We stand on the doorstep of a new year and with a new year, new resolves and with new resolves and new determination to read the entire Bible for ourselves. And knowing this is on the minds of many listeners this time of year, we enter 2019 with a series of episodes to address your questions about daily Bible reading.

And here is the first one from a listener named Dave. "Hello Pastor John, and thank you for this podcast. My question is about Bible reading plans. Some plans are familiar, plans to read the entire Bible canonically or just the Old Testament or just the New Testament, and then chronological reading plans, and then two or three year reading plans as well.

My question is what Bible reading plan do you recommend a first timer to use when he has never read the Bible entirely before? And can you offer some tricks to keep in mind on first read?" Before I actually make a concrete, specific recommendation about a Bible reading plan, which I will do, let me make six or so observations that might fit into the category that Dave asked when he says, "Any tricks to keep in mind." I'm not just thinking he asked about, "Give me a program," but rather, "Any tricks to be in mind?" So here's what I think he might be getting at and what I would offer in that category.

Number one, what I would recommend for Bible reading through the Bible is it's going to depend on at least five things that I don't know about Dave. In other words, I'm qualifying my recommendation because I don't know him. How disciplined is he? How much time does he have available?

What skill does he have in reading? What speed and comprehension? How familiar is he with all the parts of the Bible, even those maybe even he hasn't read at all? What level of curiosity does he have that might drive him to slow down and figure things out that are puzzling to him?

So taking all those into account, I will recommend a Bible reading program, but I just want him and others to know people are really different. And our capacities for reading and comprehending and speed and our life situation. So what I recommend may not fit everybody, but I'll make a recommendation anyway.

So that's my first thing I wanted to say about when you're thinking about tricks, know yourself well. Number two, be sure to belong to a good Bible reading church, Bible preaching church, and Bible reading church. If you possibly can. Few things are more helpful in grasping the totality of Scripture than a steady week in, week out, month in, month out, year in, year out, decade in, decade out, feeding on the preached Word of God.

Oh, so important. If your pastor doesn't preach Bible texts and explain to you what they mean, please try to find another church, because the decades of your life will be gloriously transformed if you sit under the preaching of the Word like that for a long, long time. Number three, get into a group, a small group of people where you expect each other to be reading your Bible and taking or talking to each other about what you've seen there.

Number four, pray earnestly over your Bible reading before you read, while you're reading, after you read, that God would show you what's really there and make it real for you. Five, set aside a place and a time where you're going to read your Bible every day. If you don't have a set place and a set time, Satan will almost certainly, along with your own flesh, more easily push your Bible reading right out of your schedule and out of your space.

And number six, reading through the Bible in a year involves about four or five chapters a day. If you think you have to remember all you read while you're reading those four or five chapters, this will feel absolutely overwhelming and pointless. So I want to encourage you, when you think you have forgotten 95% of what you just read, that's true in the short run.

God's Word nevertheless is lodging itself in your mind and your heart in ways you cannot comprehend. The so-called forgotten language, the forgotten paragraphs, the forgotten words, the forgotten stories, the forgotten points are becoming a repository from which the Holy Spirit can draw out things you do not even know are there.

So when you walk away from your Bible reading in the morning, don't fret that you can't recite an outline of every paragraph you read. You won't be able to, unless you're a genius with a photographic memory. Instead, take one crisp, clear sentence with you, something encouraging, something motivating, something strengthening, something guiding.

Write it down on a little piece of paper, stick it in your pocket, stick it in your purse, whatever. Say it to yourself over and over again during the day. Those same sentences, accumulated, 365 of them, an amazing power and stockpile of truth over time. So now here's my recommendation for the Bible reading program that he asked for.

And I'm going to recommend the one that I use because that's why I use it. I love it. I think it's valuable. It's called the Discipleship Journal Reading Plan. Just Google it, you'll find it. Or Google best Bible reading programs through the year, it'll be one of them. It's called the Discipleship Journal Reading Plan.

It has two unique features that make me love it. One is that every day you're reading in four different places in the Bible, which means that if one of them leaves you scratching your head, another one might be perfectly exactly what you need for the day. And the other unique feature is that you only are required to read 25 days out of the month, not 30 or 31.

The main reason is because all of us know people tend to fall behind in their reading. And if you fall behind and there are no catch-up days, then in February, you're 10 chapters behind and you give up. But if you have five days at the end of every month for catch-up, you tend to take heart and keep going.

Or if you're quite a disciplined reader and you never fall behind, you have this glorious five-day moment when you can memorize. This is what I do with them anyway. I pick a Psalm. I'm working through Psalm 25, Psalm 103. I re-memorize Romans 8. I re-memorize Philippians. This is what I do with my five days at the end of the month.

So this morning I was reading in Gospel of John, Book of Revelation, Job, and Amos. No, that was yesterday. This morning I was in Jonah. And even though I can't remember the details of what I read in all three passages, what I saw in John 17 and what I saw in Jonah at the end, shouldn't I pity this city, 120,000 people don't know their right hand from their left.

I remember that. I remember that, but I don't remember what I saw in Job. What was that in Job? What was Elihu saying? I can't remember what Elihu was saying. But okay, I forgot Job, but I remembered a sentence that I need about being merciful to people who don't know their right hand from their left.

So you get the idea. I love the Scriptures. I love to encourage people to read the whole Bible, because if we leave out big parts of the Bible, we probably won't know God the way we should. Amen. The entire book is important to our spiritual lives. Thank you for speaking these words and for not only speaking these words, but modeling a love for the Bible for so many decades, Pastor John.

Thank you. And speaking of years, in six years, we have generated about 1,300 total episodes. Thank you for your interest and for your questions over those six years. You can search all those episodes, read full transcripts, and send us your own question as well at our online home at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.

We are going to ring in the new year next time, talking about Bible reading again, specifically the desire, the act, and the reward of daily Bible reading. Some motive questions are on the table next. That's on Wednesday when we return. Until then, I'm your host Tony Reinke. We'll see you then.

We'll see you then.