Five Things to Encourage You as Your Read through the Bible in a Year
by Jayne V. Clark, Chief of Staff at Christian Counseling & Educational Foundation
“A year ago today I embarked on an adventure I’d undertaken several times before—reading through the Bible in a year. The only difference this time was that I was going to read the English Standard Version (ESV). Looking back, it occurred to me that one could trace the history of the “Bible of the moment,” or at least my own spiritual history, by the order in which I’d read various versions—from the King James Version of my childhood, to the Revised Standard Version of my college years, to the New American Standard Version to the New International Version (1984) and now the ESV. I know there are some who feel very strongly that one or another is the translation, and I have my favorite(s), but what I’ve appreciated about reading various translations is that the variety helps to keep passages from becoming rote. The differences in styles and words and rhythms serve to make familiar passages fresh and others, which I hadn’t noticed previously, to jump off the page.”