Five Fabulous Options for Your 2010 Bible Reading

Two vital disciplines anchor the Christian in the storm: prayer and immersion in the Word of God. While I can’t make you pray every day, I can suggest five ways to make reading the Scriptures easier and more fruitful for the upcoming year.

1. The Daily Bible by FL Smith: I’ve read through the Bible four times using this method, once each year. The Bible is a chronological NIV with Psalms and OT law divided up into categories. It has not only served as a wonderful and easy (as easy as they come anyway) means of reading through the entire Bible in a year, but also as a reference for various theological and apologetics work. I read through the paperback edition in 2005, but I recommend the green imitation leatherbound if you can spot one; I received mine for Easter of 2006 shortly before the edition went out of print.

2. A Proverb in the morning and a Psalm in the evening. This was one of the most simple and yet spiritually edifying practices I engaged in during my second year of college. The mind constantly needs re-orientation before the day begins to be reminded of what we’re here for and what’s right and wrong, and in the evening, a portal to worship, release, and adore the living God.

3. A Classic Reading with Thematic Notes: Pick a specific area of focus, and take notes over it as you read through the entire Bible in a year, just as it is ordered in the canon. The place of birds in redemptive history. Father-son relationships. Idolatry. Real Estate. It can be a variety of things. Last year, I chose two topics, “Gender and Sexuality,” which I used a green pen for, and “Theological Anthropology and Neurophilosophy” which I used with a red pen. Everytime I came across something that either implied or directly stated something on the matter, I took notes on it. I am currently nearing completion on this project, and when it’s done I’ll type out the notes in two documents, one for each theme. The findings have been very, very interesting, so far.

4. The ESV Study Bible: The ESV Study Bible has its own eccentric yearly reading plan (see page 2743), complete with 4 readings per day from various parts of Scripture. From what I hear, its been very rewarding, and I plan to undertake this particular angle sometime in 2010.

5. Parallel Reading of Synoptic Gospels: There are four gospels, four accounts of the life of Jesus. They aren’t all the same. Wouldn’t it be cool if all four were placed beside each other, and you could read both the Greek and English to see the differences and similarities? It’s possible with Kurt Aland’s Synopsis of the Four Gospels.