getting in the Word.

I started a new Bible reading plan 5 days ago that has been a huge answer to prayer. It has me immersed in the Word and has been more enjoyable than any plan I've ever tried. Crazy because you also read more in 1 day than I've ever read before. Ten chapters! Yes, folks, ten chapters a day!! Sounds like alot right? I can honestly say it has not felt like hard labor (like I have to admit reading the bible often feels). It's truly been something I look forward to each day. I still can't believe I've read 50 chapters in the Word in the last 5 days. Nuts.

So here's how it works (I believe it's called Professor Horner's Plan if you want to google it). The Bible is divided into ten reading lists, and you simply read one chapter per day from each list then repeat the list once you make it through each book. Here's the breakdown:


THE TEN LISTS:

List 1 (89 days)
Matthew, Mark, Luke, John

List 2 (187 days)
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy

List 3 (78 days)
Romans, I&II Cor, Gal, Eph, Phil, Col, Hebrews

List 4 (65 days)
I&II Thess, I&II Tim, Titus, Philemon, James, I&II Peter, I,II&III John, Jude, Revelation

List 5 (62 days)
Job, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon

List 6 (150 days)
Psalms

List 7 (31 days)
Proverbs

List 8 (249 days)
Joshua, Judges, Ruth, I&II Samuel, I&II Kings, I&II Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther

List 9 (250 days)
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah,
Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi

List 10 (28 days)
Acts

You'll want a bookmark for each list so you know where you're at. So I made an index card for each list like this:

So I just flip to each bookmark, 1-10, and read the next chapter from where I left off.

The goal of this plan is not so much meditation on small passages. It is a faster pace so that you can cover some of the books several times in one year, understand the whole story of the bible better, and just know the bible better as a whole. I am loving how currently as I read in Matthew, seeing Jesus lay out the Law and preach the we must obey it perfectly! Perfectly!! He says you cannot even relax the least of one commandment from the Law, and, simultaneously, I'm reminded in Romans that Christ IS the one who obeyed it for us! He came to show us the law and that we could never obey it as required. Our faith in Him is our righteousness, as if we obeyed it perfectly. Romans 4 says, "to the one who DOES NOT WORK BUT BELIEVES IN HIM who justifies...his faith is counted to him as righteousness." Anyway, just seeing these truths come together in different passages has been powerful.

For me, this plan has been an answer to prayer. Being in the Word this week has brought so much life to me this week as it has been a difficult one. Grateful for the Word and for God helping me to it.

Laden with guilt and full of fear
I fly to Thee, my Lord
Yet not a trace of hope appears
But in Thy written Word
The volumes of my Father's grace
Does all my fears assuage
There I behold my Savior's face
In every page

-Isaac Watts