Happy New Year

I wanted to write a second weekly email this week just to say congratulations to everyone who took up and fulfilled the challenge of reading through the Bible in 2008!  You made it!  Great job.  I pray it was as rewarding for you as it was for me.  I know that on many days of trial, God spoke to me just the perfect Word I needed to hear.

If you did not successfully make it through, take heart.  It took me several years before I was able to successfully accomplish it.  Ask yourself, what you learned and where you strayed and came up short.   What can you do differently this year not to fail?  As I shared yesterday, "evaluated experience is the best teacher."

I pray you will consider joining me again in this challenge.  Maybe you want to try another reading plan this year.  There are hundreds of reading plans online.  Last year we used the One Year Bible Reading Plan found at www.oneyearbibleonline.com .    Just do a google search on "Bible Reading Plan" and it will turn up hundreds of results.

In all of this, it's not so much about reading through the Bible, but about engaging in the Bible in a daily consistent basis.  Just as it is important to set aside time each day to eat and nourish yourself physically, you need to set time aside to nourish yourself spiritually.  If you don't eat, you will find yourself physically weak.  If you don't find time in the Word, you will find yourself spiritually weak and malnourished.  As Jesus says, "Man does not live by bread alone."  I think I read that somewhere if you know what I mean =).

If you are interested in my Bible reading endeavor for this new year check out my blog at: http://pastorpr.blogspot.com/2008/12/bible-for-2009.html