The Year I Read the Bible with Laurie Larsen

Episode 1 -- The Year I Read the Bible

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Laurie kicks off her The Year I Read the Bible podcast with a description of how and why she took on the challenge of reading the Bible for a year and encouraging others to consider doing it as well.

Laurie's guest is Linda Rutland, a long-time reader and reviewer of Laurie's fictional works, and an avid Bible reader and teacher.

Are you interested in the ebooks, paperback, hardcover or audiobook of The Year I Read the Bible?  Check them all out here: https://books2read.com/u/b60650

Speaker:

Hi, I'm your host Laurie Larsen, and this is The Year I Read the Bible. Welcome!

Speaker:

A Lifelong Christian, I thought I was familiar with the Bible, but in 2023 I accepted the challenge of reading the whole thing, cover to cover. Whenever I encountered something I didn't understand or wanted to learn more, I jotted it down, but I kept reading to stay on schedule. When I finished reading. (Imagine confetti raining down on me and a huge sigh of relief.) I had more than 50 topics to research. In 2024. I started diving into all those topics. I did research, I wrote blogs, and I shared them with whoever might wanna learn too. And in 2025, the project continues. I published a book containing my essays, and now a podcast. Is there something you can learn from that dusty book that sits on all of our shelves? Yes. Yes, there is. Let's dive into The Year I Read the Bible.

Speaker:

Hello and welcome to the first episode of a brand new podcast. My name is Laurie Larsen, and this podcast is called The Year I Read The Bible. Each week we'll talk about what I learned when I spent the year 2023 reading the Bible cover to cover. I will have guests on to discuss the topics as well, and I hope that will encourage you to start your own regular Bible journey as well. We'll start with an essay I wrote and recorded back in January of 2024, describing the project. Here we go.

Speaker:

2023 the year I read the Bible chronologically straight through in one year. My goal is to increase my Bible knowledge, and maybe in doing so you'll want to come along for the ride. But first, what is this project all about? As a lifelong Christian, I've always believed in God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. While growing up, my family attended church regularly. When I was in high school, I was an active member of the youth group. Our youth leader challenged us to read the Bible straight through finding out what we could learn about this God, we followed. So I did. My chosen time was at night before I turned off the light for sleep. I'd lay in bed and for at least a half hour I'd read the Bible. Using my colored markers to highlight verses, verses that appealed to me, spoke to me, made me happy.

Speaker:

I still have that Bible I used way back then and I paged through it, grinning at the 16-year-old me and what I had found interesting. And how much I missed, although I've always made church and worship and prayer priorities. One thing that fell to the wayside in my adulthood was my own dedicated Bible study. I would hear the Old Testament and the New Testament readings in church each week, and I would see inspirational Bible verses everywhere. In the Hallmark shop on cards and on home decor, in social media, memes that constantly showed up in my newsfeed. I was lacking in my own personal thirst for reading and studying God's word.

Speaker:

By 2022, I had spent 10 years in my dream role as a novelist focusing on inspirational fiction. I'd written and published over two dozen books that were all written to share the message of God's love and redemption alongside a romance journey between two people. I loved writing those books and many people loved reading them. But after I drew the curtain closed on my fourth series, I realized I didn't have any more fictional story ideas, tapping at my brain, none. This was a new phenomenon for me because for over a decade, as I was nearing the finish line of one novel, I knew exactly what and who I would write about next. What would become of my writing career if I no longer wrote novels? I considered my books to be my ministry to the world, the way Jesus used my writing skills to share his message. If I no longer did that, how could he use me?

Speaker:

By the end of 2022, I had discovered a very inspiring and educational women in the word Bible study at my church, and we met weekly to read and learn about the Bible, then discuss what we'd learned in our small groups. I thoroughly enjoyed those sessions. It was amazing to me how I could read a section on my own and come away with nothing much in the way of knowledge and inspiration, but then the instructors would illuminate those same words with knowledge that I never would've gained myself. They were true Bible scholars, and I began growing an immense respect for all Bible scholars. I've been through enough semesters of women in the word to get a taste of what the Bible could teach me.

