Read The Bible In A Year With Me! ("The Weekly Word")

 

A couple years ago I invited you to join me, as observers or participants, while I embarked on an endeavor to be a better and more disciplined steward of my body. Over the course of a year I had ups and downs, successes and failures, as I shared my journey with listeners each week on the Christian Geek Central podcast in a segment called "The Weekly Waistline".

It was a valuable experience that I am still benefiting from, and likely will for the rest of my life. As Paul tells Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:8, "bodily training is of some value".

Of course he more fully remarks that "while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come."

My hope is that Christian Geek Central content encourages the pursuit of godliness in a variety of ways already, but for a couple reasons I'm specifically inviting you now to join me in reading through the Bible in a year as another form of training in godliness.

The first reason is a selfish one. My church is encouraging all attendees to be part of a community endeavor to read through the Bible in a year, and are providing a reading plan as well as other classes, curriculum and resources to both help and enrich that endeavor. I once read through the Bible when I was in High School, and think that it's a good idea for me to do it again. So I'll be participating in this initiative at my church. And choosing to report on my experience each week on the podcast strikes me as a good way to keep myself accountable in the process.

The second reason is for any who might be listening to the podcast who might like to join me, or find out what its like to read through the Bible in a year. Whether its weight loss or spiritual disciplines, its easy to think "I could never do that". But by following along on my journey, you can get a heads up about the potential challenges and pitfalls, as well as the benefits of reading through the entire Bible. A chief benefit being familiarity with the Bible.

To be clear, the goal of this endeavor is NOT to be able to check off boxes, as much as I enjoy that in open world video games. In fact, I may fail at times and fall behind in the reading plan, and choose to simply resume from wherever I am at on the schedule instead of trying to "catch up" on readings I missed. (This is a recommendation I've heard a number of times from those more experienced in this kind of endeavor.)  The purpose is also NOT to be able to pridefully humble-brag or think to myself "I accomplished this". If we do something like this to achieve status in our minds, or in the estimation of others, we are missing out on what God actually wants us to gain.

Instead, my personal goal is to gain an increased general familiarity with the content of the Bible. I have studied and/or taught through a number of books in the Bible at this point, but I think I could really benefit from getting a zoomed out perspective as much as I've benefitted from so often zooming in for a deep look at specific books and passages. Even those of us who consider ourselves Bible-oriented Christians can tend to actually be "doctrine-oriented" or "study-oriented", and miss out on the broader, over-arching themes that God weaves across multiple books, that are sometimes better seen from a low earth orbit instead of through the microscope.

As I report on my experience each week during the "Weekly Word" segment of the podcast, I do not plan to explain or teach the text from the reading plan that week. I may report on portions that stood out to me or had impact for me in some way. I may report on portions that were strange or that I didn't understand. Not to solicit help in understanding them, but to give you a snapshot of what it may feel like at times to commit to a broad, surface reading for the sake of covering more ground and seeing that "orbiting view" of the Bible. This segment is not intended to be a devotional or study of any kind. Instead, my intent is to give you a "heads up" regarding challenges, difficulties and benefits I experience along the way, that will hopefully help you get the most out of your experience if you choose to join me. Or, to help you prepare or set expectations for yourself should you choose to read through the Bible at some point in the future.

As I said, I will be using the reading plan provided by my church, which you can find here: https://www.rmcchurch.org/media/read-the-bible/ Since I will be reporting on what I have already read from the reading plan each week, you might consider reading the plan on a one week delay, to have the chance to hear and learn from my experience. But of course you can choose to participate in any way you'd like. In fact, if you come to this late, and feel like you missed the chance to join in, don't listen to that voice! That's the "box checker" in you holding you back! Even if you start late or only participate for a few months or even weeks, you'll gain considerably more than you would have with no participation at all!

I look forward to sharing my experience with you each week throughout 2022 during "The Weekly Word" segment on the Christian Geek Central Podcast, starting on the episode that publishes on Friday January 7th! I hope you find something useful in coming along for the ride, whatever that may look like for you!

In the meantime, have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

-Paeter Frandsen