My NIV Bible, Halley's Bible Handbook, The Inspirational Study Bible, books 45-46 + 1/2

 

As my faithful followers know, I have been reading the Bible through for the past several years.  At last count, I think I have read it through 6-8 times in all my 50+ years, but there is always new stuff to learn!  I *may* be taking a break next year and doing something else, but that remains to be seen 😉

Last year our church read through the CSB Chronological BIble  and then each Sunday our pastor would preach on the chapters we had just read.  It was quite a year for me, and it seemed the passages we read weekly were exactly where I was in my life.  God was SOOO good in that!  This year, those who wanted to read through the Bible were given the suggestion of the M'Cheyne Reading Plan.  I really enjoyed this, as it is one that jumps back and forth between the old testament and new testament.  I love reading the Bible that way, reminding myself that the God who split the Red Sea is the same one who healed the woman with the blood issue who came to John in Revelation and told him all about what was coming.  

I wanted to try a Bible Marking System this year and I also wanted to dig a little deeper, rather than just reading the passages.  So I decided to use this old Halley's Bible Handbook while reading.  It was a leftover from my wonderful days at the TSC Church Library.  It was published in 1965, but God's truths are still true in 2025.  The language did get a little heady at times, but I did learn many new things with it.  I decided to use my NIV Thinline Bible Roger gave me for Christmas in 2002 as the main Bible, since it had very little marked up in it.  This Bible is now a beautiful rainbow of colors!

In the reading plan, you actually read through Psalms and the New Testament twice, so I decided to use a different version for the second time I went through.  For that one, I used the Inspirational Study Bible by Max Lucado, which I got from my father-in-law's house when they moved it.  He taught Sunday School for many, many years with it.  Now that he is in heaven with Jesus, it is a treasure I will keep!  I really liked the way that Bible is set up, as there was a little devotion/thought with most chapters for books that either Max Lucado or other amazing men and women wrote.  It was amazing to me how they were able to pull it together like that! Since I only read Psalms and the New Testament in that, I counted it as a half book! :)

I have a few days left to finish some Christmas books I am reading, so by the weekend I should have my wrap up ready! 

Merry Christmastide!

Melissa