Bible Reading Plans

I posted an excerpt on Tuesday from Don Whitney's book, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, which is proving to be a very helpful, sobering, encouraging, and convicting read!

Another tidbit that Whitney puts forth in the first chapter of his book is that the average Bible on cassette series has proven that the entire Bible can be read aloud in the space of 71 hours - which is about the same number of hours the average American spends watching television in two weeks time.

Yes, this is acceptable behavior for the “average" American - but is it acceptable behavior for Americans who believe the verses that say, "You are not of this world" and "be holy because I am holy" and "the earth and its desires shall pass away but the man who does the will of God, lives forever"?

I certainly don't expect anyone to sit down and read the Bible in 71 hours, nor would I even conclude that such a rushed reading would even be profitable. But how about a few minutes a day five times a week? Does that seem reasonable?

I thought for a few days over this post, thinking that the exhortation, while a good one, didn't fit the truncated subject matter of this particular blog. But upon further contemplation, I realized that one of the hardest obstacles to living life with a disability or a deformed face is the fact that you feel, everywhere you go, that you don't belong. This causes depression, isolation, bitterness, self-pity, despair, and complacency. And I wonder if perhaps some of those problems might not be hacked away at by putting away the mirror and picking up the Word?

May the Lord convict and encourage and inspire and motivate us to read and love and apply and share his Word!


Here are some Read-Through-the-Bible programs available online or for download:

Bethlehem Baptist Church's program (Scroll down to the "Weekly Fighter Verse" sidebar. There are two links: Print Program Part One and Print Program Part Two) Acrobat, PDF files.

The Discipleship Journal Bible Reading Plan ( printable PDF file)

Read the Bible in a Year by E-mail (sign up for daily e-mail alerts)

One Year Bible Online

Click here for reading plans that allow you to read the:

Whole Bible in a year
Old Testament in a year
New Testament in a year
Old Testament in two years
Words of Jesus 4 times in one year
Whole Bible chronologically in a year
Whole Bible chronologically in a year (option 2)
New Testament Letters three times a year
New Testament and Proverbs twice, Psalms once in a year
New Testament and Psalms twice, rest of Bible once in a year
Proverbs in a month
Gospels in a month
Psalms in a month

Joni Eareckson Tada Audio Books

I recently discovered the "Audio Book" section of the iTunes music store home page. I was pleased to discover a pretty thorough "Religion and Spirituality" section.

Five of Joni's books are available for download (MP3 format). Another perk is that Joni herself is the one reading the books. Her personality, sense of humor, joy, and kindness come through amazingly well in her readings.


Here is what is available so far:
Diamonds in the Dust (devotional) $10.95
Heaven: Your Real Home (Abridged) $8.95
Joni (unabridged autobiography) $25.95
The God I Love (unabridged) $25.95
When God Weeps (abridged) $8.95


C. S. Lewis
I wrote a post back in June called Till We Have Faces which was a book review of the C. S. Lewis book of the same title. The book is a work of fiction that retells the classic Greek myth of Cupid and Psyche.

That book is also available for download through the iTunes music store. It is the unabridged version and is priced at $20.95 and is narrated by Nadia May. The MP3 download price is actually very reasonable as the audio cassette version is going for $31.47 on Amazon and the CD-ROM version is going for $49.99 on Christianbook.com.