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Why Read Scripture in Public?

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Paul commands Timothy to devote himself to the public reading of Scripture (1 Tim 4:13). But was that just something unique to Timothy? Why do churches generally make a practice of reading Scripture when the assembly is gathered for worship?

Steve Burchett runs through the entire Bible, showing that public Scripture reading has always been the practice of God’s people. From Moses to Paul, one of the main things the people of God ought to do when they gather is to read God’s Word.

…throughout biblical history, God was very interested in his people hearing his word read when they came together. They often did this, sometimes for very lengthy readings. When we read the Bible in our gatherings, we are doing what God’s people have always been expected to do, and have consistently done.

Check it out!

The Bible is Boring Only to the Uncurious

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Have you heard someone say the Bible is boring? Have you felt that way yourself?

Perhaps you’re not curious enough.

Aaron Armstrong shares his own experience:

Before I was a Christian, I didn’t really know much about the Bible. Which makes sense, since I didn’t read it. But I had a lot of assumptions about it, the same assumptions many non-Christians have about it. I assumed it was endlessly contradictory, outdated, and irrelevant. That nothing it said really mattered to life in the modern world. Most importantly, because I saw the few people I knew whose parents made them go to some kind of class at their church were bored to tears, I assumed the Bible was boring.

Then I read it, and I discovered a book that fascinated me. One that made me ask questions, and has kept me asking questions for nearly 19 years. A book that challenges me to dig a little deeper every time I think I’ve got something figured out.

Armstrong goes on to describe how curiosity about the Bible enables us to expose its bottomless wonders and riches. I appreciate his reflection and commend it to you.

Check it out!

When You Don’t Feel Like Reading Your Bible

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We’ve all had those seasons when Bible reading feels more like obligation than delight. And thought we do have an obligation to the who rescued us from darkness into light, his intentions have always been to increase our joy in him.

To that end, Kristen Wetherell has two great suggestions for what to do when you don’t feel like reading your Bible:

  1. Feast with your church
  2. Find a fresh method

Check it out!

ESV Chronological Bible: A Fresh Way to Read

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To study the Bible well, we must learn to read the Bible well. To read the Bible well, we need to develop good habits. And one such habit is to find ways to keep the text fresh. Beware the danger of growing so familiar with the Bible that you can no longer observe it accurately.

One way to foster a fresh approach to the text is to read the entire Bible in a different order. And one of the most useful ways to order the Biblical is by chronology. Crossway has done just that for us with their recent release of the ESV Chronological Bible.

Why a New Bible Instead of Just a Reading Plan?

Chronological reading plans have been circulating for many years now. For years, I’ve been recommending one for our annual Bible reading challenge.

The thing with a plan, though, is that you’ve got to constantly flip around in your Bible. That might go quicker if you read a digital Bible, but it still adds a significant amount of time to hop from passage to passage.

Now that I’ve gotten the ESV Chronological Bible in my grubby hands, I can sigh with delight at the ease of simply reading from one page to the next, with the chronological reading order served up like a 365-course meal.

How is the Plan?

This is not the first “chronological Bible” to appear under the sun. I’ve seen others (in other English translations) but have generally declined to purchase them for one major reason: They’re typically enslaved to chapter divisions. When I flip through a chronological Bible that refuses to break texts down any smaller than complete chapters, I quickly lose interest.

Where’s the fun in that? A single chapter of, say, a gospel could have 5 to 8 scenes in it, each of which is paralleled in different ways in other gospels. It’s difficult to get the truly chronological feel of the larger story when the parallel accounts are not actually parallel. For example, Matthew 8 portrays Jesus:

  • healing a leper
  • healing a paralytic
  • healing Peter’s mother-in-law
  • turning down would-be disciples
  • calming a storm
  • casting demons from men into a herd of pigs

In Mark’s ordering of these events, those events occur in the following chapters:

  • chapter 1
  • chapter 2
  • chapter 1 (even before the leper)
  • not present
  • chapter 4
  • chapter 5

So if you’re only reading full chapters at a time, it is not possible to sync up these events in a useful way.

In contrast, the ESV Chronological Bible is no respecter of chapter divisions. At times, you get chunks as small as two verses. And at other times, you’re reading entire books with no interruption. For example, after beginning with Genesis 1-5, you get the first 4 verses of 1 Chronicles. But a little farther into the plan, you get the entire books of Job, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy without interruptions.

