A few years ago, I did some calculations (which is always a scary thought), and discovered that if someone gets 100% of their spiritual nourishment from the preacher on Sunday morning (assuming that the preacher goes through ~1/4 of a chapter of the Bible each week), it would take 4756 weeks to read the Bible (1189 chapters in the Bible x4 weeks to finish a chapter). This amounts to 91.5 years to get from cover to cover (also good to note, getting through 1 chapter a month as opposed to every 4 weeks would take 99 years to complete the Bible). Sadly, too many people do get all of their spiritual nourishment this way.
Now to do a little bit of a breakdown:
If you were to read 1 chapter of the Bible a day, you would read the whole Bible in 3.25 years.
If you were to read 3.25 chapters a day, you would read it in 1 year.
If you were to read 4.6 chapters a day, you would read it in 260 days (1 year, no weekends).
If you were to read 9.9 chapters a day, you would read it 120 days (1/3 of a year).
If you were to read 29.7 chapters a day, you would read it in 40 days.
If you have made it this far, you know where I am going with this now.
40 days is a very common unit of time in the Bible. When Noah was in the Ark, it rained for 40 days. When Elijah was running away from Jezebel, he ran for 40 days. When Jesus fasted in the wilderness, He fasted for 40 days. All three of these times represent something very different, but they all led to deeper relationships with God.
As a Protestant, I was not brought up to celebrate Lent, but for the past couple years I have tried to deepen my Biblical study. I have yet to make it through the entire Bible in the allotted time (being a husband, father, employee, and student will take away a lot of your time), but I have felt a lasting effect on my personal Bible study.
I have already come up with a schedule for this year, and if it goes well, this will be something I do every year. I would love it if a group of people would be willing to do this with me, but what I really encourage everyone is simply to read more of the Bible during this time. I will also be posting schedules for reading just the Old Testament, just the New Testament, and just the Gospels, though with each one of these, I will try to save the actual crucifixion narrative for Holy Week (I will save Isaiah in the OT only) to allow for a deeper reading, but here is the gist:
- Old Testament 23.2 Chapters a day
- NT, Psalms, Proverbs 11 Chapters a day
- New Testament 6.5 Chapters a day
- Gospels 2.2 Chapters a day
I am shocked by the amount of Christians who have not read the Bible for themselves, and I hope that this opportunity will at least allow for a starting point for people who are interested in reading the Bible more. What I would like this Blog to become is a place to post our thoughts about the day's reading as well as encouragement to each other. Anyone willing to take on the challenge of reading the whole Bible will have a fierce Spiritual battle.
It is funny how we can mindlessly read Harry Potter or Twilight (heck, even Jane Austin) but pick up the Bible and it becomes the most difficult thing in the world. Some parts are difficult, yes; but some parts should be very easy to get through, but just aren't. This is because there are forces that would rather us read anything but the Bible.
Together, though, we can pray for each other and help one another do this; and through this experience, we will be led to deeper relationships with God.
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