2024 Challenge: read through the Bible

[BigWaylon]

I just finished it up for the 11th year in a row. Sometimes it’s a chronological plan. Sometimes it’s a cover-to-cover plan. Sometimes it’s split up with some Old and New Testament passages each day. My church started doing it a decade or so ago and I jumped in.

As I’ve told the classes I’ve taught, both adults and youth…if you don’t know what’s in the Bible, you won’t know when somebody is giving you false Gospel.

So, I challenge you to read the whole thing this year. I’ve found the best way for me is the YouVersion app. All kinds of plans to choose from. Tracks it for you each day. Even gives you the option to listen to it if that works better for you. And you can do a mixture of reading/listening (as opposed to having to choose one plan/method or another).

For us, 2022 is going to be the M’Cheyne reading plan. We’ve done it before, but it’s been a couple years. It’s a little more reading than a once-through plan. You end up going through the OT once, plus Psalms and the NT twice. But it’s a good mixture every day instead of struggling through 3-5 chapters of Numbers a couple days in a row. 😁

I’m going to add a poll. Just to help you commit.

I’m also going to add a couple versions of a reading checklist (for the M’Cheyne plan) here if you don’t want to use the app. Plenty more plans available if you search around.

 

[Sandman_NC]

I’m in!

 

[BigWaylon]

A couple thoughts…that I was working out in my head while taking the pup out for a poop walk.

1. Step 1 is to pick a plan. If it’s your first time, maybe the M’Cheyne is more than you want to bite off. I really like the chronological plans for a first timer.
2. You know your schedule better than anyone. You have ~10 days to figure out what’s going to work best for you. Is knocking it out first thing every morning the way to go? Or is taking a break at 10a to read better? Or maybe spending the first 10-15 minutes of each lunch break? Maybe everybody at your house goes to bed before you, so nighttime is when you get peace and quiet. For some of you, a fresh pot of coffee and a week’s worth of reading every Saturday morning would seem divine. Sometimes it’s a mix of something during the week and something else on the weekends.
3. Don’t get discouraged. If you miss a day, a week, or even a month (happened to me this year when I had Covid)…don’t try to catch up all at once. If you end up three days behind, you don’t have to read four days’ worth the next day. Just read two days’ worth for the next three days. Or maybe listen to a couple days you missed when you’re on the road, then pick back up reading. Just don’t quit…please.

If anybody else has suggestions, feel free to share. If along the way you run across a passage you want to discuss, post it up. I’ve found something every single time I’ve gone through it that somehow didn’t stand out the first time(s) I read the same scriptures.

For example, here’s my duh-huh moment from about a month ago. We know Paul spent considerable time in jail, and that’s where he wrote a lot of his letters. In my head, I picture the scene where he’s on a stone bench, next to a stone wall, chained to that wall, which is all behind a locked gate. While he is indeed locked away some of the time, he isn’t always. Specifically I was teaching the book of Philemon, which he wrote after he arrived in Rome following the horrific boat voyage detailed in Acts. You’ll see this in Acts 28:16:

“And when we came into Rome, Paul was allowed to stay by himself, with the soldier who guarded him.”

And then verse 30:

“He lived there two whole years at his own expense, and welcomed all who came to him,”

So while he did have a guard assigned to him, and most likely chained to that guard, he was really on house arrest…which is a whole different image in my head now.

 

[Sandman_NC]

Chronological plans for this first timer.

Don't get me wrong, I've tried a few times and it seems like the devil kept diverting me. I did not have much of a plan to be honest... more like I would read until my eyes got tired. It does not take a long time for my eyes to get tired of reading. LOL I read the daily Bible verses sent to my email but I need more! A structured plan is exactly what I need!

Thank you for posting this reminder and guide for getting started.... again. I'd really like to find a version where I can read along with audio. I think I would get more out of it that way.

 

[BigWaylon]

Thank you for posting this reminder and guide for getting started.... again. I'd really like to find a version where I can read along with audio. I think I would get more out of it that way.

