A Biblical Journey

Last fall I started the discipline of reading from the New Testament every morning. Sometimes it’s a single chapter, other mornings I’ll read two. Sometimes (especially in Romans) I’ll stick on a single chapter for several days in a row. It has been life changing, and now I can’t imagine starting my day with anything else. Today I finished Revelation 22, so tomorrow morning I get to start over again.

It’s a bit embarrassing that it took me this long to figure this out. I’ve tried commentaries, devotions, and journaling, but nothing has ever stuck. The commentaries got dull, the devotions got sappy, and sometimes that journal pen had absolutely nothing relevant to say. But simply starting every day with reading God’s word has been powerful in a way that is difficult to describe.

I also like the approach I took, so I thought I’d share it with you. Instead of reading the books in the order they were canonized, I decided to read each author separately, and in chronological order. By reading the books by the same writer together, you really get a sense of their style and cadence (and you eventually embrace Paul’s run-on sentences). By reading them in chronological order, you get a sense of the history and timing. Here is the sequence I used:

• Mark, Matthew

• Luke – Luke, Acts

• Paul – 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Romans, Colossians, Philemon, Ephesians, Philippians, 1 Timothy, Titus, 2 Timothy

• James

• Hebrews

• Peter – 1 Peter, 2 Peter

• Jude

• John – John, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, Revelation

While I’m certainly no scholar, this really brought it all alive to me. I highly recommend it!