Preparing for the Challenge

The Bible Challenge begins with the commitment.  Without the commitment the possibility of reading the Bible through in a year is slight indeed.  With the commitment there will be obstacles and difficulties, without, so many more!

This week 14 people from the English speaking services (15 if you count me) and 5 people from the Spanish speaking service made the commitment.  They said “YES” or “SÍ” to the challenge.  It was a good start for the first week of asking for a commitment.

As we prepare to begin this journey together, this is the time for preparation.  It is time to get the Bible you want to use.  It is time to start thinking about what time of day you will use for this commitment.  Something in your current use of time will have to give, or shift.  Right now you are using all of the 24-hours you have.  Where will this new activity fit?  Will it take the place of something you are currently doing?  Will you wake up earlier, or turn the TV off at some point?  Maybe you’ll get an audio Bible and listen in the car on your way to work. 

Our plan is to begin the Challenge on January 7^th, 2013.  You are welcome to join in, will you be ready?

The Bible Challenge - an Introduction

It started a long time ago. Many people, many churches, lay people, priests, ministers, deacons, elders, bishops, questioners, doubters, and who knows who else thought, “I’m going to read the Bible.” Of course, some were successful, some have done it time and time again, but others, and I think most, got somewhere in Exodus, or Numbers, or Deuteronomy and gave up the ghost! Many got through Genesis because it is a collection of stories. But getting through the description of the construction of the tabernacle in Exodus or the counting of the tribes in Numbers is a lot harder.

This Bible Challenge started with an Episcopal priest in his own living room sitting in front of his fire. He felt like his own reading of scripture was missing something. He studied, he was learning to read scripture in Greek and Hebrew, but for all of his efforts, no one said, “WOW! Your preaching is really getting better and helping me more!” So he said what so many have, “I’m going to read the whole Bible.”

What made that moment different from other, I believe, is that he then invited others to join him. He found church members, other clergy, and friends from his golf club also wanted to read the Bible through. They read all of the books in the Old and New Testaments through in a year. This priest, the Rev. Marek P. Zabriskie, found that this exercise made a significant impact on his life.

This past summer, the Challenge took a big step forward when the General Convention of the Episcopal Church voted to approve The Bible Challenge - Directs the Church to extend an invitation to members and the wider community to read the Bible in 2013. Now Episcopal Churches across all of the provinces are taking up the challenge.

The Rev. Marek P. Zabriskie has given us some great tools to help with the process. They can be found at their website, http://thecenterforbiblicalstudies.org/. There you will find resources in English and in Spanish to help with the process. There is a daily reflection on the readings with questions and challenges. There is a scheme for daily reading, using only six days a week, to accomplish this goal within a year. I hope that you will take up the challenge. I hope that you will decide that this is the year when you will read all of this wonderful word of God in 2013. If you are in Miami, I hope that you will join us at St. Luke’s and find someone to do it with.  www.stlukethephysician.org

May God bless you as you prepare for the Bible Challenge!!