In short, I’m thrilled with the plan followed by the ESV Chronological Bible. It is not identical to the plan I’ve recommended on this site, but it follows a very similar philosophy.

With this chronological plan, you’ll read the prophets right after reading the historical events that led to their writing. Books like Jeremiah, that jump back and forth in time, are rearranged so you can grasp the order of events better. The gospels primarily follow the sequence of events as presented in Mark and John, with Matthew and Luke rearranged to fit. However, when an episode has parallel accounts, they’re always presented in canonical order (Matthew’s version first, then Mark’s, then Luke’s, then John’s). The latter half of Acts is interrupted by the epistles, according to the time they were written.

Two Things This Bible is Not Good For

There are a few things that people normally use a Bible for, that you should not expect to find here:

  1. Extensive Bible study. This will not be your go-to Bible for digging in, deepening study, or marking up. Because the reading order is so jumbled up, this Bible is simply not designed for you to take to church or small group to follow along or participate in a discussion. The chronological format makes it quite difficult to even locate any given text. You have to go to the Scripture Index in the back, find the text you’d want to read, and then find the page it’s on.
  2. Grasping the flow or arguments of books. Again, the text is all jumbled up. So you will not come away from this Bible with a better grasp of the main point or argument of Jeremiah or Luke. Likewise, you will get a great idea of the differences in gospel accounts of the feeding of the 5,000. But you’ll need another Bible to put those differences to use with respect to the larger arguments of each gospel.

Two Things This Bible is Exceptional For

  1. Reference. If you are studying a passage in another Bible, you might call upon the Chronological Bible to figure out which other Bible passages speak to or at the same time as your text. For example, let’s say you’re studying a psalm. The Chronlogical Bible places that psalm near the historical narrative describing the same set of events. You could get good historical context for the prophets and epistles in a similar manner.
  2. Reading. The main thing the Chronological Bible is designed for is for reading. That is the genius of this format. It gives you permission to read the Bible voraciously, and to simply keep reading. For that reason, I believe this Bible would be even better if it were presented like a reader’s Bible, without verse or chapter numbers (except perhaps in the margin). The single-column format, without section headings, encourages readers to drown themselves in the living and abiding word of God.

Additional Features

The entire Bible is organized (chronologically, of course) into 365 selections, each of which can be read in about 10 minutes. Before each selection there is a simple timeline to help you get your bearings in the chronology. There is also a brief paragraph summarizing the texts for that reading.

At the back of the Bible, there is a table of weights and measures, along with a chart explaining the Hebrew calendar. One index lists all 365 readings with text references, so you can get an overview of the plan and how it works. A Scripture Index helps you to locate a particular Bible passage by page number.

Then, in addition to 15 maps (the sort you’ll find in any study Bible) there is a beautiful fold-out timeline of the entire history found in the Bible. This timeline is color-coded by period, providing lists, names, and dates for the patriarchs, judges, Israelite oppressors, kings of Israel, and kings of Judah. With this gorgeous graphic, you can locate your text or any major figure in the chronology at but a glance.

Conclusion

I eagerly commend to you the ESV Chronological Bible. I plan to make much use of it for my annual speed read in the new year. Crossway graciously sent me a review copy of the TruTone (imitation leather) version, which lays quite flat on any page, making the reading experience all the more pleasant. I expect the hardback version to have just as strong of a physical presence.

Disclaimer: Amazon links are affiliate links. If you click them and buy stuff, you will provide a small commission to this blog at no extra cost to yourself.

How the Reformation Gave us the Bible

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Barry Waugh takes advantage of the anniversary of Martin Luther’s 95 theses to reflect on how the Reformation put the Bible into the hands of God’s people.

Owning Scripture was not only pricey but possession could lead to imprisonment or execution. Fourteenth-century forerunners of the Reformation such as John Wycliffe of England and one of his followers in Bohemia, Jan Hus, were persecuted for providing Bibles in the common language of their people. In the case of Hus, translation work contributed to the heresy case against him resulting in his execution at the stake. In the next century, William Tyndale was hunted down wherever he set up his printing press as he moved from place to place to clandestinely provide Scripture in English. He was eventually caught, strangled, and burned at the stake for publishing the Word in the vernacular. Lives were sacrificed for the translation and distribution of Scripture. If Wycliffe, Hus, and Tyndale could return to visit their homelands today they would likely be encouraged by the availability of the Word, especially with digital Bibles accessible on a variety of devices, but they would also be discouraged by the common indifference to and ignorance of Scripture.

