"Back to the Bible!"

              ​The start of a new year is a wonderful time to begin a systematic program of Bible reading.  One might resolve, for example, to read through the Bible in a year.  By simply Googling “read through the Bible in a year,” a host of websites will pop up offering various reading plans.  Two such sites worthy of consideration are Bible Gateway (biblegateway.com) and The International Bible Society (biblica.com).  But the one that I have used in the past is produced by the American Bible Society (bibleresources.americanbible.org) called “A Year with the Bible.”  And even though it seems more logical to begin on January 1, one could start the program any time of year. 
        If reading the whole Bible is too ambitious, then perhaps a commitment to read certain books would make more sense.  Olive Tree (olivetree.com), a resource I have depended on for years in my pastoral work – it makes easy work of word searches and passage lookups – offers two such plans:  “30 Days Through the Four Gospels” and “Through the Psalms and Proverbs in 155 Days.”   
    From time to time people ask me about various translations of scripture and which I might recommend.  I have two, the first being the Oxford Annotated New Revised Standard Version (there are multiple copies in the church library).  As the name indicates, this version includes helpful notes on terms and passages conveniently located at the bottom of each page.  Plus, the New Revised Standard Version is the handiwork of the best in biblical scholarship, assuring readers of accuracy and faithfulness to original manuscripts.  And then I really like Eugene Peterson’s The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language, a paraphrased edition of scripture.  Talk about putting it in the vernacular, consider this example of Peterson’s free use of idiom from Isaiah 6:4-5:
        NRSV:
       The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke.  And I said, “Woe is me!  I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”
       The Message:
      The foundations trembled at the sound of the angel voices and then the whole house filled with smoke.  I said, “Doom!  It’s Doomsday!  I’m as good as dead!  Every word I’ve ever spoken is tainted – blasphemous even!  And the people I live with talk the same way, using words that corrupt and desecrate.  And here I’ve looked God in the face!  The King!  God-of-the-Angel-Armies!” 
       Whatever version you choose to use, the point is to use it!  Reading God’s Word on a regular – daily – basis is critical to our understanding of God, of ourselves, and of our calling as Christ’s disciples. 
 
Faithfully,
 
Don