Here’s an invitation: will you join us in reading together through the whole Bible in 2025 and 2026?
 
Beginning today we’ll start a two-year trek through the Bible, reading through the entire Old Testament and New Testament, and through the Psalms and Proverbs four times. If you’ve already read all the way through the Bible, please join us again. There’s joy in doing it together, and God’s Word is “living and active” so you can be confident God will speak to you in new ways!
 
If you’ve never read all the way through the Bible, please join us for the first time. You might think you could never do it. But you can. With two years, you have a manageable pace (and built into this plan are ‘catch-up days’ to help you get back on track if you fall off the pace). With a group of Christian friends doing it together, you have encouragement. We’re praying that spouses will read through the Bible together, that parents and children will talk about what they’ve read each day, that our small groups will encourage each other as they share questions and insights. We’re excited already about the fruit God will produce in our lives! After all, our Church’s middle name is “Bible!”
 
With this plan, we’ll read one book of the Bible at a time, and we’ll read according to the logical units of Scripture. Sometimes those units will match up with our modern chapter divisions, and sometimes not. If you are able, please consider picking up Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart’s book How to Read the Bible which can even further help you understand how to read different genres and texts. 

 

Here are eight tips a friend and mentor, Stephen Witmer, had for his Church when he formatted this plan and invited their congregation to read the Bible together:

1. Request God’s help. As you come to the Word each morning, ask God to open your eyes to its splendor. Psalm 90.14: ‘Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.’ Psalm 119.18: ‘Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.’ Psalm 119.36: ‘Incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to selfish gain!’

2. Look for God. The Bible is mainly a book about God. So, in each passage we read, ask yourself, ‘What does this tell me about God?’ If you ask and seek to answer this question throughout your Bible-reading trek, you’ll come away knowing God better.

3. Slow down. Some readings will be longer and others shorter. Take advantage of the shorter ones. Read meditatively, reflectively, asking questions, praying for answers, engaging. In Psalm 119.48, the psalmist says he meditates on the Lord’s statutes.

4. Read with a pen. Why not keep a notebook of insights from this two-year journey? Write down your best thoughts. Record your questions and prayers. It’ll help you focus and give you a record of what God has taught you.

5. Get specific. As you do the reading for each day, look for a ‘best thought’ – a truth you can meditate on throughout the rest of the day, a verse you can memorize, a phrase that’s particularly memorable. That way, you’re left with more than a vague feeling of what you read in the morning.

6. Pray the passage. Let your prayers for others emerge from what you read. As you read a passage, pray God’s inspired words for yourself and for those you love.

7. Read on a mission. As you read the passage for each day, ask, ‘Who can I share this with?’ Allow your reading to overflow into conversations with others. It’s a natural way to share Jesus with your non-Christian friends. When they ask, ‘How’s your day going?’ tell them, ‘I saw this encouraging truth in the Bible this morning…’ You’re just being yourself and answering their question.

8. Do the Word. Consider how you can live out what you’re reading. James 1.22: ‘But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.’

 

We’ll have paper copies of the reading plan printed for you  and sitting out in the foyer these next two Sundays. I’m excited to grow together in God’s word!

 

As ever,
Pastor Tyler