In Light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ How Shall We Then Live?

Yesterday I started my new bible reading plan. It is the Horner plan. You read 10 chapters a day, with the readings coming form 10 different books of the bible. I have thus far enjoyed it ton! I chose to change what and how I was reading in the word because I saw my heart growing unimpressed with God in my bible reading. So I figured I should overwhelm my heart with God in his word.

In football terms, I’m loading the box. No quarterback can get a play off with ten men in the box. The pass is going nowhere. You might get the ball to the running back, but its a tackle for a loss; you aren’t getting out of the back field.

And this is what I want to do with my heart; I’m dialing up a blitz every morning.  I can’t escape God when I’m reading about him in this many places.

I walked away from my bible reading today amazed with who God was.

As a result I want to tell you more about the plan:

Horner writes of the plan,

On day one, you read Matthew 1, Genesis 1, Romans 1, and so forth. On day 2, read Matthew 2, Genesis 2, etc. On day 29, you will have just finished Matthew, so go to Mark 1 on the Gospel list; you’ll also be almost to the end of 2nd Corinthians and Proverbs, you’ll be reading Psalm 29 and Genesis 29, and so forth. When you reach the last chapter of the last 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 set of ten chapters together again! Every year you’ll read through all the Gospels four times, the Pentateuch twice, Paul’s letters 4-5 times each, the OT wisdom literature six times, all the Psalms at least twice, all the Proverbs as well as Acts a dozen times, and all the way through the OT History and Prophetic books about 1 12 times. Since the interweaving is constantly changing, you will experience the Bible commenting on itself in constantly changing ways — the Reformer’s principle of ‘scriptura interpretans scripturam’ — ‘scripture interpreting scripture’ IN ACTION!

That last line is one of the elements other than the before mentioned heart blitz. I want to have the scripture interpreting itself in my reading plan. part of why i don’t like the M’CHEYNE plan is that I read the same four chapters at the same time every year. I’m all for reading the bible in a year but after doing that plan a few times i like that this one has me in a different set of readings after the first go round.  With the lists you are finishing and starting over at different points in time. take a look:

THE TEN LISTS:
List 1 (89 days)
Matthew, Mark, Luke, John

List 2 (187 days)
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy

List 3 (78 days)
Romans, I&II Cor, Gal, Eph, Phil, Col, Hebrews

List 4 (65 days)
I&II Thess, I&II Tim, Titus, Philemon, James, I&II Peter, I,II&III John, Jude, Revelation

List 5 (62 days)
Job, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon

List 6 (150 days)
Psalms

List 7 (31 days)
Proverbs

List 8 (249 days)
Joshua, Judges, Ruth, I&II Samuel, I&II Kings, I&II Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther

List 9 (250 days)
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi

List 10 (28 days)
Acts

I know some of you worry about how fast you read. Again, Horner says,

After you’ve read any particular book once or twice, your speed in that book usually doubles or triples because you’re familiar with it and can move quickly and confidently — because you are no longer merely decoding the text but thinking it through in the context of all of the scripture!

Even an ‘average’ reader, if focusing on moving through the text, rather than trying to figure everything out, can usually do this in about an hour a day – 5-6 minutes per chapter. Many people report moving confidently through the ten chapters in 35-40 minutes. If it is taking you longer, then you are ‘reading wrong’ – stay relaxed, focus, and just keep it moving. Moderate but consistent speed is the key. This is “gross anatomy” — looking at the whole body; you’re not closely studying organs or systems or tissues or cells — it is not microbiology. BUT — microbiology and the study or organs makes more sense when you know what the whole structure of the human body is like, and how all the parts, large and small, relate in perfect interdependence.

After just a few days the reading gets much easier; in a month it will be a habit, and in six months you’ll wonder how you ever survived before on such a slim diet of the WORD.

My hope is that I will look back in six months and wonder how I did four chapters a day before.

One Tip I do recommend following is this one:

get ONE Bible, keep it, and do all your reading in it, so you learn where everything is. I’ve had the same Bible since 1983 and I know it intimately. If you keep switching Bibles, you ‘lose’ this intimacy with the text. Find a translation and format you like and stick with it. THIS IS CRUCIAL.

I agree with this one. I tried this plan once before and did not take this advice and it died out after a few days.  I selected a bible that I would want to read for the rest of my life. In my case it was an ESV Single Column Reference Bible, Brown/Cordovan, TruTone, Portfolio design.

I selected it for the following reasons:

• It looks nice from the outside, I want to pick up this book and read it.
• I love the page layout. It is in single column like a normal book and the type is big enough that I can see it well.
• I prefer the readability of the ESV, particularly in the narrative sections of the old testament.
• I trust the translation methods of the ESV. the ESV is second in my mind only to the NASB in English bible translation.
• It fits in my lap well and Crossway builds these things to last so i trust that it will be with me a number of years.

One more thing about having one bible you do the reading in. Leave it at home. I don’t plan on my daily reading bible to be used for anything other than the Horner plan. It will stay on the coffee table. I have a few other bibles i use outside the house.

Another Tip I recommend:

Keep a journal and write down one phrase about what you read for each section. Today I read psalm 1 and I wrote, “Lord make me the blessed man.” simple and short. I am not with my journal now and I could recall it. and that is the whole point. The act of writing one short easy to remember phrase for each section of the reading down is that you can recall what you read later.

Lastly I leave you with this link for a downloadable description of the plan and printable bookmarks (get them laminated).

Click here to download the plan.