I am excited to announce that the 2025 Growing4Life Bible Reading Challenge will be reading chronologically through the Bible! I try to do this about every five years or so (we did this in 2015 and 2019) and so it’s about time we do this again!
If you have never read through the Bible before, I hope this year’s challenge will finally help you in finishing it all the way through! If you are like me in my first few attempts, I ended up a bit stuck around Leviticus, eventually trailing off and then giving up.
If you have read the Bible through once or twice–or even many times–before, then I hope you will find that this challenge continues to deepen your love for the wonderful treasure of God’s Word. Personally, I have found that reading through the Bible chronologically especially displays the amazing cohesiveness and incredible consistency of scripture.
For those of you who may be new to Growing4Life, let me tell you a little about why I do the Bible Reading Challenge each year. In my late 40s, we left our old church where I had been quite active in serving. This was also around the time that my “birdies” were leaving the nest and so I found myself with extra time on my hands. Thanks to the encouragement of a friend, I decided to start a Bible Study in my home for a few friends. This was the start of a new and much deeper appreciation of the Bible. My desire to share the wonders of this incredible book with others grew more and more.
In 2014, I finally read the Bible through entirely (the first time through ever for me and due to the encouragement of a different friend. So thankful for friends who encourage me in the Lord!). It was such an important and wonderful thing for me to do that in 2015, I decided to offer this as a challenge here at Growing4Life so that others might also do this. This was the beginning of offering a Bible Reading Challenge here on the blog every year since then (with the exception of 2016).
It is my hope and prayer that many others will discover the same thing I did– that God’s Word is precious and given to us to guide, comfort, and help us know Him and who He really is. Without it, we are lost… just like a ship without its anchor or its compass. The Bible both grounds us and guides us. I am confident that anyone who completes this challenge will have a deeper love and appreciation for God and His Word when they have completed it.
Here are some details about the upcoming study–
We will be using a six-day schedule. George Guthrie created the schedule we will be using and I am grateful that he so kindly gave me his permission to use it. Personally, I have found the six-day schedule to be very helpful in helping me “keep up”! I believe that extra day to use for catch-up was key to my success in my first time through the Bible chronologically.
There is a workbook available to help you get the most out of your study. This year, for the first time for a Bible read-through, I have created a workbook to go along with our study. For those of you who have used my workbooks over the past couple of years, I hope you will find this one a much better version! I have changed a few things up and added a few fun details. I am excited about this workbook because I think it will help us all get much more out of our reading than if we just simply read. And, yet, it’s not complicated nor will it take long to complete each day. I sincerely hope it’s a blessing. You can purchase the workbook on Amazon. See some sample pages at this link.
If you’d prefer to just use the schedule, I have a free pdf that you can print out. Find that here.
There is a private Facebook group available for year-long encouragement. Another thing I offer is a private Facebook group for this specific challenge. I would love to have you join me there, where I will post weekly encouragement, as well as biblical resources based on what we are studying. You can click here to join the group.
I look forward to studying the Bible with you in 2025!
A NOTE ABOUT WHICH BIBLE VERSION TO USE: Over the lifetime of this blog, I have rather steadfastly held to recommending a few specific “better” versions. About a year ago, a friend brought her own questions about Bible versions to my attention and we both began to research the history of the modern versions and paying attention to the differences between supposed “good” versions and the KJV (they are astounding). I can no longer recommend anything but the KJV. I have no plans to share this truth on the blog as a whole because people are just too unwilling to see it and I believe it would do more harm than good, at this point. I would recommend you doing your own research before actually saying you don’t agree but, if you don’t agree, I am content to “agree to disagree” on this.
But, inevitably, with these challenges this question always comes up: What version do you recommend? This year, my answer to this question must be that I can only recommend the KJV. Another curious thing of note is that, since switching to reading and studying from the KJV, I don’t find it hard to understand at all. I had avoided it my whole life because I believed the lie that it was too hard to understand. While there are a few archaic phrases scattered here and there, it is very readable.
Sooo, this is my opinion on versions. Again, I have no interest in debating. I believe the facts will stand for themselves, should you go searching. If you choose not to do that, that is most certainly your prerogative.