The Bible in a Year: Entering the Final Quarter

Sunday, 2 October 2011 | The Bible in a Year

The final quarter of any sport is always the most important and today we’ve entered the final quarter of our read through the bible in a year.

In the schedule I’ve been following the Proverb for today says: “The godly may trip seven times, but they will get up again.” It’s quite apt for where we are up to. It would be easy to consider that 75% is good enough, but it would be much better for us to consider how close to the end we are and how good it would be for us to press on to the end and complete the task.

Personally, I’ve been giving some consideration to what to do next year. My pondering had been around whether to rewind and start at the beginning again or whether to do something different. It seems a shame to let the established patterns simply slip away at the end of the year, but that doesn’t mean that it has to be exactly the same. Theodore Roosevelt once said: “A thorough understanding of the Bible is better than a college education.” and a “thorough understanding” takes a lifetime to gain. But the main reason for reading isn’t to give us head knowledge, it’s to inspire us and change us. Dwight L. Moody once said: “Where one man reads the Bible, a hundred read you and me.”

It’s time to press on to finish this year, but also to make plans for the next.

The Bible in a Year: Two Thirds Along the Journey

Thursday, 1 September 2011 | The Bible in a Year

Yesterday was two thirds day for those of us reading through the Bible in a year.

Having been in the holiday season it doesn’t seem two minutes since we passed half way, but the end of the year is now in sight and will come all too quickly.

In the reading plan that I am following we are also in the middle of 2 Corinthians at the moment. Today’s reading from 2 Corinthians concludes with a challenging statement:

For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

2 Corinthians 5:19-21

I pray that in reading the Bible this year we are coming to a bit better the one for whom we are called to be ‘Ambassadors’.

The Bible in a Year: Day 200

Tuesday, 19 July 2011 | The Bible in a Year

Today is another milestone day and the reading for today was, in a sense, another milestone passage:

When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.

Romans 5:6-11

That’s one of those passage that contains so much punch that you could spend the whole year just understanding its meaning.

The power of reading through the Bible in a year is that you get to understand the flow of the Bible and how different pieces fit together. It’s also worth dwelling on a particular passage and feeding on it.

The Bible in a Year: 49.9% Day

Friday, 1 July 2011 | The Bible in a Year

As part of my Bible in a Year routine I’ve been tracking my progress using YouVersion.com. This morning when I looked I was greeted with the statistic that today is 49.9% day. That just about as close to half way as you can get without actually passing half way.

I recently took part in the Great North Swim, this is a 1 mile long swim in Windermere. The course that you take is in a large bay. You swim out past a number of large buoys and then back again past another set of buoys. They are huge and provide a clear marker for the course that you have to take. Most of the buoys are bright yellow but one of them, this year, was bright pink.

As I entered the water and started to swim the only thing on my mind was getting to the first bright yellow marker. If I could get to that one I could probably get to the next one.

I steadily passed the first few markers and my attention started to be drawn to the bright pink one out in the distance. I knew that if I could get to this marker I would be fine and that I would be able to finish the swim. The bright pink buoy wasn’t marking the end of the swim it was the half-mile marker, it was marking halfway.

I knew that if I could make it past halfway I could make it all the way.

Be encouraged as we pass that halfway in our Bible reading this year – you got this far, you can make it to the end.

I finished my swim and it felt great to have completed a challenge but it’s probably not going to radically change my life. As we take on the challenge of feeding on more of God’s word to us it is of eternal significance for us, but also for those around us.