Bible In a Year

We are going to help you read the Bible in a year starting now. To get get started – you will need a Bible! This may seem obvious, but you should put some thought into choosing the Bible you will use. The main point to is actually read the entire Bible. Whatever support you can give yourself to this goal is good!

If you like to write in your study books, perhaps you will want to have special writing utensils that you will use throughout this year so that in future years you can look back to see what was important to you in 2018-19. If you do NOT like to carry books around, you may want to have a Bible at each location where you might have time to read: in your favorite reading spot at home, in your desk at work, in the glove box…

Getting a Bible: We will use the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV), which is copyrighted and a little more expensive, but other version will be useful. You can get Bible software for your computer and smartphone and some of it is free. It will have multiple versions. Search via Google, or search your smartphone store. You might take a look at “YouVersion” bible. Read more about Choosing a Bible

If you are going to read with a friends, pick a regular time and place for this to happen. Make that a priority in your life for the next year. Otherwise, one excuse will lead to another….

Bible In A Year will provide suggested daily readings Monday-Saturday each week. If one reads all these suggested readings one will read the entire Bible over a 51 week period.

The program will begin with commitment & dedication time on Sunday, July 1. The readings will begin on July 1, 2018. The program will conclude on the final Sunday of June 2019. The weekly readings will be available online and as a weekly flyer in the narthex.

There is a possibility of having class meetings, too. If you are interested in a class for BIAY, please follow the link below to let us know what would be the best time for you.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/3XSXXN3

Start now. Here are the Readings for Week 1 of 1, July 2-7, 2018,

Open for print: BIY Intro week 2018-19

Theme of the week: An overview of the Bible. This week we will sample some of the various genre contained in the Bible.

Monday Creation, narrative: Genesis chapters 1 & 2
(notice the two distinct versions of creation)
Tuesday Fall of humanity: Genesis chapters 3 & 4
Wednesday Glory of Creation, poetry: Psalms 146, 147 & 148
Thursday Wisdom Literature: Proverbs chapters 1 & 2
Friday Prophetic writings: The Book of Habakkuk
Saturday Epistle (letter): The Letter to the Colossians

”Read_more”

Permission is given to reproduce this for congregational use

A Framework for Understanding

What is the Bible? and Where did the it come from?

The Bible is a collection of writings by many different people across several millennia. Referred to as “scriptures” which means “writings,” these are considered sacred because through the generations their teachings have served to bring people into a growing, vital faith with God. The church as an institution has decided which of all the writings are included in what we know as the Bible. Different denominations include slightly different books. Catholic and Orthodox Bibles include some scripture passages within the Old Testament that are not included in the protestant Bibles, and also books referred to as “deuterocanonical,” which are usually omitted in protestant Bibles.

The word “bible” actually means “collection of books” or “library.” Inside the covers of our Bible is an entire library of books. Protestant Christians have 66 books in their Bibles. 39 books in the Old Testament – or Hebrew Scriptures, and 27 books in the New Testament – or Greek Scriptures.

The various stories that make up the Bible originated some as recently as 2000 years ago, others as far back as 5000 years ago or more. The oldest stories predate written language. These stories were told in families and tribes, passed along through generations by repeated tellings. While the stories helped to build the identity of a people, you can imagine that the stories told would change over time as storytellers’ techniques changed or family members married into different tribes and shared a new twist or embellishment on an old story.

There is a variety of genre contained in the Bible: history, poetry, fiction, biographical narrative, letters, apocalyptic are a few. It is important to think about what genre is being read, as we anticipate learning differently from different genre.