Dear GBC Bible Readers,

Some of you may have read through the Bible many times, some did last year’s read thru, and for some of you, this may be your first time reading all the way through the Old and New Testaments. For all of us, cultivating a lifelong habit of spending regular time in God’s word is one of the most valuable things we can do. As we grow in our familiarity with Scripture, we are accepting God’s invitation to meet with him and hear his voice. The words of the Bible are the very breath of God, given for our benefit, so that we might be instructed, encouraged, sometimes corrected, and by reading it be equipped for a flourishing life that is pleasing to God (2 Tim 3:16–17).

There will be a weekly write up here on the church blog to offer encouragement and a bit of explanation as we read along. We are very glad you’ve decided to read through the Bible this year!

Week 1, January 1–4: Genesis 1–11

• Wed     Jan 1   Gen. 1–2
• Thu      Jan 2   Gen. 3–5
• Fri        Jan 3   Gen. 6–8
• Sat       Jan 4   Gen. 9–11

Genesis is the book of beginnings. It lays the foundation for the rest of the Bible. It tells us who God is and how this world and all creation came into existence. In Genesis we also learn who we are in relation to God and to each other. It all begins with a good creation, but things go sideways quickly when the first humans, Adam and Eve, sin by not trusting and obeying the loving Creator. What God intended for a blessing becomes cursed because of the first humans’ fall into sin. But God initiates a plan to restore all things. He will send an offspring of Eve, literally a “seed” of the woman, who will come from Abraham’s lineage. This promised seed will overturn the curse of sin, defeat his enemies, and bring restoration and blessing to all the families of the earth (3:15, 12:1–3; 15:1–6). We’ll see how this story unfolds as we keep reading in Genesis.

This read thru plan continues through Genesis and works through every book of the Bible in 2025, ending the year with the book of Revelation. We will alternate back and forth between the Old and New Testaments. The Psalms will be spread throughout the year, and the books we’ll be preaching through on Sunday mornings will be covered in the read thru plan sometime during the corresponding sermon series. You’ll see how it works as you go. You will also notice something different about the order in which we are reading the OT books this year. We will be following the order of the Hebrew Bible, instead of the order in our English Bibles. There will be some explanation about this as we go along, especially when we come to the points in the reading where the canonical orders differ. We also discuss the 2025 reading plan in a recent episode on the GBC podcast.

There are about three chapters each day. This may sound like a lot, and it will take some commitment to carve out this time each day. But it’s really not a lot of time. This infographic article from Crossway shows an estimate of the total time to read through the Bible: about 75 hours. Spread out over a year, that’s about twelve minutes a day. Just over ten minutes each day is worth the investment to cultivate a daily habit of time with the Lord is time very well spent.

We have two different layouts for the plan: a booklet that lists the reading for each day, and a bookmark that just lists the readings for the whole week. You can access those here, and there are printed booklets and bookmarks available at church on Sunday. Choose whichever one you like, or take one of each.

We don’t want to do something like this just because we are supposed to, or out of an unhealthy sense of duty just to check a box. However, building healthy habits is an important part of growing as disciples of Jesus. The Bible is a gracious gift from our Creator and Savior, and it is the main means by which he has made himself known to us, his people. What a privilege to be able to know him by reading his word!