YouVersion app allows for that. Puts the scripture on your screen…and you either scroll through it to read, or hit the Play triangle. And as it reads it, it scrolls down the screen with a bar on the side showing where it is. You can see the slider bar on the left here…and also notice the little circle around the pause button, which fills in as it proceeds through the chapter:



It’ll also pause if the phone rings. And it’ll keep playing if you have to switch to another app to look at something. Let’s you make notes, highlight passages, and lots of other things.


One year I would read a passage one day. Then the next day I would listen to that first passage to get the context again, then read the next. Rinse and repeat. So I actually went thought it twice that year, almost simultaneously.

 

[Sandman_NC]

Thank you, Brother!

 

[Natemi]

I downloaded the You version as well. Good plan and if you do get behind you can catch up pretty easy.

 

[Pbj ak]

I’ve never read the Bible the whole way through and here lately I’ve been thinking about that. It’s really sad honestly. Anyway thanks for posting and I’m going to try this.

 

[Average Joe]

Thanks for the information on the app. Just downloaded it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[BigWaylon]

Five signed up on the first day. Excited about this for the rookies. Hopefully the number increases for the next 10 days!! 😁

 

[Schattenreiter]

I did this a number of years ago when I was on the road a lot. I used audio cassettes. It made it so much easier because I didn't have to try to pronounce all those strange names.

 

[Grits]

Several years ago the church I attended was doing a mission trip in the town they were located. I was going to have a part in the mission trip and I wanted to read the Bible through beforehand. Well me being in the car for 1.5 hours a day going to and from work I decided to listen to it being read as there was no way I could finish reading it in the time I had left. I was in a Goodwill and what did I find sitting on a shelf? There before me was a CD set of the NIV new in the box. I listened to the entire Bible being read.

I need to get back on reading it again. I have a bible that breaks it into a 90 plan. I also have a chronological Bible to read it in order.

I have a second job that if I would just do it I could have it read in about 60 days. No more excuses. Time to get cracken.

Sent from my SM-J320V using Tapatalk

 

[Hammer12b]

I’ve started reading it several times, mostly in the morning but got busy…or lazy and stopped. I’m ash of myself that I don’t find time to read God’s word but can and do read 5-10 books a month pretty easy. I need to do better.

 

[BigWaylon]

Let’s get some more involved!

 

[BigWaylon]

Anybody want to be able to look back and say Christmas Eve 2021 was the day you committed to read through the Bible?

 

[Crankbait]

I started “The One Year Chronological Bible” about a month ago. It’s on the YouVersion Bible app. My wife bought it a couple years ago as a soft cover book and read it. I’ve read the Bible completely before but thought I’d read it in Chronological order this time. No matter how many times you read it, God will always reveal something else to you.

 

[BigWaylon]

I started “The One Year Chronological Bible” about a month ago. It’s on the YouVersion Bible app. My wife bought it a couple years ago as a soft cover book and read it. I’ve read the Bible completely before but thought I’d read it in Chronological order this time. No matter how many times you read it, God will always reveal something else to you.

Hopefully you voted. You’re taking the 2022 challenge…you just cheated and started a month early. 😝

 

[Crankbait]

Hopefully you voted. You’re taking the 2022 challenge…you just cheated and started a month early. 😝

Just did. Haha

 

[VinegarBased]

Okay, after many failures ……breaks, : ) I’m ready for another go. Thanks for posting this @BigWaylon

 

[DrScaryGuy]

A while back i was with my wife and some of the younger folks in the family (all good catholics) playing a game. it was half "do you know me" and half "challenge". somebody pulled a card that was about books in the new testament and had to pick a number to see who could guess how many books...
nobody else could do it and they assumed i couldn't... but people really underestimate how i was raised (extra evangelical with frequent outreach, service, and witnessing). so when i started listing books, in order, they were a little confused.

I voted no, because somebody else in a different thread said something like "tell people no more and earlier because it's hard to back out when you say yes"... so that's my "no" for now.