Speaker:

How about if I weren't writing a new novel? This year, I commit to reading the Bible instead the whole thing, not just the parts I'm already familiar with or the fun parts. By reading it from the very beginning and straight through to the end, I get a bird's eye view of the entire faith. Beginning with creation and God's chosen people, the Jews, I'd take my time and not just plow through it. I'd take notes of things I wanted to look into more. I'd research parts that confused me, and I would come out more knowledgeable about God's word. Yes, that was a good plan for 2023. I bought the chronological Bible because I thought it would be more enlightening to learn everything from a historical perspective. I also bought a blended version of the four Gospels, which I read in addition to the true gospel format. Along the way, I attended Bible studies on the Book of Esther and also the acts of the Apostles, and I did a separate personal Bible study on the book of Revelation. The chronological Bible separates itself into 365 readings. If you read them all, you'll complete the book in a year.

Speaker:

I started off in early January with zest and dedication. I really immersed myself in the Bible. I was on schedule till mid-February. I missed a few days of reading, and then a few more. When I started up again, I had to read several hours instead of 20 minutes a day to catch up. I was back on schedule until the end of March when I was slogging my way through some of the duller books of the Old Testament. Somehow I managed to quit reading for a month or more before jumping back in my notes and questions increased as I read. During the summer, I spent a good deal of time traveling and visiting the beach where I love to read, but not the Bible. I read contemporary fiction instead. Finally, my husband and I were preparing for a long road trip. The end of September, he would do all the driving, and I usually read several books from the passenger seat. Instead, I picked up the Bible. I've been neglecting. I had at least 40 pages to read before I caught up to where I was supposed to be. Well, this would be my trip reading. I put myself on task. No reading anything else on this vacation until I caught up to where I was supposed to be.

Speaker:

As it turned out, hours of uninterrupted time to read the later books in the Old Testament was exactly what I needed to become intrigued with it all again. I read and I read and I didn't wanna put it down. I found that when I was reading the Bible steadily, God would drop reminders into my everyday life that corresponded with my reading, the Old Testament reading at church, and the pastor's sermon would be on the exact topic I'd just been reading about. Yes, I knew that stuff I could follow along and my new knowledge was enhanced. Or I'd be watching TV and a reference was made to something that sounded very familiar. Yes, that's a story from whatever book, but one I was previously unfamiliar with. Sometimes my husband and I would have a philosophical discussion and he'd say, one thing I don't understand about Christianity is this or that, and I'd get a big smile on my face. I just read that in the Bible. Hold on. And I'd run to get my book and look up the pertinent verse and read it to him.

Speaker:

God was blessing my challenge to read the Bible in a year by showing me how the ancient words are so very relevant to today's world, my world, my life. In December, we were preparing for another road trip to spend Christmas with our family members, and I became inspired to finish the Bible before we left. That meant doubling up. On the daily readings so I could get to the end of the book before the end of the year with a couple weeks work. That's exactly what I did, and boy, what a wonderful feeling it was too. I had challenged myself to read the Bible in a year, and despite the fact that I didn't read it regularly every day, I still managed to complete the task, and God had blessed me with encouragement and knowledge all along the way because of how I did it. I feel like I have a much more complete picture of the entire faith than I did when all I do was spottily. Read the Bible. I, of course, have so much more to learn, but because I've accomplished this vital first step, I'm not intimidated or frightened to keep going.

