Read Through the Bible in 2016

Please read the Bible in 2016.

Seriously, whatever your resolutions are this year, none of them are as important as getting more of God’s word into your daily life.

At Cities, we want to consistently encourage personal Bible reading and Bible study for everyone who steps through our doors. That’s why we offer our Bible study guides, The Quarterly, completely free. We want to give you as many resources as we can to make it as easy as possible for you to dive into God’s word.

And in addition for those going through the Bible study guides, or for those who do their own studies, I also want to commend to you reading through the entire Bible in 2016.

Justin Taylor has figured that this will take you about 10 minutes a day. He writes:

There are about 775,000 words in the Bible. Divided by 365, that’s 2,123 words a day. The average person reads 200 to 250 words per minute. So 2,123 words/day divided by 225 words/minute equals 9.4 minutes a day.

It will probably take you longer than 10 minutes, especially if you stop and think about what you’re reading, but that’s at least a number to pique your interest. 10 minutes. 30 minutes. Whatever time it takes is time well spent.

Justin offers several different plans and approaches. I personally recommend the KINGDOM Bible Reading Plan from Jason DeRouchie, OT prof at Bethlehem College and Seminary. It’s unlike other plans I’ve used before. For one, it is set to 25 days a month, which gives you some flexibility if you get behind or want to linger a little longer over some chapters. Also, it has you reading through the Psalms twice in one year (and I love the Psalms). Also, and this is important, the order of the Old Testament is set to the Hebrew Bible—the Law, Prophets, Writings. This is a little different from the order of our English Bibles, and it will give you some fresh insight into how the books are arranged. You can download the KINGDOM plan below. I recommend printing it out and sticking it inside your Bible.