Sunday, December 30, 2012

Plans for 2013!

I am so excited about getting started with another year of studying the Bible in depth with you all.  Thank you, once again, to the regular participants this past year - Miriam, Kathryn and Pamela, and of course, to all of you who follow and comment, and who follow and don't comment.  I pray that this blog continues to be as much of a blessing to all of you as it has been to me!

Kathryn has decided not to continue posting for this upcoming year (we'll miss you!) but is still willing to guest post occasionally (thank you Kathryn!).  Tiffany is joining us this year, which is wonderful - welcome, Tiffany! Sandy is back with us after a short stint back in February 2011 (welcome back, my friend!)  And Tammi is back after a one year hiatus (yay!).   Miriam and Pamela, who have been with us from the beginning, are returning once again (thanks again ladies, for your continued participation!).  If anyone else is looking to contribute regularly, please let me know!

For 2013 we've decided to do something similar to this past year.  We will be studying a few books of the Bible in depth, using very small passages.  We will be following corresponding sermon series by a few of our favourite pastors including John MacArthur, Mark Driscoll and David Legge (optional).   We've decided to do these posts Monday to Friday only instead of the weekends.  (I also took Christmas Day and the the 26th off the schedule for next year).   This past year we studied Hebrews, John, Ecclesiastes, Matthew and Romans.  This coming year we will be doing Esther, 1, 2, 3, John, Jude, Habakkuk and Luke, with 3 Psalms added in at the end to round off the year.  Here is the schedule for this coming year.  (Link is in the sidebar as well, "Scripture Focus Reading Plan").

We are also including a Bible in a Year Reading Plan for those who would like to do that as well.  This is completely optional and absolutely not required, but I have posted it because, well, that's what this blog was started for and we've had one every year, and I believe a number of us are doing this again this year.  We've decided to go with this Bible Reading Plan posted by Faith Baptist Bible College.  This plan includes 2 chapters from the OT (straight through from Genesis to Malachi, skipping the poetry books), 1 chapter from the NT (straight through from Matthew to Revelation) and 1 chapter from the Poetry books every weekday, and then on the weekends it's the 2 OT chapters only (the Poetry section ends in early November already, so one less chapter per day from that point on as well)  You can print out this plan, double sided, and use the bookmarks in your Bible reading.  (Link is in the sidebar as well).

Daily posts should include that day's Bible in a Year scripture passage and today's Scripture Focus passage at the beginning of the blog post and the following days passages at the end of the blog post.  I have the template saved so it should automatically come up with you go to post - at least it does for me, so I'm hoping it does for you other posters too - if not, just copy and paste from the day before.  All you should have to do is look up the scripture passages in the plans, find them on Biblegateway and add that to your post.  If that is unclear in any way, or you need assistance, please don't hesitate to email me.  Please remember to add your name to the title of your post and the end of your post, so we know for sure who's posting.  Please remember to label your posts - select the book of the Bible we're studying in depth, and select your name as well (Tiffany - for your first post you'll need to create a new one - call it "Tiffany's Posts", thanks!).

I am looking forward to only having to post once or twice/week instead of 9 times every two weeks! :)

Posts can be as short or as long as you wish.  You may read the referenced sermons if you like, but you do not have to.  Your posts can be in whatever style you like - devotional, teaching, historical, theological - depending on the passage, depending on what you learned, depending on your writing style, depending on what you feel like writing that day, depending how much time you have for that day's post.  As you can see, we're flexible here and don't want anyone to feel intimidated or forced into any particular mold.  I love that each poster has their own unique personality and writing style as I find I learn more that way as well!

If anything is unclear, or you have any questions, please feel free to email me.

I am grateful to all of you who have committed to this journey together and pray that God will bless s on this year's journey and we pursue discernment together, as we learn together, as we grow together, as we get to know Him more together.  God bless you.

2 comments:

tammi said...

Now that I've committed, I'm pretty excited about it!!

Miriam said...

I'm excited to start a new year again as well! Thank you so much, Tammy, for your faithfulness and your research and hard work to organize and plan and post. Much appreciated!