Tag: #christianlife

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My 2025 Bible Reading Plan

One thing that I find helpful for my own discipline is to plan out my Bible reading for the upcoming year. Like many, I have worked through a variety of different kinds of plans.

For 2025-2026, I am planning to work through a plan that will take me through the New Testament twice (once per year) and the Old Testament once (half each year). This will allow me to complete the plan by reading 2 chapters of Scripture daily, or to take weekends off by reading 3 chapters most weekdays.

If you are interested in the plan, here it is in a downloadable format. This file shows each week’s reading for the next year.

To read daily, during weekdays, read a single chapter from the New Testament and one from the first Old Testament section. Then, on the weekend, read 2 chapters per day from the second Old Testament selection.

To have weekends off, Read a chapter from each section Monday through Thursday and a chapter from the New Testament and first Old Testament section on Friday.

If this is at all confusing, let me show you what my first two weeks would look like using each strategy.

Daily Plan:

1/6/25: Mark 1; Gen 1

1/7/25: Mark 2; Gen 2

1/8/25: Mark 3; Gen 3

1/9/25: Mark 4; Gen 4

1/10/25: Mark 5; Gen 5

1/11/25: Isa 1; Isa 2

1/12/25: Isa 3; Isa 4

1/13/25: Mark 6; Gen 6

1/14/25: Mark 7; Gen 7

1/15/25: Mark 8; Gen 8

1/16/25: Mark 9; Gen 9

1/17/25: Mark 10; Gen 10

1/18/25: Isa 5; Isa 6

1/19/25: Isa 7; Isa 8

Or, keeping weekends free, the readings look like this:

1/6/25: Mark 1; Gen 1; Isa 1

1/7/25: Mark 2; Gen 2; Isa 2

1/8/25: Mark 3; Gen 3; Isa 3

1/9/25: Mark 4; Gen 4; Isa 4

1/10/25: Mark 5; Gen 5

1/11/25:

1/12/25:

1/13/25: Mark 6; Gen 6; Isa 5

1/14/25: Mark 7; Gen 7; Isa 6

1/15/25: Mark 8; Gen 8; Isa 7

1/16/25: Mark 9; Gen 9; Isa 8

1/17/25: Mark 10; Gen 10

1/18/25:

1/19/25:

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My 2024 Bible Reading Plan

I believe a major part of Christian discipleship is regular time spent in God’s word. I have also learned about myself that I do best when I have a plan to follow and a schedule to keep. So, each year, I select a plan to follow. I also find that I do best when I read along with others in a group. So, I try to share my reading plan with others who may join me in a discipleship group so that we can write about and talk about the same passages each week.

This coming year, I intend to continue what I started last year, combining two Bible reading plans for my daily reading schedule. Why two? I want to have an open door for some who are not convinced they can handle a full Bible-in-a-year plan to join me.

For New Testament reading, I’ll use the Navigators 5x5x5 reading plan. This is a plan that reads through the New Testament 5 days per week, one chapter per day. It’s short and simple—a great place to start for anybody who has never tried a reading plan before, or for someone who has struggled to stay on a schedule in the past. This plan is available in the YouVersion Bible app if you would like to use it for reading and for tracking your progress. Or we have a way for you to download it below.

For Old Testament reading, I will continue an Old Testament in 2 years plan that I put together on my own. This plan allows for reading on weekdays only covering one or two chapters each day. Alternatively, one can read a single chapter each weekday and two chapters daily on weekends if that better fits your needs. Over this past year, I discovered that I enjoyed reading a single Old Testament passage on the weekdays and reading two chapters on weekend days, keeping my daily reading at 2 chapters every day. I’m enjoying the use of a two-year plan which has allowed me to give a little more studied focus to the Old Testament instead of requiring as many daily chapters as other plans.

January 1, 2024 is when the New Testament plan resets, starting in Mark 1. The Old Testament plan picks up what is marked as year 2, week 1. 

