Search the Scriptures
John 5:39

It’s a long weekend for many, and I hope you’ll spend some time today or tomorrow thinking about reading through the Bible this year. I’ve been a Christian for over 50 years, and I find my awareness of my need to be reading and studying the Scripture has only grown.

This past week I posted on why we need to read the Bible in House on the Rock, In the Jungle of Jordan, and The People Who Know Their God.

Today I want to give you links to various reading plans. Whichever plan you decide to use, Robert Murray M’Cheyne’s brief introduction to his classic reading plan is very encouraging. He includes insight into the dangers of using a scheduled plan. It’s some warm pastoral advice to help us guard against these things that can trip us up and weigh us down. Click on the above link for his thoughts on these four dangers.²

(1.) Formality
(2.) Self-righteousness
(3.) Careless reading
(4.) A yoke to heavy to bear

He also includes five advantages of a Bible reading plan.

(1.) The whole Bible will be read through in an orderly manner in the course of a year
(2.) Time will not be wasted in choosing what portions to read

The last three are advantages of having an entire church use the same reading plan. Whether your church does so or not, they’re worthwhile to read. You may be in a small group that might decide to use the same plan. M’Cheyne has some wise thoughts on how Bible reading strengthens “sweet bond of Christian love and unity.”

There are numerous plans online for reading the Bible through in a year. Some begin in Genesis and go straight through, others arrange the Bible in chronological order of events, and there are those that mix readings from different sections of the Bible.

In Reading the Bible, Geoffrey Thomas explains the benefit not only of reading the entire Bible, but of reading large sections at a time:

“In whatever ways we adapt the suggested plan to our own particular needs we must aim at reading two or three chapters at a sitting, or a whole book or epistle. There are many precious things we shall never see unless we read the Word of God in large chunks. We would never read fifteen lines of any other piece of literature and then set it aside, believing that we had thus satisfied the author’s original intentions. To see the whole massive movement of biblical thought, the Scriptures need to be read frequently and from Genesis to Revelation. The Christian must be content with nothing less. He will not understand the individual verses unless he has the framework of knowledge which a larger acquaintance with Scripture provides. The more he reads the more comprehensible the Bible becomes.”³

You can read the text of Thomas pamphlet online at the above link. The hard copy also includes books for suggested reading, the J. C. Ryle quote, and Thomas’ introduction to his reading plan with dates and references to read through the Old Testament once and the New Testament twice in a year.

I love this chart because it gives you a visual overview of the entire Bible, and helps you better understand the benefits of reading through the Bible in several chapters at a time. The colorful arcs in this chart represent all the cross-references in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. Chris Harrison explains:

“The bar graph that runs along the bottom represents all of the chapters in the Bible. Books alternate in color between white and light gray. The length of each bar denotes the number of verses in the chapter. Each of the 63,779 cross references found in the Bible is depicted by a single arc – the color corresponds to the distance between the two chapters, creating a rainbow-like effect.”⁴

Ligonier Ministries published, “Get a Basic Overview of the Bible,” by R. C. Sproul in which he recommends you begin with an overview of the Bible. He includes a broad overview for those who’ve never read the Bible. He also mentions his book, Knowing Scripture, which I wholeheartedly recommend. It is a superb introduction to interpreting the Bible.

Here are some online plans:

At Ligonier Ministries, Nathan Bingham has listed several in “Bible Reading Plans for 2024,” including M’Cheyne’s.

Each day Grace to You posts daily Bible readings from The MacArthur Daily Bible. Passages are given to read from the Old Testament, Psalms, Proverbs, and New Testament along with some brief comments by John MacArthur.

The Blue Letter Bible site offers several different plans from which to choose as well as different translations to use.

Professor Grant Horner has designed a unique plan in which he has divided the books of the Bible into ten lists and one chapter from each list is read every day. Tim Chailles has some suggestions on using it.

Michael Coley has developed a plan that divides Bible readings into seven categories, one for each day of the week: Epistles, The Law, History, Psalms, Poetry, Prophecy and Gospels. I really like this plan because of these different categories. It can be hard going through some books, and it helps to switch to a different one the next day. I also found that Coley’s plan has been incredibly helpful in seeing how one part of the Bible provides insight into another section. He has listed the chapters on a one-page pdf document you can print and carry in your Bible, and he also offers various formats for reading online and by email.

Of the available phone apps, my favorite Bible app is Literal Word. It’s very clean and simple, but it does have cross references and brief explanations of Hebrew and Greek words. I also like Legacy Standard Bible, and I use My Bible Tracker to check off readings. None of these contain a Bible reading plan. I’ve yet to find one that combines a plan I like with a translation I want to use.

Choose your translation with care—some translations are more accurate than others in translating the text from the original languages. There are some paraphrases that distort or even obliterate the original meaning of the text. Talk with your pastor about his recommendation.

The New American Standard Bible 1995⁵ is a translation I have used for years. I also highly recommend the Legacy Standard Bible is a new translation that builds on the work of the NASB. If you’re interested there’s a Facebook group on the Legacy Standard Bible with many helpful discussions on the translation.

In 2011 I decided to use Michael Coley’s Bible reading plan (one page PDF to print). I also started posting my thoughts and reflections on what I read. (The posts are still there if you search for specific books in the Bible). As 2011 went on there were some gaps in my posting. I’ve since filled in some of them.

In 2023 I started going through those old posts and edit them as needed to add new thoughts. Those are in the Read the Bible in 2023 in the heading divided into Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall Quarters. We began planning a long-distance move in 2023, and I had to shift my focus from writing to all that goes into finding a home and moving. My intent is to finish even though it may take a while. Rather than keep changing dates and times, for clarity I’ll be back-posting to the original planned dates.

In all your planning don’t lose sight of why you read the Scriptures. Ask God to keep your mind and heart focused on Jesus Christ.

Take up your Bible and read!

May God’s Word be a lamp and a light this year to all your paths, wherever they may be. May the Lord be with you and bless you in 2024, granting you a greater love and knowledge of Him through the reading of His Word.

Silvesterzug Laterne: Bk muc. (CC BY-SA 4.0).
¹J. C. Ryle as quote by Geoffrey Thomas, Reading the Bible (The Banner of Truth Trust, Carlisle PA: 1980) 25. This is from my hard copy of the pamphlet. The hard copy also includes books for suggested further reading as well as Thomas’ introduction to his reading plan with dates and references to read through the Old Testament once and the New Testament twice in a year. As of this writing it’s available on sale for $1.80 at The Banner of Truth Trust in English and Spanish. The rest of the text of this brief pamphlet is available to read at the link below.
²Rev. Robert Murray M’Cheyne calendar from the Robert Murray M’Cheyne site. You can find more information about M’Cheyne and his life at the site.
³Geoffrey Thomas, Reading the Bible, Tony Capoccia’s Bible Bulletin Board. Retrieved 2 January 2011.
⁴Visualizing the Bible^® Chris Harrison. Used by permission. This image was named one of the best science images of 2008 in National Geographic News. Chris explains: “The bar graph that runs along the bottom represents all of the chapters in the Bible. Books alternate in color between white and light gray. The length of each bar denotes the number of verses in the chapter. Each of the 63,779 cross references found in the Bible is depicted by a single arc – the color corresponds to the distance between the two chapters, creating a rainbow-like effect.” If you’d like a print, Chris sells it at Etsy here.
⁵I prefer the New American Standard Bible 1995 update or earlier.

Copyright ©2024 Iwana Carpenter