Along with the history lesson comes some helpful advice regarding Bible reading.

Check it out!

Announcing our 2024 Bible Reading Challenge

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We believe one of the best ways to learn to study the Bible is to read it. A lot of it. Over and over again. That won’t give you everything you need to understand it, but it will get you quite a long way toward the goal. As in marching through Kadesh all the way to the peaks of Pisgah. All you have to do is look down toward the valley, trust that God meant what he said, and finish the job from there. Don’t listen to those fools who speak of giants and grasshoppers. Just look at the size of those grapes. And the size of the God who gives them.

If you’re not sure what I mean by all this Kadesh/Pisgah stuff, then maybe this is your year to read the entire Bible in 90 days. Milk and honey are yours for the taking. Not the under-the-tongue sort (Song 4:11) but the flowing-land sort (Deut 26:9). Though, of course, there is a theological connection between the two.

But I digress and perhaps ought to get to the point.

The Challenge

I’m writing to announce our 9th annual Bible reading challenge. The challenge is to read the entire Bible within 90 days. If you wish, you may begin today. Regardless of when you begin, your 90-day period must end no later than March 31, 2024.

And why—you ask—would you embark on such a strange venture? (“Has the day finally come,” they inquire, “when the Lord has struck with madness the riders of this horse we call the blogosphere?” Zech 12:4) I can think of at least three reasons.

  1. Your grasp of the Bible’s big picture will surge like a COVID case count in winter.
  2. Your reward in heaven will be great.
  3. We’ve got a sweet set of prizes to urge you on in the present age.

All who complete the challenge are invited to fill out the form below (which we’ll share repeatedly as the twilight of March draws nigh). One grand prize winner will be selected at random to win an ESV Wide Margin Reference Bible in Top Grain Leather, generously provided by the good people at Crossway Bibles. Yes, you read that right: This Bible has top grain leather. This is one of those gorgeous “premium” Bibles that might not normally fit the budget.

One additional winner will be selected to receive a one-volume reader’s Bible of their choice. Physical prizes are limited to the continental United States. Winners in other parts of the world will receive a $50 Amazon gift card via email.

If you’d like a checklist to help you stay on pace, here are three. You may make a copy and update the dates, if you plan to start on a date other than January 1.

  1. Canonical Order
  2. Chronological Order
  3. Hebrew OT & NIV Sola Scriptura NT Order

Or here is an iOS app that can help you track your plan. You may also want to consider making a reading plan in the Dwell listening app if you prefer audio.

You may now begin any time, and may this be the ride of your life.

Official Rules

Here are the rules:

  1. You must read (not scan or skim) all 66 books of the Protestant Bible. You may choose the translation and reading plan (canonical, chronological, etc.). You don’t have to stop and meditate on every detail, but the Lord sees and knows when you are being honest about reading and not skimming. Listening to an unabridged audio Bible is acceptable. You may also use any combination of audio and visual reading, as long as you’ve read or listened to the entire Bible within the allotted time period.
  2. You must read the entire Bible within a 90-day period.
  3. The last day of that 90-day period must be between November 4, 2023 and March 31, 2024. If you’d like to understand why we recommend such fast-paced reading, see our Bible reading plan for readers.
  4. To enter the drawing, you must fill out the survey below, letting us know the dates you read and what you thought of the speed-reading process. Your thoughts do not have to be glowing, but they should be honest; you’ll still be entered into the drawing if you didn’t enjoy your speed-read.
  5. Any submissions to the form below that don’t meet the requirements or appear to be fabricated will be deleted. For example: multiple entries with different data, date of completion not between November 2, 2023 and March 31, 2024, “What I thought about the experience” has nothing to do with Bible reading, or date of completion is later than the date of entry submission (please don’t try to enter the drawing if you plan to read the Bible; only enter once you have completed reading it).
  6. In the first week of April 2024, we will randomly select 2 winners from those who have submitted the form. We will email the winners to get their shipping addresses. If a winner does not respond to our request for a shipping address within 1 week, a new winner will be selected in their place.
  7. The first prize winner (if continental US) will receive a copy of the ESV Wide Margin Reference Bible in Top Grain Leather. The second prize winner (if anywhere in the US) will get their choice of a one-volume reader’s Bible (While these are not your only options, we have reviewed the following: ESV, CSB, NIV.). Any winner who does not qualify for a physical prize will receive a US $50 Amazon gift card via email.
  8. Unfortunately, though they are terrific people doing marvelous work for the sake of Christ, staff members of DiscipleMakers are not eligible to win the drawing.

