This is my eighth time doing the Bible Shred.
For the past 4 years, I’ve completed it primarily with an audio Bible, this is because it's been hard to find time and space to read a physical or digital Bible with little kids.
But this year I wanted to commit to reading as much as I can either physically or digitally, and reducing the amount of audio.
So how did I do in 2024??
Thankfully, I was able to make the time to do about 80% of the Bible Shred in the form of a digital Bible, and 20% on audio (reserved for times when I had to do a lot of driving).
And I am so glad that I committed to this as I noticed a lot more while reading rather than listening. What I found most interesting are certain patterns that I’ve been learning about over the last couple of years becoming more obvious.
One of them is the choice that man has to decide if they can live a life using their own ways and insights, or choosing to use God’s way of life and trusting His wisdom.
This tension is first presented in Genesis 3 as Man and Woman are instructed to eat of every tree in Eden except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
But then I started the read the Old Testament as a series of “case studies” showing various men and women presented with the same choice - will they live according to God’s way of life or their way of life?
Some people do really well, and some absolutely fail. But they all seem to just fall short of God’s desired intention for their life when attempting to do His will in their own effort.
The fascinating part of the Bible Shred is I got to read and compare each of these “case studies” side by side in close proximity.
For example, on day 7 of the shred I read about King Saul (1 Samuel 8-15), and we’re introduced to Dave (1 Samuel 16-17).
Then on day 8, I read about the life of David, the death of Saul, and David’s ruling of Israel as king (1 Samuel 18 - 2 Samuel 24).
Then on day 9, the focus is on King David’s death and his sons taking over leadership, and specifically the rule of King Solomon and his descendants (1 Kings - 2 Kings).
Comparing these 3 kings with the “case study” approach highlights their strengths and weaknesses, but also how they treat their loyalty to God based on what they’ve been provided to rule with.
King Saul was provided with the POSITION.
King David was provided with the PASSION.
King Solomon was provided with the PROFUNDITY (another word for wisdom that I had to use a thesaurus for so each point starts with the letter P).
They each have significant platforms to start their leadership, and direct conversion with either God Himself or a prophet speaking on God’s behalf to them.
They each have their own strengths and start off in obedience to God, but each of them also has great failures that result in significant ramifications to the overall story of the Bible.
With that in mind, we then go into the New Testament; the story of Jesus.
He has all three of those platforms (position as Son of God, passion and love of the Father, and wisdom as the Messiah).
Each of the Gospel stories presents a case study of Jesus in light of what I just read about in the Old Testament just a few days prior.
And Jesus does very well and invites us into His way of life (which the New Testament letters further expand on).
I do not want to write about the New Testament story in this blog post, but to say that I’ve really enjoyed the Bible Shred this year just for this little insight I’ve shared with you.
My encouragement to you is to try your best to complete a whole Bible reading plan.
Whether it's a 30-day plan, a 30-week plan, or a 30-year plan.
There are insights and wisdom that God has provided for us that can only be understood when you know and read the whole Bible in its entirety.
If you struggle to complete a reading plan, then my prayer is that the content of this blog site will help you and drive you forward.
God bless!