On Reading the Bible in a Year, Part 2

So, I read the Bible in a year in chronological order, and as I look back, these  are a few of the things that stand out:

1

I've always gotten lost in the sea of names that is the first 7 or 8 books that are in the Bible. So, with some lunacy, I decided to write out every genealogy I came across, and write down every name. That's right. Ishban, Shuah, Jokshan in Genesis 25? Got 'em. Uzzi, Ahitub, and Zadok from 1 Chronicles 6? Got those too. The name of every person in the Pentateuch, 1 Samuel, and 1 Chronicles, and as far as I could tell, who they are related to and where they're from. At the time, this seemed like a good way to try to nail them all down. Fast forward a few months and almost an entire journal of just names, and most of them blended together. Was it worth it? Yes! It really did help me figure out who all of those people were, especially once I got into tribes. However, it was a ridiculously tedious undertaking. One big take-away: Each time I read the Bible through from here on out, I'm going to pick one big thing I want to understand better and absurdly commit to writing it all out. I think next time it's going to be geography. *Enter maps and atlases, stage left. 

2 

I'm trucking my way through the beginning of Genesis. La-ti-di. La-ti-da. And wham!

On Fasting

So, I typed this post last night but our internet quit working and I couldn't post it until tonight.  Yesterday I finished reading the Bible in a year in chronological order! I try to use exclamation marks sparingly, but I think that deserves an exclamation mark.

As I looked ahead and saw this time coming, I wanted to think about a way to celebrate it, and God led me to do a fast. This past week I've fasted from food, as a statement to myself and to God that "man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord."

On Reading the Bible in a Year

Tomorrow is a big day for me.  On April 6th last year, I decided to read through the Bible in a year.  I had started such ventures before, but that night the weight of it laid heavily on me, so I picked a chronological Bible reading plan, and started.  Tomorrow is my 365th day in my Bible reading plan.  I'm so excited to finish!

To celebrate and reflect on "the great things God has done for my soul" (as Spurgeon puts it), I thought first writing about why reading through the Bible is worthwhile, but then I realized that Robert Murray McCheyne did it so much better than I can.