Parallel, Balanced, Daily Bible Reading Plan
Most daily Bible reading schedules have two
problems. First, the daily readings are not
balanced, with many readings taking three or four times
longer than others to complete. Second, the daily
readings offer little variety, with the New Testament
being pushed to the very end of the year. The
52-Week, Balanced, Parallel Daily Bible Reading Plan
offered here solves both problems.
First, our daily Bible reading schedule is a balanced plan. Most other plans are verse-based plans. Under a verse-based plan, Psalm 119 is generally split into multiple readings because it has 176 verses. But First Kings 8 has almost as many words as Psalm 119 even though it has fewer than 70 verses. Thus, it makes no sense to split up Psalm 119 while combining First Kings 8 with surrounding chapters as many plans do. A balanced plan needs to be word-based rather than verse-based. For example, the average numbers of words per verse in Esther is over twice the average number of words per verse in Proverbs. The 364 readings in our plan average 2170 words per day, with 80% of the readings being between 1500 and 2800 words. (These numbers and the balance in our plan are based on the King James Version of the Bible.)
First, our daily Bible reading schedule is a balanced plan. Most other plans are verse-based plans. Under a verse-based plan, Psalm 119 is generally split into multiple readings because it has 176 verses. But First Kings 8 has almost as many words as Psalm 119 even though it has fewer than 70 verses. Thus, it makes no sense to split up Psalm 119 while combining First Kings 8 with surrounding chapters as many plans do. A balanced plan needs to be word-based rather than verse-based. For example, the average numbers of words per verse in Esther is over twice the average number of words per verse in Proverbs. The 364 readings in our plan average 2170 words per day, with 80% of the readings being between 1500 and 2800 words. (These numbers and the balance in our plan are based on the King James Version of the Bible.)
Second, our daily Bible reading schedule is a
parallel plan. Our plan covers the entire
Bible in a year, but it does so via seven parallel
streams. During the first week, for example, the
plan includes readings from Genesis, Deuteronomy, First
Samuel, Job, Jeremiah, Matthew, and Acts. Our
parallel approach provides the variety that causes many
other plans to go abandoned somewhere between Leviticus
and Numbers. In addition, our approach provides
two readings from the New Testament during each week of
the year.
If we maintain our physical health by the daily intake of physical food, then shouldn't we do the same for our spiritual health by the daily intake of spiritual food? As Jesus said in Matthew 4:4, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." If you are not reading your Bible every day, please download our plan and get started. Although the plan takes a year to complete, it need not be started on the first day of the year. Instead, it can be started on any Sunday. The plan comes in three sizes: Click here for the Full Page version, click here for the Half Page version, and click here for the Quarter Page version. If you want to create your own reading plans, you can download the same Excel spreadsheet that was used to create this plan. Please let us know if you have any comments or suggestions about the plan.
If we maintain our physical health by the daily intake of physical food, then shouldn't we do the same for our spiritual health by the daily intake of spiritual food? As Jesus said in Matthew 4:4, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." If you are not reading your Bible every day, please download our plan and get started. Although the plan takes a year to complete, it need not be started on the first day of the year. Instead, it can be started on any Sunday. The plan comes in three sizes: Click here for the Full Page version, click here for the Half Page version, and click here for the Quarter Page version. If you want to create your own reading plans, you can download the same Excel spreadsheet that was used to create this plan. Please let us know if you have any comments or suggestions about the plan.