{"id":8063,"date":"2025-01-30T08:59:03","date_gmt":"2025-01-30T16:59:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/?p=8063"},"modified":"2025-01-03T12:00:48","modified_gmt":"2025-01-03T20:00:48","slug":"consider-reading-the-bible-chronologically-this-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/2025\/01\/consider-reading-the-bible-chronologically-this-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Consider Reading the Bible Chronologically This Year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/p>\n

Countless Christians believe that Bible reading is their duty\u2014something\u00a0holy\u00a0<\/em>people do. What many don\u2019t understand is exactly what Scripture really tells us: that meditating on God\u2019s Word can and should delight us, infusing us with heartfelt happiness (see Psalm 1; the world translated \u201cblessed\u201d is\u00a0asher,<\/em>\u00a0which means \u201chappy\u201d). David said of God\u2019s words, \u201cMore to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb\u201d (Psalm 19:10). Throughout the difficulties and joys that 2025 will bring, you\u2019ll find abiding happiness as you go back to God\u2019s Word again and again.<\/p>\n

One Bible reading program to consider is the Bible Recap, a chronological read through with Tara-Leigh Cobble. Several of our EPM staff did it in 2024, and highly recommend it. You read 2-3 chapters of Scripture each day, then listen to a (free) 7-10 minute podcast where Tara-Leigh helps you understand what you read, where it fits in Scripture, and what we learn about God from it.<\/p>\n

One of our staff members says, \u201cIt\u2019s like going through the Bible with a wise friend who can help you make sense of what you\u2019re reading. That\u2019s especially helpful when you get to some of the tricker passages of the Bible! My knowledge of Scripture and God\u2019s character has grown so much doing this read through.\u201d You can learn more about the Bible Recap\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Why can a chronological read through be especially helpful? Tara-Leigh Cobble writes in her book\u00a0The Joy of the Trinity<\/a><\/em>:<\/p>\n

Contrary to popular thought, God doesn\u2019t undergo a personality transplant at the end of the Old Testament. When we follow the story line of Scripture, we see a God who created mankind out of an overflow of love, who clothed Adam and Eve before they even repented, who rescued the Israelites out of slavery, joyfully choosing to set up camp in their midst and repeatedly forgiving them, blessing them, and reminding them He was sending a Messiah to rescue them. This is the heart of God evident in the scope of the Old Testament\u2019s metanarrative. All along He dropped hints of what was coming, and then He delivered on His promise!<\/p>\n

Of course, if we drop down in the middle of the Old Testament in a time when He\u2019s punishing the Israelites, He seems harsh. We won\u2019t understand why His laws were helpful and necessary. We\u2019ll fail to notice He\u2019s already told them repeatedly not to do that specific sinful thing, told them what type of punishment to expect if\/when they do it, and then continued to provide for them and protect them despite their rebellion. With our limited information, we\u2019ll view Him as strict or angry, and we won\u2019t draw near to Him. We\u2019ll prefer to stay in the New Testament where we can read about Jesus, who paid for all the sins we know we\u2019ve committed. This is a common problem we encounter when we don\u2019t read the story of Scripture chronologically (in the order it happened, not the order it is laid out). Reading the Bible at all is an important endeavor, but reading chronologically can help us get to know God in the order He chose to reveal Himself through progressive revelation.<\/p>\n

There is a necessary process of the gospel: we must be confronted with God\u2019s laws and requirements, see that we fall short and can\u2019t obey His laws, and realize our need for rescue. Jesus came to be that Rescuer. He not only paid our sin debt, but He also granted us His righteousness! This is how progressive revelation works in our relationship with God, and it\u2019s the reason we still desperately need the truths of the Old Testament to see Him rightly!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ligonier Ministries also has\u00a0a great list of Bible reading plans<\/a>\u00a0to choose from.<\/p>\n

