A brief conversation with Pastor Jason and Kyle Lamb this morning inspired me to take a brief break from our series on the Struggle of the Seeds to think with you about Bible reading. Pastor Jason shared with me a website, containing the following statistics…
Reading at “pulpit speed,” out loud:
- It would take 70 hours, 40 minutes to read the entire Bible.
- It would take 52 hours, 20 minutes to read the OT.
- It would take 18 hours, 20 minutes to read the NT.
- You could read the entire Bible four times a year by reading just 48 minutes per day!
It’s the last one that caught my attention. Some of us may think there’s no way to find 48 minutes to read the Bible everyday. Here’s a challenge: Take two days and keep track of every minute you spend on Facebook, Twitter, any other social media, TV, or podcast. Add all those minutes up and divide by two. (That’s what we call an average.) That number is the average free time you have everyday. I wonder if it’s more or less than 48 minutes…
What about half that? 24 minutes? You could read the Bible twice a year reading 24 minutes a day. Do you spend that much time in the car each day? You know, listening to an audio Bible isn't cheating.
Talking to Jason and Kyle this morning, I was reminded of several years ago when I read through the Bible in three months. It was by far my richest journey through the Bible. There are things you pick up reading at that pace that you will never notice doing a “read through the Bible in a year” plan. The Bible came alive to me. I loved it.
At the same time, there are benefits to reading the Bible very slowly. There are benefits to reading one book over and over.
Why not try something new? If the 48 minutes a day thing isn’t for you right now, there are other options. Here are a number of plans on our website.
Additionally, below is a video I did a while back about my favorite way to become extremely familiar with any one book. Whatever you choose, don’t underestimate the tremendous value of spending time in the Word!
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