I have long held to a daily Bible reading program that takes me through the whole Bible once a year. Over the years, this has been perhaps the single most important ingredient in my private spiritual growth.
But I am enjoying my reading much more this year because my brothers and sisters in the congregation where I worship are following the same schedule that I am. What that means is that we are reading the same readings from the Bible on the same day. At least two benefits come from this.
(1) As I read, I enjoy thinking about the fact that my fellow Christians are reading the same words that I am on the same day. Even though we are not physically in the same room as we read, it does me good to know that the same precious words from the text of Scripture are being read, and enjoyed, by people that I love on the same day that I am reading them. It creates an invisible bond of unity in the reading of God’s word.
(2) When we are together, we talk about what we are reading. Since the first of this year, many good conversations have come up involving “today’s reading” or “last Tuesday’s reading” and so forth. I have benefited by the insights that others have gotten from their reading.
I recommend that you find somebody to share a daily Bible reading program with. Many such plans are available; just pick one and ask somebody if they will follow that plan along with you. You’ll think about that person as you read, and when you are together, you’ll talk about what you are reading.
In case you’re interested, here is a link to the plan that I have used for many years:
https://wordpoints.com/download/daily-bible-reading-plan.pdf
Grant Horner has developed another plan that I recently discovered, and I really like it. It calls for reading a chapter a day from each of ten different sections of the Bible, and so it’s a bit more challenging. However, it’s also more flexible and “forgiving.” It’s a unique program with some interesting features that I believe you might like. Here’s the link:
https://wordpoints.com/download/daily-bible-reading-grant-horner.pdf
Gary Henry — WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com
