What People Thought About Reading the Bible in 90 Days

One of the things I love about our annual Bible reading challenge is hearing what the participants thought of the experience. Here are some quotes from those who entered the drawing, introduced by the length of time it took them to read the entire Bible:

54 days: Kind of like an all-you-can-eat buffet where you can’t eat too much; you keep going because you always have room for more.

85 days: It was a sweet way to start my day, and again I discovered a flow of thoughts and themes that I miss when reading smaller sections.

66 days: I loved it! I have read through the Bible many times over the last 20 years, using various translations, but I have never tried to read the entire Bible so quickly… Reading the whole Bible through in this way was more like reading an historical novel or biography – I could hardly stop reading! Reading swiftly helped me see more clearly than ever before how the thread of redemption runs through the whole story of God’s relationship with mankind. As I read, my faith in Jesus as my Lord, Redeemer and Messiah has grown stronger, my understanding of the work of the Holy Spirit in my life became clearer, and I gained courage to follow Him more intimately. Telling others about the Kingdom of God becomes easier when you understand God’s story more fully. What a joy!

68 days: I really enjoyed reading it quickly like this. It allowed me to see the 50,000 foot view. I did get confused with all the characters reading this quickly (Kings and Chronicles-I’m looking at you), but it was a great was to see the big picture.

83 days: This is my second year reading (third listening), which gave me the confidence that I’d be able to do it again. I liked the challenge this year as well. I feel like every year I do this I’m able to make more and more connections between the Old Testament and the New (without a study bible or notes telling me references), which feels really cool! I think it just generally makes me realize this is a BOOK and God’s story (and ours!), as opposed to “let’s read a Gospel, or let’s read a certain book of the bible and talk about missions, or friendship, or discipleship or some other topic…). Overall a good experience that I hope to do again next year.

81 days: Overall it was a great experience. it started out well, then about a month in got hard and overwhelming with the amount of reading (I wanted to quit at one point). As I got to the New Testament it got easier. Reading larger portions of a books or even finishing books in one sitting was helpful to see the overall picture/theme of each book. However, there were many times I wanted to think through the text or had questions, but due to time was not able to.

78 days: One advantage of rapid reading is that you get to see the theme of the book clearly rather than the specific details. Makes it easier to identify Jesus’ role in each book. Unlike bite sized bible reading, reading in volume changes the way I retain lessons/values. Sometimes, “less significant” things get bumped by “more significant” ones until only a handful of lessons can be recalled after reading. It is easier for me to see the timeline of events in a book if I read large chunks of the Scriptures daily. You get to appreciate the bigger picture. I’d definitely do this again and again. Reading the Bible in volume saturates the mind and relieves the soul. Why did I not do this while I was young?

77 days: Amazing! I was dreading the O.T., but actually found so much depth there and saw things I would never have seen otherwise. I noticed curious themes emerging between prophets that I would not have noticed without this fast reading. Also, because I did that audio version, I have noticed that I have more of the Bible on command in my mind. I was talking with a friend about an issue and was able to seamlessly draw together an OT and NT source because they were fresh in my mind.

90 days: This is my 4th year, and each year I choose a different translation. Each year, different things jump out at me.