If I were reading this blog and I had never done that, I’d be thinking, “It’s easy for you.  You’re a preacher.  This seems kind of braggy to me.”  So let me help you understand it is not.  It is designed to be an encouragement, not just to read through the Bible in a year but to make reading the Bible in a regular way a habit for you that you miss when you don’t do it. 

The first three times I tried to read the Bible through in a year, I failed.  I laugh about my good intentions being shipwrecked on the rocks of Leviticus, but that’s pretty much what happened three years in a row.  Then I went to a conference led by Francis and Edith Schaeffer.  At that conference Mrs. Schaeffer talked about her struggle with reading the Bible through in a year and how she had gone about doing it by dividing it up beginning at Genesis 1, Psalm 1, and Matthew 1.  I did that and it worked for me.  I now have been using the method that we hand out in the church for the last five times I’ve read through it, and it is by far my favorite method.  It is not for everyone.  My wife does not like it.  She prefers a Bible that is set up to help you read it through in a year.  It doesn’t matter at all what plan you use. 

When I read it through the first time, I felt like I had finished a difficult job.  Now when I pick the Bible up in the morning and read my assignment, I feel like I’ve come back to a wonderful and dear old friend.  It took me a number of times through to get to the point where it was that way.  But we need to recognize everything in life that is worthwhile is cultivated. Nothing comes to us wonderful and new.  I think that’s why old shoes and old pants and an old hat are so good for us to put on.  The Bible needs to feel like that to you – something you miss when you don’t read it and something that you rejoice in being with when you do. 

Make the effort with me again this next year to read through the Bible.  We’ll be handing out the Bible reading plan, but the plan won’t do anything for you if you don’t sincerely desire to utilize it.

Reading is such a great sport.  It started for me at age five with comic books.  One day I realized I knew what some of the words inside the cartoon characters’ speech bubbles were.  I hope you love to read.  It is surely the best way to connect to the best minds from whom you are separated by space, time, or both.

            On vacation I read Jeff Shaara’s story of World War II titled The Rising Tide.  This very factual, historical novel tells of the early events of World War II and the North African and Sicilian campaigns led by Dwight D. Eisenhower.  It describes the war from the standpoint of both Erwin Rommel (The Desert Fox) and his fellow German generals and Dwight Eisenhower and his fellow generals.

            Of particular interest was the representation of General George Patton and General Omar Bradley, two completely different men with fascinating personalities.  Patton never achieved as high a rank as most people believe he could have because his personality, while fascinating, also barred him from going any higher than he did.  (It is interesting that the highest rank to which he ever aspired was that of three-star general.  That was his dream from the beginning of West Point, and that is as far as he ever went.)  Omar Bradley, on the other hand, was remarkably resolute and strong and simultaneously incredibly modest.  This man was able to rise to the rank of four-star general, one of only four that ever served in the army.  This book is certainly well worth your time.

            Read any good books lately?  Tell me about them.