Second Edition
Bible Reading Guide
It’s been said that the inescapable reality of the Christian life is that it can only be lived one way — daily.
The Bible Reading Guide is designed to be a template for private worship, guiding you in gratitude, Bible reading, and prayer.
Jump to:
Jesus teaches us to pray for daily bread, which is both general and specific.
It’s general in that “bread” is a stand-in for any provision — any need that might arise within our creaturely experience. That includes the food we eat, also the money it takes to buy the food, the shelter under which we enjoy it, and then countless other things. Bread is anything we need God to provide. It’s general.
“Daily,” however, is specific. Jesus is talking about every day — twenty-four-hour blocks of time that each has its own start and end, a third of which we spend sleeping and the other two-thirds we spend doing stuff. We should ask God to give us “daily bread” because we have needs within each specific day that God must meet for us to see the next. This is also why Jesus teaches us:
“… [D]o not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble” (Matthew 6:34).
It’s wise to think about tomorrow and to organize plans subject to God’s will (see James 4:15), but tomorrow is not worth our worry, because first, we have to get through today.
Oh the kindness of God to give us time! How overwhelming and meaningless reality would feel without it! Consider your own life for a moment. … we tend to think in decades, which divide up into years, and each year into seasons, and each season into days — and each of those days, when they are today, matter more than tomorrow.
I hate the old Roman slogan carpe diem (seize the day) because it was born from a worldview that denied a purposeful afterlife. The idea was that we must make the most of today because today is all we’ve got. That’s nonsense of course — because in Christ we live forever and the best is always yet to come. But, at the same time, our “todays” do count. They really count. Our choices matter. The way we spend our moments accumulates and shapes us. How long do we have before routinely binge-watching Netflix and spending 12 hours a day on our phones catches up with us and becomes what we did with our lives? Lord, have mercy on us!
By God’s grace, he has called us out of darkness into his marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9). We are not running aimlessly and boxing against the air (1 Corinthians 9:26), but we are citizens of heaven and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ (Philippians 3:20). We are facing Eden, new creatures being transformed for a new world (2 Corinthians 5:17; Romans 8:29) — and we can make progress in this life (2 Corinthians 3:18). Growth can happen now (2 Peter 3:18) — in days like today.
Because Today Matters
Jonathan Parnell
The 2nd Edition
The 2nd edition of the Bible Reading Guide emphasizes daily Christian living, featuring a redesigned layout, more akin to a daily journal. It encourages daily growth in conformity to Jesus and complements Bible reading with flexibility.
Key updates from the first edition include: detaching the reading plan, adopting a paperback journal format with one page per day, and simplified prompts.
The guide includes sections for Gratitude, Scripture, and Notes. Special Sunday layouts offer Weekly Reviews and Sermon Notes. It is available in red, blue, green, and brown, designed for easy portability within backpacks or bookbags. The changes aim to enhance the guide's usability for both private and corporate worship.
Using the Guide
The Bible Reading Guide features a single page for six days and two pages for every Sunday.
Daily Layout
Date
Write today’s date in the top right corner.
Gratitude
Ask yourself the question: “What in my life right now leads me to give God thanks?” It might be a particular experience or provision, or it might be something larger and all-encompassing. You might be grateful for a good night’s sleep or the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit. Whatever it might be, write it down and give God thanks.
Scripture
Write down the Scripture you’re reading today. This will help you keep a record of what you read on that particular day.
Three different reading plan bookmarks are available that feature plans with varying coverage and pace.
Notes
This is a legitimate catchall for anything that comes to mind as you segue into your daily activities.
You might use this section to jot down some notes from your Bible reading, or maybe a prayer for your day. You might also build a list of tasks you want to check off or you might leave it blank. It’s there in case you need it.
Sunday Layout
Every Sunday, the true first day of the week, there is a special, two-page layout which includes gratitude, Scripture, sermon notes, and the “Weekly Review.”
Gratitude
As with every day, begin your time by giving thanks to God.
Scripture
Use Sunday’s Scripture box to write down the sermon text, and/or the other passages you read that day.
Sermon Notes
Each Sunday features a box for Sermon Notes. We want you to get the maximum use of this guide, keeping it close by for private and corporate worship.
Heart, Home, Church, and World
With the Heart at the center, our discipleship moves from the Home, to the Church, and into the World:
Heart is center of our lives. Our main goal in Christlikeness is not that we merely look like Christ, but it’s that our hearts become like Christ’s heart.
Home consists of your closest relationships. This might include your spouse, children, parents, roommates and/or immediate neighbors.
Church — our church — are the brothers and sisters who have covenanted together as Cities Church.
World includes your workplace, neighborhood, recreational activities, and non-Christian relationships.
The dashboard is attempting to capture this inward-outward movement. The hope is that this visual helps you think about these things and then assess your discipleship in those areas.
Try to answer questions like: “How is my heart? How are things at home? At church? At work? Am I remembering the realness of Jesus here? Am I trusting him?”
A helpful method
One way to quickly assess “where I’m at” in the three areas is to use a simple acronym, T.S.R. – thriving, surviving, and reviving.
Thriving: “Regardless of my circumstance, I am at peace and am actively entrusting my soul to God.” Write ‘T’ and praise God for his sustaining grace.
Surviving: “My circumstances are difficult, and I’m a little disoriented. It feels like the wheels are about to fall off.” Write ‘S’ and ask for God’s help.
Reviving: “I am humbled and aware of my need. I yield now to God’s kingdom and his will.” Write ‘R’ and ask God for more.
Whether you use these categories or find your own, the point is to be honest with God about where you are. The goal is our conformity to Christ from the heart, for the glory of God.
Prayer
Use Sunday’s larger Prayer box for adoration and petition. Praise God for who he is and what he has done, and then ask him to strengthen you, by his grace, toward deeper discipleship.
Reading Plans
Bookmarks
Available for PDF download or pickup at the welcome tables, we adapted three reading plans into bookmarks, so you can take them with your Bible Reading Guide.
New Testament Plan
1 daily reading
Sundays off
NT in six months
Journal Plan
2 daily readings
Sundays off
whole bible in a year
M’Cheyne Plan
4 daily readings
ot once
nt & psalms twice
More plans
Several other reading plans are available online if you’d prefer to try something else.
We highly recommend Jason DeRouchie’s Kingdom Bible Reading Plan, or Pastor David Mathis’ personal favorite, the Discipleship Journal Plan.
Questions about any of this?
New to Cities?