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My Bible Reading

Over the years I have read the Bible but I did not keep track. The first time I read the Bible through was in the first year of our marriage (1952-53). I read four chapters every morning in the Old Testament and two chapters every evening in the New Testament. The result was I read the Old Testament in nine months and the New Testament two and one half times in the same period. I had been a Christian four and one half years before I started. However, before I did this reading I had memorized at least two hundred verses of scripture. I found out that many of these verses which had been memorized were memorized out of context. I had to unlearn some of what I thought I had learned.

Maybe eight years ago, I followed a “Youth With a Mission” one-year Bible reading program. I did this for maybe three years. Then four years ago I stated using a reading schedule put together by Robert Murray M’Cheyne called “Light on the Way.” In one year the Old Testament is read once, the New Testament is read twice and the book of Psalms is read twice. This has been a great blessing to me. This is available from African Enterprise, P.O. Box 727, Monrovia CA 91017-0727. Their e-mail is info@aeusa.org or you can reach them at (626) 357-8811.

The early years of my reading and memorizing were in the KJV (1946-71). The middle years ’71-’79 were in the RSV. Since 1979, my reading has been in the NIV. However, this year I am reading a Jewish translation of the Old Testament. The Translation was begun in 1955 and published in one volume in 1985, by the Jewish Publication Society.

My New Testament reading is from The Revised English Bible, 1989, a thorough revision of the New English Bible, 1961.

The change is refreshing.

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