The Bible Marathon Challenge: Week Four!

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!

The Bible Marathon Challenge: Week Three!

No that's not me but they look very serious about reading don't they.

So as I said last week, this week I was going to face the prophecy section of the Bible, arguably the most confusing area.  This is also an area where many people have got to in their Bible reading journeys and given up.  They can make it past Leviticus, navigate through the long chronologies of I Chronicles, even get through the strange long dialogues of Job, but then the prophets do them in.


There are two main sections in the prophecy section, the major and the minor prophets.  The designation is not about how important (or not important) they were but how long the book was they wrote.


Anyway what happened this last week.  So I started a third of the way through Psalms, and this is where I went.


Psalms 51 - 150.
Proverbs.
Ecclesiastes.
Song of Songs. (Or Song of Solomon for the traditionalists)
Isaiah.
Jeremiah.
Lamentations. (In case you wondered although this book is only 5 chapters long it is in the major prophets section because it is really an addendum to Jeremiah, the same author, and basically it is tied in with the other book)
Ezekiel.


So I have effectively made my way through the major prophets.  There is Daniel, who is called a major prophet, although in length his book is quite small.

Statistics time now!


At the beginning of the week I had 528 chapters read out of 1189, and believed to be on track for a 31 day achievement.


This week I read 322 chapters making a total of 850 out of 1189 chapters.  Which was a really top effort this week.  How much is going to stick in my head is another matter, but apart from spending months studying them in detail they are quite difficult.


That means at the moment I am reading at 40.76 chapters per day and now have 339 chapters to go in the last eleven days.  79 in the Old Testament and the 260 in the New Testament.  All going well I should be in the New Testament in the next couple of days.


I am now more confident of reaching the goal, but there is still consistent work to be done.


Anyway I'm off to continue my challenge, I thought I would leave you with this plan.  I found someone else who read the Bible in a month and had a much more organised plan than I did of reading it straight through from cover to cover.  Anyway I put the plan here for your personal edification.

The Bible Marathon Challenge: Week Two!

Well one thing with this challenge is you have to be consistent.  If you slacked off at all you would get behind the eight ball really really quickly.  

So with this nature of having to keep up with the reading being this intense I think about a month would be the most you could reasonably expect to keep it up.

Anyway having said that, this is what was read in the second week of the challenge.

I Kings
II Kings
I Chronicles
II Chronicles
Ezra
Nehemiah
Esther
Job
Psalms: 1 - 50.
 So the the statistics bit - 
A total there of 237 chapters and a little bit below what the challenge dictated I achieve.  
The total read now is 528 chapters out of 1189.  That is an average of 37.71 per day which is below the 38.35 required to be on schedule.  To get back on track by the end of week three I need to be up to 806 chapters which is 278 chapters to read in the next seven days, or basically 40 per day.  So I better get cracking!

In terms of where I am up to in the Bible I have finished the history section and am in the poetry/wisdom section, next comes arguably the hardest section the prophecy area, with major and minor prophets.

Following that will be the New Testament with the history section and then the epistles.

Well got some serious reading to do to have success in this really outrageous challenge.

Expect another report in about seven days.

In the meantime I will leave you with a nice banner I found - 

The Bible Marathon Challenge: Week One!

So I decided that I would start the year with a flood - a flood of Bible reading.  I have an ambition to read the Bible from Genesis chapter one to Revelation chapter twenty-two, and everything in between in the month of January.

It sounds like a big task and it is - but hey it is a good task!  I have had experience in reading the Bible this is my twenty second circuit through the Bible.  I also have done the Bible in a month twice before.  One time I made it in thirty three days and the other twenty nine, so I do have precedence.


Why did I decide to do it?  I wanted to 'flood' myself with the Bible from the beginning of the year to saturate myself in it and try to meditate on it.  After this month I think I will sow down a bit!


So one week in how have things gone.


I am reading straight through from beginning to end, so so far i have read.


Genesis
Exodus
Leviticus
Numbers
Deuteronomy
Joshua
Judges
Ruth
I Samuel
2 Samuel


A total of 291 chapters out of the Bible's total which you may know is 1189.


So this was a very good start and it has been amazing doing it.  I would not say I have had any major wow moments and I have obviously not gone into any detail, that is for study of the Bible.  I approach the Bible in two ways reading and studying.  Reading gives me an overview and makes me think some, but studying makes me look into details at a small section.  I believe I need both.


Anyway one week into my challenge and all looks well!