Read the Bible in a Year

Mark's Bible Reading Plan

• I like to read from different parts of the Bible at the same time.

  That way, if one section is boring or difficult, I don't get stuck there entirely. This plan is a variation on the strategy of every day reading one chapter from the New Testament, one chapter from the Old Testament, and one chapter from the Psalms or Proverbs.

• Every day, read one chapter from the New Testament.

  I personally believe it is important to read much from the New Testament. If you don't read from the New Testament often, by default you'll be reading much from the Old Testament without having the New Testament perspective for balance. The whole Bible points us toward Christ, but the New Testament does this most clearly.

• Every day, read one chapter from the Psalms or other Old Testament wisdom literature.

  I was tempted to move some other Old Testament books to this track, in order to balance the three Old Testament tracks more evenly, but there are no other Old Testament books that I personally consider to be as important as Psalms or Proverbs.

• The remainder of the Old Testament (other than wisdom literature) has 682 chapters, so split it into roughly equal halves.

  I put all of the prophetic books into one track, then I added enough of some non-prophetic books to make that track have about half the total chapters. (Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther)

• The New Testament has gospels, history, epistles, and prophecy, so switch around between these sections.

  Read one gospel, then about the same number of chapters from the epistles, then another gospel, then more epistles, etc. I split the New Tesament into two parts (Matthew through Acts, Romans through Revelation) and I switch back and forth between the two parts.

• It's not necessary to follow the plan strictly.

  For example, I find Genesis to be a fascinating book so I'm already way ahead there. Samuel and Kings are also interesting and easy to read. It will be easy to finish Track 1 way ahead of schedule. If you finish Track 1 early you can double up on Track 2 later and finish everything more quickly. On the other hand, if you find Leviticus to be slow going, take it easy and make up some time on an easier book later. But don't feel that you must hold back if you'd like to read more, and don't feel that you must read if you find a particular book very difficult. Skip it and come back to it later.

Plan Summary - Four Tracks

Last updated Monday 3 August 2009