Diving Back into the New Testament

Way back in March… I decided to take on this crazy plan of reading through the New Testament in chronological order in about 35 days. I planned to blog each day on the significant things that I had learned in my reading.

The New Testament is 332 chapters long, and in 34 days- that was 7+ chapters to read each day. After several days of reading like crazy and taking notes, I re-evaluated my position and figured out that it was just too much for me. I wasnt able to give the reading as much thought as I wanted and writing blog posts after journaling my thoughts was overwhelming…

I had decided to slow down my reading process and just read a couple chapters each day and blog that, but I let my fear of my written words being read by others get the best of me, and I quit.

Flash back to today. The past few weeks God has rekindled the desire in me to read through the New Testament in chronological order.  Lately, I’ve realized how many books I haven’t read as a whole with the goal of learning how the book functions individually and  how each book plays into the greater body  of work of the Bible.

Just as the last time I attempted this, I still feel that God wants me to make a more radical commitment to Him, one that forces me to be even more dependent to Him. This challenge has multiple benefits for me: It deepens my knowledge of scripture, draws me closer to God, and it allows me to use my writing skills.

Here is the link to my first introduction to this challenge, Journey to Easter: Intro. It gives some info on where I was at in life and how this challenge came about, maybe soon I’ll post more about where I’m at in life now… but that’s a separate, very crazy story.

So here is the new plan…. approximately 3 chapters a day, equaling out to 21 chapters a week, which ends up being just a little bit over 13 weeks of reading. My goal is to blog a couple times a week about what I am reading and to post updates of what reading is coming up. The first couple weeks I’ll post sporadically about the gospels, but when I get to the letters, my goal is to post a book summary of my observations as I finish each book.

In case anyone wanted to follow along, here is the reading schedule for week 1.

Reading Assignments
Sun: Luke 1-3
Mon: John1, Matt 1-2
Tues: Matt 3-4, Mark 1
Wed: Luke 4-5, John 2
Thurs: John 3-4, Mark 2
Fri: John5, Matt 12, Matt 5
Sat; Matt 6-7, Mark 3

I am excited… Nervous…. and already running behind in my reading plan, BUT that’s ok. My goal this time around is to just keep reading, keep blogging, and finish when I finish. This isn’t a race, but a method of growing towards lifetime change and dependence on God.

Journey to Easter: Intro

Welcome to my blog and to the adventure I am preparing myself to go on!  Through a series of events, which I’ll detail in just a moment, I have made a commitment to God to read through the entire New Testament before Easter.  This is a Lent-like activity, but I’m not viewing it as Lent per say, but as a time to prepare my heart for the magnitude of Easter.

Just this last weekend, I attended an Extraordinary Women’s Conference in Greenville, SC (check them out!) and had the opportunity to hear many amazing women speak.  In her message, Margaret Feinburg talked about her own journey of Lent this year and how she felt God had called her to read through the entire Bible during Lent.

I have viewed others participate in Lent before, but have never partaken in it before.  I have watched people give up deserts, drinking, and social media among other things as they observe this time.  What I want and what I have asked God to do is to use this time as a way of drawing me closer to Him, fall in love with the Bible again, and encourage a need and dependence on time with Him.

The Extraordinary Women conference was the culmination of my decision to participate in this adventure, but I knew something like this was coming for me regardless of the time of year.  God has been gently pulling on my heart, urging me to make a more radical move towards Him than what I am already doing.  I’ve developed the habits of journaling my prayers and praying regularly, I’m involved in a Church and in Bible study, but I knew that God wanted me to do something bigger, something that forced me to be committed and dependent upon him in order to create a lasting change.  I want this adventure to change me in ways that I won’t ever want to step back from God.

Once I made the commitment to pursue this journey, I needed to decide how I was going to accomplish my goal, so to Google I went. I haven’t ever read through the entire Bible, but it’s been on my to do list for years, it’s also been on my to do list to read the Bible chronologically- so that’s what I decided to pursue.  In just a few minutes, I found a chronological plan of reading the Bible and then divided it up into what those days should look like.

The first 12 days of my journey involve reading through the four Gospels, and then I will make my way through the letters.  Some days will involve reading in multiple places, but at other times I will be able to sit in a single book for a couple of days.

My mom has also decided to join me on a similar journey, but she will be reading book by book through the New Testament instead of chronologically.  I’m so thrilled that she is joining me on this journey.

Writing has also been laid on my heart by God in the past few months.  I know that I am a writer, and that I am passionate about using words as a way of sharing with others.  I have a degree in writing, which was an amazing experience.  Despite the knowledge that God has gifted and equipped me to write, I struggle getting it done.  Writing is an experience that is easy to push to the side saying, “I’ll get to that later on.”  It’s easy to push to the side, because writing for me means being vulnerable- a feeling I am not very good at.

Writing is like putting little pieces of yourself on paper and then sending them to someone else, someone you may not even know, and wanting them to like you.  As a writer, its easy to assume that if someone doesn’t like your writing, they don’t like you.

God is bringing me to a point of realizing that my writing isn’t about me.  Yes- in subject it can be, and it is my experiences in life that color my writing, but my writing is truly about God.  It is about using His gift to me as a way to bring Him praise.  My writing is a way to help and inspire others and a way for me to express myself.

Thank your for reading the beginning of my journey!  I am excited to see where God is taking me on this path and I hope that you will join with me!