Faithbase

Good afternoon. I hope your day is going well. I wanted to address something that I should have probably talked about probably a couple weeks ago before the new year and that is reading through the Bible in one year. Now there are several ways that you can do that. One of the things that I did from the mid 80s through the late 90s was use a program where there was a section to read from Genesis to Deuteronomy, Joshua to Kings, 1 Chronicles to Job, Psalms to Song of Solomon, Isaiah to Malachi, Matthew to Acts, and then Romans to Revelation. And as you can see, this is the Bible, one of the Bibles I used. As you can see, there are marks, markers in there, strips of paper. And what I did was print out on that each piece of paper the actual section that I'm reading through. And so that program with those portions, those sections of scripture was designed to read four chapters each day of the week. So there's seven sections that I've mentioned to you. And each day of the week you would choose, well you wouldn't choose, you'd actually start Sunday with Genesis to Deuteronomy, then Monday you'd read from Joshua to 2 Kings and so forth, work your way through there. What I did, however, was read through each section every day. And I would read a chapter to two chapters every day in each section, so seven different parts of the Bible. Now I did that because I still am, but I was actually fairly new in ministry at that point and wanted to just fill up the reservoir as much as possible. I was reading a lot of the Bible, I was reading a lot of theology and so forth. So there was a specific reason for that, a lot of reading of the scripture. And you can do that, but you don't have to in order to get through the Bible in a year. You can use that each section, four chapters a day. Section one, four chapters on Sunday, section two, four chapters on Monday and so forth. Then in the late 90s, I just, I don't know, I didn't want to, I wouldn't say I got bored because I don't really get bored with the Bible, but I got, it was too routine. So I switched to the one-year Bible and at that time I was using the New King James and this of course is the New Living Translation. But I used the New King James from around 97 until 2018, I think it was in 2017, I think 2018. And then I switched to the one-year Bible, excuse me, the New Living Translation and the one-year Bible. And I've done that every year since. Once in a while in there, I would read from two parts at a time halfway through. So I was going to finish the Bible twice in one year, but generally using the one-year Bible format in whatever translation I was using, I would just follow the format. And in this, in that format, as you probably know, you'll read from the Old Testament, the New Testament, the Psalms and Proverbs on a daily basis. And it's, it's actually probably my, my favorite approach. This year I've started something different. It's the Daily Reader's Bible. This is the New Living Translation as well. And there are 365 sections. They're just numbered like one through 365. And they're arranged in a thematic, I guess you'd say format with three different sections that you read from each day, a story section, a teaching section, and then a wisdom section. And the story section is in, what is it, three columns. The teaching section is in two columns, and then the wisdom section is in one column. That's supposed to alert you to what you're reading, I guess. Now, I think it's interesting. I'm not sure I'm going to like it. I haven't, of course, it's only 11 days in here, but what I think I may not like about it is the fact that you don't throughout the whole year, you're not reading from the New Testament, the Old Testament, and then wisdom literature. There are, there's long stretches where you're reading from only the Old Testament and the New Testament, because it's arranged differently. It's not, it's not arranged like the one-year Bible. It's not arranged like anything else I've seen before. So I'm going to give it a try, see what I think throughout the year. And I do have one, a couple of beef, beefs with it, I guess you'd say. The, for some reason that my eyes aren't that great, but the print, even with my bifocals, this print seems difficult to read. I think it's the quality of the paper. It's not a real high quality paper, at least in the edition that I have. This is a hardback and it looks nice and you open it up and you're a little bit disappointed with the quality of the paper. It's almost like newsprint and it just doesn't seem to have a real sharp look to it, at least for my eyes. And the print's pretty small, so I prefer a little bit larger print. But I'm going to read that, maybe throughout the year I'll give you some feedback on what I think about it. It's an interesting approach. It's not like anything I've done before. And we'll see how that turns out. So the main thing is to find a way to get into the Word. It's very important. I've read through the Bible dozens and dozens of times and it's always enjoyable, always rich and meaningful. I'm always learning something. I never read it and go, wow, this is boring. I wish I hadn't taken the time. It's always worth your time. So I would encourage you to, if you haven't already started something for the year, to get a hold of some program. Maybe just pick up your Bible and start reading, but I've found it easier when you have some kind of a set program. But read through the Bible this year and pray that the Holy Spirit will use that in your life to bring greater Christ-likeness. God bless you. I'll see you next time.