How do you decide what to read in the Bible when you read?

I once had a pastor who suggested we read one Psalm every day by what day of the month it is. So on July 1 I would read Psalm 1 and so on. When you get to the next month, you would add 30 (or the number of days in that month to get what you'd read in August, so August 1 you would read Psalm 32, and so on until you've read all the Psalms. Then you would start over. So we would read one Psalm a day and whatever chapter of Proverbs matched the day of the month.

I used to do the 'add 30' as well.

Wow, really? I am curious, why Leviticus? I usually hit Psalms or Proverbs..

Maybe I wasn't clear. If I'm reading the Old Testament books in order, I get stuck when I get to Leviticus. I've read it a couple of times -- once because I wanted to read the Bible through in order and once because our friend wanted to study the Old Testament and we took the books in order again and spent about three months (every Friday night) on Leviticus. Whenever I hit Leviticus, I want to go soemwhere else, like the Psalms, Proverbs, New Testament, almost anything else. It's hard for me to really get excited about Leviticus and the details of all those sacrifices and rituals.

That would seem to offer you variety and keep you from getting in a rut. I get in a rut when I hit Leviticus.

I see I did not make that clear. We are reading the Bible in 90 days. The man who started this started out as an atheist, but he decided he wanted to be clear about what he did not believe and so he decided to read the Bible cover to cover, and he did it in 90 days. By the time he finished he was a Christian. He then began offering this as a class at his church. Since then he quit his career and does this program and has prepared materials for it, and that is how he makes his living. It does change lives, I just do not see being pressured into buying more stuff.

@Barbara--I know, it is sad. We had a lovely Christian Lifestyle store here in town, but it was not really of interest to me because it was almost a "gift shop" that happened to sell Christian written materials. I must admit that 1) I get stuck in a rut and 2) I am rather isolated in as much as I generally only add books that are promoted by friends at church, and then I think about it a lot. For instance, a friend in Sunday School had "Heaven is for Real" and wanted to share it with someone. I borrowed it, and I loved it. I am considering giving it as a gift to my daughter and to some others. I was impressed because it was backed by scripture all the way and the writer was an established and experienced minister in a sister denomination. Knowing this person who loaned me the book , I would probably borrow anything she had. I guess my comment about the rapidly published celebrity books and handbooks is that if it is of God, it will survive, and if it is not of God it will perish. We who are Christians need to judge the content in the light of Biblical Standards. In the case of these reading materials by the B90 group, there is nothing wrong with them, and there is nothing wrong with buying them if you have the money. What is wrong is the salesmanship of trying to make people buy them, even if it is a reasonable price. I am pretty down on consumerism, and I am very out of work. I really want to streamline my stuff as well. I would rather, if I had it, to donate the $10 for someone who has nothing to have a Bible. Shame on me if I am not disciplined enough to study my own copy of the Bible.@JohnRok1, I searched the Banner of Truth online and I see that is a fine publication by an established group. I may have heard of it, but many smaller publications are overshadowed by the larger, more well known periodicals. I think we are fortunate to be able to read so many things to strengthen our faith. I generally use an NASB Study Bible, which is why I had to go find my NIV, which I bought, incidentally, as a study Bible for a weightloss program. The program is gone, but the Word prevails.

I haven't been adding a psalm every day, but maybe I will. I like to read through the Proverbs once a month, and there are 31 chapters, so it is easy to keep up with.:-)

That sounds like a very balanced reading plan to me. It would keep you from getting bogged down in a book like Leviticus because you would balance the study of the law with practical advice from Proverbs and lots of devotional meat to chew on in your NT reading. Do you also include a Psalm a day?

I don't know - there are a lot of plans out there. I wouldn't put it past some of these modern gurus to take M'Cheyne's plan, make one or two miniscule alterations and put it out as their own. But he's worth some attention for his other work: "Chosen not for good in me, Woken up from wrath to flee, Hidden in the Saviour's side, By the Spirit sanctified, Teach me Lord on earth to show Something of how much I owe" is a verse from one of his hymns. Also his short book on the raising of Lazarus is well worth a read.

It sounds like you do have a systematic plan. I'm wondering if M'Cheyne's plan is the one I used? I don't recall whose plan it was, but it came on a bookmark or flyer I could keep right n my Bible.

Hello Bagara. We read the bible story so it is great to practice the reading and of course and what is more important we receive the message of God. This is the link: www.bibleforchildren.org I encourage to go and read! Blesses!

I've never seen the Bible sties for children -- Just bible story books and children's Bibles. Does the site read the stories or just have them there for you to read. Do you have a link?

Sounds like you're organized! Have you ever seen the Narrated Bible? It's the NIV version arranged in chronological order by when the events happened. I'm not sure it's still i print.

We don't use a study guide for private devotions. My husband has always taught people in his Bible studies and for private devotions to just ask two questions as they read the Bible. 1. What does this passage teach me about what God is like? 2. What does it teach me about how to please God, or what kind of man or woman delights the heart of God. These questions work pretty well for most Bible passages to keep us from missing important lessons.

Sounds like you've thought it out and have a pretty good system. Do you just read for what strikes you or do you have certain questions you ask yourself as you read?

For sure the reading the Bible nourishes the soul and keeps us thinking about our relationship with God.

I like your method of not just reading a passage in the morning, but also reading it again at night to see how well you obeyed it. Reading is always easier than obeying.

Good Bible reference books can help with that. You might ask your pastor for recommendations. I use a Bible Concordance (which helps you find all the verses that use a certain word), a Topical Bible (which helps you find all the verses on certain topics), a Bible Dictionary (where you can look up Bible names, places and words to find out more about them),and a Bible Handbook (which gives you background information on each book of the Bible). So if I hear about a Bible character I'm not familiar with, I can look him up in the Bible Dictionary and see everything the Bible says about him and where to find it in the Bible. If I want to study the meaning of faith, I can look it up in the Bible Dictionary for a definition of it's Bible meaning, look it up in the Topical Bible to see all Bible verses related to it, and look it up in the concordance to see all the different meanings in the Bible and all the verses that have the word "faith" in them. These are the books I consult all the time.

That's one way to do it.