Go Ahead, Read the New Testament
The point of this is to encourage you in a very simple way to actually read the New Testament. You do not have to read in order; just keep track of which books you have read.
Here is a little math problem. How many years you have been a Christian, (i.e. when you consciously gave your heart, mind and soul to the Lord of the Universe to do with as He pleased), divided by how many times you know you have read the complete New Testament. For example, I have been a believer for 46 years, and say I know I have read the complete NT seven times. That means that every 6.5 years I read the NT. Considering how short the New Testament actually is, that is not a very good average.
Maybe we don’t even know if we have ever read the whole NT, we just keep reading our favorite parts. Maybe we even have memorized the verse that says that “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness” but we have yet to read all Scripture. (2 Tim 3:16) So the question is how can we apply the rest of the verse, especially the training in righteousness, if we do not read the Scriptures very often? Hearing a sermon 30 minutes once a week is not going to fill in the gaps.
The point of this is to encourage you in a very simple way to actually read the New Testament. You do not have to read in order; just keep track of which books you have read. Here is a simple program:
There are 260 chapters in the New Testament. If you read 4 chapters a day you will finish the New Testament in 65 days. Only two books, Matthew and Acts, will take you a week to finish. The other gospels, Romans and the book of Revelation will take between 4 and 6 days. Hebrews at 13 will take 3 days, (you could actually read 5 chapters for one day to make that work.) Many of the books you can finish reading in a sitting. Twelve of the books are 4 or fewer chapters.
If you are a slow reader (100 words per minute) this program will take you 20 minutes to half an hour per day. If that seems too long then make it two chapters per day and you will finish in 4 months not 2. When you are done, do it again, slower or faster. And then you can move on to the Old Testament.
ENJOY!
Heather Jean Torosyan