Your-Plan, Your-Pace Bible Reading Record

Your-Plan, Your-Pace Bible Reading Record

Of making many Bible reading plans there is no end.  And I say, the more the merrier.  Exalted right up there beside God’s name is his word (Psalm 138:2).  So without further ado, let me tell you a little bit about the Your-Plan, Your-Pace Bible Reading Record.  Much is familiar about this plan in comparison with other plans, such as microscopic font and scores of tiny boxes to check.  Three things, however, make this plan somewhat unique in Bible reading plandom.

First, it’s not so much a plan (singular) as it is a choice of plans (plural).  You can choose to read straight through the Bible; or read from the Law on Mondays, the Prophets on Tuesdays, the Writings on Wednesdays, the Gospels on Thursdays, Acts/Letters on Fridays; or skip around from book to book; etc.  The point is that with this plan the reader has flexibility to customize his or her reading agenda according to good sense and the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Second, by disconnecting the plan from the calendar, the reader can go at his or her own pace.  Read through the Bible in a year, twice in a year, once in two years, or whatever.  The goal isn’t to careen through the Scriptures checking boxes as fast as possible.  The goal is to commune with the triune God, and to become like him through faith and obedience.  If moving slowly through the Bible awakens your mind and heart for God, by all means slow down your pace.  And don’t feel guilty about it!  If, on the other hand, you begin to see the glory of God only after burying yourself under piles and piles of paragraphs, then adopt a pace that will move you quickly through the Bible.  George Muller commended reading large volumes of Scripture; Spurgeon, short passages with lots of meditation.  Either way, choose the pace at which you most frequently find yourself enjoying the living God.

Third, the Old Testament arrangement follows the Hebrew Bible rather than the English Bible.  Quirky though it may be, I wanted to encourage people to know the Old Testament the same way Jesus himself most likely knew it.  Furthermore, there seems to be an intentional narrative design behind the Hebrew arrangement of books.  If that’s so, there are fresh insights awaiting us as we read the Old Testament in the Hebrew order rather than the English order.

As you peruse reading plans for 2012, check this one out.  And whether you use this particular plan or not, don’t forget what they say about failing to plan.

Your-Plan, Your-Pace Bible Reading Record

When Your World Falls Apart, You Don’t Have To

Mark Richt is the head coach of the Georgia Bulldogs.  The reason this Tennessee boy loves him isn’t hard to figure out.  In yesterday’s press conference, Richt answered a  question about how he handled the now-waning criticism he has received over the last couple of seasons:

I know you never know what tomorrow is going to bring, so it’s not like we’ve arrived or anything like that.  But we have played well lately, and we’ve won lately, so that’s a big deal.  Quite frankly, I love the game of football.  I love my job.  I love Georgia.  But what I do is not who I am.  I’ve said that before.  I think sometimes if we become what we do, and then things aren’t going just right, then all of a sudden our entire world falls apart.  I’ve got a faith in my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and I know that God loves me and is going to take care of me.  I just truly believe that.  When all the games are done and all the life is lived, I know where I’ll be for eternity.  Not to say I don’t care about what happens in this world, because that’s not true.  Colossians 3:23 says, “Whatever you do, do your work heartily as unto the Lord,” so that’s what I was doing on a daily basis.  I was doing my job as best I could and trying to do it for his glory, and try not to worry about anything else.  That’s kind of how I navigated that time, and there will be more tough times I’m sure.  That’s the way life is.

Is Richt saying that nothing is more important than trusting Jesus for eternal life?  That our justification isn’t found in being successful?  That we should work hard as unto the Lord and leave the results to him?  That’s exactly what he’s saying.  And it’s enough to make me say, “Go, Dawgs!”

Married to God

Come, I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who is seated on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality, and with the wine of whose sexual immorality the dwellers on earth have become drunk.  (Revelation 17:1b-2)

You adulterous people!  Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?  (James 4:4)

The Greek words behind “adultery” and “sexual immorality” are different, the former being specific to marital infidelity and the latter a broader term for all forms of sexual transgression.  It is no surprise, then, that the worldliness of believers and unbelievers is distinguished.  When believers give themselves to the world, they aren’t just screwing around like unmarried people, as destructive as that is.  They’re betraying their Husband.

 

The Devil’s Millennium

G. A. Krodel, commenting on Revelation 20:1-7, made an observation from verse 2 that a person of any millennial position can appreciate.  He said that before it is anything else, the millennium is the devil’s millennium,

between his temporary residence beneath the deep blue sea . . . and his permanent abode in the frying pan.

(Quoted in Mounce, Revelation, NICNT, 362, n. 9)

A New Room in My House

To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is good for them to remain single as I am.

Those who marry will have worldly troubles, and I would spare you that.

The unmarried…is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord.

I say this for your own benefit, not to lay any restraint upon you, but to promote good order and to secure your undivided devotion to the Lord.

So then he who marries…does well, and he who refrains from marriage will do even better.

(1 Corinthians 7:8, 28, 32, 35, 38)

With all the needed emphasis on marriage in our day, we may be in danger of overlooking another good gift from God: intentional singleness for the sake of Christ.  I’ve nodded at this gift in the past and quickly moved on; my sense is that most of us have done the same.  But surely this option should be held out to the unmarried in our churches.  It should be spoken of in our pulpits and classrooms and around our kitchen tables.  It should be commended as a God-glorifying possibility to be weighed carefully by anyone who is unmarried.

In pondering intentional singleness in 1 Corinthians 7, it feels like God has broken open the side of my doctrinal house and added a new room.  More square footage, more windows, more space to move, more sunlight to give warmth — I’m certain the Lord actually means for some people to enter and enjoy.