William Jordan
Mechanical Engineering
Baylor University
Eight years ago the leadership of my church decided to preach through the entire Bible in one year to help us get a better picture of it.
They went at a pace of about one book per week. Some weeks two short books were discussed in one sermon. I committed to read along with the sermon series. Some weeks it was hard to do because many of the historical books are quite long. I liked this so much that I have tried to do it every year since then.
Varying The Order
I am not going to pretend that I have read all 66 books in their entirety every year. But I have gotten close to that goal most years and accomplished it several times.
To avoid getting bored with this task, I do something different each year. I vary the translation I use – this year I have read Psalms and the New Testament from The Message translation. I vary the order in which I read the books of the Bible.
The past couple of years I have done almost all my reading electronically. I have a Bible software program with a specific reading schedule and each day it pops up with my reading assignment.
Reading through the Bible is not some magical thing that keeps me from having any problems. However, I have noticed that doing this has greatly affected the way I respond to those problems.
Critical Decisions
This past school year I was considering leaving Louisiana Tech University and moving to Baylor University. During January through March — when I had to make some critical decisions – I concentrated on reading Proverbs and Psalms.
On January 1, I read:
Wisdom calls aloud in the street,
she raises her voice in the public squares;
at the head of the noisy streets she cries out,
in the gateways of the city she makes her speech.
Proverbs 1:20-21 (NIV)
I am convinced this daily thinking about the nature of true wisdom helped me make the correct choice, and take the position at Baylor.
One suggestion — if you have a hard time staying awake to read early in the morning at home, you might try what I have done this past year. Since we are now empty nesters, I get up and come to my office about 7:15 a.m. By the time I have done this I am wide awake. It gives me some uninterrupted time to read my Bible and then to prepare for class, for very few students will come by before 8:30 a.m.
© 2005 William Jordan