#1 Tip for Maximum Growth in 2012
Sun, January 1, 2012 | Post a Comment | 
Read the Bible this year – yes you can!
It doesn’t matter if you’ve tried and failed before, I’m going to give you some secrets to help you get this done.
It’s absolutely the best time you’ll ever spend.
We go through our lives thinking, planning, and working to save and invest and build up for the future with our finances, why not do the same for your spiritual life? When you shut your eyes for the last time all of your “financial planning” will be a thing in your past. It’s your spirit that you will carry with you into eternity. It’s great to be wise about your finances on Earth—but not if it diverts you from the greater prize of spiritual growth which yields eternal, unlimited rewards.
It’s your book
The Bible was written specifically for you. God provided the Bible for you—not just a special class of spiritual giants. God does not have grandchildren, He only has children. You’re not going to get into Heaven based off of the faith of your parents, family, or friends. This is all between you and God. He loves you as much as He loves everyone else, and the Bible was written for you as much as anyone else who has ever lived.
It took me 50 years to figure out how.
Although I was raised in the Baptist Church and became a Christian at 8 years old I never could get myself organized around reading the Bible all the way through until I was 50 years old. I heard sermons on the bible, I had been to hundreds of Bible studies and classes, I had read and studied various parts on my own and read many books about the Bible, however, when I tried to read the it all the way through, I’d wind up falling asleep. I remember going to the funeral of a friend of mine named Ken Durham in Snellville, Georgia, once where the pastor mentioned in passing during the sermon that he had read the Bible 50 times and it became richer every time he read it. I could remember thinking, "how in the world did he do that?"
The Solution 
- Before you start a section it gives you a brief overview and context rather than just jumping in.
- The text is put in a chronological order which allows you to read through the Bible and read about the events as they actually happened in the order that they actually happened.
- This adjustment makes reading the Bible like reading one continuous story. It makes it so easy to put people, places, and events in sequence and in order.
After I got started here’s what happened:
I put it by my bed and decided I would read the last thing every night before I went to sleep. Some people like to do it first thing in the morning when they wake up but you’ve got to have some anchor time that you do it every day or you won’t do it. I like the idea of making this the last thing that was on my mind before I shut down for the night and knew that would put me in a great frame of mind to start the next morning. Needless to say, the brain does the bulk of its work at night while we are sleep so I thought what a perfect time to load my head with scripture.
Once I started I immediately found myself captivated by the story even though I had been familiar with it all my life. With the background information in this historical context and chronological arrangements I became “hooked” on the story. Soon I found myself reading way past the “daily allotment”. I would get caught up and fascinated in the story and would just keep on reading. I made sure when I traveled I would not have it interrupted. When the occasional night came when I was having trouble getting to sleep I found it didn’t matter because I could just read longer.
Soon I found myself weeks ahead and then it became a game to see how far ahead I would get. Then of course the inevitable interruption came because life isn’t perfect and no matter how great our intentions are we get off track. So I found during the year there would be times when for a week or even a couple of months my reading would be interrupted. However, I also found it didn’t really matter, because I had read so far ahead I was still on schedule. Once, I had a delay that caused me to get far behind my schedule but I found myself unconcerned because I knew once I resumed, I would easily catch up, and I did.
Somewhere around early December I wound up finishing Revelation and for the first time in my life I had read through the Bible. Now, I’m as competitive as anyone else, but I don’t think it’s necessary to comment on how many times I’ve read the Bible since then except to say I hope I get the opportunity to do it again and again the rest of my life because I’ve found that the pastor at Ken Durhams’ funeral was right, it does get richer and it does make more sense, and it does come more alive with every reading.
So here’s my #1 suggestion for you in 2012...
You can make it a New Year’s decision if you like. Why not make this year count? Why not draw a line in the sand and say “now’s the time, I want to do this, and by God’s grace and help I will." Of course you don’t have to use the chronological daily Bible.
There are hundreds of reading plans available and there are many excellent apps you can put on your phone or iPad to make it even easier. I actually wish they’d make the chronological Bible available as an app. This is not the time to make excuses. In our generation there are more translations and study guides than ever before.
If you want to do it, now’s the time, and there’s not better a thing you can do in 2012.
Online Resources
- Free Bible Apps iOS, Android and Blackberry
- The One Year Bible Online
- The Bible Reading Plan An online Bible plan that will email you a chronological reading plan each day.