I hope you all had a “Blessed Incarnation of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Emmanuel, Day” (think about it – “Christmas”) and a triumphant entry to the New Year.
If you don’t have a Bible Reading Plan I encourage you to begin one. It is a great way to begin the New Year, with a plan to read God’s Word completely through, during the year. It is important to read the Bible, completely and in context (as opposed to haphazardly, here a little, there a little). There are many plans you can follow. A very easy one is to read about 3 chapters a day (5 on the Lord’s Day/Sabbath).
One we are enjoying following is a bit different. It prescribes reading from both the Old and New Testaments everyday, and takes you through the whole Bible completely once, and the New Testament and Psalms twice in the year. The layout of it divides the readings into Family and Individual readings, so half the chapters will be read by yourself, and the other half as part of your daily Family Altar time (I hope you are doing this too.)
One great thing about this schedule is that the whole family (and perhaps your whole church, if they do such) is reading the same chapters each day and you can all discuss them at any time. It is a great way to bring spiritual unity in growth, in the family and the church.
This schedule was arranged by Robert Murray M‘Cheyne, who lived in the early 1800’s. It is/was recommended by Ravi Zacharias, Charles Spurgeon and John Stott, among many others.
Here’s a link to a site where you can download/print the schedule. (There are many others, but I like the format of this one – legal size, folds to brochure to fit in Bible, large enough to read easily.) Look under Daily Bible Reading and click on pdf file:
www.mountzion.org/see.html
(Put M’Cheyne Bible into a google search and you will come up with many others, some interactive online versions.)
And here’s a link to a website where you can download free Bible Reader software for reading the Bible on your Palm (or other) handheld, and M’Cheyne reading schedule that you can check off the chapters as you read them. Click on your type of handheld on the left to get the download page for Bible Reader.
www.olivetree.com/download/
Then click on this page to choose a bible version to download. Several are free. KJV is $5.00.
www.olivetree.com/store/catalog/Products-p-1-c-259.html
Then click on this page, on Robert Murray M’Cheyne’s Schedule to download his reading schedule:
www.olivetree.com/handheld/BibleReadMe/
You can also download many other books (many for free) to read on your Palm with Bible Reader. But that’s another topic for another day.
For today, start a systematic reading of the Bible itself – for a Blessed New Year!
