What is “Read the Bible with Bill Martin?”

We are a group of JOY FM listeners and friends who want to want to be challenged to read our Bible daily, needing a sense of solidarity and community support to be successful. We are out to impress nobody with how much we read the Bible or how perfectly. Instead, we want to develop a devotional life to please an audience of One… God.

Why don’t you join us? We formed a group on YouVersion, a Bible reading site, and chose a reading plan. We started in January, but if you are new here, you can start today, OR set your start date as January 1, and the plan will automatically catch you up to the place we are, so you can read and share thoughts with others who are reading the same area of the Bible. The key is community!

The reading plan we chose on YouVersion is “The First Steps Reading Plan.” It does NOT try to read every chapter and verse in one year. While that is a worthy goal, for many the pattern of 4 chapters a day (the average for reading the Bible in a year) becomes arduous, resulting in self-condemnation and defeat.  This is different. “The First Steps Reading Plan,” developed by the Life Journal folks, has you reading in the Old Testament and the New Testament nearly every day, but only a chapter or a passage of each, enough to really feast on God’s word, but not enough to choke on the sheer discipline of it.

Here is a step-by-step path for your getting involved. You can do as MUCH or as little as you would like. Click the highligted text to go to the place it refers to:

1.  Go to YouVersion and join The JOY FM Group. (You may have to get a free YouVersion account first)
2.  If you want to be able to read notes or see others’ bookmarks, follow those group members on YouVersion.
3.  While on YouVersion, sign up for “The First Steps Reading Plan.”
4.  Start reading every day! (Just sign in to YouVersion and access your reading plan.)

IF YOU WANT TO GO FURTHER UP AND FURTHER IN:

5.  Go to the homepage of this blog (www.thejoyfm.com/bill) and read what Bill periodically posts. Leave a comment!
6.  Go to the “Read the Bible with Bill Martin” discussion forum and join in a discussion or start your own by topic.

It’s really that simple. Let’s get reading together!