Speaker:

So. What's next? The last few years I've gone to a Christian website, dayspring.com and taken a quiz, answering a series of questions that leads you to one guiding word for the year for 2023. That word was confidence. And I know God had a part in that because it took confidence for me to pull myself out of my established comfort zone of writing multiple inspirational romance novels a year as I had for so long. I. In 2023, in addition to my Bible in a year challenge, I'd also accomplished some other writing related activities that were completely different than my norm

Speaker:

for 2024. I went back to the website and answered the questions and waited anxiously for my word. It came back. Imagine. I thought about it for a moment and I was assured that it was another word from God, and I could just imagine him telling me, just imagine what you can do for my kingdom. You can do more than you've always done something different. Imagine the possibilities to spread the word about my love, and I did just that and my imagination went wild.

Speaker:

What if I took those notes that I jotted down about my thoughts and questions and additional research while I was reading the Bible, and I used those as devotional topics. I could write up each one and then publish them as a book of devotions. Sure. That's good. That's in my wheelhouse. Writing and publishing books different than the fiction I was writing, but yes, I could definitely do that. That would be my writing project for 2024. Keep imagining how can I get the word out faster to more people, maybe to people who wouldn't find or be interested in reading the book.

Speaker:

Imagine if I released these devotionals regularly in every format I can think of to reach people with these I important messages from God's word. Weekly blog posts. Weekly YouTube videos, weekly podcasts, imagine. So that's where I'm at with this exciting project, the very beginning of phase two. Phase one was reading the Bible. Phase two is sharing my thoughts, learnings, questions, and inspirations in the hopes that some of you may find them and like them, and find inspiration to strengthen your own faith. I no longer worry that I won't be writing any fiction this year because I am so absolutely certain that I'm doing what God wants me to do. And maybe throughout the year I'll imagine more ways to get the word out and reach God's people with these messages, and maybe some of them will strike a chord with you and encourage you to open up your Bible and read. Let's get started.

Laurie:

Okay, we are here with our first guest on the new the year I read the Bible podcast and I am so, so excited to welcome my guest, Linda Rutland. And, she is going to be talking about the first topic in the podcast, which is starting your Own the year I read the Bible Challenge. Linda, welcome.

Linda:

Thank you. It is good to be here.

Laurie:

Why don't we start off by you just telling us a little bit about yourself and also how you and I became acquainted with each other.

Linda:

Okay. I am, an avid reader. And I started reading for Pure Joy after I retired from a pure technical field and, when I did that, I just started doing a lot of reading and various authors asked me to, read and review their books. And I think that's how we actually met was you asked me to review a section of your books and, I was reading so many four reviews that I didn't get to read much for just what I wanted. So I don't do as much of that, but, I, that's how I started that. And, I, like I said, I am 75. I've been a Christian. Since I was, I was raised in the church, I was baptized when I was eight. So, I've been at this a long time and for the last, 20 years, I have taught a senior lady Sunday school class. And in doing that particular Sunday school class, I have felt, I have to do more in depth study. To prepare for those classes. And so I've been doing a lot of that and I, I delve into the history part. But I have attempted a number of times to, start to read the Bible through. And I've gotten to various stages, but I have never completed it.

Laurie:

That's so common and I have done the same thing. Before we get into your reading the Bible in a year, I wanna thank you for being one of my review readers. Anytime I put out a book, I recruit a team of advanced review. Readers so that they get the book ahead of time before it's released and read the book. And they have their review prepared so that in the first week after the book is released, they can go on to all the review sites and, post the review and it's really a help to readers to get attracted to the right kinds of books. For someone who likes the kind of books that I write, the reviews really draw the readers in. And so, Linda, you write the best reviews. I always enjoyed reading your insights and comments and I wanna thank you for doing that for, I think at least five or six of my books.

Linda:

Yes, I.

Laurie:

Yes,

Linda:

Because, you know, I have read books I really didn't like and I had to report to that author that I did not like that book. And I, I didn't wanna give them a bad review. But, I think it helps to encourage other readers to look a book. If they're looking for a book, they're gonna look at those reviews.

Laurie:

Yes, absolutely. So let's go over to your decision to read the Bible in a year. What is it that caused you to decide to do that right now at this time?

