Read your Bible in 2011

"I charge every reader to remember that God’s written Word is the only rule of faith, and to believe nothing to be true and soul-saving in religion which cannot be proved by plain texts of Scripture. I entreat him to read the Bible and make it his only test of truth and error, right and wrong." - J.C. Ryle; The Upper Room, Our Profession

About this time of year people start to make resolutions. Resolutions are not bad in and of themselves, in fact Jonathan Edwards has famously made a few. Anyway for 2011, can I encourage you to make a resolution to read the bible in 2011.

I tried a few years back before I was married and I went OK. When the Canberra winter came in (so probably in March :), I found it hard to get out of bed in the morning. The reading plan I was also doing involved reading from four parts of scripture, so a simpleton like me found it hard to hold the four parts in my head together. Over at The Gospel Coalition, they have a great article on reading plans and list the same short comings I found with the plan I started. They then offer a pdf with a modified reading plan that takes two years. It seems alright.

If macro is not your thing then over at The Resurgence they are "Partnering to Remember" all of Philippians before Easter 2011. They also have a pdf resource that you can download to help you out.

And for those who think these two reading plans don't work for them, YouVersion have a few to choose from. When I stopped reading the 4 sections of scripture a day, I jumped across to use their Chronological one, and with YouVersion you can use your RSS reader on their plans, so if you read articles anyway in your feed reader, why not also add the bible?