Ready to read through the Bible beginning in July?
Each Sunday, beginning on July 1, I’m going to post the reading schedule for the week. In that post, I’ll also add some hopefully helpful commentary with the Old Testament and New Testament passages, nothing technical, just a way of thinking about the passages in case you’re unsure.
Even if you ignore what I write, I heartily encourage you to post a response each week that shares what you discovered, or learned, or have a question about. Don’t be shy. This isn’t a test and this won’t involve judgment. How would we learn to do anything if we were afraid of making mistakes at first?
Learning how to respond to Scripture is one of the key ways we learn about it. Passive learning doesn’t do much. It’s shown that just writing a little bit in response can help it stick better in your head. Gets you thinking.
I also don’t want you to depend on my posts to know what to read each week, so here’s the complete schedule for the year on a handy pdf: TRC Communal-Reading-of-Scripture-One-Year-Schedule
You can also find printed copies on the resource table at TRC on Sundays. Or scroll down to see the full schedule in a handy chart.
There’s a lot of different reading plans out there, so why did I choose this one? Well, the main reason is that it has a creative approach. I’ve read through the Bible in different ways over the years, and one of the more difficult ways is to read straight through, beginning to end. That has a lot of benefits, but it can get bogged down and even repetitive at times.
This one mixes things up. Having some Psalms, and OT reading, and a NT reading each week helps add variety and it also gives us a sense of the whole as we go through the year.
It’s a bit like instead of building a structure block by block, like reading through the year can be, we’re filling in a circle. We see the initial shape, then over time the circle gets more and more color. As we add shading to different parts of the circle, it will eventually be full.
I also like it because it’s a weekly rather than daily schedule, and that gives us all a lot more flexibility in keeping up. Some days are busier than others and this way we can adapt to what happens in life.
I suggest breaking the readings into at least 5 days, maybe the first set of Psalms on Monday, split the OT passages up over Tuesday and Wednesday, the NT passage on Thursday, and the closing set of Psalms on Friday. That’s just a suggestion. Find a schedule that works for you.
That link has a great intro video, and links to both text and audio of all the passages.
So there you go. I encourage you to bookmark this post so you can refer to it if you need the reading list or reading links again.
Happy reading and happy responding. We start in a week!
Oh, and for those of you who like charts on blogs here’s the entire schedule:
TRC Communal Reading of Scripture 1-Year Schedule
Remember to go to theriverchurch.net/blog to add your questions, comments, insights to the weekly conversation
Week of | Opening Psalms | Old Testament | New Testament | Closing Psalms | |
July 1 | Psalms 1-3 | Genesis 1-19 | Matthew 1-3 | Psalms 4-6 | |
July 8 | Psalms 7-8 | Genesis 21-31 | Matthew 4-8 | Psalm 9 | |
July 15 | Psalm 10 | Genesis 32-45 | Matthew 9-11 | Psalms 11-13 | |
July 22 | Psalms 14-16 | Genesis 46-50; Exodus 1-10 | Matthew 12-14 | Psalm 17 | |
July 29 | Psalm 18 | Exodus 11-24 | Matthew 15-19 | Psalm 19 | |
August 5 | Psalms 20-21 | Exodus 25-37 | Matthew 20-23 | Psalm 22 | |
