Did I like it? Yeah. Would I have been able to do that my first time through? Uh, no. As I was flying through some portions of the Bible (I think I read all the minor prophets in a week) I realized that I was only able to do that because I've gone over these Books before, and studied them out. Not just the minor prophets, either. While I was reading through books like Hebrews and Revelation sometimes I would pause and think "if I hadn't heard this explained a hundred and seven times, I would have no idea what was going on."
But it worked. Very well. Even if I never attempt such a feat again, I'm totally going to read the early history books (Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, etc.) as close to the prophets as I can (especially Jeremiah and Isaiah). I've always sort of been weirded out when people talk about reading the Bible "as a novel," but I think I finally understand what they're trying to say. They're not comparing it to a novel, but rather treating its readability as a novel. For my part, I usually forget all the history stuff by the time I've gotten to the prophets, thereby making it difficult to remember things like who Uzziah was or why Jotham was important.
And don't even get me started on all the different names of Jehoiachin/Jechoniah/Coniah. If those are the proper names, anyhow. But it's rather confusing to me. But this time, thanks to the fact that there was only about a month between those two sections, I managed to remember most of what I'd read in the history books. And it made the prophets so much more enjoyable!
Anyhow, truth be told, I'm not sure I'll ever have enough time to do this again. The only reason I was able to do this was because I set a goal to read at least five chapters a day (there's that whole three-a-day and five-on-Lord's Day thing that I couldn't follow all the way because I started multiple months into my year, so I figured five a day might do it) but I started bringing my full-sized Bible to my nanny job (once I realized I could no longer read my small Bible, which was sorrowful) and usually sat around in the mornings and drank a cup of coffee and read the Bible for a while. That was cool. And at night times I would read my Bible before and after getting ready for bed. Usually two or three chapters when I first went up to my room to get ready for bed, and two or three more right before I went to sleep. That way I wasn't bogging myself down with a bunch of chapters, and I was always ready to pick up where I'd left off 45 minutes prior, or however long it might have been.
Anyhow, I'm not sure why I'm blathering on about this, but since I've long given up the days of excitedly telling my family when I finished the Bible each time, yet I still get that rush of hopefulness that tells me that each time I finish reading the Bible the Lord's coming is SO much closer, I always feel like blathering. And now I have a place to do so!
Funny story. The first time I finished reading through the Bible by myself I was maybe nine or ten, and I was SO excited, and I went out into the hallway that connected all the bedrooms, and a few of my sisters were standing around talking, and I told them that I'd finished the Bible for the first time ALL BY MYSELF! At this point one of my sisters looked at me and said "So have we. Many more times than you." And that was the last time I celebrated that joyous event with my family. But I still get excited, and the Lord and I throw a party. Mostly because He did such an amazing job on the Bible. Every time I read it, no matter how quickly I may go through it, I find so many cool and new things to think about and learn. What an amazing book!
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