Читать книгу The Grand Sweep - Large Print - J. Ellsworth Kalas - Страница 4

This book is the result of a continuing love affair with the Bible. But it is a love affair completely without jealousy; the more I have loved this Book, the more I have wanted others to have it too.

My love began when I was eleven years old. I had given my life to Christ only a few months before. Now a Presbyterian evangelist who was conducting services in our little Methodist church was having Sunday dinner in our home. Of course, my mother told him that I had a call to the ministry, which was true; so that good man, Gene Palmer, took me aside for a talk. I remember only one small, but very transforming, part of the conversation:

Have you read the Bible through yet?

Uh-hunh, I read the Bible.

No, I asked if you’ve read it through.

All the way?

All the way! How can you hope to be a preacher if you haven’t read the Bible through?

Then he gave me his formula, which was so simple yet so effective. If I would read three chapters every weekday and five chapters every Sunday, I would finish the Bible in a year.

Young and earnest as I was, I believed him; and I did it. I’ve done it any number of times since then (indeed, I’m doing it again this very year), and I have recommended it to each of the congregations I have served in my thirty-eight years of pastoral ministry. Now I am recommending it to you.

The pattern I am recommending is slightly different from what was originally given to me. Since Sundays shift from year to year, this book is organized so that you will read three chapters daily, except for certain days—usually the third and the sixth—when you will read four chapters. Also, Psalms and Proverbs are scattered through your reading, in consecutive fashion. This plan is partly because these books don’t lend themselves to the kind of summary we’re seeking, and partly because by such an arrangement I am able to balance out certain readings.

The basic structure has tremendous benefits. Because it moves through the Bible in the biblical sequence, it gives you a chance to catch “the grand sweep” of the Scriptures—something we miss in most Bible studies, where we take up only a certain book or section of the Bible, and in those patterns of Bible reading where the daily readings are scattered throughout the Scriptures. Also, the readings for each day are manageable; even someone who is just beginning a serious devotional life need not feel threatened by the size of each portion.

By the time you have finished your year of reading, you will have a grasp of the biblical story from beginning to end. And with it, because of the daily discipline, a stronger devotional life. I have sought what may be an impossible goal—to give a faithful summary of each day’s reading, but with a devotional quality, so that you will gain warmth of spirit as well as knowledge of mind.

This book can be used individually or with a group. If you will covenant with one or several friends, or better yet with a group of ten or twelve, to follow the daily pattern, then meet at regular intervals to discuss and share, you will strengthen your faith enormously. Indeed, you will discover, as others have for nearly twenty centuries, that the Word of God is alive and powerful, bringing to our daily routine transforming glimpses of the eternal. I cherish for you, and for those who read with you, such a year in God’s Word.

—J. Ellsworth Kalas