It is actually now day fifty-three, but this is as of day fifty.
I just have not had the time to write down what I had read.
So the ten days went fast as usual and it was pretty good with reading, pretty sustained.
So what did I read?
2 Chronicles 21-36.
I Corinthians.
2 Corinthians.
Ezra.
Nehemiah.
Esther.
Luke.
That was a total of 102 chapters, including Luke where the chapters are long!
That is now a total of 549 out of 1189 chapters read, so almost half way there.
A new blog in about eight days!
Once again ten days have vanished like mist before the sun. Sometimes recording things we do over a period of time reveals how quickly the passage of time passes as well as what we are recording.
So what happened in the last ten days?
Well I continued on at a steady pace.
I read:
I Kings.
II Kings.
Mark.
I Chronicles.
II Chronicles 1-20.
That was a total of 112 chapters for a total of 447 out of 1189.
The funny thing is I didn't feel like I was getting anywhere at points, but if you keep working away, you do eventually reach your goal.
Another ten days will be over before we know it, so off to read the Bible, and live according to its words!
All this reading is useless after all, unless I apply it to my life.
The saying time flies is quite accurate don't you think? The last ten days has flown by in almost a blink of the eye.
Well in the last ten days I have read.
Romans 4-16.
I Samuel
II Samuel.
That was a total of 68 chapters and a grand total of 335 chapters out of 1189.
So I am moving steadily along.
The next ten days will pass before I know it, so it is time to get back to it!
It just so happened that on the night of day twenty, I was in church and heard a talk on 1 John 2:18-28. One of the main points of this talk was to stick with the original message of the gospel, and flowing from that was the application to read the Bible, and read it each day.
The Bible is the source of our guidance, and the source of our life.
Psalm 119:105 describes it as a light for our path. It lights up the darkness of life around us.
Anyway so I have been encouraged again to read the Bible and read it often.
Last time I had just finished the Pentateuch, which was 187 chapters and this time I was able to read:
Matthew
Joshua
Judges
Ruth
Romans 1 - 3
This was a total of 80 chapters and so a running total of 267 chapters out of the 1189 in the Bible.
Reading the Bible is not just an activity to slip into your schedule for something to do, it is a life giving, encouraging activity which teaches, convicts, disciplines and moves us to a deeper walk in Jesus.
Read the Bible today!
So some years ago I had an aim, that aim was to read the Bible one time for every year of my life.
I have made it half way now, finishing 22 times and I am the ripe old age of 44.
Getting that far though has meant that I had to plan, and so I have planned, and now I actually put in my diary my daily readings.
Then this year I decided to add the Bible Marathon challenge, so now I am a month behind my schedule. Now I could easily re-write my schedule, or try and catch up, slowly but surely. A friend of mine used to say when watching a team playing sport that were behind, they just need to grind away. Now this is not sport, and ultimately it does not matter if I don't meet my schedule, what matters is that the word of God impacts my life deeply and that I apply it and change, growing in his grace and mercy.
Anyway another way of being sure I am continuing reading the Bible is blogging what I have read, and so I am going to continue the updates and my plan is to do this every ten days.
So what did I read in the first ten days. I read the Torah.
Genesis.
Exodus.
Leviticus.
Numbers.
Deuteronomy.
I am not going through the Bible from start to finish this time, in fact next up is the gospel of Matthew.
So this time I am mixing up the old and the new.
Some people say, and with some accuracy, that you can't get a lot out of just reading the Bible in chunks, for want of a better word, but there are other ways to add to daily Bible reading.
The church I attend works through books of the Bible, preaching a passage on the Sunday, and we study the same passage the Wednesday before in our Bible Study groups. Even the kids in kids church look at the same passage. The church in unity studying the Bible together. Currently we are working through the epistles of John.
Also I have another blog called The Tribal Bible in which I am paraphrasing the Bible, and currently working through Genesis. This makes you stop, go slowly and think about the words and concepts even more.
So my encouragement is read the Bible, and study the Bible, do both.
I'd love to hear if anyone else is on the same pilgrimage, to read the Bible one year for every year of their life.
Yep, so without any tension building here - it was a success!. This was not actually all of week five, rather just shy of half a week, being three days.
But the end result of it all is at about 8:00 am on January 31 Revelation 22 was read to finish the Bible in 31 days.
Success!!!
So here is what I read in those three days:
II Corinthians
Galatians
Ephesians
Philippians
Colossians
I Thessalonians
II Thessalonians
I Timothy
II Timothy
Titus
Philemon
Hebrews
James
I Peter
2 Peter
I John
2 John
3 John
Jude
Revelation
So for the stats -
I read 111 chapters making a total of 1189 chapters and of course 0 to go!
Over the course of the month I read at an average of 38.35 chapters per day.
It was a real challenge, especially when you are working and busy most nights, but it was a great thing to do.
That is the end of cycle 22 - and I have now read the Bible at an average of once every two years in my life, half way to my goal of making it once every year.
Cycle 23 has commenced, but that can be for another post!
It's getting close to the finish line of the marathon challenge, and it is going to be a close run thing, either way.
Week four started slowly but built up to the point where I can make it, with just three days to go.
This week I finished the Old Testament and moved into the new going through the New Testament gospel and history section, so what I read this week was -
Daniel
Hosea
Joel
Amos
Obadiah
Jonah
Micah
Nahum
Habakkuk
Zephaniah
Haggai
Zachariah
Malachi
Matthew
Mark
Luke
John
Acts
Romans
I Corinthians.
So for the stats -
So this week I read 228 chapters and that makes a total of 1,078 chapters leaving 111 to go.
I have been reading at an average of 38.50 chapters per day and have a very similar target over the next three days to make it!
I am now in the epistle, so without any delay I have to get back to make it, it has come down to the wire!
