Daily Bible Reading Plans
1) One on One With God Reading Plan for a Year - One on One With God is a great resource to disciple believers in the faith, but their reading plan is great as well. You'll read one section in the New Testament, 2 sections in the Old Testament, and the chapter in Proverbs that corresponds with the day of the month you are on (Proverbs has 31 chapters, so you'll always have a chapter for the day, and even though you won't make it through it EACH month, you'll read it several times this year.
2) Bible in One Year - Daily plan online for reading the Word. Choose which translation and in different languages such as Spanish or Chinese. Read it right there online.
3) The One Year Bible - This is a one year bible plan that can be done usually in 15 minutes per day to read the bible through in one year. It is hosted on Youversion.com, which is the website associated with the Youversion Bible App. This plan, along with others, can be found and used through the Youversion Bible app on your smart device as well as through a browser.
Here's some other great reading plans
1) eWord Today Bible Reading plan - There are several choices of plans on this site, read Chronological (as the events happen) or Historical (in the order the books were written) or several other ways in several translation. You can choose what day you want to start and it will calculate the reading plan for you.
2) Back to the Bible reading plans - This page has a plan that's based on reading 4 times a week and has several variations, such as Chronological, Historical, etc.
3) Biblica Reading Plans - Formerly known as the International Bible Society, Biblica has an online tool to create a customized 365 day reading plan for the reader. You pick the version, you pick the day to start and it generates the rest for you.
Just starting? GREAT! We hope this page will help you learn more about studying God's Word. You don't have to read it all, its' broken up into bits and pieces that you can use as a reference.
BEFORE YOU START
Recognize that God is the author of the Bible. This is the word of God written down for you and all people.
A Sample Way to Study God's Word Each Day
1) Set a time to meet with God…an appointment with someONE, not some BOOK.
2) PRAY for God to show you something and EXPECT it to happen.
Questions to ask when you read a passage:
- Is there one verse that really spoke to you? Write it out. What is God saying to you in that verse?
- Is there a command to obey?
- Is there a promise to claim?
- Is there an example to follow?
- Is there warning about something to avoid?
- Can I think of a modern day experience where the truth in this Scripture could be applied?
Other suggestions:
- Re-write the verse in your own words
- Look up trusted commentary on the Scripture – www.bible.cc is a great resource
- Check the footnotes or notes in your Bible to enhance your bible study
3) Write down what God shows you.
- Keep a journal and refer back to it later to see what He told you.
4) Thank God for what you learned and ask Him to help you to implement it in your life.
A word about reading the Bible...
Read the Bible systematically. “All scripture is inspired of God.”
- The WHOLE Bible. Don't just read one part, read it through.
- There are loads of Bible reading plans: oneyearbibleonline.org, youversion.com (some are listed further down this page)
More Free Online Bible Tools
1) Biblegateway.com - This is a great place to do some research: Locate up specific words in specific Bible translation, look up topics, look up passages, etc.
2) Blueletterbible.com - This site has a lot of commentaries, study tools, devotionals (in multiple languages), charts, maps, studies on different cults, etc.
3) SBC.net - There are several things that are available on various subjects from becoming a Christian, to submitting a prayer request, email devotionals each day through Biblepathway.
4) Bible Study Tools.com - This is a website that has several tools to help you study the bible. If you don't understand a passage or part of the Bible, you can use their "commentaries" section (basically a person who studied the passage thoroughly who wrote down what he/she found) and check out the passage. Also, you can use a good study bible for that.
Daily Devotion readings:
**CAUTION: Devotional writings by others are wonderful auxillary tools, but do not let them become a substitute for you reading the Bible...just you and God. These writers became great people of God by doing that very thing. Them, the Bible and God...there is no substitute for that.
1) Back to the Bible - This site has a list of several devotional plans, including links to daily devotional writings by great Christian authors Warren Wiersbe, Woodrow Knoll and Elisabeth Elliot,while also linking to traditional classic devotional writings, like those of Charles Spurgeon and Mary Wilder Tileson.
2) Our Daily Bread - Our Daily Bread has been writing short daily devotionals for over 60 years and they continue today. You can download the devotionals to your PDA or just check it out online everyday.
