Wanna know what three words send chills up my spine?
Are you ready for this......
Bible Reading Plan.
I know. The horror.
Probably because in my short time as a follower of Christ (7 years to be exact) each and every time I've began a Bible Reading Plan *shudder* I've failed miserably.
Sometimes I'd make it to the 3rd or 4th week. Most times, I just give up 1 week in when I'm 2 or more days behind. So when our Pastor announced on Sunday that we'd be doing a church-wide Summer Session complete with a Bible Reading Plan I thought, "Yeah. No thanks."
Truth is, I also thought, "You know what? This is for people who don't really read their Bible. This is for people who aren't growing in their relationship with God because they refuse to pick up their Bibles and really read them."
Then, our Pastor hit us with a staggering statistic. He said out of all of the regular church attenders (that would be people who come pretty regularly - not just on Christmas and Easter) only 11% have regular, consistent quiet time, studying the Bible.
ELEVEN PERCENT.
That stunned me. Then I started to wonder....would I consider myself in that 11%. I mean, I have small group on Sunday night with our teenagers, then another small group on Monday nights with my girlfriends, then during the school year I have a small group Community Bible Study group that meets on Thursdays and that's not to mention when Luke and I read together a night during the week.
I mean, I'm good. Right?
Then the Lord gently spoke to me. "Jessica, those are great but really in each of those instances you're reading studies that other people have produced. You're not reading Scripture for yourself. And you've never even read all the way through the New Testament."
Ouch. Okay, I'll do it.
So, I really wasn't going to mention it to Luke. That way, if I failed at least I'd be the only one with a record of my disaster. But then, on Monday night, Luke cracked open his Bible and said, "So, did you do the summer reading for today?"
Yikes! Good thing I had. Then, yesterday I got an email from our Pastor asking if I'd contribute to the blog for the summer reading.
How did he know?
So, I guess I'm making it public.
I, Jessica, am doing a *gulp* Bible Reading Plan this summer.
I'd love you to join me. It's not too late! Plus, sometime today, a post I wrote will be up over on our church's Summer Session blog.
Click here for the blog where there will be posts for each day's worth of reading.
Three days in to the Bible Reading Plan and I'm so glad I've jumped in with both feet. Join me?