Read 20 Chapters of the Bible Per Day

I've shared here before that I often find it difficult to discover real joy and freedom in my personal devotions. At times things go very well, but then inevitably it seems that difficulties pitter-patter in and I observe that I come to dread my fourth dimension spent reading and praying. What is at some times delight is at other times the most hard of duties.

Over the years I have often tried programs, structures to keep me in some kind of reading plan. I've tried the plans that take me through the Bible in a year (or ii years or…) and always I've found them difficult. If I brand information technology through the Pentateuch I autumn apart in the prophets. I've never successfully completed i.

A while back I stumbled upon Professor Horner's Bible-Reading Organisation. Though something ever disturbs me almost getting involved in a Bible-reading system (Would I desire to practise a date night organisation? A play-with-your-kids arrangement?) I decided to give it a go. Information technology's unique among the systems I've attempted in that it requires more reading and all the same somehow makes all that reading seem so much easier, enjoyable and attainable.

The organization is quite unproblematic–every twenty-four hour period you read ten chapters of the Bible. That seems similar a lot, and then stick with me as I explain it. Each of the ten chapters will be from dissimilar books, which is to say that at whatsoever given time you'll exist reading x books of the Bible concurrently, one chapter per day. So on mean solar day one of the organisation you will reading the first affiliate of Matthew, Genesis, Romans, i Thessalonians, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Joshua, Isaiah and Acts. You volition read each of these books, one affiliate per day, and then proceed to other books before repeating it all again. This means that every yr you'll read through all the Gospels four times, the Pentateuch twice, Paul'south letters 4-5 times each, the Old Testament wisdom literature six times, all the Psalms at to the lowest degree twice, all the Proverbs also as Acts a dozen times, and all the way through the Old Attestation History and Prophetic books near 1 ane⁄ii times.

From the exterior it looks like this will exist a massive amount of work, a huge commitment of fourth dimension. But I take found that it is not. The beauty of the system is that y'all will be reading every 24-hour interval at a pretty good clip. The purpose is not to spend a neat bargain of time in pondering each word, but in reading the Bible so much and so often that Scripture begins to explain Scripture. I take found that it takes me between 30 and 40 minutes per twenty-four hour period, either in one chunk in the morning or in ii chunks, 1 in the forenoon and one in the evening.

Here is how Professor Horner explains the system :

Each day you will read one chapter from each of ten lists. That'southward right — ten chapters per day!!! Use ten bookmarks or gummy notes with the individual lists on them to keep track of your locations. Or use the set of bookmarks provided on the concluding folio of this document.

On twenty-four hours one, you read Matthew 1, Genesis 1, Romans one, and then forth. On day ii, read Matthew two, Genesis 2, etc. On twenty-four hour period 29, you will have simply finished Matthew, and then go to Mark 1 on the Gospel list; you'll also exist almost to the stop of second Corinthians and Proverbs, you'll be reading Psalm 29 and Genesis 29, and and then along. When yous accomplish the last chapter of the terminal book in a list – start over again. Rotate all the way through all the Scriptures constantly.

Since the lists vary in length, the readings begin interweaving in constantly changing ways. You will NEVER read the same gear up of ten chapters together once more! Every twelvemonth y'all'll read through all the Gospels 4 times, the Pentateuch twice, Paul'southward messages four-5 times each, the OT wisdom literature half dozen times, all the Psalms at to the lowest degree twice, all the Proverbs as well as Acts a dozen times, and all the style through the OT History and Prophetic books well-nigh 1 1⁄two times. Since the interweaving is constantly changing, you volition experience the Bible commenting on itself in constantly changing ways — the Reformer's principle of 'scriptura interpretans scripturam' — 'scripture interpreting scripture' IN ACTION!

After you lot've read any detail book once or twice, your speed in that book usually doubles or triples because yous're familiar with it and can motility quickly and confidently — because you are no longer just decoding the text but thinking information technology through in the context of all of the scripture!

Fifty-fifty an 'boilerplate' reader, if focusing on moving through the text, rather than trying to figure everything out, can commonly do this in nearly an hour a day – 5-6 minutes per chapter. Many people report moving confidently through the 10 chapters in 35-forty minutes. If information technology is taking you longer, and so you are 'reading wrong' – stay relaxed, focus, and but keep it moving. Moderate merely consistent speed is the key. This is "gross anatomy" — looking at the whole trunk; y'all're not closely studying organs or systems or tissues or cells — it is non microbiology. BUT — microbiology and the study or organs makes more sense when you know what the whole structure of the human being body is similar, and how all the parts, large and small, relate in perfect interdependence.

Afterwards just a few days the reading gets much easier; in a calendar month it will exist a habit, and in six months you'll wonder how you ever survived before on such a slim nutrition of the Word. And then — you'll tell others to start the system!

I began in 1983 every bit a new Christian and have now read (most of ) the Bible hundreds and hundreds of times. You also need to get ONE Bible, keep information technology, and exercise all your reading in it, then y'all learn where everything is. I've had the same Bible since 1983 and I know information technology intimately. If you keep switching Bibles, you 'lose' this intimacy with the text. Notice a translation and format you like and stick with it. THIS IS CRUCIAL.

Your Bible is the only matter on Globe that, every bit you wear it out, will actually work amend and better.

One manner I take adapted the system just a footling bit is by keeping a journal with me and jotting down a judgement or two most each of the chapters I read. I tend to find something in the text that I desire to record as a prayer for myself or for someone else. This then naturally bridges all of this Bible-reading into prayer. I as well keep a few little cards in my journal and every day try to jot down a Proverb that I desire to reflect on throughout the twenty-four hour period. I just go along the card with me and read it all twenty-four hour period long.

As fourth dimension goes on, I may do things like remove the daily Acts reading and focus instead on repeated readings of Romans or another book that I really desire to understand better. The arrangement offers flexibility for this kind of thing. I often cut back to 5 chapters on Sabbatum and Sun. If I desire I tin can bump up to twenty capacity a mean solar day.

Among the surreptitious to success are:

• Stay somewhere betwixt speed reading and deep meditation. Get through the text without dawdling, looking up cross-references then on. Get to know the Bible and these things volition explain themselves.
• Stick with i Bible, not merely one translation, simply ane actual Bible. I would effort to ensure it's a printed Bible, not an electronic i.
• Read in the gild he suggests, which means you'll be moving from Quondam Attestation to New and dorsum again several times every day.
• Don't be legalistic. If you miss a day, option upwardly and keep going. Don't quit.

Let me shut with just a few of the benefits I've plant in this system.

• Information technology does not leave me spending days or weeks in the books I struggle with the about. I will be reading one chapter of the prophets each solar day for as long as I do this plan, merely I won't have to spend twenty-four hours after day in them. This is often where I lose centre in other Bible-reading plans.
• It keeps up the step. I like that the plan emphasizes moderate speed over deep meditation. Of grade, I have to exist willing to trust that in fourth dimension the repeated readings will give the aforementioned do good (or greater do good) than slower, more thoughtful reading. I believe that reading in this way will assist me come to a meliorate understanding of the Bible's big picture.
• It is a system. There are times that I struggle with systems and the very idea of systems, but in this example, I know that I need assist. This program gives me the structure I need if I am to read the Bible consistently and to read it well. Best of all, I find that I look forward to reading the Bible most days. Somehow this system has increased my delight in the Discussion.

All of this is to say, I commend this plan to you. Yous can begin whatever time–in that location is no reason to look for a new calendar yr. Just download the document prepared past Professor Horner, take hold of a journal (if you want to practise it that way) and get reading.

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Source: https://www.challies.com/christian-living/ten-chapters-per-day/

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