 

[BigWaylon]

I voted no, because somebody else in a different thread said something like "tell people no more and earlier because it's hard to back out when you say yes"... so that's my "no" for now.

Don’t worry…I gotcha covered.

 

[Ponzerite]

Excellent idea Waylon. I made that commitment in college, with a basic read three chapters a day plan. I've used several different plans over the tears. But the chronological us my choice. That's what I'm doing this year.

I challenged our folks at church in 2020 to read through this year, 2021. I know some have completed , others are on track, and some read more than they ever had. I preached from somewhere in that weeks section.

Thanks for the challenge

 

[tanstaafl72555]

A couple thoughts…that I was working out in my head while taking the pup out for a poop walk.

1. Step 1 is to pick a plan. If it’s your first time, maybe the M’Cheyne is more than you want to bite off. I really like the chronological plans for a first timer.
2. You know your schedule better than anyone. You have ~10 days to figure out what’s going to work best for you. Is knocking it out first thing every morning the way to go? Or is taking a break at 10a to read better? Or maybe spending the first 10-15 minutes of each lunch break? Maybe everybody at your house goes to bed before you, so nighttime is when you get peace and quiet. For some of you, a fresh pot of coffee and a week’s worth of reading every Saturday morning would seem divine. Sometimes it’s a mix of something during the week and something else on the weekends.
3. Don’t get discouraged. If you miss a day, a week, or even a month (happened to me this year when I had Covid)…don’t try to catch up all at once. If you end up three days behind, you don’t have to read four days’ worth the next day. Just read two days’ worth for the next three days. Or maybe listen to a couple days you missed when you’re on the road, then pick back up reading. Just don’t quit…please.

If anybody else has suggestions, feel free to share. If along the way you run across a passage you want to discuss, post it up. I’ve found something every single time I’ve gone through it that somehow didn’t stand out the first time(s) I read the same scriptures.

For example, here’s my duh-huh moment from about a month ago. We know Paul spent considerable time in jail, and that’s where he wrote a lot of his letters. In my head, I picture the scene where he’s on a stone bench, next to a stone wall, chained to that wall, which is all behind a locked gate. While he is indeed locked away some of the time, he isn’t always. Specifically I was teaching the book of Philemon, which he wrote after he arrived in Rome following the horrific boat voyage detailed in Acts. You’ll see this in Acts 28:16:

“And when we came into Rome, Paul was allowed to stay by himself, with the soldier who guarded him.”

And then verse 30:

“He lived there two whole years at his own expense, and welcomed all who came to him,”

So while he did have a guard assigned to him, and most likely chained to that guard, he was really on house arrest…which is a whole different image in my head now.

Love Mcheyne. I have been using it for almost 50 years. Someone introduced it to me when I was in college. One addition I might make..... find someone/some written work who can help you work out Luke 24:27, where Jesus himself began to teach them that THE WHOLE OLD TESTAMENT IS ABOUT JESUS. Elsewise, the whole OT, aside from a few moralisms and devotional psalms, is a very very confusing mishmash of unconnected weird, violent, and bizarre stories. When I began to see that the entire OT is a developing story of an unfolding "COVENANT" and progressive revelation of a eternal purpose, then things fit more "into place" and I began to be in wonder and awe at the beauty of passages that had little appeal before.
If you are new to this school of thought, I can recommend "The Christ of the Covenants" by O Palmer Robertson, and Walt Kaiser "Toward an Old Testament Theology".
I am re-memorizing the sermon on the mount, and have recently been struck by Matt 5: 17 “Do not presume that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill." This is a "map" as it were of the Old Testament where Jesus himself says in essence: "Do you want to see the entire Old Testament (their phrase was "law and prophets" there was no New Testament yet) fleshed out? Do you want to see IN ONE PERSON the entire Old Testament? You are looking at Him."
That perspective is magic, and is amazing. For me it was like someone taking off a pair of steamed up glasses, wiping them off and putting them back on with a bit of anti fog, and BOOM! I can see clearly, and actually look forward to OT readings even more than the NT.

