Have you heard of YouVersion.com? It's a Bible program established by LifeChurch.tv.  If you have a smart phone, you can download YouVersion to it.  If you don't, and you have the internet, you can use it on your computer.  If you don't have a smart phone or a computer, this post isn't going to help you much!

I love YouVersion for many reasons, but most of all for "Professor Horner's Bible Study Program."  YouVersion has many downloadable Bible reading programs and Professor Horner's is my favorite!  I don't know who Professor Horner is or was, but his daily reading program is ingenious.  Each day you read ten chapters of the Bible from ten DIFFERENT Bible Books.  I've been using the program for 107 days now (It takes 250 days to read through the entire Bible), and have found it to be amazingly simple, and helpful.  Simple, because it's just ten chapters a day, which takes me about half an hour.  (If 1/2 an hour seems like too much time, consider that I usually do my 1/2 hour of "reading" in the car, by using the voice function on the program to let the Scriptures read themselves to me.  Many of us spend 1/2 an hour a day in the car, so why not INVEST the time instead of spending it!) It's helpful for many reasons, not the least of which is it can read itself to you if you desire.  In addition, reading ten chapters from ten DIFFERENT books seemed odd to me at first, especially since the pattern is Gospel, Old Testament (OT), New Testament (NT), NT, OT, Psalm, Proverb, OT, OT, Acts.  The pattern assures that you are reading from a Gospel, Psalms, Proverbs and Acts every day of the 250 days.  That repetition keeps Jesus in front of you EVERY day, the wisdom of Solomon in front of you EVERY day, and the power of the NT church through Acts in front of you EVERY day, and it moves you through the whole Bible in about two thirds of a year!  After I got used to the "jumping around," I realized that my overall Bible understanding has been increasing dramatically as I've used Professor Horner's study.  The program also has a calendar that records your progress, and lets you go back to days you've missed. 

If Professor Horner seems a bit intense, another program I'm using is "The Essential 100" as the name suggests, it overviews the whole Bible in 100 days by covering 100 essential Scriptures.  This is a much smaller time investment, but if you used it throughout the year, you'd overview God's word three and a half times every year.  They say repetition is the mother of learning, and "The Essential 100" offers repetition in learning the most valuable information ever given to us in life!

Many other Bible reading programs and devotions are available through YouVersion.  If  you've never tried YouVersion and you've been meaning to get into God's word on a more regular and/or intentional basis, why not check it out today?  When you do, let me know what you think and what your favorite aspect of YouVersion comes to be!