Spotlight on Education
The month of January is nearly over. How are you doing with your New Year’s Resolutions? Perhaps some of you made a commitment to spend more time in the Scriptures. There are a number of reading plans which enable you to read through the Bible in one year. I’ve tried several of those over the years. Unfortunately, I have dropped out of most of them after a few weeks. My problem is that I get behind in the schedule and, realizing I’ll never catch up, I just quit.
I do however, have one Bible reading plan that I have followed for 58 years. When I was ten years old my Grandmother gave me a Bible and encouraged me to read at least one chapter a day. I have done that pretty consistently all my life. Did you know that if you read one chapter per day you can read the entire Bible in two and a half years? That may sound like a snail’s pace to you, but look at it this way: If you follow that plan for ten years you will have read through the Bible four times. How many Christians have read every book of the Bible four times? Not very many.
Over the years I came up with my own Bible reading plan. I flip-flop back and forth between the Old and New Testaments, so I don’t get bogged down. Here is the order I follow: Genesis, Exodus, Matthew, Leviticus, Acts, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Romans, Joshua, Judges, Mark, Ruth, I & II Samuel, I & II Corinthians, I & II Kings, Luke, I & II Chronicles, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, I & II Thessalonians, Job, I & II Timothy, Titus, Psalms, John, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Philemon, Hebrews, Isaiah, Jeremiah, James, Lamentations, Ezekiel, I & II Peter, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, I, II & III John, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Jude, Revelation, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi.
The church provides Sunday school classes and small group studies to help you learn God’s Word. These, however, were never intended to replace your own personal time with the Bible. If you don’t regularly read the Scriptures, now would be a good time to start.