Linda:

I got one of your emails about your post about you read the Bible for a year and how you were trying to get this started, and when I was reading it, you said that you read it in the, chronological Bible. I thought, well, maybe that's my problem because I have always tried it and every reading program I've ever read or tried to, would you some verses in the Old Testament, then you'd skip over it and read some in Psalms and then you'd read something in the New Testament and they didn't really mesh what you were reading and it was just kind of like you were just reading to read

Laurie:

That would be hard to like jump around. How do you know you're even gonna get the whole thing?

Linda:

That's kind of how I felt. And so it was hard to keep going at it because it was frustrating. 'cause it didn't, it didn't mesh together. So when I saw this and I thought, well, I've got a chronological Bible. Why don't I try this? That's when I contacted you and said, I just want you to know, you inspired me to try again.

Laurie:

You're not the first person I heard that from. Several of my local Bible study, small group members told me, wait a minute, chronological Bible, what's that? And I brought mine in to show them and they're like, this makes so much sense. So basically what it is, instead of having the order of the books in the Bible, as we all know it, chronological Bible. Takes the, like, the history of the event that is happening in the Bible and it tells you exactly like what year it, it had occurred and maybe a, a little bit of genesis and then a little bit of kings and a little bit of this and that because it's the order of the events that they're describing. and sometimes in. The same event is being covered in multiple books of the Bible. So for example, I think it's First and Second Kings, and then also Numbers covers the same event, so you read about it, more than once in two different books. So you've just started and you're using the chronological Bible, and what is it that you do? Like, do you read a little bit every day or what's your goal for getting through the material?

Linda:

I am trying to read every day and, I'm a numbers person, so I looked at the first page and the last page and said, how many pages have I got to read in a year? Then I divided it and, and I came up with it. It's not really, but about four pages a day. Now when I'm reading it, I sometimes read more than that 'cause I'm in the middle of something, but I'm trying to read at least four pages a day. And, I have done that and, I've read it again, this morning, yesterday I was late reading, so it just, you know, it just depends on what I have to do.

Laurie:

So whenever you find the time, this kind of reminds me when I was working full time and then writing novels, I always made sure that I got my hour of writing time in because if I didn't, I wouldn't finish that book or I wouldn't keep making progress. It's just like anytime you have a priority. You do make that time for it, and it eventually gets done.

Linda:

It's true.

Laurie:

So what challenges do you think you might experience keeping on schedule or maybe even just understanding what you're reading and getting the most out of it?

Linda:

My. History notes in it, in addition to the scripture itself. And I'm trying to read that as well as part of it, because it kind of, you know, plays, 'cause it's, it's not bible history as we know it, but the history of what was going on at that time in the other. Non-religious world. I've started doing that, but I also know that I have a schedule where most of the time I'm home and working around the house too. And so my schedule there is really great, but I love to travel. And when you're traveling, it's hard to book that out. So I haven't done that since I started, but, I've got a trip planned and I'll have to figure out how I'm gonna handle that. But I want to try and stay focused as well as you can. And that's, that's my goal.

Laurie:

Yeah,

Linda:

hope I finish it before a year.

Laurie:

Yeah, that would be good. Remember from reading my essay about this, I, was off and running and then I might go three weeks, four weeks and not read at all. And then I'm like, oh my gosh, I gotta catch up. You know? So it wasn't very regular, but I did finish before the end of the year, so that was good.

Linda:

You know, if we spend time reading regular books,

Laurie:

yeah.

Linda:

we should spend time reading our Bible. And that's, that's how it kind of puts a guilt trip on me. 'cause I love to read and I read every day. So why not add the Bible in there?

Laurie:

agreed. What translation of the Bible are you reading?

Linda:

It's the new King James version.

Laurie:

Oh, okay. Now what's the difference between that and the regular King James version? Do you know?

Linda:

Not a whole lot. It takes some of the these and ths out and puts it more in, the language we talk. But other than that, it's easier to read. It still has all the hard names and things like that.

