Bible in 90 Days

[cristianna]

Is anyone participating in this? Bible In 90 Days (www.biblein90days.org)

I have signed up, but I'm also trying to be realistic about my approach and retention/understanding ability between The One Year Chronological Bible and various studies. I may not be able to do it in 90 days, but I do love goals!

[Kristen.NewCreation]

I've never heard of this one.

[Redheadedstepchild]

I've been doing a Bible in a year thing online. For me this is doable. I tried to double up to get through it faster but I found that I was skimming more than reading for understanding.

How do you like the chronological Bible? (I think I've asked you this before - forgive me if I have) I think it would be really helpful, particulaly in understanding the Old Testament.

[Celticflower]

90 days seems like a very short time in which to gain any understanding. Seems more like a quick read thru before you really settle down to study and absorb.

I used the Chronological in a year, last year and it was great! I finally started to understand the prophets better because their messages were with in the historical timeline and you were reading about what was going on that prompted the message.

[GraceSeeker]

90 days seems like a very short time in which to gain any understanding. Seems more like a quick read thru before you really settle down to study and absorb.


It might be, but I am glad to see people doing this. I think that we miss a lot of the message of the Bible because we get too detailed. It is like the saying, missing the forest for the trees. I don't think we can understand scripture in depth, and make sense of it, until we see it as a unified whole and how it all hangs together to tell one story of God's redeeming love.

[cristianna]

I agree, and definitely have apprehensions regarding remembering any detail. Honestly for me, superficially at least, 90 days is way too short. 6 months, I don't think is a big deal.

But as I heard it advertised, it's only 12 pages per day. And I wonder, when viewed with that in mind, just how bad can that really be. Currently, it's a 30 minute read daily, and I'm sure as it progresses into deeper reading the 30 minutes could easily become a bit more.

[GraceSeeker]

I agree, and definitely have apprehensions regarding remembering any detail. Honestly for me, superficially at least, 90 days is way too short. 6 months, I don't think is a big deal.

But as I heard it advertised, it's only 12 pages per day. And I wonder, when viewed with that in mind, just how bad can that really be. Currently, it's a 30 minute read daily, and I'm sure as it progresses into deeper reading the 30 minutes could easily become a bit more.


I'm confused. You do/ do not think that reading the Bible in 90 days is a big deal?

My Bible is 1635 pages long. That is the size of a rather large novel. But not something so huge that people can't sit down and read it in a lot less time than 3 months. Many people who like to read will check out several similar sized books and read them all in a two week period alloted by the local library. Of course not all people are voracious readers like that, but you don't have to be a voracious reader to get through the Bible, just a diligent one.

From several sources, I understand that it can actually be read aloud, at a normal public speaking rate (which for most people is considerably slower than silently reading to one's self) in about 90 hours. So, reading it in 90 days is certainly not asking too much. My comments above are driven by the fact that too few people seem willing to read the Bible like they would any other book. No, it isn't just any other book. But start there. Give it that. Don't make it so special that you can't even approach it unless you have special training, special helps and corrolating reference books or study guides. When it was written, it was written to be read just like any other piece of literature. I believe that there is not a single book in the Bible that is so long that it couldn't be read in one sitting if one was willing to just invest one's self in doing so. That we have a need to stretch it out over years, tells me that we just don't care to so invest ourselves in it.

I've been guilty of that in the past too. But, if I may, since I'm in this deep, may I pontificate just a bit more, please.

One of the things that I have found that is extremely helpful to me is the concept of sabbath. Now the Jews of course had a sabbath that was a day set apart to the Lord. Christians generally don't. Oh, we go to church on Sundays, and some people call that the sabbath. And while we might give God an hour or two on Sunday, it generally is a day set apart for family and recreation as much as it is for the Lord. Those aren't bad things, so I'm not speaking against them. But I am speaking in favor of the idea of reclaiming the concept of a Sabbath observance, a day apart for the Lord. Perhaps it is because as a pastor, I found that Sunday was not a day of rest for me. And if I wasn't careful, I could go weeks without getting a true day off, 24 hours were I wasn't involved in working in the church in one form or another. There was always something: meetings to attend, a special program, funerals and weddings, people in the hospital, and more services to prepare. And while that had always been true, I had generally been at smaller churches, or if at a larger church had defined enough responsibilities, that I always had down time as well. Now I'm the senior pastor at a slightly larger church, and I was finding myself getting burned out from being on the go constantly. I needed to be sure that I took a day off for me, and if I was going to do that, I figured I probably owed God as much as well.

So, I've tried to set Monday as my day off with no meetings scheduled. And I've tried to recognize that once the service is over on Sunday morning, that the rest of that day belongs to Him. So sometime in the middle of Sunday, I like to just sit down with my Bible, open it up to the beginning of a book (it could be any one, eventually it will be every one) and just read it, the whole thing, straight through, from beginning to end.

