For my One-Year Bible Reading Charts click here.
I spent a good portion of my time in the month of December 2023 researching bible reading plans and could not come up with a happy medium or compromise with everything I was seeking. After careful consideration and planning, I produced my own custom Bible reading plan that is constructed precisely the way I like it.
CHRONOLOGICAL NEW TESTAMENT
This plan is unique in that it combines several different approaches to a reading plan as follows: First, I wanted to read the Gospels in chronological order. There are several planes out on the internet that accomplish this, however, I wanted the New Testament to be of a different structure than the Old Testament. I used the Bible Reading Plan Generator to assemble the passages for the New Testament. This generator offers the user several different options to obtain the plan that fits best. I compared to other chronological reading plans and many of them chopped up the chapters into verses like this popular plan found at the back of the ESV Study Bible.
PSALMS, PROVERBS AND POETRY
The second requirement I had with my custom reading plan is the addition of a daily reading from the Psalms, Proverbs and Poetry. As you can see from the example below, the Psalms are listed as a separate column which allows for an easier “start and stop” approach to reading.
OLD TESTAMENT
My plan includes a different approach to reading the old testament. A foundational approach that does not include every chapter but highlights the foundational sections of the bible in a systematic way. I found the Replicate F260 plan a perfect fit for my custom plan.
Utilizing the Foundational approach to the Old Testament reduces the required chapters from 2 to 3 per day to generally just one, while still preserving the ideas presented in the canon.
DEUTEROCANONICAL BOOKS
Finally, as an Anglican, I read through the Deuterocanonical books of the bible as well, although I don’t do this every year I will be including them in my 2024 reading plan. The books that are not considered to be inspired by God, offer a perspective of what occurred in history in the approximately 400 years between the writing of the book of Malachi and Matthew. There are some factual errors to be found and there includes some fiction, but relevant reading none the less. Here is a link to the RSV version of the Apocrypha along with the traditional Old Testament books.
DOWNLOAD AREA:
[Edited 3/18/24] Click the download button to obtain the Word formatted document that can be edited. See note in red below.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
In the back of the plan, you will find informational lists on various subjects, psalms, popular passages, a 30 day Advent reading plan and passages unique to each gospel.
NOTE: When printing the word document, make sure to print DOUBLE SIDED and flip on the SHORT side. In addition, a swing arm stapler can be found on amazon for around $10.
Here is a sneak peek of my booklet that has the staples in the spine.
I have also included a version of my reading Guide without the apocrypha. See links below:
Thanks, this is great! I would add page numbers to it though. Is this to be printed in landscape or portrait?
Thanks for the kind words. This project is under constant revision. From the onset, I struggled with page numbers in terms of formatting properly. Please see the “Download Area” for the latest iteration and notes on printing and such. To answer your question, however, the document is pre-formatted booklet landscape. When you view your print options, simply choose to print on both sides and flip on the short edge and it should come out just fine.