Can you believe it’s January 6, 2014.  It seems like only yesterday that Christmas was here and now it’s time for Tyler and Carter to go back to school.  It was about this time 45 years ago that a pastor challenged the church I was attending to a challenge for the new year.  I loved challenges back then and still do.  The challenge back then was to read the bible through in one year.  I had tried to do the feat of reading the bible through from the age of 9, but back then there was only the King James Version of the bible and as a youngster trying to get through the “Thee’s” and the “Though’s” was too much of a challenge for me.  But in 1970 a new paraphrase version had come out which was the Living Bible and so I took up the challenge.

It so changed my live during that year, that I began the journey of reading the bible through each year from that point to today.  I remember early on when we were attending a church in Tampa Florida and an adult Sunday School Teacher got up and told the congregation that he had read the bible through 40 times.  I couldn’t imagine doing it that long as I had only read a few times at that point.

My challenge to you as you’re reading this it to take the same challenge I am challenging myself again in 2014.  When I started, I read 4-5 chapters of the bible each day.  A few years later, Walk Thru The Bible ministry came up with a devotional that they would send you each month commenting on passages you were reading for that particular day.  A great app. for your iPad or cell phone is You Version.  It has various programs that you can choose from including just reading the New Testament in a year to reading the Old Testament in a year to the bible in a year.  Reading the bible won’t change your life, but allowing God’s Holy Spirit to take the word you have read and bring conviction and direction to your life will.

On this journey, make a choice to take God’s word into your life on a daily basis.  It’s a challenge that can transform your life.