Digging In To God's Word

Some helpful guides on reading your Bible

HOW TO READ
Here are three ways you can read your Bible with purpose and with focus. Don't like these? Just search online for "Bible reading plan". You'll get plenty.

Read Through The Bible In A Year
There are countless reading programs to help you with this. Some read straight through the Bible. Some have you repeat select books. Here are two sites with several options, including chronological plans.

One Year Bible Online
E-Word Today

What's a chronological reading plan? A "normal" Bible isn't arranged in the order the books were written; it's grouped thematically. What a chronological Bible does is reshuffle the books to tell God's story as it developed in time. You'll read the psalms David wrote interwoven with the historical events that were happening when he wrote the psalms. Paul's letters will actually follow his travels. And so on. You can also buy printed chronological Bibles, often with a built-in reading plan.

The Book-A-Month Method by John MacArthur
Start with reading through the Old Testament once a year. 20 minutes at an average reading speed should get you though the OT in about a year, give or take. At the same time, pick a book of the New Testament, and read through it, over and over, for one month. MacArthur suggests starting with 1 John, because you can read through the whole book in one sitting. So you read through it tonight. Tomorrow? 20 more minutes in the Old Testament and all of 1 John again. Tuesday? 20 more minutes of OT and 1 John.

After thirty days, you'll have a tremendous comprehension of 1 John. And you'll be able to visualize in your Bible where verses are and find them with ease. Pick a translation you like -- I recommend the NIV or the ESV -- and stick with that one translation and one Bible.

How to Study Your Bible by John MacArthur

This method highlights why I encourage you to bring your Bible to church regularly. When someone puts a verse up on screen, look it up and read it out of your Bible so that you'll add that to your mental picture. It also makes you fact-check the sermon just to make sure somebody's not making stuff up (see Acts 17). Wise and discerning. Always a good thing.

Professor Grant Horner's Bible Reading Plan
If you want to read the Bible more broadly, check this one out. Each day you read one chapter from each of ten lists. Download this PDF for a list of the groups as well as bookmarks you can print out to use to mark your places as you read.

Click Here for Prof. Horner's Reading Plan PDF

On day one you read Matthew 1, Genesis 1, Romans 1, and so forth. On day two, you read Matthew 2, Genesis 2, etc. When you reach the last chapter of the last book in a list, you just start over again. Since the lists vary in length, the readings begin interweaving in constantly changing ways. You will NEVER read the same set of ten chapters together again! You will start to experience the Bible commenting on itself. It's what the Reformers' called "scripture interpreting scripture".

Whatever you do, don't stop reading! If you miss a day, pick back up the next day. It's better to be "behind" in your plan or skip ahead to catch up than to quit reading all together. Go big!!