Read the Bible!

It's a new year. It's a perfect time to recommit yourself to bathing every day in God's Word!

Instead of hopping on Facebook every spare moment, why not read a chapter of Scripture when you sit down by yourself?

Quite a number of CNCFers are joining me this year in doing a year-long reading plan called "Reading God's Story." It's kind of a combination of a chronological reading plan and a topical reading plan that gets you through the whole Bible in 365 days. The basic structure is chronological: you read the Bible in the order in which it was written. But the creator of the plan mixes in passages that relate to whatever event is happening in that day's reading.

For example, after reading the account of the Flood in Genesis 8 and 9, the plan has you read this Psalm on the same day:

Help, LORD, for the godly man ceases to be,
For the faithful disappear from among the sons of men.
They speak falsehood to one another;
With flattering lips and with a double heart they speak.
May the LORD cut off all flattering lips,
The tongue that speaks great things;
Who have said, "With our tongue we will prevail;
Our lips are our own; who is lord over us?"
"Because of the devastation of the afflicted, because of the groaning of the needy,
Now I will arise," says the LORD; "I will set him in the safety for which he longs."

The words of the LORD are pure words;
As silver tried in a furnace on the earth, refined seven times.
You, O LORD, will keep them;
You will preserve him from this generation forever.
The wicked strut about on every side
When vileness is exalted among the sons of men.
​(Psalm 12)

See why this Psalm goes with the Flood?

Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. The LORD said, "I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them." But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.…

Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence. God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth.

Then God said to Noah, "The end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and behold, I am about to destroy the, with the earth. Make for yourself an ark…" (Genesis 6:5–8, 11–14)

The world speaks flattery and lies, but God speaks truth. It will only help you to build a habit of immersing yourself in His Word every day.