It just so happened...Reading the Bible in a Year
As we were closing out 2017, I was focused on spiritual meditation and how to use the Bible for such. I just so happened upon an article on Abide.is, a website that is the hub for the Abide app, a Christian meditation app.
I happened upon an article by Listen2Leslie, of Listen2Leslie.com. Her article discussed her journey into meditation using the Abide app. I enjoyed the article, so headed over to Instagram to follow her and within a few days, a post popped into my feed that she was going to start reading the Bible in a year, starting in the new year, using the Read Scripture app.
Two weeks previous to this, some friends of ours had introduced me to The Bible Project (also on YouTube) as a great resource to share videos with Cora as we learn Bible lessons together. I had bookmarked it after watching one video, which I loved, and then as so often do, got sidetracked by life.
When I saw Leslie's post looking for friends to join her in her upcoming Bible journey, I jumped in! Not realizing this was the Holy Spirit leading me at the time, just jumping onto the wave of these "just so happenings."
We started the Bible with Genesis 1, and more, on 1 Jan! And 77 days later, we are still going strong. I know we are 77 days along as we read one chapter from Psalms at the end of each day and that is the chapter that we read today – It's handy, but will only work for another 73 days as a tool for keeping track, as we will reach the end of the Psalms!
What I am loving most about the app is the amazing and beautiful videos. Every few days, and at the least at the beginning of each new book, we begin the day with a 5-10 minute illustrated video.
The video usually gives an overview of the next part of the book that we are going to be reading. It often provides the theme that the book will be exploring and then may breakdown the storylines and some of the characters. Guess who "just so happens" to create the videos for Read Scripture? Yep, The Bible Project!
The videos complement with the pairings of a handful of chapters from a certain book, and completed with a chapter from the Psalms, have been just what I needed to encourage daily reading of the Scripture.
This is the first video I saw from the Bible Project!
This system is extremely helpful for making the Old Testament understandable and really tangible. Whereas, anytime I have attempted to read large chunks of the Old Testament & even the complete Bible, I have gotten lost in the weeds of the Old Testament, as there is just so much. So much pain, violence, disobedience, so much lineage that becomes confusing. So much war. So much struggle. Just so much that one can handle without some guidance and direction.
The videos in the Read Scripture app always pop up at just the right time to give me a little boost, a little insight, and a little direction pointing me back to THE MAIN THEME:
That no matter what we, as imperfect humans do, over and over, God simply wants a relationship with us and will continue to give us grace upon grace until we connect with Him.
SIMPLY Beautiful.
I am so grateful that, even though I may not have seen it as the Holy Spirit at the time, looking back, I now know that He was setting me up for the growth and connection to Him throughout this year. So, when something "just so happens" to continue to "jump" out at you over a period of time and it is in alignment with the values of Heaven, grab a hold of it and see where the Holy Spirit takes you.
You can join in at anytime, starting at Day 1, simply by downloading the Read Scripture app here. And I would love to follow along in your journey should you choose to share it on FB or IG, so please tag me.
