As another revolution around the sun, I see all the things I did not accomplish this last year. To me, this is fine. I make plans all the time that always take longer than I think they are going to take. I think this is something that is inherently human. Does this stop me from doing it again this year? Not on your life.
So, I am looking forward to this next year. For a while now, I have made some kind of plan to read or listen to the Bible in a year. I’ve done it faster and lower. I’m now settled that one time through a year is a good pace for me. I like to hit every book and be reminded of what is in it each year. Keeps God’s Word fresh with me. This last year I did a chronological read-through, and while it showed me what I wanted to see, I won’t be doing that again in the near future. I am going back to listening straight through the Bible. I like it that way. I like to listen to my Bible as I walk to and from school and church. I want to add something new though.
This year, I want to spend more time studying the Word. My problem is that I do still have a lot of other reading that I still need to get done for my job. I don’t have a ton of spare reading time in my life. I want to add what I can though. Interestingly, if you take 52 weeks of the year and times it by 5 working days, that equals 260, which is how many chapters there are in the New Testament. I knew it was close to that but until I looked it up, I didn’t know if was exactly the same.
Coincident? I think not!
So, this is what I am going to do. I want to journal through the New Testament this year. Read a chapter 5 days a week and write a page or two about what is in it.
Some things I will be looking for:
- I want to grow my New Testament knowledge. What is in each book? What is its main message? Who is it written to? Who wrote it? Key takeaways.
- I want to take off my Calvinist glasses and read the New Testament to see the relationship between Christ/God and the Sinner/Believer in salvation. This is not because am I questioning this belief but because I want to work on developing my thoughts based on Scripture and not how I was raised. I want to be able to give an answer for what I believe.
- I want to grow my understanding of what is the role of the church.
- I want to grow my general knowledge and the basis for my belief based upon Scripture.
This all boils down to building my exegetical worldview. Over the next few years, I want to go through the whole Bible this way and build out a worldview not based on philosophy but upon Scripture. I don’t want to think like a Platonist or an Aristotelian but a theologian. Philosophy is great for analogies, but this world is more than an analogy for what is to come. I want to better figure out this relationship.
So, if you want to join me this year, here is the plan that I made up. It’s one chapter a day through the whole New Testament for each weekday except New Year’s Eve. I made it so I could keep track of myself staying on time and because some people really like checklists. I even put a box for you to check if you are one of those people.
Here is to the new year, knowing your Bible better and our Lord through the process.