Bible Reading Plans
- Plan One: New Testament Only
- Plan Two: New Testament + Psalms
- Plan Three: New Testament + History
- Plan Four: The Entire Bible – Year 1 of 3, Year 2 of 3, Year 3 of 3
Don’t know which plan? Go to A Christ-Centered Bible Reading Plan: Quick Start.
Extras
Verse of the Day, Audio Capsule, and Video Minute
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Yesterday turned out to be a false start on the new book. I had to re-write the preface. As a start, I took part of the preface, supplemented it, and produced an article linked on the the Welcome page of my website. I felt like it was information a reader of any of my writings – not just this new book – needed to understand before reading. Below is that article.
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Why Should I read Anything
Mike Gantt has written?
The most important question for any person to be able to answer is, “Who is Jesus?” The second most important is, “What is the Bible?” And we must be able to answer these two questions with conviction – not tentatively.
Having and maintaining conviction requires that we know the sources of our conviction. For many people, their source of conviction is other people. This is expected to some extent because God made us as social creatures. After all, if it were not for other people, we would not know how, when, and where we came into the world. We were not able to process that information as it was happening. In fact, most of us can barely remember anything that happened to us before the age of five.
Faith is formed in an entirely different environment from that of our birth. In the formation of faith, our mind is at work, as is our conscience. We’re probably reading the Bible, or at least listening to someone else read it. We’re weighing thoughts, and formulating a perspective. In the very beginning, it’s about who Jesus is and what the Bible is. If the perspective we formulate calls for faith, we exercise that faith in some concrete way – a decision, an action, maybe a prayer.
Assuming we decided Jesus is Lord and the Bible is the word of God, the process I just described is repeated over and over as we process each new piece of information we encounter about Jesus Christ and the Bible. The more reps we complete, the more knowledge we accumulate about the Lord. In the beginning, other people are involved in that process, but, as time goes on, we have more and more opportunities to read the Bible for ourselves, employing common sense, and engaging our own conscience without mediation from any other human being.
Sooner or later, we are going to be confronted with some truth from the Bible that is supported by our common sense and by the light of our conscience…but with which few, and maybe even no other people agree. That will be the true test of your faith because your response to that situation shows how much of your faith is actually in people versus how much is actually in the Lord.
It doesn’t matter whether other people are an institution or individuals, dead or alive – other people are people besides you and the Lord. Trust in Him first, last, and always; trust in others only sparingly and only as appropriate in the Lord’s sight.
If the things I write about Jesus Christ and the Bible are true, they are worth reading, spreading, and preserving irrespective of whether or not my name is ever mentioned mentioned again.
I am a man just like you. I have no following and seek no following. I have nothing to tell you except things I’ve learned from the Bible. I will lay these things out before you, telling you and showing you where I found them in the Bible. If you cannot then read the Bible for yourself and make up your own mind in the sight of God, then my writings will be of no use to you. In other words, if you’re not ready to trust the Lord instead of other people, you’re not ready to read anything I’ve written…because I’m other people, too.
The Duty of a Man 