The end of the year is a time when we take measures to prepare for the new one that is coming. One preparation many of us make is choosing a Bible reading guide. It seems there are as many Bible reading plans as there are rocks in Haiti. I stumbled upon a new one this past year that has served me quite well, and I would like to pass it along to you. I first heard of it by reading a blog post from Molly Piper about a year ago. It is called “Read Through The Bible for Shirkers and Slackers.”

In a typical year, I can manage to mess up my Bible reading guide my Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. I get behind a couple of days and I can’t seem to catch up. Or I’ll just skip ahead. Then the inevitable remorse with subsequent feeling of having failed God would settle in. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ, and there is no beating your head against the wall for those who take up the challenge of reading through the bible for shirkers and slackers.

It really is quite simple.

Instead of having specific chapters assigned to specific days for the specific purpose of setting you up for faliure, this Bible reading guide assigns a Biblical section of Scripture for each day of the week. Like this:

Sunday: The books of poetry
Monday: The Pentateuch
Tuesday: O.T. history
Wednesday: O.T. history
Thursday: O.T. prophets
Friday: N.T. history
Saturday: N.T. epistles

Scripture is divided up 2-4 chapters and you mark them off as you read along. Simple. Easy. Effective.

If you remain faithful daily, you will finish in a year. If you fall behind, the chapters are not tied to dates, so there is no temptation to cheat, no incentive to skip ahead. It will take you longer than a year to get through the entire text, but you will get through it and feel great about it.

There are some portions of Scripture I read and think, “Really?” (Are you kidding me?)

There are other portions of Scripture I read and think, “Really!” (Yes, that is absolutely correct! Thanks be to God Forever!)

In many ways, it seems too massive, too expansive, to complex to fit into my tiny little (ok, actually fairly large) skull. But it does, and I am grateful for the work of the Holy Spirit to help me gain knowledge and wisdom from time spent invested in God’s Word. The head isn’t the only place it goes, though. It pierces the heart. The Bible can hit our heads and stimulate our intellect and challenge our presuppositions, thinking, and worldview. The Bible can also hit out hearts, and drive us back to feeling the childlike faith with which we used to sing that song about it (while being proud that we could spell B-I-B-L-E. On a separate note, I’d also like to thank Sunday School songs for helping me know how to spell “Christian” and “eternally” before I could spell my own name.) We sit in wonder hearing of Daniel in the lion’s den or hearing about Jonah in the belly of a whale. We wonder whether we could have the courage of some of the Old Testament greats we saw do amazing things on the flannel graph board (that’s like an old fashioned power point presentation to those under 25.)

Well, we might not find ourselves facing a lion or getting swallowed up by a whale this coming year, but I’m sure we will all find our fare share of pickles. When I am in between a rock and a hard place, my mind travels back to that song and I’m reminded that “I stand alone on the Word of God.” So I better fill myself up with some B-I-B-L-E.

I encourage you to do the same.