For those who attend PRC, we have been putting the chapters for the week’s reading in the worship guide and the weekly email. You can also download your own copies of the plan. Here are a couple of links to versions of the plan:

PRC Old Testament in Two years

Here is a link to our OT and NT reading plan in portrait layout:
Old Testament Reading Plan
NT Bible Reading Plan
2024 Old and New Testament Reading Plan (all in one)

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Of Draws from the Faith

From the garden to today, followers of God have faced opposition to the faith. Sometimes that opposition comes in the form of hatred and persecution. Sometimes it comes in the form of sly temptation. And sometimes it comes in the form of well-intentioned but dangerous godlessness.

Think about the strategies that the devil has used against the people of God which have made the most headway. Often times, persecuting the church with out-and-out aggression has served to strengthen the faith of believers—the blood of the martyrs being the seed of the church. But sometimes the devil’s plots are much more intimate, much more subtle, and honestly much more dangerous than violence. When the enemy of our souls tempts us through people we genuinely care for, the temptation is significant.

God is not surprised that humanity is often swayed by the influence of our loved ones. IN fact, in Deuteronomy, the Lord spoke a dire warning to the people of Israel regarding this very topic.

Deuteronomy 13:6-11

6 “If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son or your daughter or the wife you embrace or your friend who is as your own soul entices you secretly, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ which neither you nor your fathers have known, 7 some of the gods of the peoples who are around you, whether near you or far off from you, from the one end of the earth to the other, 8 you shall not yield to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him, nor shall you conceal him. 9 But you shall kill him. Your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. 10 You shall stone him to death with stones, because he sought to draw you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 11 And all Israel shall hear and fear and never again do any such wickedness as this among you.

As a quick explanation for any who are apt to misunderstand this passage, the legal standards for national Israel in the Old Testament were quite strict. This nation was uniquely the people of God in this time period, given the law of God, in the presence of God, under the direct instruction of God, and carrying the promise of God to send Messiah, the only plan God ever had for the salvation of people from all nations. Thus, for these people, offenses against the following of God were often death-penalty offenses. The Lord knew that, should Israel become as corrupt as any other sinful nation on the planet, the Lord would, under the obligations of the covenant, have to destroy them, which would destroy the promise, which would destroy humanity. In order, therefore, to protect the nation and preserve the promise, offenses such as blasphemy against the Lord or leading people to worship other gods met severe penalties.

With that said, what is an appropriate truth for a modern Christian to draw from Deuteronomy 13:6-11? What is, as the Second London Baptist Confession calls it, the “general equity” principle we should find? I believe it is an important one, a very helpful one.

Look back at the text. God knows that, in the lives of faithful believers, we will face the temptation to walk away from the faith. Sure, there will be times when that temptation will come to us from outside of our inner circle. Sometimes the world will try to tempt us to turn away through persecution or greed. But one of the more effective and more dangerous temptations we face is when someone we deeply care about tries to call us away from faithfulness to the Lord. When a friend, when a family member, when a romantic interest is the voice saying to us that we should be more open-minded toward other faiths, this is when temptation can be most risky.

What was King Solomon’s failure? He married many “foreign” wives. This was not a failure based on ethnicity. The wives of Solomon led him to worship their gods. The Lord warned against it, but Solomon was unable to overcome his desire—this in spite of the fact that he was the smartest king in the Old Testament.

The same ploy is in play today. As we watch young men or young women suddenly walk away from the church, what is regularly at the root? So very often, the turning away of a young person is about their romantic interest in someone or their deep friendship with someone. Christianity is an exclusive faith. Jesus is the only way for a person to come to the Father (John 14:6). It is hard, when a young person develops romantic feelings for another, for the Christian to accept the lostness of someone they find so loveable.

