December 31, 2012

2013 Bible Reading Plans

At the end of every year, I plan how I will read the Bible the next year. I find that if I don't plan to read, I just don't read. These are the plans I've used for the past few years.

2010 (2009 too, I think) - Discipleship Journal Bible Reading Plan (pdf). This plan has selections from four different parts of the Bible each day and takes you through the whole Bible in a year. It gives you a few catch-up days each month. It's biggest pro could also be a con. Reading from four different places each day keeps things varied and allows for interesting serendipities. On the other hand, the reading can seem fragmented and it takes a while to get through the long books.

2011 - The Book-at-a-Time Bible Reading Plan (pdf). This one is also from Discipleship Journal. It allows a few catch-up days each month, but provides:
two readings for each day. The first reading alternates between Old and New Testament books, giving you three or four chapters a day. The Gospels are spread throughout the year. The second reading takes you through a chapter or so of the wisdom literature and Isaiah. Combined,these readings will take you through the entire Bible in one year.
2012 - The Daily Bible Meditation Guide (pdf). This provides much shorter selections, curated by Doug Wolter at  life2getherblog.com. The selections are short, but the idea is "not to read less, but to meditate more." 2012 was the year in recent times (after having children) that I meditated most and journaled most. The short, well-selected readings were helpful for that.

2013 - My plan is to read the New Testament four times (once every three months) in four different translations.

I'm starting with The Message, and will probably read the ESV, Phillips, and the NASB or NRSV. I have all of these translations in paper, and these and many more are available for free on biblegateway.com and youversion.com. Both of these sites have free audio Bibles if that is what you're into. Various smartphone and tablet apps are also available. Many people like the youversion Bible reading app.

Here are some recent blog posts about Bible reading that I've found helpful.

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