Update

Well, I’m a week and a half into my challenge.  Almost half way through!  Some thoughts on the experiment.

I’ve read all of Matthew and Mark.  Took me almost a week to realize that each week’s assignment is anchored by one of the gospels.  Matthew had a pronounced theme for me this time through – Christ’s life was one of prophecy fulfilled.  Mark seems sort of lacking in character.  Most of the stories were ones Matthew had already covered.  I’m still thinking about Mark.  Of course, I could pull out my Doctrinal New Testament Commentary by McConkie, but I’m trying to see what I can remember and notice from my reading.  Since this is such a quick race through the New Testament, I don’t want to get bogged down with extra studying – just want to focus on the scriptures themselves.  Anyway, if I come up with something for Mark, I’ll note it in the next post.

I’ve also read Acts, James, Galatians, I & II Thessalonians, and have begun I Corinthians (to finish tomorrow along with II Corinthians).  There are some parts of Acts that thrill me.  Seeing how the gift of the Holy Ghost transforms the apostles is wonderful.  I love Peter – I wish there were more of Peter in the New Testament.  I really enjoyed James.  His discussion of faith is so straightforward and understandable.  Now that I’m reading the epistles of Paul I wonder what the different congregations of the early Church were like.  The Epistle to the Galatians, and those to the Thessalonians were very complementary and emphasized basic gospel principles such as love, unity, repentance.  The Corinthians, however, seem to have had a multitude of issues.  Paul has LOTS to say to them on lots of different topics.  I don’t like Paul as much in this epistle (haven’t read number 2 yet) though probably someone who read some of my rants wouldn’t like me much either (not that Paul is ranting, precisely).

Anyhow, I think the last time I read through books of scripture this quickly was as a missionary.  I’m finding that those same feelings of enjoyment and connection to the text have come back – Yea!!  I thought maybe those experiences were simply because I was in a unique place in my life where I was much more focused on the gospel.

It’s been a great experiment so far – give it a try if you think this is something you might enjoy too!