Today there are many resources to help you read your Bible every day. And none is easier than a One Year Bible. It’s literally a Bible and a calendar combined into one book.
Each day, is clearly labeled with the date and provides all of the passages that you need to read. The version that I picked (pictured above) conveniently provides the following sections every day:
An Old Testament selection (2-3 chapters)
A New Testament selection (1 chapter or less)
A selection from Psalms (1 chapter or less)
A selection from Proverbs (1-3 verses)
Reading the entire assignment each day leads you through the Old Testament and New Testament once, the Psalms twice and Proverbs once. But according to the preface there are options to spread the reading program over one, two or even three years – depending on how you want to do it and how much time you want to spend each day.
If you want the convenience and ease of this Bible reading plan, I’ve provided my link to the English Standard Version of the One Year Bible on Amazon. You can also find it in many Christian Book Stores or online Christian retailers.
I do all my reading in the ESV translation. But the One Year Bible is also available in different translations. If you would prefer to read in NIV, NASB, KJV or even The Message, you’ll find a copy of the reading plan to meet your preferences. Look online or in your preferred retailer and you’ll probably find what you’re looking for. If not, then the ESV comes with my recommendation.
If this sounds good to you, I suggest you check it out here.
If you want a nice twist on the Bible Reading I can also recommend the One Year Chronological Bible. This comes from the fact that the traditional order for the books in your Bible doesn’t exactly represent a continuous flow through time. So this version of the Bible puts things in a different order of the chronology of what the books were written about, or when they were written.
What does this look like?
Job comes after Genesis (many scholars think Job was a contemporary of Abraham, Isaac or Jacob). The history books of 1 & 2 Kings and 1 & 2 Chronicles are interleaved as they cover much of the same materials. The book of Psalms is salted throughout much of the Old Testament period. The Prophets are interspersed between various stories in the Histories. The Gospels are harmonized into a single chronology of Jesus’ life. And so on.
To be honest, this structure is educational in itself. I know how to read the introduction to the books and see when they occur. But this really made them come alive to me (and it broke up the really long slog of Prophets in the middle of the year).
Unlike the traditional version above, this version just has one continuous storyline. There is no division of Old Testament, New Testament or Psalms/Proverbs. I actually thought this was a nice feature because it meant that there was one storyline to follow the entire time.
The only down-side I saw to this version is that they don’t have an ESV (my preferred translation) version. So I read in NIV. Not a bad sacrifice as the NIV generally reads very well.
If this sounds good to you, I suggest you check it out here.
I’ve used Bible reading charts before, and there is no comparison to the ease and convenience of either of these all-in-one volumes.
Don’t worry about where to start. If it’s not January 1, that’s fine. I started reading my One Year Bible on August 25th. Yes, I started in the middle of Job, but that’s fine. What matters is starting, and in a couple days, I was fully grounded in what was going on.
I’ve also started highlighting a verse that jumps out at me. I look forward to reading through the Bible next year as well and seeing what was meaningful in prior years.
Spending time in God’s work is what matters. Start today and you won’t regret it now, or in eternity!
Note: The links on this page are affiliate links and if you use them to purchase the book, Amazon may pay me a small portion of the sale price out of their proceeds from the sale (no additional cost to you).