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Advice for Discouraged Bible Readers

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Cindy Matson has some great advice “To the New and Nervous Scripture Reader.” She wants you to:

  • Expect obstacles
  • Don’t get discouraged
  • Play the long game
  • Don’t let resources replace your own direct reading

Here is a taste of her great advice:

Hi Friend,

I heard you set a goal for the new year to read Scripture more faithfully. That’s great! But I was also told that now you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed. You want to be in the Word, but you’re just not quite sure how that’s going to work. I get it; and if I could, I’d like to offer you a couple of pieces of advice. I’m sure I won’t answer every question, and I’m not even going to try to tell you what or how much to read. Instead, let me try to anticipate some problems, assuage some worries, and add a word of caution.

Check it out!

Tips to Read the Bible Better

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Michael Bird offer 12 tips to help you read the Bible better. They’re quite good.

  1. Read whole passages, not verses
  2. Work through an entire book
  3. Read several Bible books together
  4. Read a passage in different translations
  5. Study the Bible in a community
  6. Practice public Bible reading
  7. Take notes during the sermon and put effort into Bible studies
  8. Get a good study Bible
  9. Find helpful podcasts and video clips
  10. Embrace the suite of digital tools
  11. Explore some commentaries
  12. Remember, the Bible is best alongside prayer and sacrament

His piece comes chock full of specific resource recommendations to help you put the principle into practice. Though I might have slightly different recommendations here and there, his counsel is well worth your time.

Check it out!

What Folks Thought about Reading the Entire Bible Quickly

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This year, 28 people completed our Bible reading challenge and entered the drawing for a top grain leather ESV Bible. Many thanks once again to Crossway for sponsoring this year’s grand prize giveaway. The good people at Crossway really want to help you read God’s word, and they have generously supported our efforts to promote rambunctious Bible reading.

Some Stats

50% of those who entered used a combination of reading and audio. 29% used a physical Bible alone. About 10% used audio alone, and about 10% used e-Bibles or Bible apps.

The most common reading plan was canonical (54%). 14% followed a chronological plan, and the rest used a wide variety of reading plans.

54% read the ESV. 14% read the NLT. The rest read the NIV, NKJV, HCSB, CSB, NASB, or LSB.

Over a third of the entries were from folks who have completed this challenge more than once. One said he enjoyed it so much that he is going to keep reading the entire Bible every 3 months for the rest of the year.

Some Liked It

Here’s what some others had to say, identified by the number of days it took:

  • 88 days: It was amazing. So many things were made so much clearer by reading different parts of the bible so close together in time.
  • 88 days: It was kinda nice having that time set aside for the word.
  • 72 days: Love it! So easy to see the big picture.
  • 69 days: This is now my 7th year and I enjoy the challenge! … I so enjoy as I read to make note of books and certain chapters I want to go back to later and do more “digging.” It is a wonderful way to “see” and “hear” the full counsel of God… I have ended every year with the book of Deuteronomy. I need to be reminded of God’s faithfulness and amazing love to His people, and to take to heart the words of Moses in Chapter 32:46-47 “Take to heart all these words I am giving you as a warning…they are not meaningless…they are your life..”
  • 66 days: It was a very inspirational and enjoyable experience as I read large chunks of scripture. I was able to make some connections between different books. As some of the readings would be still fresh in my mind.
  • 70 days: It is a great thing to read the entire Bible because it really puts it into perspective. There are parts I didn’t know about untill I read them. It also familirizes myself with some of the most unkown books of the Bible. Reading it fast is way different than meditating but I was still able to absorb some of the information.
  • 60 days: I really enjoy this experience and find it helpful. I am better able to see the big picture and link passages together. This challenge has also helped with my Bible reading in general. In the past, I struggled to read through the Bible completely in a year. Now it isn’t difficult to read it more than once a year. Last year I read it twice. Now that I’ve finished this challenge, I’m ready to start over at a slower pace. I also really appreciate reader’s versions for this challenge, they are very helpful.
  • 76 days: I enjoyed reading large chunks of text at a time. The narratives were more cohesive. I noticed repeated words and themes. There was less time to procrastinate or get behind schedule. Psalms and Proverbs were difficult to read in large chunks. Hebrews and Revelation were fascinating to as a whole text. Reading large chunks generated questions that I will now chase down and also created ‘ah-ha’ connections between prophets, history and then carried into the NT writings.
  • 76 days: I am so glad I did this again the year. It is a great way to wrap up 2023 and plunge into 2024. Seeing the connections and single thread of God’s hand throughout the entire Word is very encouraging. As I read, I created a list of questions and topics to launch my deeper study for 2024.
  • 63 days: Every year I do this (eight years running), the consistency and coordination of the Word is reinforced and illuminated for me. This is a VERY doable challenge for almost anyone and I encourage my friends and family to take up the challenge.
  • 84 days: Challenging, required a good bit of discipline initially. It now makes reading through the bible in one year almost like a “walk in the park”. Using the Crossway ESV Chronological Bible gave a better understanding, and detail, of passages that get repeated eg in Kings and Chronicles, and also the 4 gospels with repeated events. Seeing God’s redemptive plan throughout the bible from Genesis to Revelation was a real blessing.

Some Didn’t Like It

I don’t mind mentioning that this sort of reading is not for everyone. Nor is it the best way to read at all times. I have high respect for those who persisted to complete the challenge even when it wasn’t their favorite thing:

  • 89 days: Honestly, I felt that I was speed-reading, and I did not have time to meditate on what I was reading.
  • 90 days: It felt rushed to read completely on 90 days.
  • 90 days: I’m glad I did it but it’s not my favorite way to read through Scripture. I don’t feel like I was really spending quality time in the word, but just reading to read.
  • 83 days: It was hard, but very satisfying! However, I’m ready to read slowly through one book 🙂
  • 90 days: It was like drinking out of a fire hydrant. This was my first time ever reading the whole Bible straight through. I liked it. My parents did it too, so I got to do it with them. I’d like to do it a little bit slower next time.

