Have you read the Bible through recently? Do it again!  But this time, maybe you should do it in a different version.  I remember the first time I read through the Old Testament history books in The Message - it absolutely changed the way I saw and understood many of those stories.

However you read, you do need a plan - so, Christ-follower, what is you plan to read the Bible?  Set a goal.  Write it down.  Put the check list on the fridge.  Do more than just foster vague good intentions - make a plan.  Yes, you can read the Bible without a plan (but you won't read it as much as you think you will).  Yes, you might fail to keep your plan (but at least you will have made a plan and set a goal - and, who knows, maybe this is the year you'll keep it?).  

There is nothing magical about the start of a new year, but it is as good a time as any to starting making healthy changes and setting some spiritual goals!  Join us!