August 12 | Psalms 23-24 | Exodus 38-40; Leviticus 1-8 | Matthew 24-28 | Psalms 25-26 | |
August 19 | Psalm 27 | Leviticus 9-21 | Romans 1-5 | Psalm 28 | |
August 26 | Psalms 29-30 | Leviticus 22-27; Numbers 1-5 | Romans 6-9 | Psalm 31 | |
Sept 2 | Psalm 32 | Numbers 6-15 | Romans 10-16 | Psalm 33 | |
Sept 9 | Psalm 34 | Numbers 16-28 | Hebrews 1-8 | Psalm 35 | |
Sept 16 | Psalm 36 | Numbers 29-36; Deuteronomy 1-4 | Hebrews 9-13 | Psalm 37 | |
Sept 23 | Psalm 38 | Deuteronomy 5-20 | 1 & 2 Thessalonians | Psalm 39 | |
Sept 30 | Psalm 40 | Deuteronomy 21-34 | 1 Timothy 1-6 | Psalms 41-42 | |
Oct 7 | Psalms 43-44 | Joshua 1-14 | 2 Timothy; Titus; Philemon | Psalm 45 | |
Oct 14 | Psalms 46-47 | Joshua 15-24 | James; 1 & 2 Peter | Psalm 48 | |
Oct 21 | Psalm 49 | Judges 1-12 | John 1-4 | Psalm 50 | |
Oct 28 | Psalm 51 | Judges 13-21; Ruth 1-4 | John 5-8 | Psalms 52-53 | |
Nov 4 | Psalms 54-55 | 1 Samuel 1-14 | John 9-12 | Psalms 56-57 | |
Nov 11 | Psalms 58-59 | 1 Samuel 15-26 | John 13-17 | Psalms 60-61 | |
Nov 18 | Psalms 62-63 | 1 Samuel 27-31; 2 Samuel 1-12 | John 18-21 | Psalms 64-65 | |
Nov 25 | Psalms 66-67 | 2 Samuel 13-24 | 1, 2 & 3 John | Psalm 68 | |
Dec 2 | Psalm 69 | 1 Kings 1-10 | 1 Corinthians 1-6 | Psalm 70 | |
Dec 9 | Psalm 71 | 1 Kings 11-22 | 1 Corinthians 7-9 | Psalm 72 | |
Dec 16 | Psalm 73 | 2 Kings 1-9 | 2 Corinthians 10-16 | Psalm 74 | |
Dec 23 | Psalms 75-76 | 2 Kings 10-20 | 2 Corinthian 1-7 | Psalm 77 | |
Dec 30 | Psalm 78 | 2 Kings 21-25; Esther 1-10 | 2 Corinthians 8-13 | Psalm 79 | |
Week of | Opening Psalms | Old Testament | New Testament | Closing Psalms |
Jan 6 | Psalm 80 | Job 1-24 | Luke 1-3 | Psalm 81 |
Jan 13 | Psalms 82-83 | Job 25-42 | Luke 4-7 | Psalms 84-85 |
Jan 20 | Psalms 86-87 | Proverbs 1-16 | Luke 8-11 | Psalm 88 |
Jan 27 | Psalm 89 | Proverbs 17-31 | Luke 12-17 | Psalm 90 |
Feb 3 | Psalms 91 | Ecclesiastes; Song of Songs | Luke 18-21 | Psalms 92-93 |
Feb 10 | Psalm 94 | Isaiah 1-20 | Luke 22-24 | Psalms 95-96 |
Feb 17 | Psalms 97-98 | Isaiah 21-39 | Acts 1-4 | Psalms 99-101 |
Feb 24 | Psalm 102 | Isaiah 40-55 | Acts 5-8 | Psalm 103 |
March 3 | Psalm 104 | Isaiah 56-66 | Acts 9-15 | Psalm 105 |
March 10 | Psalm 106 | Jeremiah 1-13 | Acts 16-19 | Psalm 107 |
March 17 | Psalms 108-109 | Jeremiah 14-28 | Acts 20-23 | Psalms 110-111 |
March 24 | Psalms 112-113 | Jeremiah 29-39 | Acts 24-28 | Psalms 114-115 |
March 31 | Psalms 116-117 | Jeremiah 40-52; Lamentations | – | Psalm 118 |
April 7 | Psalm 119 | Ezekiel 1-13 | Galatians 1-6 | Psalms 120-121 |
April 14 | Psalms 122-123 | Ezekiel 14-24 | Ephesians 1-6 | Psalms 124-125 |
April 21 | Psalms 126-127 | Ezekiel 25-39 | Philippians 1-4 | Psalm 128 |
April 28 | Psalm 129 | Ezekiel 40-48 | Colossians 1-4 | Psalm 130 |
May 5 | Psalm 131 | 1 Chronicles 1-12 | Mark 1-4 | Psalm 132 |
May 12 | Psalm 133 | 1 Chronicles 13-29 | Mark 5-7 | Psalm 134 |
May 19 | Psalm 135 | 2 Chronicles 1-17 | Mark 8-11 | Psalm 136 |
May 26 | Psalm 137 | 2 Chronicles 18-31 | Mark 12-14 | Psalm 138 |
June 2 | Psalm 139 | 2 Chronicles 32-36; Ezra 1-20 | Mark 15-16 | Psalm 140 |
June 9 | Psalm 141 | Nehemiah 1-13 | Jude | Psalm 142 |
June 16 | Psalm 143 | Daniel 1-12 | Revelation 1-6 | Psalm 144 |
June 23 | Psalm 145 | Hosea; Joel; Amos | Revelation 7-13 | Psalm 146 |
June 30 | Psalm 147 | Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habbakuk, Zepheniah, Haggai | Revelation 14-18 | Psalm 148 |
July 7 | Psalm 149 | Zechariah; Malachi | Revelation 19-22 | Psalm 150 |