223 - I Read the Bible in a Month!
Affiliate links have been used in this post! I do receive a commission when you choose to purchase through these links, and that helps me keep this podcast up and running—I truly appreciate when you choose to use them!
Resources from this episode:
Show Notes:
During the month of January, I read the entire Bible and this episode is all about how I did it.
For the full episode, hit play above or read through below.
As a busy mama, it can be so difficult to spend time reading the Word like I really want to. When I can't read, I listen. I never would have been able to read the entire Bible in a month like I did without the Dwell app. And the reason why I chose the Dwell app over any other Bible app is how lovely it is to listen to. You can select your voice preference (mine is Amber) along with specific background music (I love the piano and cello best). And most mornings before I dive into my scripture reading for the day, I drink my coffee while listening to the Dwell morning daily devotional, which only takes about 5 minutes, focuses in on one verse or a few verses, and slows me down to meditate on what the Holy Spirit is saying to me. You can go to dwellbible.com/workandplay to receive 25% off the app. Head to dwellbible.com/workandplay to get 25% off.
What a wild ride it was to read the entire Bible in 30 days. Quick background: Jess and Kyle, my sister-in-law and brother-in-law host this every year. They do it and they've done it for like 5 years in a row and I've always thought it's so amazing and they kind of put out the invitation. They do it with a group of people and I thought, “I think I'm gonna try it this year.” Now back up a few years, I tried it three years ago. I had a little baby. No. I tried for two days, I barely made it through like a day and a half. I was like I can't. I can't do this. It’s just too much. And I did it another time. I think I've tried this two times before and never made it through like three days. And this year I was like I'm just gonna, I'm gonna try it. I'm going to do it and Jess gave me some practical tips that really helped. Um, and I'll share this with you at the end of the episode today, but it was really life changing and I'm just going to give you a quick overview of what I gleaned from it this time. Like Old Testament overview, New Testament overview, how it affected my relationship with the Lord, and practical tips for you if you ever want to do it.
So the name of the plan we used in the Bible app was called 30 Day Shred and they didn't create it, but they've done the 30 Day Shred several times and I say that because I think you can just go through this plan anytime you want, any month of the year if you're interested in doing this. Um, highly recommend doing it with friends or with some accountability if you can. But if not, it's still worth it to do it on your own. Um, okay so before I get into the practical stuff, let's go back through the Old Testament and I'm just going to share with you like my overview of the Old Testament and some wild and crazy stories that just stood out to me this time. The Bible is so fascinating and so interesting. And I also want to just give a quick disclaimer: If you're listening to this with kids around, know that I'm going to talk about kind of some dark stuff in the Old Testament. So it might be better to listen with your headphones in and I'll leave that to your discretion.
So, overview of the Old Testament. It is dark. It is very… ah, helpless feeling at times. Um, it's a giant book of the law. Describes in detail like the beauty and creation of the world and mankind and our relationship with God. From the very beginning, it puts on display how depraved humanity is, how we need the law, but how the law exposes our sin and inability to keep it or to do right. The amount of times we fail as humans is unbelievable. So the Old Testament is brutal. It's a brutal, savage place. It's quite frankly bewildering that God did not wipe us out. I mean he almost did with the flood, but he didn't. He saved us and it's just, that's remarkable to me. It's fascinating. It's full of peculiar stories. Here are a few of my favorites. Um I just was like kind of in awe that like some of these are in the Bible. I'm like, this is gross. This is a lot to take in.
Now first of all, before I get to some of the weird ones, there's like the amazing Moses and Exodus story that is so remarkable. Makes me want to watch the Prince of Egypt again, which is one of my top five favorite movies of all time. Just a side note there.
It has the story of David. David and Goliath, but I was really amazed at like David's whole life story. David and Goliath, yes, but also David and Jonathan his best friend and David and Saul, like being chased for his life like it just was crazy. His whole life is crazy. There's the Psalms that came out of David's life, which is this beautiful emotional connection with God, which is like the first time you see that in the Bible.
