If you are longing to experience the full beauty of the Biblical metanarrative, try a 90 Day Bible Reading Plan.  Here are some of the pros and cons.

​What are the pros and cons of a 90 Day Bible Reading Plan?

Shortly after we were married, I horrified my husband with my free-spirited approach to reading the Bible.
 
"What did you read in your devotions today?" he asked one morning. 
"I finished Romans," I told him.  We had a great conversation about what we had read and learned.
The next day, he asked again:  "What did you read in your Bible this morning?"
"I started Jeremiah," I replied, cheerfully.

Stunned silence. 
​
My husband cannot fathom a person who reads their Bible out of order.
Each and every year, since I have known him, he has read through his Bible.  In order.  Genesis to Revelation.  Or maybe Chronological order.  Or one of those plans where you read a passage from the Old Testament and one from the New Testament.  He has read the McCheyne Bible Reading Plan.  Twice he has read the Greek New Testament.  He even spent one year reading the Amplified Bible.  (He jokes that he read his Bible one and a half times that year.)
But never since he has been a grown man has he considered bouncing around the Bible randomly.  Me?  I was the ball in the pinball machine. 
Now, please don't misunderstand.  I loved reading my Bible.  I read it faithfully.  I just didn't love reading Jeremiah and Ezekiel back to back.  Or Leviticus and Numbers.  I liked breaking it up by reading something else in order to keep on swimming through.  Catch a breather in the Psalms, for instance.  Then hold my nose and dive back into the deep end of the major prophets.
So for several years he looked at me with fond discomfort in his eyes when I shared with him my unconventional devotional tactics.  He was very glad I was reading my Bible, of course.  Just a little perturbed about my way of doing it. 

But then something happened.
One year, I finally decided to join those faithful souls who systematically read through their entire Bible in one year.  With a plan.

The result? 
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I fell deeper in love with my Bible.
I saw new vistas.  I noticed new details.  I made new connections.  There is an amazing blessing to reading through the Bible systematically.

This new way of reading my Bible initiated a time of real spiritual growth growth in my life. In fact, I have been so blessed by the results of reading through my Bible in a year, in a systematic way, that I now wholeheartedly encourage others to do the same thing.  It is a wonderful thing.  If you haven't tried it yet, you absolutely should start doing it right now.

Here are five different options for Bible Reading Plans:

• A Basic One Year Bible Reading Plan (Genesis to Revelation.)
• A Bible Chapter Check-Off Sheet (If you are a pinball, this will ensure you make it through the entire Bible.)
• A Five-Day-A-Week Chronological Reading Plan (Leaves 2 days a week for other reading or study.)
• Robert Murray McCheyne's Bible Reading Calendar (Includes admonitions and tips for reading.)
• A One Year Chronological Bible Reading Plan
• The 90 Day Bible Reading Plan (Read your Bible four times a year with this plan.)

That gives us six different options for using a plan to read through our Bibles this year.  If none of these six options suit you, pick a different plan.  Search the internet.  There are literally dozens of options.  If you have a favorite reading plan that I did not include, please do us all a favor and link to it in the comments below!

Whatever the case, let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly this year.

PS--In my next post I will share which of these reading plans I am using this year that I am really excited about.

Do you read your Bible in the morning and then walk away from it unchanged?  Add these five things to your devotions to transform your time with the Lord.

1.  A pen.  If you aren't taking notes, how can you hope to remember what God is teaching you?  Write down special verses that the Lord ministered to your heart.  Take notes each day on what you learn.

2.  Paper.  I don't mean the back of a grocery receipt or random sticky notes.  Have a journal or some other official devotional notebook for keeping track of the things you learn.  Write out your prayers.  Write down your burdens.  Write down your blessings.  Read back through your devotional notes periodically to see how the Lord has led you on your journey of spiritual growth.

3.  A place.  Preferably a quiet place where you can be alone.  I like the kitchen table or my desk.  My husband prefers his desk.  My daughter reads in her room.  My son goes to the table in front of our house.  I have a guest who stays with us sometimes who carries a chair outside to the back of our house.  When we travel and our whole family is sleeping in one hotel room, my husband or I will often hole up in the bathroom to read.  Really, anything works, as long as you can focus on the one needful thing:  spending time with the Lord without distraction.

