I don’t think I’ve ever made a New Year’s resolution. You always read around the new year about how resolutions never work and how people break them with a few weeks…yada, yada, yada. Well call it a resolution or whatever you want, but this year I decided to start Professor Horner’s Bible Reading System. Prof. Horner was actually one of my professor’s in college. He taught many of our English classes at The Master’s College and both Bethany and I took him for World Lit. We actually had the same class together while we were dating! But his Bible reading system pops up every year on blogs around the Internet as a legitimate reading program and now that I’m full engaged in it I can’t recommend it enough.
The basic idea is that you read 10 chapters in 10 different books of the Bible every day. If you look at the photo above you’ll see my book marks which hold my spot in all 10 different places. But instead of being a yearly Bible reading program, you actually finish the entire Bible in 8 months and while you read there are some books you will read multiple times. It might sound complicated, but it’s actually very simple–it’s just not what we’re used to.
In his notes on the reading system, Prof. Horner says that “you’ll realize you were starving yourself from God’s Word” and honestly I think that’s exactly what has happened to me and it’s only been 8 days. This system is no doubt intense and requires discipline, but it engages my mind in a way I never thought possible and the more you do it the easier it gets. By reading in many different books I’m seeing how my mind is trying to put the pieces together of God’s story. If you believe the Bible is one cohesive story, then this system makes sense. All the parts can start to come together and you can see the story of God just unravel–it’s mind blowing!
If you’re interested at all in starting this kind of system, I recommend going to Tim Challies blog and seeing his review of it. I think you will be blessed.
And one more side note about Prof. Horner: he’s also written what I believe is the best book on film and worldview out there for Christians. The book is called Meaning at the Movies: Becoming a Discerning Viewer and it will greatly challenge your heart as we think about art, film, and in general how to use our movie watching to the glory of God.