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.
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 ![image]( "image")
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.
Thursday, 26 May 2011 | The Bible in a Year
If you are reading through the Bible in a year then today represents 40% day.
Well done, keep going, it’s worth it.
Friday, 20 May 2011 | The Bible in a Year
I’ve recently been busier than normal. This has meant that I’ve got a bit lax in my Bible reading routine. I’ve still been doing the reading part, but I’ve been cheating on the taking note taking and praying part. It didn’t take long before I was finding the reading part hard work too.
This reminded me that we are not reading the Bible in a year as an academic exercise – it’s a discipleship exercise. It’s there to help us get to know Father, Son and Holy Spirit better.
Over the last few days I’ve been trying to get back into reading and praying – the routine I described previously.
The reading has become easier as the praying has become more significant.
I’ve really been drawn to the simply stated wisdom of the Proverbs which were, for me, today:
Plans go wrong for lack of advice; many advisers bring success.
Everyone enjoys a fitting reply; it is wonderful to say the right thing at the right time!
Proverbs 15:22 & 23
(No, there isn’t anything really significant about day 140 other than it’s today. If you are getting particularly wrapped up in statistics, today also represents 38.4% of the Bible read.)
Monday, 4 April 2011 | The Bible in a Year
This past week we passed a couple of milestones in reading through the Bible in a year. We are now 90 days in and 25% through.
On Celebrate Recovery we try to help people celebrate their successes by counting off the time that people have managed to abstain from something. If alcohol is an issue we count the number of days of sobriety, if it’s anger then we count the number of days of calm.
Sometimes the devil tells us that we aren’t making any progress, sometimes it’s our internal voice telling us the same thing. By counting we get a much better perspective on the progress that we are making.
If you have managed to get this far celebrate – 90 days is great progress.
If you are slipping behind a bit then another Celebrate Recovery principle might be of help to you – it’s not the number of times that you fall down that counts it’s the number of times you get back up again. Or to put it another way – failure isn’t falling down, failure is staying down. Don’t worry if it feels like to big a task to catch up, just start from today, with today’s reading and go forward from there. Try to build the practice of reading from this point forward.
Remember though, we don’t read the Bible so we can get points, we read to build a relationship, it’s the relationship that’s the important part.
Monday, 14 March 2011 | The Bible in a Year
If you are reading through your Bible in a year today’s reading takes you to twenty percent – one fifth.
In the reading plan I’m following we’ve worked our way through Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy and we are now into Numbers; we’ve also walked through Matthew, Mark and now into the early stages of Luke; we’ve also stepped through the first 57 Psalms and the first 11 chapters of Proverbs.
The thought that keeps coming back to me over and over again as I read is this – God speaks. This isn’t an academic exercise we are undertaking, it’s a journey with a God who speaks to us.
One fifth is a significant chunk, a quarter is in sight, keep going.
