“…it is a sin and a shame not to know our own book or to understand the speech and words of our God…” (Martin Luther, from “To the Councilmen of All Cities in Germany That They Establish and Maintain Christian Schools”)

by Stephen Rodgers

As we begin a new year, many of us will once again embark upon that familiar adventure: the Bible reading plan. It’s something of a sad cliche in Christian circles that going solely by the state of our reading faithfulness (or lack thereof), by the time we die, we’ll have read Genesis to Exodus 20-ish about 50 times…and not much else.

I once had the opportunity to ask a bodybuilder who had trained for decades what the “best” workout was…and with a smile, he told me that “it’s the one that you actually do.”  In some ways, that’s a lot like reading the Bible.  Ultimately what matters is not the sophistication or particular structure of our Bible-reading plan, it’s that we actually are taking the time to daily immerse ourselves in the very word of God.

To make our shame even greater, we live in a time with unprecedented access to the Scriptures.  Consider this:

• Unlike the Christians of apostolic and early patristic eras, we have the complete canon of Scripture, and not just whatever collection of NT books we were fortunate enough to gather.
• Unlike the Christians of the medieval era, we don’t have to study foreign or dead languages just to be able to read the Bible. (To say nothing of the fact that we aren’t actively persecuted for daring to own a Bible in our native language either).
• Unlike the Christians of the reformation period (and even the recent past), we don’t even have to rely solely on the Bible in bound and printed form.

The word of God has never been more available, which only compounds our guilt if we fail to take advantage of the riches that we’ve been given. Here at the Beacon, we’ve actually made a point of collecting a lot of material on the subject of Bible-reading plans. But if the prospect of digging through all that material to find one that’s the “best” for you gives you a headache…let me help you narrow it down and make it simple.  Just head on over to the ESV Reading Plans page and pick one.  They’ve got 10 to choose from, and they’ll even let you choose the format for delivery: RSS, iCal (format for calendars), a website, a printed index, or emailing it directly to you. Surely there’s some format there that can accommodate your schedule?

Like I said before…of all Christians throughout history, we are most without excuse.