My Bible reading plan for my 4th time through
I'm now getting to the close of my 3rd time reading through the Bible. I got a lot out of it, but it took me much longer than a year, and I'd like to shorten that for the next time. I also had the problem of not making a consistent mix of Old Testament and New Testament, and wound up with lots of extra Old Testament left over at the end that I needed to read without the New Testament.
There are many 1-year Bible reading plans. The problem is that many of these require a lot of hopping around in the Bible, necessitating always having plan handy, as well as possibly multiple bookmarks. Instead, I wanted something fairly simple.
Previously I'd been doing a bit from the Old Testament and a bit from the New Testament each day, but without any prescribed amounts. This meant I was reading unevenly between the two, and wound up with a lot of Old Testament left over at the end.
Reading x number of verses a day doesn't always help either, because some verses are so much longer or shorter than others that the amount of reading wouldn't necessarily be consistent day to day. I don't need it to be super-exactly the same each day, but at the same time I don't want to do ages and ages of reading one day and only a little bit another day. So, my new plan is this: Divide the total number of pages in my copy of the Bible by 365. This tells me how many pages to read a day. Next is a little bit trickier. Say the number is 2.3. I'll round it up to 3, and read 2 pages from the Old Testament and 1 from the New Testament. This accounts for the fact of the Old Testament being longer than the New Testament. I know the plan won't be perfectly exact - I'll still wind up with extra of one than the other at the end - but it'll keep me mostly on track. It'll at least be better than just guessing where to start and stop, which is what I was doing up until now.
Under the new plan, if I start getting ahead on one or behind on the other Testament during the end of the year, I'll be able to adjust the reading accordingly (e.g. read 4 pages; 2 pages of each Testament), or simply read the 3 pages in the reverse ratio for awhile until I'm back on track. A bit like adjusting the hot and cold water in a bath, I guess.
The idea is that at the end, I'll wind up with it working out pretty close to exactly. And it'll be a year or less to complete, since I'm rounding up for how many pages to read, not down.
So, here we go! I'll be starting this plan soon. I have been reading a different translation each time I read the Bible. This time around it will be the ESV. In case I ever forget, these were the other translations: First time was the Good News Translation, second time was NRSV, third time was NKJV. I personally found NKJV a little harder to read than the first two but I learned a lot from all 3 translations.
If you found this post interesting, you might like these related posts on this blog:
There are many 1-year Bible reading plans. The problem is that many of these require a lot of hopping around in the Bible, necessitating always having plan handy, as well as possibly multiple bookmarks. Instead, I wanted something fairly simple.
Previously I'd been doing a bit from the Old Testament and a bit from the New Testament each day, but without any prescribed amounts. This meant I was reading unevenly between the two, and wound up with a lot of Old Testament left over at the end.
Reading x number of verses a day doesn't always help either, because some verses are so much longer or shorter than others that the amount of reading wouldn't necessarily be consistent day to day. I don't need it to be super-exactly the same each day, but at the same time I don't want to do ages and ages of reading one day and only a little bit another day. So, my new plan is this: Divide the total number of pages in my copy of the Bible by 365. This tells me how many pages to read a day. Next is a little bit trickier. Say the number is 2.3. I'll round it up to 3, and read 2 pages from the Old Testament and 1 from the New Testament. This accounts for the fact of the Old Testament being longer than the New Testament. I know the plan won't be perfectly exact - I'll still wind up with extra of one than the other at the end - but it'll keep me mostly on track. It'll at least be better than just guessing where to start and stop, which is what I was doing up until now.
Under the new plan, if I start getting ahead on one or behind on the other Testament during the end of the year, I'll be able to adjust the reading accordingly (e.g. read 4 pages; 2 pages of each Testament), or simply read the 3 pages in the reverse ratio for awhile until I'm back on track. A bit like adjusting the hot and cold water in a bath, I guess.
The idea is that at the end, I'll wind up with it working out pretty close to exactly. And it'll be a year or less to complete, since I'm rounding up for how many pages to read, not down.
So, here we go! I'll be starting this plan soon. I have been reading a different translation each time I read the Bible. This time around it will be the ESV. In case I ever forget, these were the other translations: First time was the Good News Translation, second time was NRSV, third time was NKJV. I personally found NKJV a little harder to read than the first two but I learned a lot from all 3 translations.
If you found this post interesting, you might like these related posts on this blog:
- Get to know God better first, then know what to ask for
- Does reading the Bible and praying have results?
- Why do some people reject the Bible because they think it is "incomplete"?
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