From time to time, people will ask about including every verse in the Bible in our study plan. It sounds like a great idea, but let’s think about that for a moment. To do a set of verses justice, we will want to study 15 verses or so each week, giving us time to really understand those specific verses. There are 31,102 verses. If we do the math, it would take us 39 years and 11 months to complete one study through all the books of the Bible. If we started in September of 2014, we would finish in July of 2054.
If we studied one chapter a week, we would “shorten” the study to 22 years and 11 months (1,189 chapters). We would then finish in July of 2037. This is one reason we take the approach we do—utilizing a nine year plan.
If we are going to touch all the books of the Bible in a nine year plan, we obviously can’t study every verse in depth, but we can at least read every verse.
In every Explore the Bible resource, you will find a Bible Reading Plan. The plan is the same for every age group. Using the reading plan helps people fill-in-the-blanks between the passages we examine in depth. It also helps everyone understand the context of the passages examined. The reading plan is created to compliment what is being studied each week as much as is possible. If the reading plan is followed and a Bible study group completes all nine years of the study cycle, they will have read every verse in the Bible and dug into the key passages of each Bible book.
By giving focused attention to the critical verses of the Bible and including a reading plan for every verse, we can take steps toward letting His Word impact our lives.
The Reading Plan is available as one of the elements in the free Explore the Bible Kids App (in both iOs and Android).