Do you have any New Year projects? Did you make any New Year’s resolutions? I have an ongoing one to be overweight, which is better than obese, right?
Looking through some posts from last year, I see that my longest lasting friend, Paul Stocks, was right: I was doomed to fail, with all of those tasks I had set myself.
But, in the words of Bullwinkle J. Moose, trying for the umpteenth time to pull a rabbit out of a hat, This time for sure!
I have three reading plans this time, and, so far, on 11th January, I’m ahead! The one I’m most keen to complete is to read through the Greek New Testament with Gary Shogren and friends. I’ve not lasted the distance in any of Gary’s others, whether it was reading through Psalms in Hebrew, reading The Apostolic Fathers, or … you name it, I’ve quit, and quit early! But, This time for sure! I’m up to John 17, and ahead, and do hope to be able to continue and complete this project.
I’ve noticed that my Tyndale House Greek New Testament has around 500 pages. If I read two pages per day, following Gary’s schedule, but trying desperately to keep a bit ahead, even if I goof off for a day, here and there, I should get through it in a year.
So far, I’m ahead in Kevin DeYoung’s light daily systematic theology, often reading a page or three each time I read. It’s easy to read, has new things to chew over as well as familiar Reformed theology.
But I’m also still interested in Nancy Dawson’s All the Genealogies of the Bible . I started reading it last year, while listening to an audio Bible. I found the one I began with by Kristyn Getty unsuitable, and lost a few days, and finally settled on listening to David Suchet reading the NIV UK version of the Bible when I am in the car, on my own - usually just on short shopping trips. He reads superbly and I am loving it, and will definitely see it through. This version I’m using is a free audio book on Spotify, with three readings per day - one from Psalms or Proverbs, one from the New Testament and one from the rest of the Old Testament. How far have I got? It’s 13th August in the car!
But I noticed that my copy of All The Genealogies of The Bible, which my wife kindly gave me for Christmas, has about 500 pages, too. So, I’ve begun reading two pages per day of this book, after I read my GNT. My THGNT.
One new thing I’ve discovered in ATGOTB is that there are a lot of people with the same name in the Old Testament. Some have similarly named fathers, too, which really makes things confusing. Nancy Dawson has worked for 20 years to make sure she clarifies which Zechariah or Obadiah is being spoken about in a particular genealogy she is charting. Will I make it through? This time, for sure!