Laurie:

Yeah, which you're glad you're not reading it out loud because you wouldn't know how to pronounce half that stuff.

Linda:

When you're reading the genealogy sections, I just say whatever.

Laurie:

Yes. Well, I am so glad that you have decided to pick up your own Bible in the Year challenge, and I'm predicting that you'll learn things even though you have a history with the Bible. You've been a Christian your whole life. You've been teaching Bible study and Sunday school. will be something, maybe not every day. But something every week or so that you're gonna look at and say, what, why did I never realize this before? It's just eye-opening, especially when you're reading it with an, motivation to learn more about it, not to just skim through it, you know?

Linda:

And I think anytime we read the Bible, we come across things like that. My Sunday school class, we comment often, how did we not know this before? Where did we not, why did we miss this? And most, like I said, we're all in our seventies and we think surely we would've heard this or read this before. Why did it not click with us?

Laurie:

Mm-hmm.

Linda:

Read, we just read through to be done.

Laurie:

Right?

Linda:

You have searching and that's.

Laurie:

Well, I felt like when I was reading through the Bible, God would bless me with certain things because I would just be reading a section and the minister in his Sunday sermon would mention something about it and I'm like, oh yeah, I know that. I just read that. Or I'll be watching a. I dunno, something on tv and there would be something about the historic, you know, something in Galilee or something in Nazareth, and I'm like, oh yeah, yeah, I just read that. It was almost like God was saying yes. See, this stuff is pertinent to your life. This is actually not just a big book that, took place thousands of years ago. This is important and it's still valuable to what we're doing now.

Linda:

I've had bibles that I've marked where I've read before and I've put things in there, writing notations in there. And when I go back years later and I see it, and I think what. Where did, how did I get that out of it? I go back and look at it and I don't get it. It's because it was where I was in my walk at the time. I read it.

Laurie:

That's really interesting. Yeah. I have a Bible now that has the, empty lines on the side so that you can make notes. And I, bring it to church and I write in it while we're, doing a sermon or you know, if it's at Bible study and I'll write in it. And I always try to write something that is meaningful to me now. But also I'll understand the comment when I go back to it like 10 years from now? Well, I just am so thrilled that you and several other of my, readers who had read the beginning of the book so far are being inspired. To start their own Bible in a year challenge. And I wish you the very, very best with it. I hope that it really blesses your life and, and gives you, way more inspiration and knowledge, than you would've had if you didn't do it.

Linda:

I'm looking forward to it. I think I told you the other day, I also have a friend who's going through this at the same time.

Laurie:

That's helpful.

Linda:

when I told Diane I was gonna do it, she said, I've got a chronological Bible. I'm going to do it too. And yesterday she said, yep, we're doing it. So it kind of gives us, a partner to say, Hey, did you read this today? Uh, no, I didn't.

Laurie:

Oh, that's good. It keeps you accountable, it keeps you on track, it keeps you discussing and interested and that's awesome. I'm glad to hear that. Well, thank you so much and I will definitely let you know when this podcast is out on the internet so that you can listen to it and share it with Diane and whoever else you want to hear.

Linda:

I will share with my Sunday school class that I'm doing this. So tomorrow will be, the day that I'll do that. And I'm gonna encourage them as well to take this as a step in our growth process. So I hope they will.

Laurie:

Awesome. All right. Thank you, Linda.

Linda:

Enjoyed talking with you.

Speaker:

And that's it for today. Thank you very much for being here with me on The Year I Read the Bible Podcast. We'll be back with another episode next week. If you enjoy this podcast, please do all the normal things to spread the word: like it, review it, share it with your friends. If you are interested in additional The Year I Read the Bible resources such as the book, the video channel, and the blog, I will certainly include the links in the show notes. And I'd love to hear about your own journey to read the Bible cover to cover. Have you done it or are you doing it right now? Please reach out to me and let me know how it's going. Until next time, it's Laurie Larsen with The Year I Read the Bible. Bye.

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