What then might we want to carry with us from Deuteronomy 13? No, I do not recommend we put the death penalty in place for those who would challenge our faith. But the warning is strong, and it is not something we can ignore. If someone you care about is calling your heart away from the Lord, you may have to figuratively enact the death penalty on the relationship. At minimum, you have to guard your heart with all your might so as not to allow a lost person to influence your soul. You should most certainly pray that the Lord will protect you and that he will draw your lost friend to himself. No Christian should willingly enter into a romantic relationship with a nonbeliever—Scripture is clear on this time and time again.

Ultimately, we need to grow in wisdom from the law of God. Deuteronomy 13 warns us that we will face temptations from friends and family to turn from the faith. We must be aware, we must be wise, and we must be committed to faithfulness to the Lord above all. Particularly, we should watch out for those relationships with the lost that can dig deeply into our hearts, as this is a temptation that the Lord has warned against. Yes, love your family. Yes, care deeply. Yes, be prepared even to be wounded as they push against the faith or try to draw you away. But learn from the law of God not to allow yourself to be pulled from the faith by one close to you.

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Of the Danger of Embracing Culture

Are we really so different? Are we really supposed to be? Why cannot the church and the world hold hands and get along?

Throughout the age of the church, Christians have faced the temptation to compromise. Once Constantine made Christianity officially the thing in Rome, the church had to wrestle with the temptation to become more like the world in order to be more well-liked by the world. During the rise of theological liberalism, teachers began to tone down claims of the miraculous to look more like a naturalistic and scientific culture. And in a world that embraces new concepts relating to sexuality, gender, the family, and so much more, churches are tempted to reshape the message of the Scripture to be more widely accepted.

Sometimes Christians are tempted to compromise as they hope for popularity. The feeling is that, if we can just get folks to think we are a helpful part of our community and we do not cause trouble, we will become the place people in town want to be. Sometimes Christians shift their values out of fear, not wanting to face the hardships of persecution. Sometimes folks have compromised out of a desire to be evangelistic. The misguided hope of these folks is that, if we stop talking about sex or about the latest pet peeve of the media, people will give our gospel a hearing; and isn’t that what is most important?

But I wonder if, as we are tempted to compromise and value the things that the world values, we are forgetting just how big is the gap between the ways of the Lord and the ways of the world. Have we forgotten that there really are different sides, and those sides are far apart when it comes to being right with God?

In Luke 16, Jesus confronted the Pharisees who had become lovers of money. These men compromised for the sake of personal, financial gain. They loved the applause of men.

Luke 16:14-15

14 The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed him. 15 And he said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.

Consider that last line from Jesus once again: “What is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.” How true is this in our culture? Our society is exalting things today that God calls abominations.

What should we do with this thought? Let me suggest two things. First, we should pray that God would give us a heart to exalt what he loves and see as abominable what he calls abomination. Let us not think that we are so cultured that we have gone beyond the standards of God. God’s standards are not out-of-touch with reality. On the contrary, modern reality is out-of-touch with truth.

Think about your own heart here. What does it chase? What do you value? Do you love the things God loves? Do you hate the things God hates? Do you want things for yourself that God has called dangerous or destructive? Do you accept as the new normal things that God says are unacceptable? Ask the Lord to shape, cleanse, mold, and renew your heart and mind.

Second, let us be careful, as we seek to shift our hearts, that we not become cruel or nasty people in the process. There must be a way to see things in our society as abominable before God, speak the truth, and do so in a way that is not itself mean-spirited. We must pray that we will stand firm, avoid compromise, and speak the truth in love.

The word abomination is a harsh one. But since it is God’s word and not ours, we ought not avoid it. But you can call a thing an abomination with sorrow or with arrogance. One way of speaking includes compassion, kindness, and humility. The other way looks like the Pharisee and is sharp, bitter, and cruel.

May we learn to have the compassion that Christ showed when sinful people were around him. May we learn never to embrace or even accept sin. May we never be so foolish as to think that ignoring evil will make our churches grow to the glory of God. But may we also, even with tears, hold out a true gospel to a lost and dying world.