The Bible In 60 Days Project (Part 1)

On September 15 I began my attempt of reading the Bible in its entirety in 60 days.
So far I have finished Genesis, Exodus and, just a few hours ago, Leviticus.

There are definitely advantages and disadvantages to reading the Bible at this kind of a pace.

• Inferior reading comprehension and minimized time for meditation
  
  - I will list this disadvantage first because many may feel that this is the most important disadvantage of all.
  It is a spiritually related disadvantage.
  For certain, meditation is very important and, admittedly, time for meditation is a lot less when you are reading at this pace. However, we could keep in mind that for Gilead preparation and other special school preparations, students are often required to read large chunks if not the entire Bible in a relatively few amount of months.
  Certainly, when they read the Bible at that pace, they can't grasp everything in the same way that they could at a much slower pace, but that doesn't mean that reading the Bible at that pace doesn't have many advantages. If it didn't, they wouldn't ask the students to do it.
  I remember a Bethelite once telling me that during the first year of Bethel – when all applicants are required to read the entire Bible in one year – some overseers encourage the entrants to focus on getting through it and finishing the entire year's schedule above all other purposes of reading the Bible. One couldn't say "I didn't finish the Bible in one year because I was taking time to meditate on all of that I read." The project needs to be finished, and finished is better than perfect. There will definitely be things you will want to research more about, but that should not get in the way of the one year project itself.
  That being said – we all know meditative Bible reading is also extremely important. I definitely don't think the two-month method is the only way one should read the Bible!
  You can click here to see a 'young people ask' article about how to make Bible reading enjoyable. The article gives the brief experience of one youth that said reading the Bible over the course of 10 months allowed him to see connections that he wouldn't have seen otherwise if he weren't reading at that pace.
  From my personal experience of having read the first three books of the Bible at this accelerated pace I can see that so far this method is definitely very interesting and I can comprehend more than I thought I would. Not only am I enjoying reading the Bible at this pace I'm also excited about the project itself and I find it very beneficial on a spiritual level. After finishing this project I definitely want to go back on some of the topics that interested me and do deeper research on them.

• Fear of commitment to the project
  
  - Let's be honest: Many of us may list one of the reasons in the above section as a reason for not starting the project when really, subconsciously or consciously, it is because we are afraid of the work commitment.
  Many of us may worry: What if I start the project but then don't finish in the same way that I start a diet but then give up on it or sign up for the gym but then never actually end up going?
  I can say for myself that even if I gave up tomorrow the project has already been well worth it. Reviewing Genesis to Leviticus has been really great since we just recently discussed it in our congregation Bible reading. I'm looking forward to catching up with and out-racing the scheduled weekly reading for Numbers within the next couple of days.
  A governing body member came to visit us in my home congregation in California several years ago. He mentioned some brothers said they would fall asleep while reading the Bible and they felt that it was disrespectful. He followed by asking the audience: What is more disrespectful? Falling asleep while reading the Bible, or not reading the Bible at all?
  This "what is worse" line of reasoning can be applied to Bible reading projects such as this one as well. Of course it's better to try and fail than to not try at all! :)

• Not having enough time to keep reading it every day.
  
  - If you are going to read the Bible at this pace you need about two hours on average per day. This is on average however. If you can take four hours out on one day to read a chunk and then do two one hour days--that is a total of six hours over the course of three days.  It is good to think of it as one would count their Pioneer service hours. The principal early in the day early in the week early in the month actually applies to this as well. Keep in mind as you're going along that this is a project that will end. It is only for 60 days and then you can go back to a different relaxed reading schedule.

How to do it:

A couple of years ago I talked to a brother who was in the process of reading through the entire Bible in preparation for Gilead. The method he was using is the method that I am using.

1) I downloaded the entire Bible on MP3.
2) I play it back while I read the actual text of the Bible on my iPad.

I am using VLC media player To play the recordings back at 1.7 to 2 times the regular speed depending on which part of the Bible it is. This is used mainly as a pacesetter. The actual speed of the MP3 reading is pretty slow anyways so if you speed it up, it doesn't feel like you are rushing through the material. I usually put all the chapters in a playlist in iTunes first because it totals all the time for the tracks up. For example, for Exodus all 40 tracks (each one chapter) total around 3 hours and 45 minutes if played back at normal speed.

The new revised New World Translation is not yet available on MP3. Instead I have been listening to the audio of the old version while reading the text of the new Bible. This method has been great because I am able to go through and see all of the differences between the old version and the new instantly as I read along!

Once I finished Genesis and Exodus I was able to get momentum and feel positive about continuing the project simply because I figured if I have already gone this far, I might as well keep going.

As strange as it may sound, I think doing this Bible reading project actually takes less discipline than reading it every day for year. I think it is because although it may be a more difficult job, it is a much shorter job and one can see their progress more easily.

The fact is, I'm embarrassed to admit it, I have never read the Bible all the way through. I'm hoping that this project will help me to finally accomplish that goal.
I will post another update as this project goes along.

Let me know if you have any questions or comments and thank you for your support!
- Joseph

Story's End (A New Song)

One of my favorite movies is Luchino Visconti's 1968 Italian film "The Leopard."

The three hour epic film contains amazing visuals and has been an inspiration to many directors including Martin Scorsese.
I first saw the film around two and half years ago when I was living in China.
I doubt many people will watch this movie nowadays especially because of its length.
The standout ballroom scene, which is depicted in my following video, starts off around two and a half hours into the movie – a point where the average feature film has already ended.
With that in mind, I have digitally chopped it up and squeezed it into a three minute music video. :-)

The title of the song is "Story's End."
I hope you enjoy.

A Very Brief Update :)

Hello all! It's nice to get a chance to give a brief update on my blog.
Life has been well here in the Dominican republic and I just completed two years here.

Will I ever return to China? I'm still not sure but the desire is definitely still there. I still want to give a good amount of commitment to my current congregation here, but who knows what the future will bring.

Just yesterday I accomplished twelve years regular pioneering and also turned 30. It was good to know that with Jehovah's help I was able to spend all of my twenties in full-time service.

Growing up, I often heard talks or parts in the meetings where they said that doing your best and a life in the full-time service is the most rewarding life there is. Now I can finally look back and see that not only was I able to have a lot of spiritual blessings, I was also able to travel the world, see many countries, write lots of music, live in two different countries and make amazing good friends. I've had a great last decade in so many ways, and the best experiences are due to the organization and spiritual family that we have because of Jehovah.

When I was twenty, I was looking up at the next decade with faith that putting Jehovah first was the best thing to do and would give good results. Now I can look back down at the completed last decade and see from the results that that faith was not ill-founded.

For blog posts in this new service year I will still try to focus on making spiritually themed creative projects, although of course I will not necessarily limit myself only to that.
A few of my friends have requested I post more music. I'm flattered to hear that they feel that way. I'm especially surprised and happy about the success of my "The Best Life Ever" video which has received over 2000 views, and from all across the world!

I will try to focus a little bit more on writing, music and photography projects for this blog as I have over the past year.

We've always had the truth, but since they JW.org era it has also never been more fun to be a witness. The line between biblical or spiritual study and recreation is becoming a little bit more blurred as people make spiritually themed projects that are as thought provoking as they are entertaining as well. Is my hope that my posts will not only be entertaining to you but also inspire you to do spiritually and creative projects of your own and share them with others.

Hope you all have a wonderful new service year and are able to accomplish your goals.
See you around and take care. :)

littlebrownbird's editor
- Joseph