Visit www.esv.org/biblereadingplans for a list of all eight one-year Bible reading plans offered by Crossway. New this year are the reading plans found in the Outreach Bible and Outreach New Testament. The latter takes you through the New Testament in six months.
Read each plan on the web, through RSS, by email, or print out the reading schedule and tuck it in your Bible.
The most important thing is to read your Bible regularly, regardless of whether you follow a regular reading plan.
Matthew at River City Redemption Project explains how he’s going to read his Bible in 2008:
For the last 10 years I have read the Bible through every year in a different translation (NIV, NKJV, RSV, NRSV, NEB, NASB, JB, ESV, The Message, and the NLT). Next year, however, I think I’m going to try something a little different.
I am going to focus solely on Paul’s Epistles and simultaneously read widely on both the New Perspective on Paul (NPP) and the classical Reformed perspective in order to nail down the pros and con on each side as well as to memorize the Book of Romans.
Taking a thematic approach (like Matthew’s) to your daily Bible reading might help you if you have trouble consistently reading the Bible—you might feel like you’re making more progress or learning more if you focus on reading and re-reading particular books of the Bible.
Memorizing an entire book, as Matthew plans, can also help you feel like you’re making progress. (You may want to start with a smaller book than Romans, though. First John and Philippians are popular books to memorize—they’re short and full of encouragement.)
Kristin at In View of God’s Mercy Offer Yourself writes about her surprise that a new leather Bible cost around $70. But her “grumbling” soon gave way:
Around that time… the voice in my head goes… are you seriously complaining about how much the Word of God costs?
I realized then that there are people in this world who are willing to be placed in prison and possibly killed for holding that same book that I am complaining about having to spend so much money for. Praise God that I have the money to purchase a Bible and that I live in a country that I can do that without being persecuted. May I not be so selfish to forget the incredible gift of the Word of God in my life.
(We don’t want you to feel like you need to spend a lot of money on a Bible unless you want to. Most Bible translations, including the ESV, come in inexpensive editions. You can often find Bibles available at discounted prices, too.)
Tony at Said at Southern Seminary explains his project for winter break: reading through the entire Bible in January.
My favorite Seminary isn’t offering any classes I need this January, so I’ve been looking for a study project. It occurred to me that I could read the entire Bible in a month if I maintained the Southern Seminary reading pace over the winter break. I like to think of it as Bible Reading Southern Seminary Style.
Calculating the figures, he determines that it takes about 2.5 hours a day to read the whole Bible in January, or only 76 minutes per day if you started December 10. If you only want to read the New Testament, you only need to spend 35 minutes a day in January, or 21 minutes if you started December 10.
The poll attached to the post suggests what our web stats indicate: interest in reading the Bible daily crests in January and fades throughout the year. Maybe you’ve tried to read the Bible in a year before and haven’t succeeded. In trying to read a good portion of the Bible by February 1, you can rely on your initial enthusiasm and resolve to almost carry you through—you may find that you’re done before you realize it.
Stephen at the lower case talks about why this compressed approach appeals to him:
if you are like me, each year you may have good intentions of reading the bible all the way through, or at least reading it more. by mid february i am usually so far behind trying to keep up seems futile. well tony has provided a plan that if you can spare a little over an hr. a day (cumulative) we can read the entire bible by jan. 31st if we start on dec. 10th!
Stephen also responds to the “I don’t have an hour a day!” objection by providing practical tips to find extra time in your day to read the Bible.
Via approaching North.
Stephen at The Blazing Center lists eight ways to get more from your daily Bible reading. His main points are:
Via Challies.com.
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