3 Fruits of Engaged Bible Reading

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Because Karrie Hahn believes the Bible is precious, she wants you to read it for the right reasons. She gives three quite compelling ones.

  1. Awe
  2. Transformation
  3. Endurance

Sometimes application means simply letting the Bible shape us in these areas. For example:

An encounter with the God of the universe can’t help but produce awe and wonder in those to whom He reveals Himself. He is glorious and majestic, unlike anyone or anything else:

The LORD reigns; he is robed in majesty . . .  Mightier than the thunders of many waters, mightier than the waves of the sea, the LORD on high is mighty!” (Ps. 93:1, 4)

His greatness is unsearchable, and He is glorious, splendid, and majestic (see Ps. 145:3, 5). Holy Scripture is how we come to better know the God who has called us to Himself.

Check it out!

What We Miss When We Skip the Book of Nehemiah

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Samos Box (2021), public domain

Along with Ezra and Esther, the book of Nehemiah is tucked between larger historical books of the Bible and Job. It lacks the big, sweeping themes of something like 1 Samuel or the memorable figures of Joshua and Judges. Like Ezra, it contains a lot of lists (see chapters 3, 7, 10, 11, and 12); additionally, through one lens it can be viewed as a book about a construction project, which isn’t the most compelling topic! There are many reasons Christians might not read or study this book.

But if you skip this book, you’ll miss a lot!

Instruction in Prayer

The book of Nehemiah offers loads for us about prayer, beginning with the example of Nehemiah as one who prays—frequently!

When Nehemiah heard about the sorry state of Jerusalem, he wept and prayed (Neh 1:4–11). There is also a famous prayer of confession in Nehemiah 9:6–38. In addition to these extended prayers recorded for us in Scripture, we read of smaller, shorter prayers of Nehemiah (Neh 2:4; 4:4-5; 4:9; 5:19; 6:9; 6:14; 13:14; 13:22; 13:29; 13:31). We don’t always know the words of these prayers, but what we do know is that Nehemiah consulted often with the Lord.

We can also learn from the content of Nehemiah’s prayers. Specifically, Nehemiah asks God to do what he promised. When Nehemiah is praying for favor with the king, he cites God’s commands and promises to Moses as the basis for God to answer (Neh 1:8–9). Also, during the corporate confession of sin, Nehemiah reflects on God’s covenant dealings with his people (Neh 9:32–37). It is on this basis that Nehemiah tells God, “we are in great distress” (Neh 9:37).

Finally, the longer prayers in chapters 1 and 9 show Nehemiah offering corporate confession of sin. In our highly individualistic world, this explicit understanding of God’s people as a collective is a good correction.

Instruction About God’s Word

Nehemiah uses the Scriptures frequently as a source of rebuke and recalibration. I’ve already written a whole article about the truths of God’s word in Nehemiah chapter 8, but that’s not the only place in this book we could turn for such instruction.

The confession in chapter 9 follows the prolonged public reading of the law in Nehemiah 9:3. When the people pledge themselves in covenant with God in chapter 10, they promise “to walk in God’s Law that was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our Lord and his rules and his statutes” (Neh 10:29). Finally, when reforms were needed in chapters 12 and 13, the people looked to God’s law for the standards they were to keep (Neh 12:44, Neh 13:3).

As this new worshipping community was being established, it was crucial to have God’s word at the center. The same, of course, is true for modern Christians.

Instruction About Money

There is explicit teaching about the use and misuse of money in Nehemiah chapter 5. There was a famine in the region (Neh 5:3), so times were difficult. The nobles and officials were charging interest to their Jewish brothers, and as a result some sons and daughters had been taken as slaves to pay off debt. Nehemiah rebuked those who would profit off of their countrymen and cause additional financial hardship (Neh 5:6–13).

We see more of Nehemiah’s approach to money in the same chapter. Nehemiah had not been taking the food allowance from the governor to which he was entitled, in contrast to previous governors (Neh 5:14–15). Instead, Nehemiah provided food for 150 people at his table (Neh 5:17–18). In all of this, Nehemiah was conscious of not laying too heavy a burden on the people (Neh 5:18).

