Recently, through the “Question of the Week” in our email newsletter, we found out that people wanted to grow most in the area of “understanding the Bible”. When we dug a little deeper, we found that this was coming from about three places: 1. “I feel like I don’t know where to start.” 2. “I feel like I could use a better big picture of the Bible” and 3. “I feel like reading the Bible would take more time that what I have right now”. Additionally, one person responded that they could use some help applying the Bible. 
In response, I figured it might be interesting for us to explore some Bible reading plans, because I’m hoping that they will help alleviate some of the hurdles to the growth area that you want. So over the next few weeks, we’ll take a look at some Bible reading plans. We will evaluate them on their strengths and their challenges, and hopefully by the end of the process, we will find something that will enable you to grow in your understanding of God’s Word.
Of course, before we get into that, we should talk about why this is important in the first place. Sure, it’s easy to guilt ourselves into thinking that we should read more of the Bible, but guilt is traditionally a pretty poor motivator, especially over the long term. So instead of guilt, here are a few reasons to try out some of the Bible reading plans that we will look into over the next few weeks:
The Bible is surprisingly easy to read – Sure, there are difficult passages in the Bible, but generally speaking, the Bible is pretty understandable on a surface level read. I can’t really say the same of religious texts that I’ve tried to read. (I’m looking at you, Bahgavad Gita.)
Reading the Bible changes your day – When you read the Bible, there are things in the text that will stand out to you. Your experience of your day and week will communicate with your experience of reading the Bible. You will start to notice things in your life that remind you of things you read, and things that you read will start to show themselves in your life – sort of like when you buy a new car and all of the sudden you notice that make and model of the car all around you.
The more you read, the more you understand – The Bible is self-referential. One part will address another part, and as you read more, you will legitimately understand more. It’s kind of like when I took a speed reading course in college. The counter-intuitive thing that the course encouraged you to do was to look up every word that you didn’t know in the dictionary as soon as you came across it. That’s easier to do today with Kindle, but back when I was taking the course it meant that I was lugging around a dictionary all over God’s green earth. The same idea applies to the Bible, but the good news is that the “dictionary” of the Bible is built in. The thing that will help you understand is just the text that you’ve already read, and as you read your “Biblical vocabulary” will grow.
So next week we’re going to start with our first reading plan. In preparation, dust off your Bible (if it’s what we call a “paper Bible” on Wednesday nights) or your Bible app, and just look around in it a bit. Because here is the biggest reason to read the Bible, it’s communication with God. It’s not even just one-way communication. It is you bringing your life, your experience, your thoughts and prayers to the text, and then hearing God’s word respond to those things in His Scripture.
(Have a great Bible reading plan you want to suggest? email me and let me know!)