That is my $.02, anyway

 

[tanstaafl72555]

I cannot recommend highly enough a committed plan to read the bible on a regular basis. I am astounded at the level of raw ignorance at its content among professing Christians, frankly. I look at my own massive failures over the years and can only attribute them to a mind and heart not shaped by a regular, consistent, simple re-organizing of my life by that book, and consequently by its Author.

 

[BigWaylon]

Love Mcheyne. I have been using it for almost 50 years. Someone introduced it to me when I was in college. One addition I might make..... find someone/some written work who can help you work out Luke 24:27, where Jesus himself began to teach them that THE WHOLE OLD TESTAMENT IS ABOUT JESUS. Elsewise, the whole OT, aside from a few moralisms and devotional psalms, is a very very confusing mishmash of unconnected weird, violent, and bizarre stories. When I began to see that the entire OT is a developing story of an unfolding "COVENANT" and progressive revelation of a eternal purpose, then things fit more "into place" and I began to be in wonder and awe at the beauty of passages that had little appeal before.
If you are new to this school of thought, I can recommend "The Christ of the Covenants" by O Palmer Robertson, and Walt Kaiser "Toward an Old Testament Theology".
I am re-memorizing the sermon on the mount, and have recently been struck by Matt 5: 17 “Do not presume that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill." This is a "map" as it were of the Old Testament where Jesus himself says in essence: "Do you want to see the entire Old Testament (their phrase was "law and prophets" there was no New Testament yet) fleshed out? Do you want to see IN ONE PERSON the entire Old Testament? You are looking at Him."
That perspective is magic, and is amazing. For me it was like someone taking off a pair of steamed up glasses, wiping them off and putting them back on with a bit of anti fog, and BOOM! I can see clearly, and actually look forward to OT readings even more than the NT.

That is my $.02, anyway

Yep. To oversimplify it, the Bible is split into three sections:
1. Jesus is coming (the whole OT)
2. Jesus is here (the first few books of the NT)
3. Jesus is coming back (the rest of the NT)

A lot of people miss that Jesus was present at Creation, along with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

 

[Pbj ak]

I wanted to ask if any of you guys have a recommendation on a specific audio book version of the Bible? I ride around in my car for 5/6+ hours a day and thought it’d be nice to listen while working.

 

[tanstaafl72555]

I wanted to ask if any of you guys have a recommendation on a specific audio book version of the Bible? I ride around in my car for 5/6+ hours a day and thought it’d be nice to listen while working.

I like Bible Gateway.

 

[Grits]

Love Mcheyne. I have been using it for almost 50 years. Someone introduced it to me when I was in college. One addition I might make..... find someone/some written work who can help you work out Luke 24:27, where Jesus himself began to teach them that THE WHOLE OLD TESTAMENT IS ABOUT JESUS. Elsewise, the whole OT, aside from a few moralisms and devotional psalms, is a very very confusing mishmash of unconnected weird, violent, and bizarre stories. When I began to see that the entire OT is a developing story of an unfolding "COVENANT" and progressive revelation of a eternal purpose, then things fit more "into place" and I began to be in wonder and awe at the beauty of passages that had little appeal before.
If you are new to this school of thought, I can recommend "The Christ of the Covenants" by O Palmer Robertson, and Walt Kaiser "Toward an Old Testament Theology".
I am re-memorizing the sermon on the mount, and have recently been struck by Matt 5: 17 “Do not presume that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill." This is a "map" as it were of the Old Testament where Jesus himself says in essence: "Do you want to see the entire Old Testament (their phrase was "law and prophets" there was no New Testament yet) fleshed out? Do you want to see IN ONE PERSON the entire Old Testament? You are looking at Him."
That perspective is magic, and is amazing. For me it was like someone taking off a pair of steamed up glasses, wiping them off and putting them back on with a bit of anti fog, and BOOM! I can see clearly, and actually look forward to OT readings even more than the NT.

