22-Day New Testament Reading Plan

We began “Octoberfast” today in my church. For the next three weeks, we we will be fasting and praying corporately.

Because I have been extremely sick lately, I am not going to begin completely abstaining from food right away, but I have decided that one of the key projects I will accomplish in this 21-day period is to reread the New Testament. I’ve included my reading plan for the next 22 days here. I’m aiming for about 12 chapters a day and will break that up throughout the day. The plan is:

22-Day Bible Reading Plan

October 4
Matthew 1-12

October 5
Matthew 13-24

October 6
Matthew 25-Mark 8

October 7
Mark 9-Luke 4

October 8
Luke 5-16

October 9
Luke 17-John 3

October 10
John 4-9

October 11
John 10-21

October 12
Acts 1-12

October 13
Acts 13-24

October 14
Acts 25-Romans 8

October 15
Romans 9-1 Corinthians 8

October 16
1 Corinthians 9-2 Corinthians 4

October 17
2 Corinthians 5-13

October 18
Galatians 1-Ephesians 6

October 19
Philippians 1-1 Thessalonians 5

October 20
2 Thessalonians 1-2 Timothy 4

October 21
Titus 1-Hebrews 8

October 22
Hebrews 9-1 Peter 5

October 23
2 Peter 1-Jude

October 24
Revelation 1-11

October 25
Revelation 12-22

A quick note that since I am a band director and have marching contests the next two Saturdays, I am making those Saturday readings a little shorter than the other days.

What about you? What cool things are you going to do this month?

James 1:1-4 – Count It All Joy

Jam 1:1
JAMES, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,

To the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad:

Greetings.

Jam 1:2
My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,
Jam 1:3
knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.

Jam 1:4
But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

Verse 1
This epistle was written specifically to Jews, but I believe it can be applied to our own lives as well (2 Timothy 3:16).

Verse 2
It’s so easy to say that we are suffering because God doesn’t care about us, or to accuse someone else of wrongdoing when we see them suffering.

Think of Job’s wife telling him to “Curse God and die” (Job 2:9). But what of Job’s response, “‘You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God and shall we not accept adversity?’” In all this Job did not sin with his lips” (Job 2:10).

Verse 3
Why should we rejoice in the midst of our trials? Because trials test our faith. When our faith is tried, we come out stronger and more trusting on the other side.

God tests us for a reason. We don’t have to understand the reason, because we’re not God. He won’t give us anything more than we can handle (cf. 1 Corinthians 10:13). That’s great news. When we’re not in a trial!

The victory comes when you endure a trial, when the world feels like it’s going to end, and you have nowhere to turn. When that happens and you hold to your faith and stand strong, despite circumstances, you can thank God that He has started bringing you down the path of patience.

Verse 4
Why should we be more patient? Well, patience will lead us to being complete. Perfect. Lacking nothing. That’s be a good thing!

Who Wants To Do Bible Study???

I have recently begun reading some of my friends’ blogs and I remember how much I miss the fellowship we had back before I moved to Del Rio. I am still convinced that God has me here for a purpose. I have tried to start up a local Bible study here, but it just has never gotten off the ground.

So I have decided to throw out the idea of a Blogger Bible Study of sorts and see if we get some responses.

Here’s the plan…
I want to team up with some other bloggers and dig our way through parts of the Bible.

At this point, I’m not concerned about what book to begin with (I love Romans, Ephesians, Hebrews, James, and Peter’s epistles, but whatever is fine with me). Ijust know that I want to start.

We can trade off with one person taking a section (chapter?) at a time, commenting on it, letting the discussion run around for a little while, and then someone else going to the next section/chapter.

If you don’t have a blog, but are interested in being a part, you can always comment, and if you want to write a study, I’d be more than happy to post whatever you have on my blog.

So my questions are:

1. What book?
2. Who goes first?
3. Does this sound like a good idea?

Discuss it in the comments…