2016!!

Today is January 1st and the New Year has begun! I am so excited to begin our 7th year at The Bible in a Year - and Beyond and am thrilled that we have a few new people joining our group!

This year we have decided to follow a Chronological Plan - reading through the Bible in the order the events occurred. I have a Chronological Life Application Study Bible that is set up this way (which makes it super easy for me!) and I have typed out a One Year Bible plan according to the way it is laid out in this Bible. I ended up making the plan a few days shorter than 365, giving more freedom around the Christmas holidays. For the most part, this plan will be easy to follow whether you prefer to read online or to read in your actual Bible.  However, there will be some weeks where it will be far easier to read online as there is a bunch of jumping around from book to book due to the chronological format.   Click here to see the new Bible reading plan for 2016! I have changed the link on the sidebar, and it will be embedded into each day's post automatically (more details on that below).
Our new posters are Jay and Kelora, Greg and Danae, and Cam and Jeannine - welcome to our group! Our returning posters are Conrad and Pamela, and Nathan and myself. I'm still working on getting a few other people to join us, and will keep you posted if that pans out.  I am so excited to learn together with all of you this year!

Anyone else who has decided to participate with us by reading the same plan as us, and reading the blog because you need the accountability but don't necessarily have the time to do posts - we welcome you too!! If this describes you - PLEASE comment on this post below and let us know that you have agreed to follow along with us. We can't help hold you accountable if we don't know you're doing this!

Also, everyone (posters and followers) PLEASE comment at least somewhat regularly on the daily posts. This helps keep you accountable and helps you to feel part of the group (especially followers), and is a huge encouragement to the posters who have taken the time to post their thoughts. Comments do not have to be in depth. They can simply say "Great post", "Chapter x verse x jumped out at me", "very convicting", etc. It doesn't take long but increases what you're going to get out of this blog substantially. The more you put in to this, the more you will get out of it. And I really want you to feel involved in this group, even if you're not posting - so please comment!  Consider this an online small group Bible study.

Posters - here are the "instructions" for the posts (see the first post of the year for an example if any of these instructions don't make sense).

Please put the date, Bible reference and your name in the title of your post.
Example:  Friday, January 1st: Genesis 1-3 ~ Conrad

Please include today's reference at the top of your posts and tomorrow's reference at the bottom of your posts. Please add the links to Biblegateway's corresponding Bible passages. (Everything other than the reference and it's link will automatically show up when you go to write your post).
Example: Today's passage from the Bible In a Year Reading Plan is Genesis 1-3

Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage: Genesis 4-7

Please put the following labels on your post - the book(s) of the Bible the readings were from, and "Your Name's Posts".
Example: Genesis, Conrad's Posts

The type of post you do on the day's readings is up to you. You can use a SOAP format (Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer), you can do a devotional in a different format, you can ask questions about a portion you didn't understand, you can summarize the passage, you can talk about a portion of scripture that stood out to you, you can reference commentaries or sermons you felt made good points about the passage, the choice is yours! It also can be as short or as long as you like.  Sometimes there is more to say about a certain passage than others, and that's ok.  There really are no specific expectations.

Also - please write your post the previous day/evening (or numerous days earlier - whatever works for your schedule!) and then postdate it to sometime during the middle of the night so that it's ready to go for those of us (not me!) who are early risers and like to do their devotions at 6am!  The postdating feature is very handy, particularly when we've gone away on holidays and I've prepared the posts in advance and just scheduled them for the correct dates.  When writing your post, if you check the right sidebar there will be an option to select "Set date and time".  So, January 1st's post would be set for January 1st at 12am, or something similar.  Obviously sometimes things come up and you are unable to post until later in the day, and that's fine, but it's great if the goal is to post before morning.

If for some reason you are unable to post on your assigned day, either trade with someone or email me and I will do your post for you. The goal is to have a post up every single day, but I realize that life happens, so please just let me know if you cannot post after all (earlier is better, but better late than never). If you need to change how often you're posting for whatever reason (having a baby, busier than usual, extended holiday etc), just let me know!

For those of you who are new (Jay and Kelora, Greg and Danae, Cam and Jeannine) - if you don't mind, on your first post could you just do a very short introduction of yourself and maybe what made you decide to join the blog? Thanks!

Thank you all for participating in this blog - I am so excited to see what God will do in our spiritual lives this year as we make this journey together!