Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Next Year's Bible Reading Plan

This year, I am reading through the Bible using the Discipleship Journal's Book-at-a-Time guide. This is my second time to use it. I like this plan for a couple of reasons, including the reflection days (in my life, they are called "trying to get caught up days") and the free days at the end of each month.

They schedule 28 days per month of reading, with every seventh day being a reflection day. This means each day's reading is longer, but the free days are nice. If I was in the habit of reading every day, I would have time to go back and study on those free days. But with our schedule, I am usually catching up.

I have printed the "Preview Free Sample" to get mine. If I were supplying a church or Sunday School class, I would buy the packet. I think that they don't mind if individuals print one copy for themselves. I hope I am not wrong!

Anyway, I came up with an idea today that I am excited about for next year.

I am going to try to make a plan for myself. I plan to use the same scheduling idea--28 days a month, every seventh day a reflection day--but I am going to go through the New Testament three times and Psalms once. If my calculations are right, this can be done by reading three to four chapters a day.

260 New Testament chapters times three equals 780 NT reading. 780 plus 165 Psalms (I know there are 150, but some of them are long, so I increased it to 165) equals 945 readings.

Four weeks a month equals 48 weeks a year. Six days a year times 48 weeks equals 288 days.

945 readings (chapters or portions of a chapter) divided by 288 days of reading equals 3.28 readings a day.

Now, dividing it up will be interesting. I may do that as I go.

I'm going to pray about this, but I am excited! I feel like it is time for me to know the New Testament better.

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