Saturday, February 23, 2019

Daily Bible Readings

The importance of reading the Bible daily
Jesus tells us that the first and greatest commandment is to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength (Mark 12:30). One crucial way of doing this is by reading the Bible. The Bible is our normative witness to Jesus Christ. The words of the Bible are still the ones through which Jesus most prefers to speak to us. It remains our best antidote to the Olympian worldview of the Global Technological System.

There are many ways of developing the daily habit of reading the Bible
To begin with, set aside a regular time each day to read the Bible. First thing in the morning is best. Then:

1. Read the Bible a certain length of time each day beginning with Genesis and ending with Revelation.

2. Read any book of the Bible continuously from beginning to end, choose another book and do the same, and continue this process until you've read all the books of the Bible.

3. Follow the readings in a daily lectionary (a lectionary is simply a list of readings from the Bible). One way to do this is by using the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer. Toward the end of this book, you will find the "Daily Office Lectionary" (beginning on p. 934). For each day, it provides readings from the Old Testament, Psalms, New Testament letters, and Gospels. Using this lectionary prayerfully takes about 15 minutes each day and will allow you to read through the whole Bible in two years.

4. Reading the Bible in 90 days: If you wish to read the Bible for about an hour a day, finish it in 90 days, and enjoy a variety of readings along the way, you may follow this plan:

First Month 
Second Month 
Third Month