Cover to Cover

It has taken a while but finally I have started the important task of reading the bible cover to cover. Previously I had only read bits and pieces from various bible studies over the years.

It was put to me last year why I wasn’t reading the bible. At the time I was reading Dawkins’ “The God Delusion” after a suggestion from the Men Meeting the Challenge conference. It was a good point and was very blunt, as this person has a habit of doing. But I wanted to finish reading the Dawkins book since I was well into it.

Reasons for my delay sound pretty silly now. The length was an issue at over 2000 pages. It is usually a turn off when it comes to purchasing and reading other books. Until it dawned on me that everything I like in my books is in the bible, except for the lack of picture inserts (depending on the version). It has small chunks (hello, chapters and verses), so I can easily read a little at a time and form a good regular reading habit.

So many of my books have bookmarks in them, permanently stuck midway. This marks the point where another book distracted me. I didn’t want that to happen with the Bible. Unfortunately I couldn’t read multiple books when I was younger as reading wasn’t a big priority. I never gave reading a decent crack until the last few years. Sport always seemed more exciting. I only read my Yr 11 text two years ago and still haven’t read my Yr 12 text, but I’m working on it. In an effort to maintain reading momentum I am reading a book concurrently with the bible. Therefore I won’t get disappointed at all the other books on my shelves that I haven’t read yet because the bible could well be a two year project. A recent reorganisation and cull will also improve things.

I decided on reading “The Message”. Both of my parents have read it and found it easy to read, but perhaps not the best for studying purposes.

All is going well so far, still a long way to go.