The Best Bible Reading Program Ever ... Really!

Now that it's June, you may have long abandoned that Bible reading program you started back in January. Perfect timing to promote the method I prefer! The Cerulean Sanctum offers a good explanation of it.  This approach has been around in various forms for years. I've tried programs that have you read through multiple books at the same time. I've done several different read-through-in-a-year programs. But this Reading Program is the one I've landed upon because it's the one that has given me the most understanding & brought about the greatest change in my Christian walk. It puts Scripture into your mind...and it stays there! You'll discover you actually begin to remember what you've read... in its context. That is the beauty of repetition!
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How To Read the Bible for Life, Not Just a Year

Beyond the artifice behind them, most Bible-reading plans suffer from an imposed superficiality and disjointedness ...  The World's Best Bible-Reading Program, as I see it, moves beyond this piecemeal approach to reading the Scriptures. It has nothing to do with the proud announcement that, "I read through the entire Bible this year!" Instead, it has everything to do with knowing the word of God and putting it into practice. It's not a one-year reading program, but a "rest of your life until they bury you in a pine box" program. The first way of thinking is marketing; the other is transforming.

Here's how the World's Best Bible-Reading Program works:

1.  Find a quiet, undisturbed place to read. Start in the New Testament ... Might as well begin with Matthew.

2.  Read through one entire book in a single sitting. Obviously, the first five books of the NT are going to require some time. But do it. (You're eternal. Live like it!) These books are whole units and are meant to be read as such. We need to experience their coherence. Trust me; the Holy Spirit will bring the entirety of the book to your mind in the future in a way you've never experienced before.

3.  When you've read the book once, don't move on! Read through it again. For the first five books, if you must break them into chunks, go with five or six chapters - whatever maintains the arc of the narrative.

4.  Re-read that one book. Note the way the narrative and themes flow. Commit those stories and themes to memory. Note where they exist in the book.  [Write down your observations.]

5.  Re-read that one book. Pay special attention to the way the Lord is portrayed.  [Write down your observations.]

6.  Re-read that one book. Examine the relational aspects of the book, God to Man, Man to Man, Man to God.  [Write down your observations.]

7.  Re-read that one book. Note the Lord's redeeming and salvific acts within the greater arc of Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Restoration. [Write down your observations.] This first pass-through of the NT assumes you have a modicum of OT understanding. After reading the OT through, the second pass-through of the NT will clarify things further.

8.  Re-read that one book. This time around, note all the Lord's commands and how we're told to practice them. Consider how they might work practically in your daily activities. [Write down your observations.]

[By this point, you've read the same book seven times. Depending on the length of the book, it may have taken seven days or seven weeks. It doesn't matter. This is about changing your life and relationship with Christ. This is about sixty years of discipleship. It's not about getting through the Bible in a certain length of time.] Now comes the hard (and controversial) part ...

9.  Take everything you've learned in this book and put it into practice. Take a month to do nothing but concertedly meditate on what you've just read by making it real in your own life. It might mean that the only Bible you read this month are the parts of this one book that you still aren't getting and must re-read. Doesn't matter - do it! (If you absolutely have to read something every day that isn't part of this program, consider a few Psalms or a cycle of Proverbs. They're the most suited to broken-up reading patterns since they are collections of wisdom and less unified than a book like Romans.)

10.  After your month, take stock of all that you've learned by reading and practice. Make a mental assessment of the themes of the book and how they apply to your discipleship. If you're confident you've read and practiced this book, move on to the next one.

Once the NT is finished, move on to the OT. (I realize some of the OT books are daunting in length for a single read-through. Make a concerted effort to read them in one sitting. Failing this, some of the OT books are narrative, which allows for breaks in the story. Psalms and Proverbs are easily segmented, as noted above. All prophets must be read in one sitting the first time through. A book as enormous as Isaiah is hard to partition, so consider reading it on a weekend day.)

Repeat these ten steps for the rest of your life.


[Entire post found here.]