It's that time of year again when we make resolutions. As we think about the beginning of 2022, one item that we should resolve to do is to read the Bible, and spend more time with the Lord in His Word.

Now, there are two approaches to daily Bible-reading: reading for intimacy or reading for familiarity. Intimacy with the Bible comes by slow, meditative reading that focuses on small portions—deep study of books, chapters, and verses. Familiarity with the Bible comes through faster reading of larger portions—for example, reading the entire sweep of the biblical narrative in one year.

It's been my experience that Christians thrive on a healthy mixture of the two. We should seek to be familiar with the whole Bible, and we should get deep into a particular book. To that end, we invite you to read the Bible with us this year. Together, as a church, we are reading for familiarity using the 5 Day Bible Reading Program. Additionally, we’ll be taking a deep dive into Revelation together.

Broad Familiarity

First, let’s talk about the “5 Day Bible Reading Program.” It has several features that are really helpful, especially if you are just doing this for the first time!

• It is a familiarity plan that covers the entire text of the Bible over the course of the year. You will read every word of the Bible in the year ahead.
• It is a semi-chronological plan that covers the text of the Bible in the order the events happened (with the exception of Job which comes at the end). For example, the Psalms come at appropriate moments in the life of David, the books of Kings and Chronicles are read in harmony, and so on. This helps set the events in their historical context. Yet even though it’s chronological, it’s only semi-chronological. There are Old Testament and New Testament readings each day and the gospels are interspersed through the year. This is an ideal compromise over a strictly chronological program, especially when you’re goal is to see Christ working in every passage, and desire to see how the Old Testament frequently points to Christ.
• It is a free plan. It’s free for the taking! They’ve got a nice little print-out you can download, print, fold in half, and put inside your Bible. It’s got boxes to tick as you complete each day and each week.

The 5 Day Bible Reading Program is a free download and is available for you to download and print off immediately. We will also have some of these plans printed off for you to grab a copy on Sunday!

Deep Dive & Intimacy

This year, we are taking a deep dive into the book of Revelation. There is an upcoming Sunday Morning Tenet Talk diving into the book of Revelation with Pastor Tyler. In addition, we recommend that you grab the following devotional book on Revelation: Exalting Jesus in Revelation. You can download the book as a Kindle file or order the paperback copy. This is a devotional book with thirty-two chapters detailing the various visions and seals of the book of Revelation, and it includes reflection questions at the end of each chapter. We will be reading one chapter each week together as a church for the next thirty-two weeks, and we'll be talking about the book of Revelation each Sunday morning in Pastor Tyler’s Tenet Talk.

Whatever you do, let’s be sure to get into the routine of spending time with the Lord in His Word this year. Happy New Year!