Are you reading the Bible?

I am ten days in to my Bible reading and devotional plan for 2014.  I heard about this from Pastor David Platt’s posting on Facebook.  It is the plan that he is doing with his congregation at The Church at Brookhills.  It has been several years since I completed a “through the Bible in a year” plan; it sounded like just the right thing for 2014. 

The plan was prepared by the 19th Century Scottish minister, Robert Murray M'Cheyne, who lived from 1813-1843.  The plan takes readers through the New Testament and Psalms twice a year, and through the rest of the Bible once each year. 

In 1998, D. A. Carson, theologian and seminary professor, slightly modified this reading plan and published it in his book, For the Love of God.

In addition to the plan, he provided his “devotional” comments regarding each day's scriptural passages.  Here’s what Carson has to say about his book:

“the rising biblical illiteracy in Western culture means that the Bible is increasingly a closed book, even to many Christians.  As the culture drifts away from its former rootedness in a Judeo-Christian understanding of God, history, truth, right and wrong, purpose, judgment, forgiveness and community, the Bible seems stranger and stranger.  For precisely the same reason, it becomes all the more urgent to read it and reread it, so that at least confessing Christians preserve the heritage and outlook of a mind shaped and informed by holy Scripture . . . . Here you will find a plan that will help you read through the New Testament and the Psalms twice, and the rest of the Bible once, in the course of a year.  Comment is offered for each day, but this book fails utterly in its goal if you read the comment and not the assigned biblical passages.

I said all of this to let you all know that I believe I will be quoting the Bible and Carson quite often this year.  As I said, I’m just ten days in and I can’t resist sharing what he said today:

Anyone with the slightest familiarity with history knows how frequently and chillingly these prophecies (Matthew 10:22-23, persecution of Christians) have been fulfilled.  The fact that many in the West have for so long been largely exempt from the worst features of such persecution has let us lower our guard—even Christians may think that a hassle-free life is something that society owes us.  But as the Judeo-Christian heritage of the West weakens, we may one day be caught up in realities that missions specialists know but that the rest of us sometimes ignore:  the last century and a half have seen more converts, and more martyrs, than the first eighteen centuries combined.

In any case, a fundamental principle is at stake.  This is the way Christians view things; indeed, it is bound up with being a Christian.  “Anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.  Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”  Matthew 10:38-39

Lord, help me not to take your Word for granted.  Help me to live out its principles in my daily life.

P.S.  If you'd like to start this plan or any other, you can download the free Bible app from YouVersion here:  http://www.a.youversion.com/free-bible-apps  Once you have the app, you will find hundreds of different reading plans--one is bound to be right for you.