Chronological Bible

This year I have been reading my way through the Bible using the One Year Chronological Bible. I usually read through the entire Bible every other year, but this is the first time I’ve read a chronological version and I really like it. When I was reading about David, I could read the Psalms he wrote during each time in his life. For Solomon, I read about his tremendous wisdom, then went straight into Proverbs. I read about his wealth, and then the conclusions of “The Teacher” of Ecclesiastes, that everything under the sun is meaningless.

Now I’m reading about the divided kingdoms of Israel and Judah, and I love that the prophetic books are inserted right after the historical account. For example, I read 2 Chronicles 26:23, “When Uzziah died, he was buried with his ancestors….” and went right into Isaiah 1:1: “It was in the year that King Uzziah died that I saw the Lord.” Reading the Bible chronologically has really helped me connect events to context.

If you have never read a chronological version of the Bible, I would encourage you to try it as an alternative to cover-to-cover reading.

New Book on Anxiety

My friend Amy Simpson just sent me an advanced copy of her new book, Anxious: Choosing Faith in a World of Worry, which will be released on October 5. Her last book, Troubled Minds: Mental Illness and the Church’s Mission, was a groundbreaking exploration of this important issue and won Christianity Today and Leadership Journal Book Awards. I can’t wait to dive into her new book.

Congratulations and thanks, Amy!

Bibliotheca

I just ordered one of these for myself. This Bible is a labor of love and a work of art and I can’t wait to receive mine.

Through the Bible in 90 Days

I am currently reading through the Bible in 90 days using the appropriately named “The NIV Bible in 90 Days.” I normally read through the Bible every other year and last year I finished in early October. I started this year doing more devotional reading, but by the summer I found myself hungering for bigger chunks of the Word.

The 90-day plan requires around 15 chapters per day, which is no easy task. I started on August 1 and I’m already in 2 Samuel. But I am soaking up these large blocks of Scripture; I feel like I am eating a hearty steak dinner every day, and it is very satisfying.

I used to think I could never read through the entire Bible, and now I’ve done it around a half-dozen times. If you have never read the entire Bible, I strongly encourage you to do it to deepen your knowledge of God’s story and your relationship with Him.

What’s Next?

During my Development of Organizational Leadership class a few weeks ago, I was struck with the realization that most contemporary leadership writers routinely refer to the concept of organizational culture, when that term didn’t even exist before 1979. In less than 25 years, organizational culture has become an accepted construct in business leadership and is finally even trickling into church leadership literature.

Similarly, concepts such as “getting the right people on the bus,” “emotional intelligence,” and “creating a sense of urgency” were unheard of twenty years ago. Today, they are common to any discussion about effective organizational leadership.

This has me thinking: What’s next in the leadership literature? What’s the concept or term that no one has heard of today, that everyone will be using in another ten years? What research today will tap entirely new veins of scholarly inquiry that become the lifeblood for understanding and practice tomorrow?

I don’t know, but I can’t wait to find out.