“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Matthew 4:4 ESV
I read the Bible every day. It is through the Scriptures that I know God, Christ, myself, and how to live in regards to God and my neighbor. I cannot think of any greater thing, except that in eternity I will know all of these much better than I do in this life.
Many make a New Year’s resolution to read the Bible more consistently than they have in the past, and many don’t stick to that resolution. Here is what works for me. Rather than using a reading schedule, with a listing of what chapters to read each day, I use a Bible reading checklist:
The GeoChristian Bible Reading Checklist – PDF file
It has all sixty-six books of the Bible with their chapters. I mark off each chapter as I read.
This system gives me greater flexibility than a schedule does, yet still helps me to reach my reading goals. This year I plan on reading the New Testament (probably twice), the wisdom and poetical books (Job through Song of Solomon) and the prophets (Isaiah through Malachi). Two advantages of this system over using a schedule is that I can vary my pace, and don’t get frustrated if I get behind in a reading schedule.
I also intend to do some more intensive study and meditation in a few New Testament books.
The checklist has two pages; I like to print it on two sides on heavy paper, fold it, and stick it in my Bible. The document is in “Landscape” orientation, but may print in “Portrait” orientation for you. You can change that in the “print setup.” Sorry, I’m not sure how to fix it on my end using Excel 2007.
Feel free to download and print this for yourself and pass it on to others:
The GeoChristian Bible Reading Checklist – PDF file
As important as Bible reading is to me, I realize that it is much more important that the Word be in me than that I be in the Word. One can read the Bible every day and learn lots of facts and end up being a self-righteous hypocrite. So my prayer is that I, and you, would be transformed by prayerful, humble, meditative reading of the Scriptures. May you know Christ and his salvation better through the intake of his Word.
Grace and Peace
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P.S. Here are some good Bible reading schedules if you prefer that over using a checklist:
- The Discipleship Journal Bible reading plan
- Ten reading plans from esv.org
- The Gospel Coalition Two Year Bible Reading Plan
- If you are really hungry for the Word, you can try Glenn Brooke’s Read the Bible in 30 Days.
GeoChristian 
Kevin, thanks for your support in the debate over at geneveith.com . Some days one wonders why a person even tries. I wonder at your ability to maintain an irenic tone – I have to much fire in me for that (maybe it’s the French ancestory :) ). But it is amazing how so many of these debates devolve to two tactics – denialism, or postmodernism. And quite ironic, since those are two of the more common charges they throw against us!
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You wonder why I am staying out for the most part? I enjoy discussing science, arguing over things which have at least a vague hope of being resolved somehow. When the discussion gets to the point of the accusing various underlying worldviews it is impossible to make any progress – a worldview is something too vast and amorphous to change.
Something like a major life-changing event might shift a person’s worldview, but tiny things like facts – not so much. I am almost certainly the same, though I try to constantly remind myself to purposefully study things with which I disagree, and over time I have seen my worldview shift in some areas.
I started out as a YEC by default. In college a teacher (whom I assume is YEC) inadvertently opened my eyes to the idea that there are parts of the Bible that aren’t in the Psalms and yet aren’t “literal” either. It took a while for me to change, and there was a very bizarre couple years in my life where I was quite certain that the Bible didn’t teach a YEC position, but yet I held to the YEC view because all the science I had ever been taught had been from a YEC position and I thought that science was unquestionably showing a YEC.
It took watching a debate in which Dr. Dwayne Gish completely embarrassed himself – total and complete non-engagement with anything his debating opponent said while spouting out arguments which even AiG had long since abandoned. (moon dust) It still took a while for me to complete my shift, but that was the beginning.
Worldviews take forever to change and never from directly challenging the worldview (IMO). That’s why I stay out of most of the discussions on there after they reach a certain point. After a while they have long since passed beyond any relationship to something which can be concretely grasped, and it is left wrestling with fog using smoke for hands.
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