Reading Plans for the New Year

 

In a recent post, I offered some encouragement on how to avoid failing at your New Year’s Bible reading plan.  Here I’d like to recommend one of the plans that was included from the links referenced in that post.

This particular reading plan may help you avoid some of the issues and frustrations discussed in the previous post, that often lead to reading plan failure.  The title of this plan is called the Legacy Reading Plan.

Designed by the folks at the Christian Research Institute, the Legacy Reading Plan “is an innovative approach to reading…strategically designed to empower you to ‘eat the elephant ‘one Book’ at a time’.  The Format is specifically formulated to make your time in God’s Word the best it can be.”

Legacy is an acronym that stands for:

L – Location: an isolated place where you can hear from God through His Word.

E – Essence: Comprehend the essence of “God as communicated by reading each Book as a whole.”

G – Genre: “To understand Scripture in the sense in which it is intended, it is important to pay special attention to the genre we are reading.”  This is largely how the plan is organized.

A – Author: a further organization of the reading plan is authorial.  This allows the reader to develop familiarity with a particular author’s style, terms, theology, etc.

C – Context: this rounds out the logic of the reading plan organization; “Context has an impact on how you contextualize one set of biblical Books in relation to another.”

Y – Years: “The overarching objective of the Legacy Reading Plan is to read through the Bible once a year, every year for the rest of your life. The reading calendar is naturally segmented into seasons and the seasons into months.”

As you may have gathered from the description above, this plan is different than some of the other yearly reading plans in that it doesn’t have a rigid schedule to follow.  Instead, it organizes Scripture reading logically, seasonally, then monthly.  Likewise, it allows flexibility in the amount of Scripture that one reads, but still keeps the reader on a general schedule so that they can accomplish their goal of reading through the Bible in a year.  So for example, one day you may have time to read 10-12 chapters, while another day maybe only 1 or maybe you’ve had to skip for one reason or another.  This is flexible enough to avoid what has been a major hindrance for some who follow a stricter plan, i.e. once you fall behind on chapters or days, its nearly impossible to make them up and then the inevitable reading plan failure ensues.  The Legacy Plan may help alleviate that obstacle.

What I like about the Legacy Plan:

  • Daily readings in Proverbs
  • Consistent, regular readings in the Psalms throughout the year (3 chapters per week)
  • Flexible reading allows for more reading on days when time is available, yet guilt free reading should a day or two be missed
  • Logical ordering
    • OT
      • Similar to the Hebrew canon (Tanak)
      • Hebrew Pentateuch and Hebrew Poetry
      • Hebrew History
      • Hebrew Prophets
        • The Prophets are in monthly proximity to Revelation
    • NT
      • Begins with the writings of the Apostle John allowing for consistent familiarity with his terms, writing style, etc.
      • Moves to the collection of Pauline and Pastoral epistles
      • The three synoptic gospels along with Acts are reserved for the Advent Season

If you are looking for a year-long reading plan, but have been met with some of the frustrations, obstacles, and ultimately failures that I’ve mentioned before, then The Legacy Plan may be a reasonable option to consider.

PDF Link Here: http://www.equip.org/PDF/LRP-WBG.pdf

http://www.equip.org/article/legacy-reading-plan/

 

*feature image reference: happynewyears2017.org

About the author

Christian saved by grace through faith.

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