The story of Esther is better than anything in Hollywood. There are so many plot twists to that story... It's crazy. It's crazy. All the jews didn't eat or drink for three days while they were contending for their survival. I mean just so crazy. The cultural things are fascinating.
The story of Job. That one, that one's just a hard one every time. It's just hard to read. Job, especially the part that's like God and Satan are like talking and God's like, “Hey have you considered my servant Job?” Like man, God is the one who suggested that. That's really hard.
There was a lot of times in the Old Testament reading through it that I was like wrestling with God about some of the things that I read and praying through it. But ultimately realizing the whole Old Testament story is a story of God interacting with humanity kind of from afar because humanity is so wicked and we have to have all these animal sacrifices to like keep communing with Good. Um, but ultimately it's the story of God making a promise to send a Savior to send someone who's going to redeem us and rescue us from all of this hideous darkness that we've like chosen and are living in. And it starts with a promise to Abraham and then we like see the Old Testament is like a story of the lineage of Jesus. Like the Old Testament is a story about Jesus even though Jesus hasn't even arrived on the scene yet, which is so cool and crazy.
Um, alright, you want to hear some like fun, not so popular stories in the Old Testament which are all equally as crazy? There is this lady who is hiding idols and the people who came into camp were like “Who is hiding idols? We know some of you are hiding it.” And she just was sitting on her horse and like lied and said. “I'm not hiding the idols, but please don't make me get up off my horse because it's my time of the month.” Like what? That was like… that is in the Bible. She is talking about not being able to get up off this horse and she lied and she was hiding the idols underneath her. She was sitting on them.
Another crazy story: Absalom, this warrior guy, riding his horse through a forest gets his head caught in a tree. His body is like swiped right off of his horse. He's hanging from the tree and then his enemies come and just kill him with the sword. Just kill him right there as he's hanging from a tree. That is wild.
Then there's this lady, I think her name is Jael or something. I I don't know. She invited this warrior into her tent and was like “Come on. You're safe here. Have a nap. You're good, just lay down” and he's like “Thank you so much.” He goes to sleep. She gets a tent peg and drives it through his temple, into the ground, kills him. Guys, that is so brutal, like what? Guys, that's wild. While he was asleep?
The whole story of Samson too left me like whoa! Like why? Why don't we talk about Samson more, alright? Just shout out to this wild man that is Samson. Long, crazy hair that makes him unstoppable. Like so strong. Like he can fight off whoever comes his way. One time he took the jaw of a donkey and just like killed so many men. I don't know how many men. You can look it up. But he used it as weapon. He just killed his enemies, like just slaughtered them with this donkey jaw.
Another time… This is so funny if you think about it. Okay, he caught 300 foxes. That just needs a moment. How do you catch one fox? Much less 300. How do you catch five foxes? Was it like, what was going on in this forest he was in? I just assume it’s like full of foxes and he happens to catch them. How does he catch them? Where does he put them? I have so many questions. Then he gets them, lights their tails on fire and sets them loose into a camp so that he like burns down the tents of his enemies, but he makes the foxes do all the work. What in the world?
He also had his eyes gouged out like when Delilah cut his hair and she finds out his weakness. He loses all of his like superhuman strength and then his enemies capture him. They gouge out his eyes and ultimately he cries out to God while he's in this temple type of building, I think full of evil, wicked men and says, “God, please let me do one more feat of strength and I will kill everyone in this building.” Sure enough, prayer answered. He takes the columns of the building and like pushes them down while he's blind. And he commits suicide in order to kill all these evil people. Like, what a life. What a crazy, crazy life. Again, better than any movie you'll see. I want a book. I want a Samson book. There probably is one, I need to read it. It just sounds so interesting.