Looking Ahead to Next Year’s Challenge

Thanks to all who participated. If you thought about it, or got started but didn’t finish, we hope to be back at it again next year. Expect to hear from us in November to launch the 10th annual reading challenge.

I’d love to hear your ideas for how to make next year’s challenge more grand. So far, a number of folks have requested continued prizes of reader’s Bibles or Scripture journals. But the most commonly requested prize so far is a Logos package.

Many have also suggested generating a broader social media presence to advertise the Bible reading challenge. We would be delighted to do so, but could really use some help with that. If that is something you might like to help with, please contact me.

What We Miss When We Skip the Book of Leviticus

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Sincerely Media (2020), public domain

The book of Leviticus is not popular. It is rarely quoted, rarely studied, and rarely read. It might be the most frequent place for well-intentioned Bible readers to give up their annual reading plans.

This is understandable, especially when one reads the books of the Bible in canonical order. Genesis is the book of beginnings; it is full of covenants, scoundrels, and promises. Exodus offers a narrative unlike any other—grand and sweeping in scale, with cinematic opportunities galore.

The narrative momentum slows at the end of Exodus during the construction of the tabernacle and then grinds to a halt in Leviticus. If Genesis is about how God calls his people and Exodus shows how God delivers his people, Bible readers can be forgiven for scratching their heads when opening Leviticus. Is this just how God…instructs his people?

If you’ve skipped Leviticus because you think it’s too slow, too boring, too repetitive, or just plain obsolete, you’re in good company. But, Leviticus is in the Bible for our good, and when we skip this book we miss a lot that God intends for us.

Asking the Wrong Question

When evaluating the importance of a book of the Bible, we often turn to characters, events, or doctrines. Leviticus doesn’t shine in any of these areas.

Rather, the book of Leviticus exists to answer a crucial question: How can a holy God dwell with sinful people?

At the end of Exodus, the Israelites construct the tabernacle (Exodus 35–39). This is the location on earth where God will dwell and where the people will worship him. God’s people have not dwelled with God in this way since the first days of Adam and Eve. And since the moral landscape is quite different than the beginning of Genesis, we naturally ask: How can God remain holy and live with people like this?

Leviticus aims to answer this question.

Forgiveness of Sin

Part of resolving the tension between God’s holiness and the people’s sinfulness lies in the forgiveness of sin. God had given commands to his people before Mount Sinai, but the path toward forgiveness was not always clear. In Genesis and Exodus it seems that God overlooks offenses more than he forgives them.

But in Leviticus, God makes the requirements for forgiveness clear. God tells Moses what type of sacrifice to bring along with where and when; he gives explicit (and sometimes graphic) instructions to the priests regarding these sacrifices.

The phrase that rings throughout chapters 4–6 of Leviticus should be delightful to us: “And the priest shall make atonement for him…and he shall be forgiven.” (See Lev 4:26; 4:31; 4:35; 5:10; 5:13; 5:16; 5:18; 6:7.)

Let’s not skip over this. God made a way for his people to be forgiven! This is one reason Paul Tripp says there are “few more hopeful books in all of Scripture than Leviticus.”

How to Live as God’s People

Some commentators split Leviticus in two, with the first 16 chapters focusing on ritual commands (offerings and priests) and chapters 17–27 concerned with ethical commands (laws, blessings for obedience, and punishment for disobedience).

Not every word of Leviticus fits neatly under those umbrellas, but God gives many regulations in the second part of the book. If the offerings and instructions to priests are about how God can live with his people, then the ethical commands are about how God’s people should live with him.

Further, God makes it clear that these aspects of life are related. Jeffrey Kranz points to this verse as a summary of the book.

You shall be holy to me, for I the Lord am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine. (Leviticus 20:26)

God demands holiness from the people because he is holy and he has called them to himself. His holiness is the basis for his regulations; the phrase “I am the Lord” is given almost as a punctuation to many of the laws in Leviticus 18–26.

Understanding Holiness

Leviticus is not the only place in the Bible that explains holiness, but it is one of the best.

Of all the books in the Bible, Leviticus uses the word “holy” the most—a total of 80 times in the ESV translation. Additionally, Leviticus is the leader among books of the Bible for the words “atone” (47 times), “guilt” (35 times), and “blood” (65 times). It uses “forgive” the most in the Old Testament (10 times) and its use of “sin” (93 times) is second only to the Psalms (111 times).

The point is that these words we read in the New Testament and sing on Sunday mornings are illustrated and explained primarily in Leviticus.

Understanding the Work of Jesus

The New Testament gives us plenty of reasons not yet mentioned to read Leviticus carefully. One of the two great commandments, according to Jesus—”you shall love your neighbor as yourself”—is first seen in Leviticus 19:18. And the apostle Peter quotes Leviticus when exhorts his readers to be holy in all of their conduct “since it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy'” (1 Pet 1:16).

With Holy Week upon us, perhaps there is no more timely reason to read Leviticus than this. When the New Testament portrays Jesus as both priest (see Hebrews 7) and sacrifice (see Hebrews 9:11–14), when we read that our sin is forgiven because of the work of Jesus (1 John 1:7–10), we learn much of what was required and what was accomplished in this often-neglected book.

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.