A HUGE Challenge!

Ok, here goes:
By God's grace and with the discipline he supplies and the encouragement of other believers, I'm going to read the entire Bible in 90 days!

(Whew, I said it!)

I've been a Christian for a very long time, but I've never read God's Word from cover to cover. Two years ago, I committed to doing so and got the farthest I ever had, by making it to Isaiah. I bought The Daily Bible In Chronological Order for myself, mom, sister, Joy, and Keisha (a close friend). I told them, "Don't waste my money. Read the whole thing." Guess who fell off the wagon first. ME!

However, I was still proud that I made it that far. I've heard it said that if you aim for nothing, you'll hit it every time. If I hadn't set the goal, I would not have even started. So, I'm thankful for what I did read and the things that I learned of God during those day. That's one of the reasons that I love the new year. I feel like it's a fresh start and that excites me!

So, you might ask: "If she couldn't make it through the Bible in a year, how in the world is she going to make it through in 90 days?" Answer: By God's grace! In December, I started thinking about my goals for the year. I had decided to attempt to read the Bible in a year. But this time I wanted to start with the New Testament. You see, I've tried reading the entire Bible so many times, that I've got Genesis down pat! Lol! I thought that since the NT is shorter, reading it first would give me some much needed momentum. Last night (Dec. 31) I printed off a schedule to read the NT in 90 days.

This morning, I got on the internet (more on that later) and came across this blog for the 2nd time. The challenge was to read the Bible in 90 days. I liked this idea b/c I would be reading along with a community of other online friends. And Lord knows I need the encouragement. Also, last year I read 2- 500 pg Christian fiction books (The Mark of the Lion series by Francine Rivers) in about 1 month each. Some days, I spent well over an hour reading those books. I know if I could spend time reading those, I can read the entire Bible. However, I had lots of reservations (aka discouragement in my own mind).

I went back and forth in my head. What made me take the plunge to spend approximately 1 hour reading the Bible a day is this: I waste lots of time daily. I can spend an hour reading other people's blogs and surfing the internet easily for 1 hour. Shouldn't I be able to read God's Word for an hour a day. After all, it is living and active. It is God's Word! So that's what got me in.

This morning I started reading with Gen. 1 around 7:10 a.m. I finished the reading at 8:07. I may not be able to read it through every morning for a straight hour, but if not, I will read it during the kids' nap time. I am going to make the commitment not to get on the internet or turn on the TV until, I've completed my reading for the day. Like I said, I waste a lot of time on the internet and I really need to make the Bible my priority.

I'm looking forward to the Twitter parties (where we will discuss our reading) on Monday nights and being encouraged by others. There is a specific Bible that you can purchase for this challenge. They say that reading with this Bible with increase the likelihood that you will read the entire Bible. It's divided into 90 days and has some reading tools in it I think. However, last week when we were in Atlanta we went to Fellowship Bible Church. At the entrance to the sanctuary there were paperback ESV Bibles. I had been wanting an ESV Bible and a thin one to use specifically for my Bible reading for the year. I picked one up (hope that's ok). So that's the one I'll be using. I printed off the reading schedule and placed it in the back of my Bible.

You can read more about the challenge at Mom's Toolbox and join in or you can go directly to the Bible in 90 days website.

What about you? Have you made any spiritual goals for the year? Either way, I need your encouragement. Check back here to see my progress! By God's grace, 2010 is going to be the year that I read the Bible cover to cover.