This is the final update on Read the Bible before we launch into it which is to say, it’s happening! I invite anyone reading this now or in the future to join us on a journey through he scriptures from beginning to end (although not necessarily in order). I have recorded the first two podcasts – let’s call them podcasts for lack of a better term – and hope to get a couple more in the can before Saturday morning. It was on Saturday, February 1st, that I heard someone say he was reading one chapter of the Bible per day and that was the inspiration to begin this project. I did the math, mulled it over, researched publishers and their copyrights, posted a couple of times and eventually got to it in earnest.

Read the Bible: Genesis 1 will be posted early Saturday morning which is March 1st. Like riding a city bus on a loop, anyone can get on or off at any point. If you stay on you will make it to every stop on the route. When I asked for responses in the last update the only reply was “Sounds like fun,” and I agree.

I will suggest in that first post that you follow along in the translation of your choice, either from one of the many translations available on Bible Gateway or You Version or have your physical Bible open to the text. Most of the time, although the wording may vary, what is being said will not. The Bible says what it is says; on the very rare occasion there is more than one valid option we will discuss what various translators have done over time as they try to make it make sense.

There are two things believers need to do on a regular ongoing basis: read the Bible and pray. If you walk for 10 minutes at a time three times throughout the day, the health benefits are nearly equal to taking a 30 minute walk. If you read a few verses of scripture and spend a few seconds whispering a prayer, the cumulative effect of that small effort will add up. Anything is better than nothing and when it comes to reading the Bible more and more believers are doing nothing. The average church-goer probably reads the passage the preacher reads as his sermon text on Sunday morning and that will be about it for the week. The most recent polls suggest not even preachers and pastors have a regular habit of reading the Bible on a daily basis, perhaps just reading themselves what they plan to preach next. Most Christians, even after years of attending church and even serving in the local church, have never read the whole Bible.

I want to encourage you to read the Bible. You can certainly do more than the one chapter per day I plan to read and discuss on The Master’s Table; if you preach, teach a Sunday School class, attend or lead a small group study, that is fantastic. If you want to contribute in the comment section, even if it’s to outline the ways in which I am wrong, then by all means please do. But if you have never read the Bible and think a good place to start is listening here for a few minutes each day, then yes, please start there. Perhaps a taste will whet your appetite to dig deeper into God’s Word. I will gladly read to you but ultimately I hope to inspire some of you to read more, study further and in time lead others into the joy of studying scripture.

Read the Bible. Pray. Love your neighbor. These are simply steps every believer can take that will conform us into the image of Christ as we work together to build his Kingdom. And if at any time in your Christian walk you realize you have quit taking these steps, it’s never too to start stepping again!

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