Now, I'm not always as consistent or diligent at this as I would like or should be, and I haven't been doing it for so long that I've read every book this way yet. But I am finding that it is doable. It isn't that hard to do once I get rid of all the other distractions such as TV, family, or thinking that I'm taking notes for something at church. When I just read it to read it, I can get through even the longest book in just a few hours. And, interestingly, doing so I also find that I get out of it things that I had missed when I was reading it in small concentrated units. That is what I meant by my comment, sometimes we miss the forest for the trees.

[cristianna]

For me personally, reading the bible in 90 days is not a big deal. (If I understand your question appropriately.)

Now it's been my experience anything above and beyond trying to read for more than 30-40 minutes is almost worthless. Somehow I cannot eliminate the needs of being a mother- INEVITABLY I get interrupted regardless of what time of day I am reading despite if it's in hiding (like the bathroom with the door locked) or out in the open at the dinner table, couch, etc. It's the whole "children are silent and don't need a thing until a parent gets on the phone" concept.

While I firmly believe the bible can be read in less than 90 days, I worry about the things I already have in place will confuse or just simply be too much for me all at once- a lenten study, my daily bible, daily devo book, and other studies.

I have no problems reading at an average rate through it even if I don't keep to suggested 12 pages a day, but I also would like retain and have at least a few things pieced together appropriately.

[GraceSeeker]

I have no problems reading at an average rate through it even if I don't keep to suggested 12 pages a day, but I also would like retain and have at least a few things pieced together appropriately.

And now, I know I am beating on a dead horse (bet you wish it wasn't a Monday, and I had a meeting to go to or something :swoon: ), but what I would like to suggest is that though you may feel like your are retaining less out of the longer readings, that unless we occassionally commit ourselves to some of the longer readings, we will never see the larger relationships between present in the scripture.

Let me just give one example:

Skim 1 Corinthians chapters 11-14. Many people, on the principle of going deeper, can't bring themselves to do that. Instead they will pause and spend a great deal of time on each single verse of 1 Corinthians 13 --after all, it is the "Love" chapter. And that is fine as far as it goes. But I want to suggest that by doing so without on other occassions reading more broadly cause themselves to miss some important things. Like, if you take away the chapter numberings, and the little headings put in there by other people, not Paul, you might see that chapter 13 is really nothing more than a parenthetical thought in Paul's larger discussion of the appropriate behaviors and practices to be found in worship. You can read the last line of 1 Corinthians 12 and go straight to the opening line of 1 Corinthians 14 without missing a beat. 1 Corinthians 13 is really an aside where Paul expands on the concept of love as that gift of the Spirit which pracitice is most important for worship what it is intended to be. These sorts of broader-based understandings of books as a whole require that we at least occassionally read scripture in large bites, rather than beginning by a narrow microscopic focus from the start. Yes, I know we will miss some of the details, but the great thing is that we can return to the scripture to mine it for those details again and again.

Another illustation of that comes in Romans 12:

Romans 12

Living Sacrifices

1Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual[a (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=romans%2012;&version=31;#fen-NIV-28232a)] act of worship. 2Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

3For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. 4Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his[b (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=romans%2012;&version=31;#fen-NIV-28237b)]faith. 7If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; 8if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully. Love

9Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality.

14Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. 16Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position.[c (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=romans%2012;&version=31;#fen-NIV-28247c)] Do not be conceited. 17Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. 18If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay,"[d (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=romans%2012;&version=31;#fen-NIV-28250d)]says the Lord. 20On the contrary:
"If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head."[e (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=romans%2012;&version=31;#fen-NIV-28251e)] 21Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.


Again, many will read this book one chapter at a time (not that you are) and miss how this chapter ties in with all that Paul has already written. But if one is reading through the book as a whole, I find that it is actually more likely (not less) that the reader notices detail of the word "therefore" in Romans 12:1. As yourself the question, what is that "therefore" there for? Simple, it is the hinge that links Paul's discussion of Christian theology in the first 11 chapters of the letter with his discussion of Christian behavior in the final 1/3 of the letter. It is a structural pin that holds the letter together, that people often miss when they read Romans in smaller segments.

Beautiful as a single leaf might be, it is the whole pallet of colors evidence in looking at a stand of woods draped over a hillside that is the most beautiful way to enjoy the colors of fall. I find the same principle often holds to reading the Bible.

P.S. Even as I write this, I understand that being a mom is yet another reality, and one can't always do what one would like to do with one's time because of the necessity that one can't just say that you're own break or it is your day off. Parenthood doesn't allow for that option.

[cristianna]

Nah, no wishing for meetings. :thumbsup: But that was funny!

I guess really it doesn't matter how much is retained because it's not like I'm going to say, "sheew that was a great read" and put it away to be forgotten about on the bookshelf.