Read ALL the Books in the Bible!
Have you chosen a Bible plan to follow this year? I am very, very happy with my reading plan because it allows me to have all the flexibility I love, and at the same time it helps me not to leave out books like Amos or Numbers. Sisters, no matter which Bible Reading plan you follow, make sure you read all the Bible this year, not only the Psalms.
I have learned that the easiest way to read all the books that seem to be hard to understand is to study them in depth instead of just jumping from one verse to the other trying to catch some vague significance.
So my little advice today is this: read those “hard” books from the first chapter to the last with a good study help at hand. You don’t have to spend a lot of money if you don’t want to, however, building a good library with good Bible commentaries will be very profitable if you decide to do so. For example, let us take a look at the book of Amos; there are many great helps that are available online and are free:
- John Piper has two very good sermons, one entitled Prepare to Meet Your God, and The Poor of the Land and the Pride of Jacob.
- Ligonier Ministries has two sermons available too.
- Monergism offers a wide variety of teachings on Amos
If you would rather buy a commentary you can choose from several good options:
- The Prophets Speak of Him: Encountering Jesus in the Minor Prophets (Emmaus)
- THE WORD AND PRAYER: Classic Devotions from the Minor Prophets
- The Lord is His Name: Amos Simply Explained
- Handbook on the Prophets
If you would like to listen to a whole series on this book while doing the dishes and folding laundry, why not investing in this, Biblical Studies: Amos, which is a compilation of sermons preached by Douglas Wilson (verse by verse chapter by chapter).
Well, hopefully you get the idea, whenever you come to hard books or passages in the Bible, dig deeper, and you will be sure to find unexpected treasures.
Let us not forget that:
“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.” (2 Tim. 3: 16- 17)
Dear friends, I don’t want to put a burden over you, or the feeling that you NEED to read ALL the Bible in a year. Many of you, I am sure, have little ones and you hardly have time to read a few chapters every day. My encouragement is that you put every effort to dig deeper into ALL the Bible. If it is little by little, that is perfect, but read, eventually, through all of it. It will be good, very good for you, if you can read a few books in depth, with a commentary at hand this year. Try it and you will see how much you will reap!
May His grace abound as we feast on His Word this year!
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Becky, I could not agree with you more. Great encouragement for all w/Bible helps. On FB their is a group treading Prof. Horne 10 chapters a day. I’ve done this several times and it really gets you into the whole counsel of the word making the indept study profitable.
Loys, Thanks for sharing here. I heard Challies’ encouragement to read through the Bible with Prof. Horner’s plan. For a moment I thought about joining you all, but at the end I decided I would not because I like to do what I have mentioned here: take time through the year to study in depth certain books in the Bible and memorize books or large portions of the Scripture. May your reading through the Bible this year bring forth abundant fruit in your life.
Thank you for the encouragement! This is definitely important! This year I’m reading through McCheyene’s plan. Also really like the resources you picked. They are all high quality!
Thank you for leaving a comment, Rachel. I am happy to hear that you found the resources interesting. May your time in the Word of God be sweet and refreshing every day as you seek Him this year.
Thank you for these excellent words and resources Becky! This is such an important to reminder, especially for those of us who chose not to read the Bible through each year.
Something cool our men are doing in their exegisis class is an general overview of the Bible – They memorize each set of books by subject (ie. Pentateuch, historical, major/minor prophets, etc) Then they memorize the author, time it was written, theme, and some key verses. It doesn’t replace reading and carefully studying the whole book but it gives a working knowledge of the entire Bible in a short amount of time.
Thank you Jessalyn!
I know Diane! Even though I follow this plan, I did not read ALL the books in the Bible last year. However, because I am keeping track of what I have read, this year I am staring with the (few) books that I did not read last year.
That is something interesting that Robert and his friends are doing. Maybe you should blog more about it and encourage us to do it!
Love you!
Becky, what good encouragement. Wow! Thanks for the resources for the book of Amos. I think I will definitely take your sermon recommendations. I also want to say that I’m glad you were gentle with those that have very full hands right now. Our sisters in Christ need fellow sisters to come along and be encouragers not laying on burdens.
Luma, I hope you enjoy listening to those sermons. They were a blessing to me.
Blessings to you, sister!
Hi Becky! If you have a smart phone or a computer, try youversion.com. It has many Bible translations in many languages along with exciting reading plans. It even keeps track for you! Free and wonderful!