Alright, other weird takeaways from the Old Testament. You know what happened a lot in the Old Testament? People would quote unquote (I'm doing air quotes) lay out a fleece before God a lot. Not only Gideon like the actual fleece that was laid out about Gideon and whether or not he should like (I can't even remember now) go do the army. I can't remember. Go read the story of Gideon. But you know, he was like, “God, if it's wet this morning, then that's my answer and if this fleece is dry the next morning, then that's my answer, but make sure that the rock around it is wet, but the fleece is dry. And like God answered. So a lot of times in the Old Testament, people would pray and say “Hey, if this weird thing happens, God I'm gonna take this as your answer.” It happened so much in the Old Testament. It's like people were just expecting for God to speak to them in their everyday life in weird ways and I loved that.
Like when this guy is like sent out to find a wife for Jacob? Israel? Somebody. And he's waiting behind a rock and he's like, “Lord, whatever lady comes up and offers a drink to me and offers a drink to my camels, let her be the wife I am to bring back to my master. Sure enough, before he's done praying, this lady walks up and is like, “Would you like a drink? May I also get your drink for your camels?” And he's like done. God answered my prayer. Let's go lady, you're the one. It's amazing to me that they just expected God to interact with them in that way.
Another time- this was another one. This is the last one I'll share. This one was funny to me. A guy was like, “I'm going to release this donkey on the road and if he walks straight then that is my answer from God, that is the way we should go.” I'm like what?! That is so funny and crazy. Maybe I just need to expect God to speak to me more in my everyday life and just talk to him.
Okay, so overall, Old Testament: Full of crazy stories, full of the depravity of humanity. Also a giant picture of where Jesus is going to come from and like the hope of humanity pointing towards what's to come. Lots of prophecies. Lots of God interacting in kind of like weird, hard and good ways throughout. But showing off His power and His lordship in humanity.
Alright, let's go to the New Testament. Let's talk about the New Testament. It starts out with Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John - the accounts of the life of Jesus. And Jesus shows up on the scene of humanity and changes absolutely everything. The four gospels accounted for the life and actions of Jesus. They show us His personality and His mission and how He talked with people and how He treated them.
Demons were afraid of Him and Jesus spoke directly to them, casting them out of people, commanding them to go. He spoke with authority. This is a big one. This alone like really confounded people. Jesus spoke with authority. He was really tender with people who were grieving and who were sick. Really compassionate. So many times, the Lord had compassion. Jesus had compassion. He was moved with compassion, like He really was a compassionate person.
I'm always so surprised in the gospels at how strong Jesus' words are. How offensive He was. Like not only to the Pharisees, but to His disciples, to people He loved. He was not afraid of offending people. I'd read something and be like whoa! Jesus, that is like way harsher than I would feel comfortable saying. He wasn't afraid but He loved. He loved people, but He loved truth and He was not afraid to offend people to teach people about the Father and about truth and what is right.
I mean His relationship with the Father is just so interesting to observe throughout His life and how He would get away and pray so often and hear from His father and what He should do. Most of all, He was just on a mission and He would tell His disciples, “Hey I'm going to die and then I'm going to raise again three days later. And they're all like so confused. But He was on a mission and the gospels were just beautiful to read, especially after coming out of the Old Testament.
Also, it took me 22 or 23 days to read the Old Testament and only like 7 days to read the New Testament, okay? So it's a lot of time spent in the Old Testament reading about sin, mankind messing everything up, complaining, hurting one another, killing one another, rape, incest, deep betrayal, and intimate relationships, child sacrifice, murder, mixed in with like a handful, like a remnant of warriors and kings and righteous men and women who chose to follow the God of Abraham. To save the human race and an arc, to write beautiful Psalms and songs and poems and books on wisdom and love. They continually made sacrifices so that they could have this relationship with God, which that's also very descriptive and very raw and messy in the Old Testament. But God and humanity. It was dark and like crazy the way that God interacted with humanity in the Old Testament. So seeing a lot of that ugliness and trauma and pain and then having Jesus arrive on the scene, it’s like this massive juxtaposition. It makes sense to me like (BC and AD) like there is a massive change in humanity before Jesus and after Jesus. Um, yeah, it was crazy.
