Almost seven years ago I heard Dr. Chad Brand from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary say that he had read the Bible through something like thirty times. I was amazed, challenged, encouraged, and motivated. At that time I had been in ministry about three years and I’m ashamed to say at that time I had not read through the Bible in one year. Sure, I had “read” the Bible for Old Testament and New Testament class at Southern but I had never sought to read through it devotionally like Dr. Brand mentioned. So seven years ago I made a commitment, Lord-willing, to read through the Bible each year. I’m encouraged that I’ve maintained that commitment for the last seven years and it has been one of the greatest things I’ve done devotionally, as well as for simply familiarizing myself with the Bible and coming to a deeper appreciation for the storyline of Scripture.

I’m a little behind in posting this but I wanted to share how I’m reading through the Bible. For starters, I’m using D. A. Carson’s “For the Love of God: A Daily Companion for Discovering the Treasures of God’s Word” Volume Two. I’ve used this before and Carson gives a great devotional thought each day that coincide with the biblical passages assigned for the day. The assigned passages for my biblical reading are from the M’Cheyne Chart of Daily Bible Readings. You can access the schedule here.

If you’re wondering who or what M’Cheyne is you’re not alone! In short M’Cheyne was a minister in Scotland whose influence was known and recognized through a work entitled “Robert Murray M’Cheyne: Memoir and Remains,” which consisted of letters, messages, miscellaneous papers and a brief biography. D. A. Carson shares that one of M’Cheyne’s “abiding concerns was to encourage his people, and himself, to read the Bible. To one young man he wrote, ‘you read your Bible regularly, of course, but do try to understand it, and still more to feel it.'” (Carson, 11). As a result one of the things M’Cheyne did was to put together a Bible reading plan, which is linked above. If you don’t have a plan let me encourage you to put one together and possibly adopt his; even if it’s reading one of the four chapters that’s fine, just start somewhere.