Reading the Bible (11)

 

This coming Sunday is January 1, the beginning of a new calendar year. I hope you’ve been considering what your Bible reading will look like during 2023. There are many Bible – reading plans available on the internet, perhaps one of them will be a good fit for you.

 

My own Bible reading has varied over the years in terms of a plan, a method; I’m not sure I had a plan in my early days, except to read and read and read some more – and keep reading and pondering…but that has been a long, long time ago. Some characteristics of my Bible reading have been:

 

I am always reading a Gospel. While I recognize that Christ reveals Himself throughout the Bible, there is a center of gravity in meeting Jesus Christ in the Gospels, walking with Him, listening to Him, seeing Him…talking to Him.

 

I want to read the Psalms every day. The Psalms are the voice of the Church and the Voice of God. I also hear my own voice in them, in their highs and lows, in their certainties and their doubts, in their hopes and fears. I have used different patterns in reading them throughout the years, but I strongly encourage folks to read at least one psalm a day and, if reading one a day, to read them in the order they are written. There are patterns in the psalms that we will miss if we read them haphazardly.

 

For the past few years I’ve been reading two psalms a day for two months and one psalm a day for the third month, this takes me through the psalms each quarter. In the third month I’ll also often read Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Lamentations, and Job – or a combination thereof. On January 1 I’ll read Psalm 1 and Psalm 31; on the 2^nd, Psalm 2 and Psalm 32, and so forth. On February 1 I’ll read Psalm 61 and Psalm 91, on February 2 it will be Psalm 62 and Psalm 92; then on March 1 it will be Psalm 121. On April 1 I will begin once again with Psalm 1 and Psalm 31. This method keeps me reading in different sections of the Psalms, I like this because each section of Psalms has its own flavor.  

 

For many years I wanted my reading to include different sections of the Bible simultaneously, this kept me fresh from Genesis to Revelation and helped me see the interconnectedness of the Scriptures. So at any given time I was reading from the Pentateuch (Genesis – Deuteronomy), the books of history (Joshua – Esther), the Major Prophets (Isaiah – Daniel), the Minor Prophets (Hosea – Malachi), the Wisdom or Poetical books (Job – Song of Solomon), the Gospels and Acts, and the Epistles and Revelation.

 

Now I realize that the above is conceptual and that many, if not most, folks would simply prefer a written Bible – reading schedule, which is fine; though I do think that the Psalms and the Gospels ought to anchor our daily reading and meditation. I also think that we ought, at the very least, to read the entire New Testament each year.

 

I want to say something that is subject to misinterpretation, but I want to say it to try to convey how wonderful the Bible is, for in it we meet Jesus Christ and commune with Him. I can’t imagine only reading the New Testament once a year, that is, I can’t imagine only reading Timothy or Titus or Hebrews or Ephesians once a year…because that would be like only going into my home once a year. It would be like only eating ice cream or pizza once a year. The Scriptures are the food of my soul, the atmosphere of my spirit, the joy of my heart, the nurture of my mind. They are where I live in Christ. They are where we, who know Jesus Christ, are called to live with Him and with one another.

 

Yes, yes, yes; God speaks to us in many ways, through Creation, through circumstances (that are often not what they appear to be!), through others (all the time!) – but the Scriptures are the nexus which binds everything together in Christ Jesus and which brings everything into focus…they are also our infallible filter.

 

Most of what we encounter in terms of words is noise, and it is stupid noise at that. This includes religious noise…noise, noise, noise, cacophonic noise. Political noise, civic noise, religious noise, academic noise – words that mean nothing, concepts that are like soap bubbles, bursting after a few moments. We have become stupid from the top to the bottom of society – rejoicing in the ephemeral, chasing after momentary cloud formations…and like two-year-olds we are so very impressed with ourselves.

 

The Scriptures deliver us and protect us from noise, from the ephemeral, from the stupid – including from popular Christian thinking and living which is killing us. Aslan told the taking animals of Narnia that if they learned the way of the speechless animals that they would lose the gift of speech, and that is what is happening with us – words no longer mean anything, sustained thought is seldom possible, we call good evil and evil good. In rejecting the image of God we are now worse than the animals around us…animals which have not denied their nature as we are doing.

 

If we don’t want to live in the Scriptures for our own benefit, we might consider doing so for those we love. Let’s consider Paul’s words to Timothy:

 

“Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things, for as you do this you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you.” 1 Timothy 4:16.

 

How are you planning to read the Bible in 2023?