I just wanted to share this really quick to kick off my reading of the New Testament. I actually met with Jess and Kyle and a few others who were reading the Bible together in the month of January. We read the book of Matthew aloud from start to finish one night. It took like 2 ½ hours at their church. It was so beautiful. I think there are only about 10, maybe 15 of us in the room and there were 6 of us who rotated through and read aloud the book of Matthew. I was so emotional that night reading through after having read the Old Testament. Reading the life of Jesus aloud, I got very emotional at certain points in the story and just really made aware of the significance of the life of Jesus.
So after reading Matthew aloud, I went home and went about my life and was listening through the gospels and then listening through all of the letters in the New Testament. Another impression that I had was just like whoa! Like Jesus ascended and rose and left us with the Holy Spirit. And this life with the Holy Spirit in the New Testament looks again so different, massive juxtaposition to the Old Testament. So the Old Testament and then Jesus and then the church with the Holy Spirit and there's so much life and vibrancy and truth and love and teachings on like how you should live and how you should interact with one another and it was just really beautiful.
One thing that was also obvious to me was these letters that mostly Paul wrote, but several others wrote as well. These letters came out of these deep experiences with God and experiences with other people. They were Holy Spirit inspired, but they came out… It was obvious that there were already so many really strong relationships established. Um, man I wonder… Our world is so different now with technology and we just kind of lived all these different isolated lives. What was it like back then is I kept asking myself. But it was beautiful.
Then, after listening to all this practical instruction: how we should live and how we should walk and what it looks like to keep in step with the Holy Spirit and be filled with the Holy Spirit and live in the assurance and salvation of Jesus through faith, through grace. It's just astounding the life that He gives us and how we can take hold of that now and walk that out now in our lives. It’s really beautiful.
Um, and then it ends with Revelation and Revelation is just the wildest book of all. Heavy and difficult and beautiful and sobering and there's so much that goes into taking it in. So while it is all of those things, one of the most profound things is that the end, the very end, the very very end of the end is beautiful. It's good. It's restored. It is God's kingdom come. Like we're back. God always wanted to dwell with His people on the earth. That's what it was in the garden and that's how it ends. That is the end of the story and it's amazing.
So I just loved getting that bird's eye view in a month, from start to finish, the whole Bible. I think it was one of the best things I could do for my walk with the Lord and my understanding of scripture and the understanding of scripture as a story about Jesus from start to finish and how God interacts with humanity and how He came to save us. It’s really beautiful and awe inspiring.
I hope this podcast episode encourages you to read the Bible if you've never done it. Whether or not you do it in 30 days, I don't care. But you should read the whole Bible, even though it's hard and long (especially the Old Testament). You should read it. You really should.
Alright, let's talk about two last things: What it did for my walk with the Lord and practical tips and how you could do it.
So it did three things for my walk with the Lord.
1. It changed me
First, the power of listening to the Word throughout the day changed me. It was really not that hard. I didn't feel any guilt about not having a quote unquote quiet time in the morning if I didn't have time that day. There's no guilt. I knew I was getting fed scripture all day every day and it just kind of made me realize I can keep going with this.
One of the habits I got into was when I worked out in the morning I would put my workout on mute and I would just pop my headphones in and listen to scripture the whole time I'm working out. I could see the workout, I knew what I was supposed to do. That filled me up in a big way.
Um, I know I mentioned the Dwell app. I tell you what, that was one of the most valuable things that I spent my time doing was learning how to navigate that app and it is going to be something that I hold dear. I'm going to hold tightly to this habit and keep doing it. Because as a mom, I just feel like “I can't read my Bible, I can't read my Bible”, but when I can't read, I can listen. It's really not that hard and this Dwell app makes it so lovely to listen to. I just really, really love it and I love the devotionals in the beginning of the day too. Both of those were really good. So it taught me about the power of listening to the Word. It doesn't have to look a certain way where I sit down, write in my Bible, read it.
