A Customized Bible Reading Plan

EDITOR'S NOTE: Some five months after I first posted this piece, I was appalled to learn that some of you think those little verses in the brightly-colored boxes are my hubristic paraphrases.

No.

In every case, the initials that follow the chapter and verse comprise the standard abbreviation for the translation the verse(s) come from. I've edited this post to include those abbreviations for every translation I cite.

If that doesn't clear things up, you'll find more of those standard abbreviations in use at Bible reading sites like Bible Hub and Bible Gateway.

Dear Evangelicals:

There are plenty of Bible reading plans out there. This is the one, devised by me out of sheer necessity, that got me through. And, no, it has nothing to do with reading the Bible straight through from beginning to end. I find it makes more sense in the order I happened on. Here we go.

First step? Find a translation you can understand. My favorites are the New King James Version (NKJV), the New Living Translation (NLT), and Eugene Peterson's brilliant paraphrase, The Message (MSG). The Amplified Bible (AMP) can also be terrifically helpful.

Sojourners (see the list of "Recommended Sites" to the right) uses The New International Version (NIV) for the verses in their daily, e-mail devotional, so the NIV has become another favorite of mine.

If you don't understand something, try reading it in another translation. Always be sure to read it in context.

Bible Gateway, which also makes a free app, is a website that allows you to easily toggle between a huge number of translations. Bible Hub boasts fewer translations, but will give you parallel versions at a glance.

Now, to the reading plan itself:

If you are suffering from grief, loss, trauma, or upheaval of any kind, start with the Psalms.

If you are having trouble reinforcing boundaries, whether others are transgressing your personal boundaries, or you believe the rules don't apply to you, read Proverbs.

If you are suffering from sexual repression, read the Song of Solomon, sometimes referred to as the Song of Songs.

If you're undergoing all of those things, read those books in order. Otherwise, start with the Gospel of John.

Next, read the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Go through John again, and straight through to the end of the New Testament.

Next, turn to the Old Testament, and read the major prophets in order: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations (that's Jeremiah, too), and Ezekiel. It will be hard. The books, with the exception of Lamentations, are long, and display Israel and Judah at their most intractable and vile. Don't skip these; you need them for courage, and to understand things about sin and the law that I guarantee you have never heard in church -- or from that creepy, shifty guy who thinks he's your personal prophet.

Now, go to the beginning. Start with Genesis, and read clear to the end of Revelation. If you need cheering up in the middle of Kings or Chronicles, go back to Romans 8, Philippians, or the Psalms.

In the first five books of the Bible, keep your eyes open for principles that you've previously encountered in the New Testament. It's funny how Old Testament God is not nearly as hateful as some think He is. There's a huge lesson in seeing the character of God on display in the Old Testament, and realizing that Israel was no more willing to be like Him in the New Testament than they were in the Old.

Use whatever tools are available to mark the verses that mean something to you. If you have a hard copy of the Bible, you might use colored pencils or sticky note flags to mark important passages. On the websites, and in the apps, there are highlighting tools, and a search engine.

Realize that different verses will be important to you at different times in your life. Realize, too, that if you keep going back to the Bible for spiritual food, you will notice verses you hadn't previously. This is Jesus at work in you; let Him teach you.

One caution about the search engines on Bible websites: I found that I had read things in so many different translations that I couldn't find them by running a search on the websites. Inevitably, I'd search for a phrase in the New King James Version, only to discover after I'd Googled it that the phrase I remembered was from the English Standard Version (ESV). If you want to search the Bible using a particular phrase, Google is the best Bible search engine I know of.

Yes, it will probably take you more than a year. You will devour some books, and struggle to get through others. Which is which will depend on what you're going through. God bless.