FaithEngineer

One of the most used apps on my iPod is the YouVersion Bible app by Lifechurch.tv. I have blogged about YouVersion numerous times in the past (see the posts here), and I am excited about the continual updates that the digerati team at Lifechurch keep pushing out. Last week they announced a new milestone. YouVersion users have spent one billion minutes reading the Bible on mobile devices! But they didn’t stop long to celebrate and now they have added the ability to track a personalized Bible reading plan on your mobile device. The feature came out today for the Blackberry application and is coming out soon on the iPod/iPhone. It is also available on their website.

I have kept a little printout in my Bible for a long time that I use to track my reading progress. It works great until you lose the sheet, which I have done several times in the past year.  I’m planning on switching over and using this to track and guide my reading starting January 1st. There are multiple reading plans to choose from, so what’s holding you back? Will you join me in reading through your Bible in the upcoming year?

If you want to find out more about how this works, check out the video below.

ChurchCrunch had the news about this yesterday.  If you want to utilize technology for ministry, then definitely check this website out. It is a great blog with an active forum of church tech users. Definitely one of my favorite ministry websites. Check it out at www.churchcrunch.com.

While on vacation, we spent several afternoons in Barnes & Noble cooling down, enjoying the Starbucks and air conditioning.  I saw a huge display of twilight books, and it made me do some thinking.  I know many people who have read through the entire series in a very short amount of time, typically in under a month.   I did a little research and found that the total number of words in the twilight series is very close to the total number of words in the Bible.  You can do the math, most people don’t read through the Bible every month.  So why do people struggle to consistently read through the Bible?

Is it a lack of passion? of time? of ability?

I have been reading through my Bible using a one-year plan, and I find myself getting behind when things get crazy.  But in the last two days, I have read two complete books on my Kindle.  Again, I find that disturbing.

I think the real reason we don’t read the Bible passionately is that we lose perspective of the incredible story of God.

When reading a novel, it’s easy to get lost in the story, to get consumed with the suspense of what is going to happen next. But for some reason, when we read the Bible, we lose sight of the incredible story of God’s love for us. We have the story of how God created the world, how he set everything in motion, how Adam and Eve sin, how the nation of Israel is established, and the story of how God redeems His children through Jesus Christ.  The New Testament details the life of Jesus, his death, burial, and resurrection, the start of the early church, and how the Gospel message is spread throughout the world.  It’s the most incredible story ever told!  And yet I’ve heard people say that it’s boring and that it doesn’t relate to their life. When you see the Bible for what it really is, God’s love letter to mankind, it changes your perspective.  You develop a hunger and a desire to let it speak into your life and transform you.  And you can’t read it fast enough.

When I first started reading my Bible in college, I couldn’t put it down.  I was fascinated by the New Testament.  I had heard the stories as a child and as a teen, but I had never really applied them to my life.  Looking back, I think it was the most intense and fastest growth I have ever experienced as a follower of Christ.  I learned what it meant to follow Christ through reading the Bible.  I truly believe that you will not see spiritual growth in your life if you neglect the reading of God’s word.

Steven Furtick of Elevation Church in Charlotte has challenged his entire staff to read through the Bible in 90 days.  When I first saw his reading plan, I thought it was a little crazy. But now I’m starting to see wisdom in his challenge.  Yes, it is good to slowly read and meditate on scripture, but there is something about regaining our perspective of God’s compelling story.  And when we are fascinated by a story, we can’t put it down.

Every year, I challenge our youth to read through the New Testament during the summer.  Reading three chapters a day, you can read through the New Testament in three months.   I’m a little late issuing the challenge this year because our schools are just now letting out, but I think we all need to read the Bible consisently.  The summer is a great time to start.  Here is some info that I have posted before about different reading plans.

photo by knowhimonline