Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Read With Me: Genesis

Do you have reading plans for the month of January? Planning to start the year with Genesis, the first book of the Bible? Hoping the new year is the year that Bible reading will become a habit that sticks around the whole year through? I'd love to have you join me in reading Genesis in January. You may follow your own reading plan if you like.

(Many popular plans have readers finishing the entire book of Genesis in just fifteen days--with Exodus being completed by day 27! The chronological reading plan on the other hand has readers finishing Genesis and Job in thirty days.) But starting a new habit may not prove easy, so don't feel bad if you can't keep up with someone else's chart or plan.

The important thing is to make the effort to read. This might mean reading every single day. Or. It might mean reading every week day, Monday through Friday. Or. It might mean reading every weekend, Saturday and Sundays.

December 29 through January 4; Week 1: Genesis 1-5
January 5 through 11; Week 2: Genesis 6-17
January 12 through 18; Week 3: Genesis 18-27
January 19 through 25; Week 4: Genesis 28-38
January 26 through February 1; Week 5: 39-50

Feel free to use any translation. Find the one that best fits your needs. Not sure which one that is? Browse through chapters using Bible Gateway. ESV. NIV. NASB. NKJV. NLT. HCSB. Of course that's just a sample of available translations.

Feel free to switch back and forth between Bibles or Bible translations. If you start the project with one Bible and feel it's just not working, change it!

Use a text-only bible OR a study bible. It's up to you. If you do use a study bible, allow yourself more time each day so that you may read notes and introductions.

Time estimates. An audio Bible of Genesis is around 3 hours and 35 minutes. Woodrow Kroll estimates (in his book, How To Read The Bible One Book At A Time) that Genesis takes the average reader 3 hours and 15 minutes. I'm not sure that either estimate takes skimming begets into consideration!!! It certainly doesn't apply to those readers using the MacArthur Study Bible!!!

By the way, feel free to skim--perhaps not completely skip--the lists of generations or all the begets. You want a feel for what they show, but there will be no quizzes! Adam. Seth. Enoch. Noah. Shem. Abraham. Isaac. Jacob and Esau. Joseph and Judah. These are the names that you may want to pay attention to.

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

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