Bible Reading in 2012

Over at the Gospel Coalition, Justin Taylor has done us all a huge favor by compiling a massive list of helpful Bible Reading Plans to suit all kinds of people. He has very kindly allowed SIBC to reproduce the material for the benefit of our own members and guests. For the sake of brevity, I’ve chosen what I think are the three most helpful depending on where you are at in your walk with Jesus. You can read the full post here. Happy Bible reading for 2012, and again, many thanks to Justin Taylor for allowing us to reproduce the material.

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1. The Bible Reading Plan for Shirkers and Slackers (Pastor Andy Perry explains the plan and why he recommends it.)
2. There are 10 Reading Plans for ESV Editions, and the nice things is the way in which Crossway has made them accessible in multiple formats:
   • web (a new reading each day appears online at the same link)
   • RSS (subscribe to receive by RSS)
   • podcast (subscribe to get your daily reading in audio)
   • iCal (download an iCalendar file)
   • mobile (view a new reading each day on your mobile device)
   • print (download a PDF of the whole plan)

   Reading Plan	Format
   Daily Reading Bible Daily Old Testament, New Testament, and Psalms	Web	RSS	iCal	Mobile	Print
   Outreach Bible Daily Old Testament, Psalms, and New Testament	Web	RSS	iCal	Mobile	Print
   Outreach Bible New Testament Daily New Testament. Read through the New Testament in 6 months	Web	RSS	iCal	Mobile	Print
   M’Cheyne One-Year Reading Plan Daily Old Testament, New Testament, and Psalms or Gospels	Web	RSS	iCal	Mobile	Print
   ESV Study Bible Daily Psalms or Wisdom Literature; Pentateuch or the History of Israel; Chronicles or Prophets; and Gospels or Epistles	Web	RSS	iCal	Mobile	Print
   Literary Study Bible Daily Psalms or Wisdom Literature; Pentateuch or the History of Israel; Chronicles or Prophets; and Gospels or Epistles	Web	RSS	iCal	Mobile	Print
   Every Day in the Word Daily Old Testament, New Testament, Psalms, Proverbs	Web	RSS	iCal	Mobile	Print
   Through the Bible Daily Old Testament and New Testament	Web	RSS	iCal	Mobile	Print
   Chronological Through the Bible chronologically (from Back to the Bible)	Web	RSS	iCal	Mobile	Print
   Book of Common Prayer Daily Office Daily Psalms, Old Testament, New Testament, and Gospels	Web	RSS	iCal	Mobile	Print

   You can also access each of these Reading Plans as podcasts:

   • Right-click (Ctrl-click on a Mac) the “RSS” link of the feed you want from the above list.
   • Choose “Copy Link Location” or “Copy Shortcut.”
   • Start iTunes.
   • Choose Advanced > Subscribe to Podcast.
   • Paste the URL from step three into the box.
   • Click OK.

   The entire Bible on audio is usually about 75 hours (or 4500 minutes). If you commute to work 5 days a week, that’s about 260 days a year. And if it takes you, say, 17 minutes to commute each way to work—and if you listen to the Bible on audio during your drive each way—you’ll get through the entire Bible twice in a year. This probably isn’t the only way to do Bible intake—but it’s one most of us should take advantage of more.

   Here’s some more detail on these plans (some from Crossway, some from elsewhere).

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   ESV Study Bible(The ESV Literary Study Bible contains the same plan)

   With this plan there are four readings each day, divided into four main sections:

   • Psalms and Wisdom Literature
   • Pentateuch and the History of Israel
   • Chronicles and Prophets
   • Gospels and Epistles

   The introduction explains:

   In order to make the readings come out evenly, four major books of the Bible are included twice in the schedule: the Psalms (the Bible’s hymnal), Isaiah (the grandest of the OT prophets), Luke (one of the four biblical Gospels), and Romans (the heart of the Bible’s theology of salvation).The list of readings from the Psalms and the Wisdom Literature begins and ends with special readings that are especially appropriate for the opening and closing of the year. The list of readings from the Pentateuch and the History of Israel proceeds canonically through the five books of Moses and then chronologically through the history of the OT, before closing the year with the sufferings of Job. The list of readings from the Chronicles and the Prophets begins with the Chronicler’s history of the people of God from Adam through the exile, followed by the Major and Minor Prophets, which are organized chronologically rather than canonically.

   You can print out this PDF, which is designed to be cut into four bookmarks that can be placed at the appropriate place in your Bible reading. There are boxes to check off each reading as you complete it.

3. Joe Carter and Fred Sanders explain James Gray’s method of “How to Master the English Bible.” My pastor, David Sunday, told me that “the plan they recommend is, from my vantage point, the most productive way to read and to master the Bible’s contents (or more importantly, to let the Bible master you!).”

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For the record, I (Pastor Dave), am using a variation of this final method. Basically, I’ve chosen five books of the Bible that I am going to work through for a season (I got the idea from Justin Buzzard over at theResurgence.com). At the present time I am spending a lot of time in the Old Testament, with a chapter per day from the Psalms (for my heart), Proverbs (for my head), The Song of Solomon (for my marriage), Nehemiah (for my ministry), and 1 Peter (for my personal study). About once a week I post a QT highlight on my blog, the first of which you can see here. I seriously recommend spending time in Psalms and Proverbs daily with at least one other book of the Bible. Give it a try and then send us some of your stories. We’d love to hear about what God is teaching you. God bless and Happy New Year!