Introduction to a Life Changing Journey

Tomorrow RTB will return to its roots, taking the first steps on a journey of reading through the entire Bible in a year. (After all, “RTB” stands for “Read Through the Bible”.) For some (like Fred and Carol), this year-long trek is familiar ground. For others, this may be the first time through. For all, the journey can be life changing — certainly life giving — as our path is through the living and active Word of God.

With Genesis 1:1 starting with “In the beginning…” and Revelation 22:21 ending with “Amen“, one might expect it to be reasonably easy to read the Bible straight through from beginning to end, page by page. But the Bible is, of course, no ordinary book. It consists of multiple shorter works written by multiple authors over a period of roughly 1500 years. We see historical drama, poetry, legal code, prophecy, and personal correspondence. We have action and advice, worship and wisdom, foretelling and forthtelling, songs and sermons. It starts in a garden and ends in a city, with a glorious epic in between, but it is not organized as a single long narrative, so for those who have not read it all before, reading from beginning to end can be confusing.

And so, we will avoid taking the “simple but confusing” straight path and instead chart our course chronologically through the Bible. For example, when we read the history of the Exodus led by Moses, we will read a psalm that Moses wrote. As we walk through the events of King David’s life, we will read the psalms corresponding to those events. As we journey through the history of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, we will read the writings of the prophets who spoke to those kingdoms. And so on.

In taking this approach we will use The Chronological Study Bible published by Thomas Nelson as our guide. The Chronological Study Bible (CSB) is packed with helpful notes and maps and timelines that can help shed light on the biblical text. So if you have a copy, use it as your map through the Scriptures, reading all the extra sidebars. If you don’t have a copy and would like one, let me know. But don’t feel like you have to use The Chronological Study Bible to be able to participate in RTB. We will still publish our Reading Schedule each month, and you can follow along in your favorite translation. (The keen observer will note, though, that our own schedule may differ slightly from that published in the CSB, but we’ll never be very far off.) For my part, I will avoid referring to or quoting the CSB notes for two main reasons:

• I don’t want anyone without the CSB to feel “left out in the cold”, wondering what I am talking about
• I don’t want to inadvertently plagiarize the material and violate Thomas Nelson’s copyright

Our goal here isn’t to learn everything the CSB scholars have to say. Our goal is to encounter the living God by reading through His Word. If the CSB notes help us to hear from God, excellent! But if they don’t, don’t worry about it — just concentrate on the Word itself.

Here are a few tips for completing this journey together:

• Pray for the Holy Spirit to speak to you through His Word
• Develop your own daily routine for reading and stick to it
  • We will typically read three or four chapters a day, so allocate sufficient time in your schedule to read each day, with some extra time built in for contemplating what you read
  • Plan ahead for disruptions to your schedule (e.g., travel)
  • Don’t fall behind, but if you do, just skim (or even skip) over the backlog to catch up and stay on track
• Participate in the conversation, both online and in person

Finally, whether you’ve trodden this path before or are completely new to this, we are all embarking afresh on a tremendous journey. At times we may find the going to be easy and the weather fine. Other times may seem dark and gloomy. We may find adventure. Or we may find ourselves plodding along. We may find encouragement. Or we may find cause to grieve. Through it all, seek the Lord and listen to what He has to say to you. You will not regret it.