2) It taught me to abide
The second thing it taught me is it's really a beautiful lesson in abiding. I would listen to a little bit in the car and then I would talk to God about it or I'd listen to it in the afternoon and then I'd pray about it or write something down and I'd listen to it while I'm cooking dinner and my mind was turned toward the Lord so much more throughout the day. I really loved that. It was beautiful.
3) It gave me a new perspective
Then lastly, it just gave me a new perspective. It gave me a new perspective on scripture, on my life, on the life of Jesus, and on God's relationship with humanity and how I'm small, but I'm significant and he still cares to fill me. The Holy Spirit is still with me and Jesus died for me. But also, it's such a bigger story than just my life. Honestly, it freed me of worrying and being so consumed with myself. I'm part of such a bigger story here, which I really am grateful for that.
A couple practical tips. Um, if you can't read, listen, you know? Listening to the Word has been beautiful. Read if you can. That's good too. I love both. But just know that there's two options to ingest the Word into your eyes and ears and heart every day.
Um, know that it's a bird's eye view. You just want to get through it. So Jess told me in the very beginning, “Hey, you're not going to totally like intently listen to every single chapter. Just keep moving. Just keep moving through it. Get as much out of it as you can and just keep plowing through. This is a bird's eye view. This is not getting into the weeds.” That really helped me just keep going.
Um, here's another tip for you. Consider doing this with your Contentment Challenge, if you ever do a Contentment Challenge. If you don't know what I'm talking about, go to nancyray.com/contentmentchallenge. I'll leave a link for that in the show notes too. I give up shopping for 90 days every year in the beginning of the year and when I do that I like to fill my mind and my heart and my time with other things. This was a great great thing to fill my heart and mind and time, instead of looking for stuff I can buy. It was a really great substitute there.
Doing it with a group helped. Accountability definitely helped me keep going. It's just encouraging to know that there were other people doing it.
One simple little boundary that I set is when I'm riding in the car, that was like a really good listening time. But oftentimes my kids want to listen to music and I use Spotify on my phone. I can't listen to scripture and play Spotify at the same time. So I just told the kids, for the month of January we're only listening to CDs and that's it because I have a CD player in my car. I don't know the situation in your car or if you have kids, but this was something that really helped because even though they're totally sick of The Lion King and Sing 2 and Slugs and Bugs (that like 4 or 5 CDs they can listen to), it allowed me to listen and they could also listen to music too and not be totally bored. So that was helpful too.
Then I mentioned this, but listening while you're working out or listening on a walk. I would do a lot of long walks on Saturdays and that was really good too.
Last encouragement is like hey, I thought what if I fail again? What if I fail for the third time trying this or what if I fail halfway through? If you fail, you win. What if you try it and fail? Well you listened to half of Genesis, right? That's better than nothing. Or you listen to half the Bible. That's better than nothing. Or I even made up in my mind, if I don't do this in 30 days, what if it takes me 60 days (twice as long?) I still win. I still listen to the whole Bible. So don't beat yourself up or let the thought of failing like stop you because if you fail, you win.
Well I hope that this was encouraging to you. I hope you listen to the Bible at some point in your life. I'm grateful that you listened to episode 223 of Work and Play with Nancy Ray. As always, anything I've mentioned today can be found in the show notes. Don't forget, seriously don't forget, if you want to try Dwell and get 25% off: dwellbible.com/workandplay is where you can do that. Head to nancyay.com/podcast/223 for show notes. You can find me over at nancyray.com or at @NancyRay on Instagram.
I'm going to close with words from John 1:1-4, which says:
“In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him, all things were made. Without him, nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life and that life was the light of men.”
Thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time.