3) Crosswalk.com - Crosswalk has a BOATLOAD of devotional resources, from famous pastors to devotions in Spanish to topic driven devotionals to devotionals designed to speak to specific stages of life.
Some tools that can help you study the Bible and what do they do?
1) Online resources for a Bible
Youversion.com - We use their "live" function on their Bible app to post Jim's sermon outlines for you to take notes on your smart device during our services. You may already have the device on your phone. This Online Bible and App is maintained by LifeChurch.tv
Biblegateway.com - I've been using this online Bible since late in my Seminary education. It's a great resource to find loads of different kinds of translations and Bible study resources for free.
bible.cc -- a little clunky on the interface, but MASSIVE on tools to use the Bible.
2) Study Bible - A study Bible is just like a regular Bible, except that it includes more resources to help you understand the passages of the Bible than a regular Bible. It might contain a summary paragraph at the beginning of a book that tells you a little about the author and the time period surrounding the book or it might put a couple of paragraphs at the bottom of a page to describe a particular cultural reference or idiom (or slang) saying that the author uses from his cultural time period to help us understand what he was saying in a deeper detail. It has a lot of footnotes and cross references to help you see how a verse or word or book fits within the whole of Scripture. Some, like the Thompson Chain Reference Bible has its own system to use.
A couple of examples: Thompson Chain Reference Bible Life Application Study Bible Here is a link to more examples of Study Bibles.
3) Parallel Bible - This Bible has more than one translation side by side in the same book together, passage by passage. Click here for a picture of a Parallel Bible.
4) Bible dictionary - It's just like a regular dictionary, except it defines and gives info on particular Bible words, names, people, etc... Vines Bible Dictionary is a good one. Easton's Bible Dictionary is another great one and here is the link to EBD online. Our hope is that we can offer different helps and connect each other with resources to help us live our daily Christian life. We'll be updating this page from time to time with different resources on the web to help live your life.
5) Commentaries - Commentaries are just books where a Bible scholar or several working together will delve down deep into theological, historical, translational, etc... matters to help bring a deeper understanding to Scripture. These are usually down by Bible book or a set that has an edition for each book. Jim's note: I started collecting and buying these a long time ago using an online library study tool specifically for Bible Study called Logos (logos.com). It can be expensive, but it is my greatest, professional tool that I use, beyond professional education. I buy my books online from here so it can catalog, organize and search them, making my study time more streamlined. I can access my library from any computer or mobile device.
I strongly recommend logos for those called into the ministry who are beginning their library.
***IMPORTANT: A commentary is only as good as the person who wrote it. It's an opinion, the best and most reliable being based on much prayer, hours and hours of study and skill and can be very helpful. But its still more of an opinion, which means anyone that can publish a book can write one. I say that to say this...be careful of your sources for commentary. Ask me, other pastors, trusted teachers of Scripture that you know personally AND pray about what you allow to influence you spiritually.
Bible Study Tools online commentare list
Study Light commentary list
Bible Gateway commentary list
6) Bible Concordance - A Bible concordance is an alphabetical listings of words and phrases found in the Holy Bible and shows where the terms occur throughout all books of Scripture. With cross-references for verses, concordances make it easy to understand the meaning of terms and the context in which those words are used. Your Bible may have a concordance in the back. Some are good and some are kind of weak, so if you want one, it's best to access one online or buy one for yourself. My best one is the Strong's Exhaustive Concordance. It's available as an online resource here or you can buy a hard copy for yourself here.
7) Interlinear Bible - This specialty Bible actually displays the original text of the Bible word for word and simply translates the word without modifying verses for correct sentence structure. It usually also parses the word for tense, case, gender, etc...
Jim's note: This resource is to be used only if you have a good understanding of Greek/Hebrew and some translation knowledge. If I didn't have any of those, I wouldn't just jump into the interlinear Bible and start going to town...might end up in the wrong city.
How do I know what a verse means for me?
1) Finally, there needs to be some method to your madness, so to speak. If you are going to really see what a Bible passage means, then check out this article from Answers in Genesis about interpreting what Scripture says.
2) Sometimes, the Bible gives an example of something as a good idea or one way to do it and other times, the Bible commands the "only" way or a "specific" way. How do you know the difference?
Here is an explanation of how a passage is "descriptive" (a picture of a way) or "prescriptive" (an exact way) from GotQuestions.org?