Saturday, December 10, 2011

The Idea

Have you ever read the Bible all the way through?
Yes? No?
Either way, do you think you've learned everything? Probably not, right?

Maybe it's just me, but I think one of the biggest issues facing the present-day church is that a vast majority of christians haven't even taken the time to read what they're claiming to believe. If you're banking your eternal future on what is written in a certain book, don't you think it might be worth the time to at least read the thing through once or twice, just to make sure you know what you're getting yourself into, and how to explain and defend your beliefs to other people? Sure, you're probably not going to find all the answers to every question you'll ever get asked, but you'll almost certainly find some of them.

Anyways, this brings me to a simple idea: what if we took a few minutes every day to simply sit down, and read a chapter of the Bible? Then it's up to you if you want to re-read it, maybe break out some serious studying tools, dig deep, whatever.

There are 1189 chapters in the Bible. 929 in the Old Testament, and 260 in the New Testament. If we read one chapter every day, we will make it though the entire Bible in something over 3 years. In fact, if my math is right, starting on January 1, 2012, we should finish around April 3, 2015. Now, I realize this isn't exactly in the form of a usual new-years resolution, seeing as it will be spanning quite a few years, but nevertheless, that's the general idea I'm pulling from. I know that reading though the Bible in a single year is a popular idea, and if you'd like to do that, then by all means go for it. However, hopefully by taking it slower, it will offer more time to study and dig into each chapter.

My goal is to post a daily summary of each chapter I read, with whatever thoughts, connections, questions, or other random stuff that comes up as I slowly make my way though this book. Now, I'm almost certainly not going to be able to post every day for 3+ years, but hopefully I'll be able to get stuff up at least weekly or so. I invite you to join me on this journey. Keep a journal, write stuff in your Bible. Get out the highlighters, multi-colored pens, and tab markers. Post weird stuff and definitely any questions that you encounter. Use the NIV, ESV, KJV, or one of a billion other translations(or multiple ones for extra credit). Read it in a different language if you can. Do whatever you want. But READ. One chapter. One day. A few minutes. We can do this.