Well, I actually read the Bible through in 2008 (okay, actually I finished on January 1^st with a remarkable 20+ chapter catch-up day)!  Although I’ve read the Bible several times from cover to cover, this was the first time that I actually did it all in a single year.  I found it really challenging, but also very rewarding.  There were plenty of days when it was such a relief to just sit back and read several chapters of Scripture.  Surprisingly, there just weren’t many days when reading the Bible seemed like a chore.  Maybe I’m maturing, if so, praise God!

     So, first and foremost, let me take today as an opportunity to challenge you to read the Bible through.  You really don’t have to do it in a year’s time.  The first time I read it through I read just a single chapter each day.  For most people, that won’t take much longer than 10-15 minutes.  Now, to the question of a reading plan – that is, what to read and in what order.  Let me give you three possible plans:

PLAN #1 – Genesis to Revelation (3 years, straight through)

     This is exactly what it sounds like.  Open up your Bible to Genesis chapter one and read it.  The next day read chapter 2.  Keep going until you finish Revelation 22.  It will take you about 3 years to do this.  That’s how I did it when I was 15-years-old and it worked fine.  Seriously, this can be a really great way to read the Bible.

PLAN #2 – ESV  “Through the Bible in a Year” Plan (1-year plan)

     This is what I did in 2008 and for this plan I want to recommend a resource.  The ESV* (English Standard Version) Daily Reading Bible has a few great things going for it.  First, the ESV is just a really wonderful English translation.  It follows a word-literal approach that avoids the clumsy italicized amplifications of the NASB (which is otherwise also a great translation) and, in my opinion, reads better than the HCSB.  The first edition came out in 2001, so it makes use of the best Hebrew and Greek texts available (Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 2^nd ed. 1983; Greek New Testament, 4^th corrected ed. UBS; Novum Testamentum Graece, 27^th ed. Nestle and Aland).  The ESV is now my Bible of choice for devotion and study.

     Secondly, the ESV Daily Reading Bible has a nice reading plan that allows you to read from three parts of the Bible each day (Old Testament, Psalms, and New Testament).  In all, you end up reading the entire Old Testament once and both Psalms and the New Testament twice in a single year.

     Finally, the Bible is set up nicely for the reading plan.  On the one hand, the material is not rearranged around the plan.  That is, everything is where it should be so you can easily use the Bible in church, small group, or whatever other context you may find yourself in.  On the other hand, the reading dates are printed right there in the margins of the Biblical text.  There is no need to flip back and forth between the Bible and a reading chart (which they provide anyway) to see where you left off or what you’re supposed to read today.  As a special bonus, the Bible even has three (count ‘em, three) of those ribbon-like bookmarks so you can keep your place simultaneously in the OT, Psalms and the NT.  Cool, eh?

     So, if you are looking to read the Bible in a year and are interested in purchasing a new Bible, I really couldn’t recommend a better resource for you than this one. 

PLAN #3 – A Chronological Survey

     This post is getting a bit long, so tune in tomorrow so I can share with you the Bible reading plan I’ve been using with newer disciples of Jesus Christ.  It is not a plan to read the entire Bible, but to give a thorough overview of the full Bible narrative in chronological order. 

[* The ESV was updated in 2007, so if you purchase an edition that was published later than that and you work really hard, you may notice a few minor modifications here and there to the text.  End of the day, the 2001 is really great, but if you have a choice, get a newer edition.]