A Light Unto My Path

Now Available at NextStep Resources

My experience in reading through the Bible in three years

By Jerry Colling, MD, Carlsbad, CA

It wouldn’t have happened if my pastor, Alvin Helms, hadn’t challenged our congregation at Carlsbad Community Church four years ago. Even then, the idea of adding another daily reading commitment in addition to reading my medical journals didn’t seem possible. But the idea kept nagging me: reading through the Bible in 3 years had to be at least as important as keeping up on journals of medical progress.

By the end of the first month of study, guided by George Allen’s program, the Lord showed me that I could do both, and that the Bible is even more important than my medical journals. I had earlier read through the Bible in one year, but I needed the nudge to read through it again to better understand the story of what God did.

Allen’s three year program is broken down into three year segments* uniquely organized to emphasize the New Testament over the Old Testament. The Old Testament study has been easier for me to understand because it is arranged chronologically, skipping around among the books to accomplish chronology. Year One took me from pre-flood accounts into the Conquest of Canaan, into the Psalms and Proverbs, along with a simple story of the life of Jesus and the beginnings of the Christian Church. Year Two concluded the Conquest of Canaan and led me into the periods of the United and Divided Monarchies. Some of the Psalms are arranged to move into the life of King David. The New Testament books begin with the writings of John: his gospel, three letters and Revelation and on into writings of other apostles and into Acts. Year Three finishes the downfall of the Hebrew nation and the Restoration while the New Testament selections take us through the main seasons of the church year. The Advent progresses through the life of our Savior to His atonement for our sins and finally His Ascension.

I haven’t said much about the great wisdom in the Proverbs, but reading Proverbs equipped me to do better in my testimony to others. Throughout the study guide, Allen adds thirteen reflections on the Christian Gospel from his other manuscript “The Thing Is…Reflections on the Christian Gospel” that helped me tremendously with some emphases and definitions. One of these defines “typology” as “the foreshadowing of a later, more developed twist of the story in an earlier, less developed person or event. Thus Joseph is often seen as an Old Testament type, or picture, of Christ, and the Old Testament sacrificial system as a much more complex type, or foreshadow, of the atonement of Christ.”

Though I’m just a layman, and no accomplished scholar of the scriptures, I felt closer to the Lord during my three year study. In writing this article, I decided to begin today to once again go through this same three year study. I’m convinced that it will keep me close to the Lord and help me to be a better testimony of faith to others. And I’ll continue reading my medical journals during the same three years.

*A Light Unto My Path, An Approach to Daily Bible Reading is arranged to daily read selections from the Old Testament, Psalms, Proverbs and the New Testament. If the guide is followed to completion, the user will read through the entire Old Testament in three years and the New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs annually.