Conclusion

The book of Nehemiah reminds us how central Jerusalem was to the people of Israel. This was the city of the temple, where God had promised to dwell with his people. So the rebuilding of the city walls and gates after their destruction by Babylon is more than just a boring construction project. This work was crucial to the ongoing identity of Israel as the worshipping people of God.

In addition to learning about God’s provision in the face of opposition, Nehemiah teaches us about prayer, Scripture, and money. This book is more than worthy of our attention.

Getting Together to Read (Not Study) the Bible

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T.M. Suffield has a rather novel idea. Well, it seems novel to us, though the church before us had done it for centuries. Let’s meet together to read the Bible. A lot of it.

Paul commanded Timothy not to neglect the public reading of Scripture (1 Tim 4:13), and yet many evangelical Protestant churches read barely more than a few verses during their worship services. Sadly, to get a large dose of public Bible reading, you often have to go to a liberal or Roman Catholic church.

But Suffield has begun hosting gatherings in both his church and his home to simply read Scripture together. At a recent gathering, they read the entire book of 2 Timothy.

Suffield offers compelling reasons for such a practice, including:

  • Hearing Scripture read in context.
  • Following the thread of an author’s argument.
  • Hearing the structure.
  • Experiencing Scripture the way generations of believers have engaged with it for centuries.

This is worth your and my further consideration. How can we organize our local believing communities around extended public reading of Scripture together?

Check it out!

Announcing the Winners of the 2023 Bible Reading Challenge

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We love motivating people to read more of their Bibles. So since 2017, we’ve held an annual 90-day Bible reading challenge with prizes both material and immaterial. (Click here for explanation of the benefits of rapid Bible reading.) This year’s challenge just wrapped up, with 23 entries submitted for the drawing, and winners have been notified.

Congratulations to Abigail H. for winning the grand prize of a set of Scripture journals, and to Charles H. for winning a one-volume reader’s Bible! If you have not responded to me yet with a shipping address, you have a few more days to do so before we have to select an alternate winner.

Photo by Matias North on Unsplash

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, identified by the length of time in which they read the entire Bible:

50 days: It was great! My previous fastest read was 6 months, and I finished reading/listening in 50 days with this challenge, and it was a different experience from any reading/listening plan I’ve done before, because with reading/listening to so much so fast, I was able to make connections I haven’t in the past, because so much of it was still fresh from the few days before.

90 days: This was a gift. I have tried year-long reading plans and never made it past February. This was my first time actually reading every word of Scripture. It has made me crave reading God’s word and stirred up a desire to know him more. I am so excited to do this again and invite others to join me.

88 days: This is my third year participating in this with you. I was really looking forward to it this year. It is refreshing to get the whole story tied together in the quick read. I have a notebook nearby to jot down verses, ideas, etc that I want to explore further and this gives direction for further study along the way. I’ve known for 60+ years that the Bible is one coherent story, but these past few years with these 90 day reads, it is becoming so real. More and more I see connections throughout, way beyond the basic prophecies focused on each December. Thank you again for issuing this challenge. I plan to keep it a part of my yearly plans.

89 days: The experience far outweighs my expectations. I was amazed how the Lord in His grace has provided me with so much insights into his word. I have always refused to do even a yearly overall reading of the Bible as I think that only a good deep study will reap more benefits than just reading. I have never thought I can learn so much through this fast paced reading of His word. So thankful I did this challenge.

74 days: I was surprised by how short the Bible was. (It is the equivalent of 4 novels.) I noticed a lot more connections between the Old Testament and the New by reading quickly and I felt like it was easier to remember the context of each book.

73 days: It drew me closer to the Lord! Always looked forward to reading it!

90 days: I like doing it at the beginning of the year because it helps me to establish a good habit and to set aside time to consistently dig into God’s Word throughout the year.

90 days: I really disliked reading Psalms and Proverbs so quickly. Those literary types did not do as well in big gulps. Overall, it was helpful for the rest of the books.

88 days: The more I do this challenge the more I enjoy reading large sections of Bible text each day. I don’t stop and ponder anything I read but somehow it sticks with me more than it used to. I used to feel lost reading through Isaiah and other prophets who have long sections of poetry. I think the way the CSB Reader’s Bible lays out poetic text helped to make it easier this time.

53 days: The more you read God’s Word the more you fall in love with the one who loved me so much that He sent His Son to die for me so I can be redeemed.

Many thanks to all who participated. Keys your eyes peeled in November for the launch of the 2024 Bible reading challenge!