4.  A plan.  You can randomly open your Bible to read and still be blessed--that is the glory of the Word of God.  But you will find yourself learning much more if you have a plan for how to read your Bible and what to read each day.  This could be a one-year plan or a two-year plan or a one-year Bible.  It could be a check-off sheet or even a simple three-chapters-a-day method.  Pick a plan and stick to it for a year or two.  See what a difference it makes!

5.  A secret weapon.  My secret weapon is coffee.  Some people prefer juice or a morning jog to keep them awake while reading.  Maybe you don't need one of these. . . this one is optional.  But if you frequently find yourself dozing off, try using a secret weapon to keep yourself alert and learning.

Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly this year!

I was reading the Bible at the breakfast table to my children in my best effort to uphold the Tim Berrey tradition while he was away for the week teaching a CEP (Continuing Education for Pastors) class in Mindanao.  

We were in the book of Revelation, and at first I had everyone's attention.  (Dragons!  Beasts!  Trumpets!)  But then something happened.  

First David saw the toy zebras and wanted them.  He is at that age of toddlership where children repeat the same thing over and over until you acknowledge that you heard it.  "Zebra, Mommy?  Zebra?  Zebra?"

Then, just as I assured him that I had accurately interpreted his words (but that he needed to wait until we were done reading to play with the zebras) and began to read again, the toast popped up.  Our toaster is uncertain how to go about its job.  Sometimes the toast is white and sometimes it is black.  We love it anyway, but we know we have to babysit it.  So the kids were all telling each other to go check the toast.  Finally we got that settled (perfect toast), and I began reading again. 

And then. . . 

Just as I was reading about how the accuser of the brethren is conquered by the blood of the Lamb, one of my boys saw his own revelation:  a dead cockroach under the table.  Actually, it wasn't dead.  It was still in the lala land bugs go to when they end up on their backs.  His legs and feelers were still waving, but he wasn't going anywhere.  

The Word of God is far more important than that.

"We will take care of him later," I announced, mustering up my best Mommy voice.  And we finished reading.  Powerful passage.  They forgot about the cockroach until I kept my promise and "took care" of him later.  "Eeewww," my boys said, with evident enjoyment.

Zebras, toast, and cockroaches.  They pull our attention away from the one needful thing.  The most important part of the day.  The thing without which we cannot spiritually survive in this world.   

What takes your attention away from the Word of God?

The zebras were toys.  There is nothing wrong with them.  But they are not something to focus on, either.  We adults have our own toys.  (Hint:  most of them are on our computer or cell phone.)  Are they drawing our attention away from the Word of God?  

The toast was breakfast.  Food.  A necessary thing.  But even the necessities of life have their place.  We cannot let them take precedence over our Word time.  Man cannot live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

The cockroach?  Well, we all know what kinds of revolting, despicable things there are out there.  (Some of those things show up in movie theaters around Valentines Day.)  Don't play with them.  Don't dirty your hands and your lives with them.  Kill them.  Practice radical amputation when you find them infesting your life.  Cockroaches are scum-suckers.  Bottom-feeders.  Dead or alive, they are creepy-crawly disgustingness.  It is better to enter heaven with one hand or one eye than to be cast out forever because that part of your body kept you from the Lord.  Let's be as hasty to kill the moral scum in our lives as we are to kill the cockroaches under our tables.

Zebras, toast, and cockroaches. 

It is a new day, a new week.  A new start.  Give the Lord the first part--the best part--of your day.  When you read the Word, focus.  Don't be distracted.  My personal rule of thumb is that God gets my time and attention before I turn on my computer or open a book.  Unless there is an emergency or an urgent need, nothing comes before my time with Him.  It is a habit that has become a tremendous blessing to me.

And, if you have children, the best thing you can do for them today is to help them, also, to focus on the Word.

Zebras, toast, and cockroaches.  
The Word of God is far more important than these things.