Pardon the Interruption

On January 10th I took on a task that a lot of people would think was crazy...or impossible...or both. I decided (with a group of people from our church) to read through the New Testament in 30 days. Pastor Jace was the one to issue the challenge in our church, and I thought, "Sure, why not?" When I looked at the plan posted on Jace's blog from the New Thru 30 website I thought, "What have I gotten myself into?" When I sit down to read my bible, I usually tackle a chapter, maybe 2 or 3, at a time. This plan has you reading 2-3 BOOKS A DAY! Granted those books are short. You can see why I have had no time for blogging. Every spare minute of my day, I'm burried in the bible. I'm actually only a day behind right now, and thankfully, there are built-in "grace days" every Saturday and Sunday so I can catch up then.

So, at first I was thinking that I would complete the challenge simply to reach a goal that I had set for myself. I thought there was no way to glean very much from the reading since the sheer volume of work would prevent any in-depth study. It would just be reading to say that my eyes had looked at every word in the New Testament in 30 days. But I was wrong.

What I found is that reading such large amounts at once has really helped me view the New Testament from a "zoomed out" point of view. I can see the whole picture. When I get to the end of a book it hasn't been weeks since I read the beginning but rather just a day, so it is fresh in my memory. I see how things fit together and I'm grasping the overall tone of things more. This is the first time I've really been able to compare and contrast the four gospels. Reading 1st and 2nd Corinthians on back to back days enabled me to appreciate the differences in Paul's mood and disposition when he wrote those two letters. It has been amazing. Difficult, but amazing. It's not over yet, so at this point I can only hope that I keep up and am able to finish. I'm really looking forward to the end....not just because I'll be able to get back to my normal "to do during naptime" list, and not just because I can boast of an accomplished goal, but because I will have an increased knowledge of God's Word which is life-giving TRUTH. OK, enough for now...I have to get back to reading!