Category Archives: Bible Reading Plan

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Bible Reading Plan For Lent

I hope you will join me during this Lenten season by using this Bible reading plan that will take you through the Gospel of John during the 40 days between Ash Wednesday and Easter.  Likewise, I would encourage you to consider entering into some of the spiritual practices that I have suggested during this same period. Below is a simple guide to understanding and observing Lent:

Overview: Observing Lent is designed to help you participate with more knowledge, greater awareness and deeper love of Jesus during this season of the year that leads to Easter. To be sure, Lent does nothing to make you more loveable to God, it is simply a time for you to discover or rediscover the realities of God’s love for you, to partake more passionately in Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, and to grow in gratitude for the incredible gift given to you through Christ’s sacrifice. Maybe you grew up observing Lent, but need to get back in touch with the meaning behind it. Maybe you’ve heard of Lent, but have no idea what it is. Maybe you’re new to Christianity or are still trying to figure out who Jesus is and why his death and resurrection matters today. Whatever the case, Lent can be a transforming experience of getting to know, love and walk more intimately with Jesus as never before

When: Lent is the 40 days leading up to Easter, beginning on Ash Wednesday, February 18th and ending on Easter Sunday, April 5th.

What: The term, Lent, simply has come to refer to the period or season leading up to Easter.

How: Traditionally, Christian have used this period to heighten their experience with Jesus through definite and increased times for prayer, through intentional and specific acts of devotion and through planned acts of self-denial for a definite period within or for all of Lent.

I would encourage you to prayerfully consider observing Lent through one or more of the aforementioned methods (strategic prayer, fasting, and or giving up some personal comfort in order to devote yourself to the Lord) and by specifically engaging in our daily Lenten Bible Reading and Devotional Plan in the Gospel of John.

Outcome: Again, observing Lent will not make you more lovable to God. Ritual without relationship only leads to dead religiosity. But if done with a desire to grow closer to Jesus, you will enter into a more knowledgeable and intimate walk with the Lord, and if for no other reason, that will make your effort, well, worth the effort.

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2015 Bible Reading Plan: The Gospel of John

Being With Jesus:
John 20:31

These things are written so that you may believe Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and by believing you may have life in His name.

The holidays are over, the New Year is here, and I want to invite you into a 2015 Bible reading plan in the writings of the Apostle John that I am praying and believing will be nothing less than life-altering for you and me.  We will begin with the Gospel of John, using this reading schedule: 2015 Bible Reading Plan.

The theme of John’s Gospel revolves around knowing Jesus—the most noble and fruitful pursuit in all of life!  To know Jesus is eternal life—the abundant life as we walk this planet and life forever in the eternal world.  The goal of this devotional journey in John will be to create an unquenchable thirst and a clear path for pursuing, knowing and enjoying Jesus in a way that transforms every aspect of our lives, making us more useful for this world and more ready for the next.

There are several reasons I believe a thorough saturation in John’s Gospel will be a worthy pursuit:

1) The Gospel of John, at the most fundamental level, is the Word of God. And the internal witness of the Bible promises us that a faithful reading and diligent obedience of it will lead to wisdom and Divine favor now and ceaseless blessings for all eternity.

2) The Gospel of John brings to us the most sustained and compelling portrait of the exalted Christ we will ever find. Andreas Köstenberger has written that “John’s Gospel, together with the Book of Romans, may well be considered the enduring ‘twin towers’ of [our] theology.”

Bible New Testament St. John3) The Gospel of John was written by one who, arguably, had the most intimate relationship with Jesus of any human being in history. John self-identified as “the disciple whom Jesus loved” throughout his book. There is a depth of affection, friendship and intimacy between this disciple and his Lord that is both stunning and inviting.

4) The Gospel of John, read and grasped, will be a profitable challenge. For me, John is the most difficult Gospel to get my brain around on a holistic level, though I find individual verses and passage as some of the most meaningful and beautiful in Scripture. I am looking forward to mastering it—at least attempting to do so.

5) The Gospel of John will satiate our hunger to know and follow Christ at a deeper level as well as, if not better, than any other devotional endeavor.

In what better way can we be drawn closer to Christ, made useful for this world and readied for the next than to give our best meditation and passionate worship to the glory of Christ that is revealed the Gospel of John? As the Apostle wrote in John 1:14, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father.” And we have been invited to immerse ourselves in his glory!

I am looking forward to this glorious journey—and I hope you will come with me!

“I know of no greater spiritual discipline than Bible study—reading, meditating, journaling, praying the Scriptures—that will contribute to your health and growth as a believer. It’s as simple as that. If you want to mature in your faith, morph into greater Christlikeness, deepen your knowledge of God, insulate your life from sin, prepare you for eternity, enlarge your Kingdom effectiveness, increase your spiritual power, develop life skills for the daily challenges you face, and in general, live in the blessing zone of God’s favor, you’ve got to be in God’s Holy Word on a regular, if not daily, basis.” (Ray Noah)