Tomorrow's the Big Day!

Tomorrow marks the first day of this reading plan.  Here comes two-years of commitment!  The reading begins at the very beginning (a very good place to start): Genesis 1:1-2:3.  I hope to see you there.

Never so familiar

This past weekend Beth Moore conducted a simulcast via satellite across the country.  Her topic was insecurity and why a believing woman should not be insecure.  But during the course of this talk, she made this challenging statement: Never be so familiar with the Bible that you don't learn something new each time.  She wasn't in any way discouraging people from reading their Bibles or being in the Word every day.  I think that suggestion would horrorify her.  That's not what she's about.  Instead, I think she was trying to encourage us to never believe that we know so much that we no long allow ourselves to learn something new.  The Scripture is living and active: it is dynamic, it changes.  We are the ones who become stagnant.

This is something of a challenge for me.  I am a Bible school graduate: half of my degree was Bible courses!  It is so easy for me to feel that I already know things (definitely not everything).  It would be so easy for me to become stagnant in my thinking and not continually learn from the Bible.  But that is my goal for these next two years: to always be learning, even to often be surprised by the Scriptures.  That is what I want more than anything else.  I don't want to think that I already know it so well that I can't learn.  It is always my desire to learn.  That is why my favorite Bible study is on Tuesday nights: we really dig deep there!

I hope that if you read along with me, that you'll be open to learning things, as well.  That something will strike you anew every day.  That is my prayer for us both.

A note on interpretation

When it comes to discerning what the Scriptures mean, I'm of the literal interpretation (the technical term is hermeneutic) camp.  I fully believe the motto I heard many of my profs say in Bible college: "If the first sense makes sense, then seek no other sense!"  In other words, I don't think Scripture is allegorical where you have to divine what it is trying to communicate.  It isn't only truth if you experience it in a metaphysical way. I believe God gave the Bible in order to communicate with us, to make clear His Holy standard as well as His plan for bringing us back to Him.  That would be pretty hard to understand if He wasn't forthright about it.  Now, I do believe Scriptures use allegory, metaphors, hyperbole, and other figures of speech, just as we do every day.  But, I think these are also pretty obvious when they're used.  So, when we get to Genesis, yes, I do believe God created the earth is seven days.  Yes, David did kill a giant.  Yes, there will be a millennium at the end of time where Jesus reigns on earth.  You can agree to disagree with me if you must, but that is the approach this blog will be using.  Just FYI.

4 days and counting!

I've tried to post something everyday since opening the blog in order to get me in the practice of being on here every day.  But I admit, I'm running out of intro material and I still have four posts left (including today) before I am due to start on the project.  I supposed I could have started earlier, but starting at the beginning of a month seemed... well, more rounded.  We shall see what I can come up with tomorrow.

Format for Posts

The format for posts will become pretty evident once the reading starts, but let me give just a brief explanation here.  For each post, the title will be that of the passage read for the day, and then the body will cover any thoughts or questions.  At the end of the post, then, I will include the passage for the next day for anyone who might like to read along.  One thing in particular I did want to bring your attention to is the labels.  I'm not very good at consistently labeling my posts at my regular blog, but here I hope they will serve a definite purpose.  I intend to label each post with the books discussed in the post.  I've looked through the reading plan and so far have only found one day that has readings in more than one book: 2-3 John.  However, it's very likely that I will perhaps talk about 2 Chronicles when discussing Jonah or Amos.  Then, if you're reading along (or I'm reviewing) and remember something from another post, it will, hopefully, be easier to find it.  I had considered divvying it up more than just the book, but if I were to whittle it down to chapters, well... There'd be a lot of labels.  So, books will have to suffice.

A note on Hebrews

If you compare my reading plan to the one I've patterned it after at Back to the Bible you'll notice a significant difference: I've moved Hebrews.  The reason for this is pretty simple; I don't agree that is the correct placement for the book.  The plan at Back to the Bible places Hebrews before 2 Timothy.  2 Timothy is agreed by all to be Paul's last letter, frankly his farewell before his execution.  Placing Hebrews before 2 Timothy suggests that it was written before the second Timothy letter.  That's possible: we don't really know when it was written, only that it was in all likelihood written before the fall of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 AD.  2 Timothy was written shortly before Paul's death in 67 AD.  However, I think the placement also suggests that Paul wrote Hebrews.  I don't really agree with that.