Whatever Bible reading program you decide on (and I highly recommend you choose one and stick with it), may your coming year be filled with the deep, abiding joy and happiness of knowing Jesus Christ!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Countless Christians believe that Bible reading is their duty\u2014something\u00a0holy\u00a0people do. What many don\u2019t understand is exactly what Scripture really tells us: that meditating on God\u2019s Word can and should delight us, infusing us with heartfelt happiness (see Psalm 1; the world translated \u201cblessed\u201d is\u00a0asher,\u00a0which means \u201chappy\u201d). David said of God\u2019s words, \u201cMore to be desired […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2661,"featured_media":8066,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[107,3],"class_list":["post-8063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christian-life","tag-bible","tag-happiness"],"yoast_head":"\nConsider Reading the Bible Chronologically This Year<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Throughout the difficulties and joys that 2025 will bring, you\u2019ll find abiding happiness as you go back to God\u2019s Word again and again.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/2025\/01\/consider-reading-the-bible-chronologically-this-year\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Consider Reading the Bible Chronologically This Year\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Throughout the difficulties and joys that 2025 will bring, you\u2019ll find abiding happiness as you go back to God\u2019s Word again and again.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/2025\/01\/consider-reading-the-bible-chronologically-this-year\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Eternal Perspectives, with Randy Alcorn\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/randyalcorn\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-01-30T16:59:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-01-03T20:00:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/644\/2025\/01\/bible-read-through.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1199\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"693\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Randy Alcorn\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@randyalcorn\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Randy Alcorn\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/2025\/01\/consider-reading-the-bible-chronologically-this-year\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/2025\/01\/consider-reading-the-bible-chronologically-this-year\/\",\"name\":\"Consider Reading the Bible Chronologically This Year\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-01-30T16:59:03+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-01-03T20:00:48+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/#\/schema\/person\/214b66ae06d44a58785070a3d97d6035\"},\"description\":\"Throughout the difficulties and joys that 2025 will bring, you\u2019ll find abiding happiness as you go back to God\u2019s Word again and again.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/2025\/01\/consider-reading-the-bible-chronologically-this-year\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/2025\/01\/consider-reading-the-bible-chronologically-this-year\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/2025\/01\/consider-reading-the-bible-chronologically-this-year\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Consider Reading the Bible Chronologically This Year\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/\",\"name\":\"Eternal Perspectives, with Randy Alcorn\",\"description\":\"Fixing Our Eyes on the Unseen\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/#\/schema\/person\/214b66ae06d44a58785070a3d97d6035\",\"name\":\"Randy Alcorn\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ceeeb250f2eea4bbebda1e7147d32b2e?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ceeeb250f2eea4bbebda1e7147d32b2e?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Randy Alcorn\"},\"description\":\"Randy Alcorn is the founder and director of Eternal Perspective Ministries and a New York Times best-selling author of over fifty books, including Heaven (over one million sold), The Treasure Principle (over two million sold), If God is Good, Happiness, and the award-winning novel Safely Home.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.epm.org\/blog\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/randyalcorn\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/randyalcorn\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/author\/ralcorn\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Consider Reading the Bible Chronologically This Year","description":"Throughout the difficulties and joys that 2025 will bring, you\u2019ll find abiding happiness as you go back to God\u2019s Word again and again.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/2025\/01\/consider-reading-the-bible-chronologically-this-year\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Consider Reading the Bible Chronologically This Year","og_description":"Throughout the difficulties and joys that 2025 will bring, you\u2019ll find abiding happiness as you go back to God\u2019s Word again and again.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/2025\/01\/consider-reading-the-bible-chronologically-this-year\/","og_site_name":"Eternal Perspectives, with Randy Alcorn","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/randyalcorn","article_published_time":"2025-01-30T16:59:03+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-01-03T20:00:48+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1199,"height":693,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/644\/2025\/01\/bible-read-through.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Randy Alcorn","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@randyalcorn","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Randy Alcorn","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/2025\/01\/consider-reading-the-bible-chronologically-this-year\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/2025\/01\/consider-reading-the-bible-chronologically-this-year\/","name":"Consider Reading the Bible Chronologically This Year","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/#website"},"datePublished":"2025-01-30T16:59:03+00:00","dateModified":"2025-01-03T20:00:48+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/#\/schema\/person\/214b66ae06d44a58785070a3d97d6035"},"description":"Throughout the difficulties and joys that 2025 will bring, you\u2019ll find abiding happiness as you go back to God\u2019s Word again and again.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/2025\/01\/consider-reading-the-bible-chronologically-this-year\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/2025\/01\/consider-reading-the-bible-chronologically-this-year\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/2025\/01\/consider-reading-the-bible-chronologically-this-year\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Consider Reading the Bible Chronologically This Year"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/","name":"Eternal Perspectives, with Randy Alcorn","description":"Fixing Our Eyes on the Unseen","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/#\/schema\/person\/214b66ae06d44a58785070a3d97d6035","name":"Randy Alcorn","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ceeeb250f2eea4bbebda1e7147d32b2e?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ceeeb250f2eea4bbebda1e7147d32b2e?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Randy Alcorn"},"description":"Randy Alcorn is the founder and director of Eternal Perspective Ministries and a New York Times best-selling author of over fifty books, including Heaven (over one million sold), The Treasure Principle (over two million sold), If God is Good, Happiness, and the award-winning novel Safely Home.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.epm.org\/blog","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/randyalcorn","https:\/\/twitter.com\/randyalcorn"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/author\/ralcorn\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2661"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}