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| Two pages from my Bible in Ephesians. |
Every year there are hordes of Bible reading plans to follow, and like it or not they are designed to be read from 1 January to 31 December. They are annual Bible reading programs. There are other programs that are designed to be read over 2 or 3 years. I know, many will say that you don’t have to read it starting at 1 January, it could be started at any time. The fact is that these Bible reading plans are promoted on scores of websites and blogs. . ., in the last week or so of December. Which leads the human mind to see these programs, plans or systems as new year’s resolutions. They are designed with the annual mindset.
Well, this year I decided to do it a tad differently! I decided to follow Prof. Grant Horner’s Bible reading system which is kind of designed around a 250 day cycle, or a 28 day cycle, or a 31 day cycle, or an 89 day cycle. . . you get the drift! Horner’s system is designed around ten lists of Bible books of which you are to read one chapter from daily. That makes it 10 chapters each day, each chapter from a different book.
While most reading plans are designed to finish 1189 chapters in a year, Horner’s system is designed to read every chapter in the Bible in 250 days. His longest list of books is 250 chapters long (List 9, OT prophets) and his shortest list is only 28 chapters long (List 10, Acts). It means that by the time List 9 has been completed, Acts would have been read almost a complete 9 times!
The lists are made up as follows:
In 250 days you would have read the gospels just shy of 3 times, the Mosaic books 1.33 times, List 3 just more than 3 times, List 4 almost 4 times, List 5 a total of 4 times, Psalms 1.66 times, Proverbs 8 times, and Acts almost 9 times. This makes for a lot of reading! By the end of the year, if you have read every day of the year, you would have covered 3650 chapters of the Bible. You would have read Acts 13 times! Do you think you would know Acts just a little by then?
Prof Horner recommends using the same Bible every day, the same one you always use. You will gain an affinity for the Bible you use. And, it helps for recollection. After reading the same passages from the same Bible for several years, you will start recalling entire pages in your mind, says Prof Horner. (Read more here.) You can also find Prof Horner’s system on Facebook. You can find his 10 Lists in a document that explains the whole system here. Simply print out the lists, and then cut them into individual strips and you will have bookmarks for each list.
What I’ve done to help myself keep track of what I have read was to create 2 documents. One is simply a foldable checklist of each chapter from each book in each list. Click here to download this checklist. Then I also created an Excel spread sheet with each list’s books and chapters (some repeated) all the way down to row 250. This way I can keep track with where I am supposed to be at all times while repeating some books several times. Click here to download this spread sheet.
What I have found with this system of reading is that there is no time to get bored or stuck in a rut. With the subject matter changing several times in a sitting, my attention is held fixed to the Scriptures.
UPDATE:
2 March 2014 - I have updated the Excel spread sheet. I have added a date column and a day column. The Date column is the first column. The dates start in row 2. If you did not start on 1 January with this program, then in the Date column, row 2, change your starting date and all the succeeding dates will change too. That way you can keep a check on your progress no matter when you start the program. The second column is the Day column. This you must leave as is. It simply gives you an idea of which day you are on in your reading progress. In my progress, yesterday (1 Mar 2014) was day 60. It means that I have read 600 chapters.
I hope this all helps!
