Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Wencel Bible Reading Plan 2011

Emily and I have now read the Scriptures together at least three times in our shortly more than three years of marriage. Some portions we've read more. For example, we read the New Testament and Psalms twice while reading the rest of the Old Testament once during our first year of marriage. But each year, thus far, we've gone through the whole of Scripture together.

Now by together I mean that we've been on the same reading plan. We've actually only read about half of the scheduled reading aloud in each other's presence while sitting down together. There are 929 chapters in the Old Testament, 260 in the New Testament, making 1189 total. Maybe we've done about 500 to 600 hundred of these actually together aloud each year, usually in the morning and evening as we start and end our days together in prayer. The sweet effect this has had on our marriage is untold and inestimable. And these have been, without a doubt, some of our sweetest and deepest times together in conversation and reflection and planning and hoping and longing.

Each year we've used a different reading scheme. The first year we used Robert Murray M'Cheyne's plan laid out in D. A. Carson's For the Love of God volumes. The last two years we've come up with our own plans, deciding that all the plans out there, of which we're aware, aren't all that helpful for us.

I'm providing below our reading scheme for this year. Some factors that have influenced our decisions for how to go about reading the whole Bible this year include flexibility (slating books for each month, but no particular readings for each day), continuity (rather than doing set chapters each day, we have books slated for each month to allow reading straight through each book in as few sittings as possible), genre or corpus groupings (you'll notice, for example, that we've lumped wisdom literature together from February to May), expected busy seasons (we slow down, for example, our reading a bit during heavy semesters but pick it up in the summer), chronological order (we're roughly following the chronology of the Old Testament narrative portions, as well as that of the prophets), and so on.

You'll notice that certain books we read together (a bit in the morning and a bit in the evening). Other books we read alone, meaning that these are slated for private devotions. Since some books are read during our carved out times alone with the Lord, we're not always reading every chapter in parallel with each other. Yet we're in the same books in any given month. So, for example, if February gets busy for me in the beginning of the month, I might read Numbers and Deuteronomy the last ten days of February, but Em may read these same books in the first ten days of February. During the other time when we're not reading the scheduled books, we tend to read whatever seems needful or whatever is desirable or whatever we're memorizing (usually we both are constantly reading Psalms, whatever the schedule says).

Well, here is the Wencel Bible reading plan for the year of grace 2011:

Jan. '11:     Together:  Mark & Genesis              
                  Alone:  Exodus & Leviticus
Feb. '11:    Together:  Proverbs & Matthew 
                  Alone:  Numbers & Deuteronomy
Mar. '11:   Together:  Psalms & Job              
                  Alone:  Joshua & Judges
Apr. '11:    Together:  Ruth, Psalms, & Ecclesiastes  
                  Alone:  1 & 2 Samuel
May '11:   Together:  Psalms & Song of Songs
                  Alone:  Acts & Pauline epistles
                              (in chronological order)
June '11:    Together:  Psalms, 1 & 2 Peter, Jude, 1-3 John,
                                   & James
                  Alone:  Acts & Pauline epistles
                              (in chronological order)
July '11:     Together: 1 & 2 Kings
                   Alone:  1 & 2 Chronicles
Aug. '11:    Together:  Isaiah & Romans
                  Alone:  Ezra-Nehemiah & Esther
Sept. '11:   Together:  Jeremiah & Lamentations
                  Alone:  Ezekiel
Oct. '11:     Together:  Daniel & Hebrews
                  Alone:  Amos, Jonah, & Hosea
Nov. '11:    Together:  Luke-Acts                   
                   Alone:  Micah, Nahum, Zephaniah, Habakkuk,
                               & Obadiah
Dec. '11:     Together:  John & Revelation
                   Alone:  Haggai, Zechariah, & Malachi

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