The Bible in One Week
Recently I, along with five close friends of mine, successfully read through the entire Bible chronologically in 6 days.
It was an incredible, even, dare I say, life changing experience. I don’t know if I can impart to you exactly what an impact it had on me. So I will only try my best to convince you to do it for yourself.
“It was an incredible, even, dare I say, life changing experience”
We are far from the first to do this, but we loosely followed a plan by Shawn Hochstetler. He first did it in 2020 after being inspired by a group of Christians from a closed country who were risking their lives to read the Bible. When they finally had the chance to read God’s word, they refused to stop and read day and night until they made it to the last page.
We didn’t read day and night, but we did read for 10 to 12 hours every day with 4 short breaks throughout the day.
We read from a chronological New Living Translation Bible for easy comprehension and to read the events of the Bible in the order they happened, with the prophetic books, Psalms, and Proverbs interwoven with historical accounts and the book of Acts integrated into Paul's letters to the churches. Reading the Bible chronologically in such a short span of time gives a unique perspective to the Bible that I have never seen before.
Now when Jesus says, “You have heard that it was said,” and when Matthew or Luke or Paul mention prophecies fulfilled by the coming of the Messiah, I know exactly what they're referring to and the context of the original law or prophecy. Of course, I’ve always had a general knowledge of the Bible, but I’ve never understood it like I do now.
“I’ve always had a general knowledge of the Bible, but I’ve never understood it like I do now. ”
Knowing the Bible as one story with huge overarching themes and the same God over it all, as opposed to reading it as a collection of different books and stories and time periods, has strengthened my faith, given me an increased awareness of God’s sovereignty, and made the entire Bible come alive to me like it never has before.
At the same time, it's made me realize how little I know about the Bible. I don’t often choose to read from Leviticus or Jeremiah for my personal devotions, I would much rather read from Matthew or Romans, which means I often neglect parts of the Bible that I don’t find interesting or helpful to me.
“I had been missing huge parts of God’s story and character.”
In doing so, I have been missing huge parts of God’s story and character. Now I know the Old Testament is rich and no part of the Holy Word of God should be neglected or held up as more important.
Because the Bible works together beautifully as a unit, and I never would have picked up the bigger story by spending all my time in the New Testament or the books I enjoy reading. Furthermore, should we as Christians not be experts in the Bible? And how could I ever be an expert in the Bible if I didn’t study the whole thing?
I encourage you, no matter what part of the Christian journey you are on, to take a week out of your life and read the Bible. It’s a big commitment and takes a lot of work and we all have responsibilities, but as Ann Voscamp encourages, “Do hard and Holy things.”
Besides, is anything too hard when God is involved? And is any sacrifice too great when Jesus is the heartbeat of our lives?
“Is anything too hard when God is involved? And is any sacrifice too great when Jesus is the heartbeat of our lives?”
You can find more information on reading the Bible in a week here: Bible Week (notion.site)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Tina calls Northwestern Pennsylvania her home, and Queens, New York her sometimes home. She enjoys spending quality time with loved ones, reading captivating and educational books, spending time in coffee shops, and occasionally engaging in an active lifestyle via biking, rock climbing, hiking, and swimming. She values the power of words and loves to see writing change and impact lives. If you’d like to contact her directly, you can reach her at tina.thesimpledesignco@gmail.com.
