I read the Bible today. All of it. Well, I finished reading the Bible today, actually. A year ago I bought the NIV One Year Bible, and have followed it every day since. It does require some discipline - some days you are reading a huge chunk of almost totally unreadable Numbers or some such, but it mixes things up (a chunk of Old Testament, a bit of New testament, a Psalm, a verse or two of Proverbs) and it keeps them to dates so that you have to stay on course (none of this "day 127" stuff which allows you to miss and decide the next day or the day after that is really day 127) and hey presto - 365 days later, I've done it.
It's not the first time I've done cover to cover. But it is the first time I have been so organised about it for a very long time. In the end I got 3 versions of the One Year Bible: the original one I bought was a small print thing, perfect for travel, but very hard to read late at night, especially if it was late at night after a trip to the pub. I was bought a larger print version as a gift, and that became my standard one, though the small one stayed with me on trips away - until I was given a Kindle, when I bought it for that so that I had it in far easier format for travelling, though in a less appealling translation.
Absolutely, reading a ton of Scripture every day means that lots feels like it is just going in through your eyes and not sticking much. I think that's OK. Read it, read it, read it. More sticks than you know. And makes you think, or feel, or hope, or be angry - it's all good. And there are days when you see something somewhere you never knew existed, and it joins to something else and sets you working away with stuff, joining the dots, thinking Biblically.
I commend it to you. It is an undertaking, a spiritual discipline. Through these difficult months I have had, it has been one of the things that has upheld me. What you sow, you reap. If you've never done it, give it a go.
2 comments:
Have done it myself a few times, but I never liked the version that gives you a chunk of old, a chunk of new and a Psalm for each day (which I have a copy of) - only made it about a month into that.
Much prefer the chronological version that I also have. I think I've done that 5 times. Fiona's working through it this year. It is hard going in March, but now she's up to David and finding things a bit easier going.
I started cover to cover earlier this year and have stuck with it longer than before. I grew up with 1 years around the house but never tried. I am using a reading plan I found online that has me going through the Psalms and NT twice and the rest of the OT once in a year.
I agree with you that it is a discipline, because I have several days that I have yet to cross off that have been missed. But it really is a wonderful habit to begin.
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