By Pastor Jon
This is going to blow your mind on the first day of the year of RELOVUTIONARY, but I am going there like the number one destination-spot on the planet.
I still think that is New Zealand. Not sure if Palmerston North is part of that equation, but we won’t take it too personally, after all, our identity is in Christ, and not our much-maligned not-sought-after location status. We are the Knowledge City, I would remind you. I mean, you must know that?!
Philistines! As my then-local-Nana would opine, you’d get up at 6am and it would be calm and quiet. By 8am, it was either windy or cloudy. Just to prove my point, it is right fine and dandy on the first day of 2019. And like progressive Sanctification, things have improved.
Happy New 2019, by the way!
I actually didn’t want this piece to be too long, as I have much to write, and apparently the family want some of my action. A very good thing. Holy-day time.
In 2018, I decided to follow a Bible Reading Plan for the very first time. I have always been a reader. I have had my own plan. One day, maybe we’ll talk about that volume. And I have concocted one inside the RELOVUTIONARY Philosophy. That one is quite intense. Enough said. Moving on. The wife had convinced me after about seven years with my Galaxy (phone; not inside my head) that I should probably upgrade. You know you’re in trouble when a couple of your most-used apps are not working anymore. Therefore, I accepted her wisdom. I let-go of using that Birthday cash on more books (and everyone knows you need more books), and received my first iPhone. 6, I believe. Okay, it has a bitten Eve-Fruit on the back. Could have been a tomato. Maybe that’s why there seems such concept confusion about that fruity-vegetable?!
I know, still so last century, in a technological sense, but a new wonder in my world.
As this was late 2017, I was prepared as 2018 unfurled to follow a worked-through reading plan on the ESV app on the said iPhone. Just quietly, this iPhone ESV edition shames the Android like a Pharisee eating bacon. As I perused, I landed on combining four of their reading plans that provided the right balance. I am an all-in type-of-guy.
In this smorgasbord, I went with a Chronological reading through the Bible-in-a-year. That was enticing, and proved so in practice. Kings/Chronicles and the Book of Acts really found their historical value, when the Prophets and Epistles, are interspersed. I added, Daily Proverbs and Daily Psalms, to the menu, which is essentially reading through these books. Of course, unlike Messiah’s sacrifice, once was never enough. I would do each twice. I also wanted something more focused on the Newer Testament, which got sorted with the Outreach New Testament option. This would take me through it twice.
Therefore, my yearly consumption according to these reading plans amounted to reading through the New Testament, Psalms, and Proverbs 3 times, and the rest of the Bible, once, but with a special chronological emphasis.
This may seem like a good chunk, but it was an awesome time, and well worth the discipline of a reading plan. While I have not been much of a Morning person, which means I would often read in later parts of the day, this encouraged greater integration in the AM. There is something about starting your day in God’s Word. This amount of Scripture means you can also spread it out through your day. Further, there were certain days when I had not read late into the PM. Because of my overall interaction, you can easy give yourself a pat-on-the-back-pass. Not with this plan. I was accountable. I had commitments. I still read. I did not miss a day. Thank you Lord!
Anyways, before I ramble into bramble, and we all get bushed, I will mostly leave it there, except to affirm that we at RELOVUTIONARY are going to post this reading plan. We invite you to join. The goal would be to do this in community, which means we can take the journey to the next level, but this is an optional extra.
We positively incite you to follow through.
As this is not our jam, we want to pay credit where it is due, and even encourage you to use the ESV app on an iPhone for yourself (You can download a Chronological PDF HERE or follow a webpage HERE). And there are plenty of other plans online, so posting this is not privileged information. However, the genius is often not the idea, but the means of equipping and enabling.
Therefore, I am going to post – my and this – daily reading plan each and every day, linking to the portion of the text, probably from an online site, which means you just need to follow through.
Seriously, it will be worth your while. This is one resolution you can commit-to on-the-spot. The positive of this plan and process is how it can intersect with your living context from your phone, tablet, or work computer; through the wonders of the web and social media, and into changing your world. God’s Word does that.
Redeem the Time!
This concept most definitely includes this application. This is trusting the process!
I am soon to Post Day 1/365. After I help hang-out the washing. True Story. This is exciting. Not the washing part, but I love my wife.
HAPPY NEW YEAR
For the Fame of His Name