Let me admit, tonight, I am an anxious father. Jenn’s out again tonight (she got to go out last night as well) and I’m putting the dude to be without the assets that Jenn has in her arsenal. (Enough said.) Last night the dude and I read through our chapters, then we went downstairs for a little supper. He found supper from dad to be a frustrating experience. So, he went to bed mad. And it took him a long time to settle down. For you seasoned parents a half hour may not seem like a long time, but to me, it was longer than I wanted. He fell asleep, eventually and all was good, but tonight, I didn’t want a repeat. So, as soon as Jenn fed him and then left for her girls night, he and I got the Bible and started our chapters.

Instead of reading on the bed, with the dude propped up by pillows and a stuffed elephant to play with, I held him. We read most of Matthew on the couch, then stood up and walked around reading the rest of our chapters. We ended our read of Psalm 10 (take that, mischief makers, you’re not hiding your mischief, even if you think you are) in the Taylor Pose. Then it was off to bed. Tonight was almost all about reading through the chapters while keeping the dude happy enough to go to bed easily. As such, we read of Rehoboam not fighting against his family. It probably would have made sense if we were reading it tomorrow after reading chapter ten.

In an unrelated thought, here’s a question from Ephesians for my learned readers. Should we strive for only righteous anger, as in “Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger,” (Eph 4:26) or do we strive for putting anger entirely away from us as in “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.” (Eph 4:31) Perhaps the better question is, how do you understand Eph. 4:26 in light of Eph. 4:31?

Sorry for not posting the last couple of days. We’ve had a lot to take care of around the house. Anyway, today is day eight (the first if 52 weeks is down,) and I noticed something in Matthew that I thought I’d comment on. When Jesus heals the centurion’s servant, he marvels (remarkable in its own right) at the centurions faith compared to any in Israel. He says “many will come from east ans west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into outer darkness.”

This struck me because I understand the “kingdom” that Jesus speaks of throughout Matthew to be that which the God the Father is doing. It caught me off guard, due to my understanding, that some of those who are of that which God is doing will be cast away.

How do you understand what Jesus refers to as the kingdom of heaven?

Well today is the fifth day of the new year and a good many Bible reading resolutions have failed. That’s the bad news. The good news is, it’s still so early in the year that you could start today and make up for lost time by the end of the weekend!

As far as making my decision goes, I really like the idea of reading the Bible aloud to my son this year. We did it again this evening. After we all ate, I take him upstairs, change him, then we sit on the bed (with a toy for him) and I read. Then, I put him to bed. Speaking of bed, yesterday we read Psalm 4:8 “In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.” that reminds me of how God answered my prayer for trust and sleep when we first brought the dude home.

Today, it took about sixteen minutes to read four chapters aloud, but we started the Sermon on the Mount, so that may account for some time. Hope your resolution still has resolve this far into the new year.

Well, today was my first day back at work. I’ve got a decision to make. You see, I had planned on arriving early at work during the week to read and journal this year. I find that I don’t easily have time in the evening to spend reading, and I don’t want to read myself to sleep at night. The truth is, I probably could find time each day to read, but that would require less television or computer once the boy is asleep. And the quiet and regularity of reading in the morning in my office is simply easier (and possibly more reliable.)

That said, I had some activity to attend to prior to work today (and will also tomorrow) and was unable to begin that plan. So, tonight I read (aloud again) to the little dude. It only took about twelve or thirteen minutes (aloud.) I like reading the Bible aloud. It’s something new to me. I also like reading to the little dude, and want to get him used to spending time daily in the Bible, even as a baby.

So, what do you think? Regular and close to certain, easy office reading, or out-loud with the dude, but perhaps irred

Something to keep in mind when blogging about the year long Bible read-through is that it’s best to blog while thoughts are fresh. Yesterday, I read the four chapters aloud to Jenn in about fourteen minutes. Today, I read aloud to the dude again, and the four chapters only took eleven minutes to read to him. Not bad. So far, it’s been less than twenty minutes a day to read four chapters, aloud. Maybe this year will be the year to read the Bible aloud.

Again, big things for the day three readings. You’ve got Jesus being baptized by John to “fulfill all righteousness,” you’ve got the fall (and here’s a thought concerning God’s plan for the fall; He created all things “good”, in fact, “very good” and the serpent does its job of deception, bringing about the fall,) you’ve got Solomon building the temple (or at least giving the dimensions) not as interesting as yesterday’s missive to the king of Tyre requesting wood and expert craftsmen and such, and a Psalm from David pleading for the Lord’s salvation from his enemies, “Salvation belongs to the Lord; your blessing be on your people!”

One of these days, the greatest hits are going to slow down, right?

Well, in case you’re wondering about the plan I’m following this year for the Bible read through, here it is. It’s kind of a mash-up we put together for First Baptist in Thunder Bay this year. It takes the best of the Robert Murray M’Cheyne plan and simplifies it to work with Grant Horner’s perpetual Bible bookmark method. What we end up with is four bookmarks and four single chapter readings a day. That’s about 15–20 minutes if you read slowly, like I do.

Reading 1: Matthew – Revelation, Proverbs, Psalms 81–150
Reading 2: Genesis – First Chronicles
Reading 3: Second Chronicles – Malachi (Skip Psalms – Song of Solomon)
Reading 4: Psalms 1–80, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Matthew – Revelation

So you end up reading through the New Testament twice in a year (and you’re always reading something from the NT, and for four or five months in the middle of the year, you’re getting two NT readings a day,) and the Old Testament once in a year. The bookmarks make it easy to know where you’re going and with three of the four readings you have a number of spare days so you can catch up if you need to.

You can download the Four bookmarks for the Bible read through plan here and read along!

The first of January is an absolute gold mine in the Bible read through year. You get the lead-up to the birth of Jesus, the Creation story 1.0, Solomon asking for wisdom and getting it plus all those bonuses and Pslam 1. Well, at least you get all that with the Bible read through that I’m doing this year.

Are you starting a Bible reading plan today?