The truth is, we don't really know who wrote Hebrews.  There's no definitive authorship.  There are several suggestions out there.  My former youth minister always liked the idea that Priscilla wrote it.  The two most popular possibilities are actually Paul and Barnabas.  I don't think Paul wrote it.  It's not his style.  Though it is similar to Paul, there are some subtle but significant differences to how he builds his argument, responds to possible objects, etc.  This is my opinion, I know there are those that disagree with me.  But in my reading in the background of Hebrews, the authorship argument, and looking at the styles of the Books, I just don't think Paul wrote it.  Plus, there is a reference to Timothy being released from prison.  As far as we know, Timothy was not imprisoned during Paul's lifetime.  Silas was imprisoned with Paul, but Timothy was elsewhere.  Paul wrote to Timothy from prison, but never suggested Timothy had experienced Paul's chains and in fact exhorts and encourages Timothy to look after the flock in Paul's absence.  To me, this suggests that Timothy was likely imprisoned around Paul's death, therefore dating Hebrews between 67-70AD and therefore chronologically placing Hebrews after 2 Timothy.  This, of course, is my opinion.  I am not really a trained Bible scholar, though I have had Bible training in undergraduate college and have done some reading.  For these reasons, I moved Hebrews.  That's all.

Statistics

Time to completion: 2 years
Days a week: 7
Start Date: May 1, 2010
Projected End Date: April 30, 2012


104 weeks, 3 days
731 Sessions
731 blog postings (hopefully!)
Avg. 42 verses per session
Sessions end at pericope (section) boundaries [vs. chapter boundaries]

The Jeremiah Quandary

The book of Jeremiah is presenting me with a bit of a quandary.  According to the reading plan, you read Jeremiah in large chunks, namely the first forty chapters one right after another.  However, Jeremiah isn't constructed chronologically.  The prophecies are not laid out in the order they were given (much like Ezekiel) and instead lumps prophecies from different eras altogether in a jumble.  There may not even be a logical arrangement for the book at all.  There could be a couple of reasons for this.  One, God gave Jeremiah commands from time to time to write down all the prophecies that he'd been given.  This command wasn't given right away; so his compilation may have started very late and he put things together as the Lord revealed them to him after they'd been given.  Another thing, Jeremiah did this twice.  It records in Chapter 36 that Baruch, Jeremiah's scribe, read the "words of the scroll", or the prophecies that had been written down, in the Temple (house of the Lord).  Now, one Micaiah was listening, went to all the officials and told them what Baruch had read.  These officials, in fear, then reported these things to the king.  An official was sent to take the scroll from Baruch, brought it before the king and read it.  As King Jehoiakim heard a few columns of the Scriptures Jeremiah had written down, he would slice it off with a knife and throw it into the fire next to him!  Imagine, he was destroying Scripture.  Not the first or last time this might happen, granted.  However, God had the last say: He commanded Jeremiah to again write down the words of the scroll, which he did, and included in them was a prophecy against Jehoiakim and his descendants and servants: not only would they all go down into ruin, and bring Jerusalem into ruin as well, but Jehoiakim's own body would be unburied, left to the exposure of the elements (Jeremiah 36:9-32).  The point of this [long] little tale is that Jeremiah had to compile his prophecies more than once and it may be a factor in the structure of the book.

The quandary for me is how true do I want to stay to the chronological timeline for a reading plan?  To be strict about it, I should slice and dice Jeremiah and sprinkle the readings more fully among the readings from 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles.  But to do that, I'd have to slice and dice those readings even more.  Plus, the kings Jeremiah prophesied under get no more than a few paragraphs, if that, in the historical books.  So, do I go to even more work to reorder the readings on my own based off my few resources on the time of Jeremiah's prophecies, or do I just go through with the reading plan and "keep it all in mind"?  Granted, I have about 15 months until I will actually make it to that portion of the Bible.  Still, input would in fact be appreciated.

Anyone have a better suggestion for a name for this animal?

I just slapped one on so I could create this blog.  I wanted to get started, but it needs something better than that!

