Follow the Plan II - Online Bible Reading

As promised, today I'll give you some online options for Bible reading plans in addition to those mentioned last week.

The good folks at ESV.org have plenty of ways to remind you to be in the Word. They've got 10 plans listed here, each with 6 ways for you to get your passages for the day. Wow.

For example, for their basic Daily Reading Bible plan, which includes portions of the Old Testament, New Testament, and Psalms each day, you can use--

• Web (save this link as a bookmark/favorite, and visiting this same page each day will give you the appropriate reading for that date)
• RSS (put this into your customized homepage, such as iGoogle or My Yahoo, or Google Reader)
• Email (subscribe to have it sent to you each day)
• iCal (for Apple's calendar program)
• Mobile (same as Web above, though formatted for mobile phone browsers)
• Print (print out a reading schedule to tuck in your Bible)

A different plan that you can print out is one taken from the new ESV Study Bible (though you don't need an ESVSB to use it). If you click here, you will see a sheet that reflects four readings for each day. The nice part about this is that it is designed so that you can cut it into four bookmarks, keeping your place in each of those four daily readings.

Another option entirely is Bible.Logos.com, which is a way to read the Bible online with many different versions available: ESV, NIV, NAS, NLT, KJV, and lots more.

Go to "Reading Plan" on the left side under the search field. It will give you a drop-down menu, where you can choose "Bible in a Year, Jan 09 - Dec 09." In the menu below that, you can choose the day, such as January 1, 2009. It will then give you four links to each of the passages you are to read for the day-- no flipping pages, no typing in references. Create an account and sign in for your reading (it will remember you so that you don't have to do this each day), so that when you are finished, you can click a "Done Reading" button that records your progress.

There is a community aspect to this site as well. Because each user that has logged in and noted what is completed, the site registers how many people in total are using that plan, and how many are keeping up (just numbers, no names used). You can even leave comments about the passage to share your thoughts with other readers.

Of course, as with all technology, these tools can sometimes make things more convenient, accessible, or user-friendly, but they can't make you more disciplined or do the reading for you. And only the living Word can give you life.