Digging Deeper Daily: By Daily Bible Reading PodcastSample

How can you get more out of your Bible reading this year?

My top advice is to SLOW DOWN! The readings in this plan take around 20 minutes if read aloud. If you read silently, you might finish in only 10 minutes. But if you skim through like that, you won’t retain very much! I suggest these two ways to slow down:

1. Read out loud to yourself. Read expressively. When you find that your first attempt didn’t quite have the right intonation, go back and read the sentence again. Take time to think about— and pray about, what you have just read.

2. Read along while listening to the Daily Bible Reading Podcast. This will definitely slow you down.

One advantage of listening to the podcasts is that each one ends with a short prayer that is aimed at helping you apply what you have just read. By the way, I normally don’t say an Amen at the end of the prayers. This is because I hope you keep on praying after the episode ends.

GENESIS 5-6:
In chapter 3 of Genesis, the Lord gave his judgment against the serpent. God talked about the woman’s offspring (which is a collective singular noun) when speaking to the serpent, and said,

“her offspring and yours will always be enemies. Her offspring will crush your head, and you will bite her offspring's heel.”

This is the very first prophecy looking forward to a Messiah and Redeemer who will crush Satan’s head. Just before that, there is another picture worth noting: God provided clothes for the man and woman made from animal skins. This is the first hint of the sacrificial system that prefigures Christ.

JOB 3:
Today we read Job’s first speech. In the Bible— and especially in Job and the Psalms, we find out that God thoroughly understands and takes into account the fact that humans suffer. This is shown in the fact that such deep expressions of suffering are found in God’s Word— right from the earliest writings.

MARK 2:
Yesterday in the second half of Mark 1, we read of Jesus miraculously healing people in Capernaum, and his refusing to stay only there. He preached and cast out demons all over the region of Galilee. The healing of the man with leprosy is notable because of the exchange between Jesus and that man, and also the results of the man’s not following Jesus’ instructions.