A word on the translation

I will be using the English Standard Version (ESV) for my readings.  It is the translation I use for everything and it is my favorite.  Bar none.  Hands down.  Absolute favorite.  Why am I so partial?  I could go on forever, and actually have on my personal blog, but to keep it short I like it for the following reasons:

1. It is a word-for-word translation, versus thought-for-thought.  Thought-for-thought requires some interpretation on the part of the translator as they are trying to convey the main message or principle, rather than the actual terms used.  Greek does not translate literally into English, so this is necessary in any translation.  But word-for-word translations try to keep that to a minimum, and where possible, try to keep it as close to the original Greek as possible.  So you will in fact find words like propitiation as they are in fact there in the Greek, even if we don't use those words these days.
2. It reads wonderfully.  Yes, the italics are necessary.  The language of this translation is beautiful.  It is lyrical in many passages.  If you're the type to read something well-worded and practically swoon over the craftsmanship, this translation is for you, too.

Now, from time to time I might use/look up another translation to see how it's said somewhere else.  And I might refer to the Greek, because, yes, I do that when I'm reading and studying on my own.  It fascinates me.  My d-group (high school small group) girls like to tease me about being a Bible nerd.  I am, and proud of it. :)  But by and large, everything will come out of the ESV.

An Introduction

Why this project:
Last week, the women's Bible study group I attend finished a twelve-week study on the Exodus and it's parallels to our daily walk in this Christian life.  At the end, our pastor's wife encouraged us to come up with a plan to stay in the Word every day, now that our weekly study (which provided us five days of study each week) was completed.  My thought at the time was that I was always studying for something; it shouldn't be too difficult for me to stay in the Word.  And then a week passed.  To my shame, I must admit I only cracked my Bible for study only once.  I realized, I needed more help.

In comes this blog.
I knew that needed I needed two things to get me on track with reading every day.  It's something I've always struggled with as I didn't form the habit early (as I'm trying to encourage the girls in my small group I teach to do!).  First, I needed a plan.  Without one, I knew just opening the Bible to read would quickly fade to nothing.  I needed to have something to read, somewhere to go, every day in order to get this done.  Hence, the reading plan.  Second, I needed some form of accountability.  I have reached out a few times to people to act as my accountability partners.  Most of them petered out in a matter of weeks for one reason or another.  The most successful partnership I've had was with a friend who now lives in Germany.  Trying to coordinate her busy schedule, my busy schedule, and adding in the time difference took it's toll on our accountability.  We still keep up (obviously! We're very good friends!), but steady accountability isn't very viable anymore.

Why this plan:
I've always wanted to read through the Bible in chronological order.  I like history.  No, scratch that.  I love history.  So to go through the Bible as events and writings take place interests me.  I also like to see how the passages correlate along the timeline.  It makes far more sense to read Lamentations at the end of Jeremiah, in light of the end of 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles.  Also, having those under your belt, reading on to Nehemiah and Ezra are far more enlightening if you keep in mind what has come before.

However, the Bible isn't laid out in chronological order.  In fact, if it were, it would be very choppy indeed!  Many of the books, especially in the Old Testament, cover the same time periods.  Therefore, a plan is needed to map out what sections of Scripture to read when.  For instance, as you follow me, you'll see that Job is intermixed with Genesis.  This is because Job lived during the time of the patriarchs, or actually, before them.  So, chronologically speaking, Job gets first audience.

I intend to read it over the course of two years.  Why two years?  Well, I've done one-year reading plans.  It's like boot camp.  You work really, really hard and by the end you're exhausted and you don't always remember what you've read.  I'd like time to digest and learn and enjoy, which means smaller chunks.  I also need to make sure I leave time to be able to stay up with study groups I'm in and those I'm teaching.  And as I'm a mommy to an infant, my time is limited.  I've also done three-year reading plans.  These take so long, you never feel like you see the light at the end of the tunnel.  And it's so long between 2 Chronicles and the Prophets, you begin to lose context.  Forget about tying New and Old Testaments.  So, two years seems a good, middle-of-the-road number.  I've adjusted the plan to fit a two-year scheme and rearranged some of the readings.  A further note on that later.  The reading plan is due to start May 1st.

Why this blog:
This blog is my accountability partner.  It is my insurance plan that I'll actually do the reading, and stay on top of it.  It is my hope that if I know I have to log on here every day and tell about what I read, that I'll actually dig in and try to say something worthwhile.  I make no guarantees!  As Mr. Koehn back at Grace University used to say in class, "I was born too late to be original!"  And the statement is certainly true to me!  But, I do hope it will be interesting.  Or at least incentive to anyone who reads to dive in and read the Bible as well.

This blog is under construction!

More soon to come... including, very likely, a name change.