That is my $.02, anyway

The Old Testament points to him coming. Throughout it, there are representations of him. The writers write of him. With open eyes you can see him. Once you realize who it was written about you can see him clearly.

I wanted to ask if any of you guys have a recommendation on a specific audio book version of the Bible? I ride around in my car for 5/6+ hours a day and thought it’d be nice to listen while working.

The version I have has James Earl Jones as the narrator and it is a NIV version. I would have to look and see who made the set.

Sent from my SM-J320V using Tapatalk

 

[Ronsc]

I wanted to ask if any of you guys have a recommendation on a specific audio book version of the Bible? I ride around in my car for 5/6+ hours a day and thought it’d be nice to listen while working.

I would highly recommend the KJV version of Audio Bible with narrator Alexander Scourby..
I can still recall watching the Victory at Sea series on TV with him as narrator.
To my mind his voice is the most soothing of any I’ve heard. His voice is legendary!

 

[Sandman_NC]

I had trouble finding the YouVersion app and reached out to see if it was available for IOS. It is. I guess I was looking for the name “YouVersion” too much. LOL

Here’s a screen shot of what to look for just in case someone out there was missing it too.

 

[Ponzerite]

I wanted to ask if any of you guys have a recommendation on a specific audio book version of the Bible? I ride around in my car for 5/6+ hours a day and thought it’d be nice to listen while working.

You version us the one I often use for thus. Its what @Sandman said above. I think you can listen to a couple of different versions.

 

[Ponzerite]

And for what it's worth, thus is the version om going to use thus year

 

[svtf150]

I started reading the bible last year for the first time. I printed the chronological schedule from The Bible Recap Podcast.
Stuck with it solid through April then I got busy and didn't commit the time anymore and that was that.
Didn't listen to many of the podcast episodes. 8-10 minutes each I guess. Didn't really gain anything from them.

I'm glad you posted up about this @BigWaylon
Count me in.
Now I just need to decide if I'm gonna start back at the beginning or pick up where I left off..........

 

[BigWaylon]

Up to 10 that voted they’d participate…maybe some others that just don’t want to click the button.

Let’s see if we can double that number by the time the ball drops…

 

[svtf150]

Up to 10 that voted

11 now. I didn't vote last evening. Oops!!

 

[tanstaafl72555]

seriously, EVERY PROFESSING CHRISTIAN should be committed to some reading plan. Doesn't have to be the entire bible in a year if you are fairly new to reading it. In the bible gateway there are scads of reading plans. Some are only new testament some are reading thru the gospels in 40 days (that would take you thru them 9 times in a year... you could do worse). Just get a plan and remember, you will probably fail. I fail at most every thing I do. Being a failure is NOT failing....., being a failure is quitting. I can't count the number of times I have said "ok God, here we are again......"

There are tons of plans. If you read 5 psalms a day and a proverb, you will go thru the entire psalms and proverbs 12 times in a year. The particular plan is, imo, unimportant. I plan to leave off Mcheyne (the entire bible once, nt and psalms twice) this upcoming year and switch to a NT and proverbs combo, with both being multiple times during the year.

 

[DrScaryGuy]

I pulled up youversion on google play... there are over 1400 different versions of the bible accessible in that app.
that's a lot of choices

The version I have has James Earl Jones as the narrator and it is a NIV version. I would have to look and see who made the set.

that's the one the advertise at night on fox news!
not sure if that's good or bad...

 

[BigWaylon]

We have 6,946 members…and only 10 that will commit to reading God’s Word?

 

[BigWaylon]

A short passage from the lesson I’ll teach this coming Sunday…very applicable to this discussion.

 

[falconew]

Started listening to Through the Bible with Dr Jay Vernon McGee. I catch it at 5 am on my way to work. But that’s a 5 year journey. I just downloaded youversion. I got a 45 minute ride to work great time to reflect and listen