Harrison Bible Reading Plan

Posted on September 14, 2020

In his book Disciplines of a Godly Man, R. Kent Hughes argues that the effective Christian life is one of discipline and intentionality. I completely agree. I recently preached a sermon on the intentionality and discipline it takes to stay on the path of wisdom. None of us just “coasts” into holiness. If we desire to be more Christlike, we must follow Paul’s instructions to discipline ourselves just as athletes aspiring to win a race (1 Cor. 9:24-27).

In his book, Hughes tells the story of Lt. General William K. Harrison, Jr. (1936-1987). General Harrison was part of the US Army’s 30th Infantry Division during World War II and received numerous accommodations during his military career. However, one of the most important disciplines in his life, arguably, was his disciplined reading of scripture. Even in his demanding life, General Harrison made time to consistently stay in God’s word.

Starting as a young cadet at West Point, he began reading through the Bible every. He would read through the Old Testament once each year and through the New Testament four times each year.1 He continued this reading process until he died at the age of 91, having “read through the Old Testament seventy times and the New Testament 280 times!”2

One’s life will certainly be influenced by such prolonged exposure to God’s word. Hughes noted that “[Harrison’s] godliness and wisdom were proverbial,” “people marveled at his knowledge of the Bible and the ability to bring its light to every area of life,” and “his presence brought a distinct sense of Christ.”3

Reading Hughes’s account of Harrison’s discipline inspired me to put together this Bible reading plan based on the known details of his Bible reading process. By reading six chapters each day, it allows you to read through the Old Testament once and the New Testament four times in a year. In addition, you will read through the Psalms twice.

I commend this Bible reading plan to you as a resource and tool for those looking for a disciplined plan for daily scripture reading. My prayer is that this tool would help others develop a disciplined practice of daily Bible reading that influences their lives in much the way it influenced General Harrison.

____________________________________

  1. Lolana Thompson, “Guide To William K. Harrison Jr. Papers” Dallas, TX: Dallas Theological Seminary, 2017, https://library.dts.edu/Pages/TL/Special/HarrisonWK_CN038.pdf.
  2. R. Kent Hughes, Disciplines Of A Godly Man, 2nd ed. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2001.
  3. Ibid., pp. 75-77.

Monthly Q&A: September 2020

Posted on September 7, 2020

Q: If believers are free from the power of Satan (Col. 1:13), then why do they still sin?

A: In Colossians 1:13 it says that God has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of His beloved Son. In order to better understand what God has rescued us from it is helpful to go back to the original Greek. The Greek says that God has rescued us from the “ἐξουσίας” of darkness. This term refers to power and authority over something. What Paul is saying here is that God has saved us from the power that sin has over us; we are no longer dominated by sin. Before the rescue described in this verse we were slaves to sins (Romans 6:20). In Romans 6:20 Paul helps clarify the meaning of this Colossians verse. He says that while we were in slavery to sin we were “free” from righteousness in the sense that we were not slaves of righteousness. In other words, we had no choice in the matter, it was our natural state to be sinful. However, because of Jesus we are freed from the domination and “power” of sin that leads to spiritual death and compels to act. Now we are slaves to righteousness. We are free from the “power” or domination of our previous sinful lifestyle.

However, it is very important to note that we are not free from the “temptation” and “ability” to sin. In fact, Jesus himself was “tempted” to sin (Matt. 4:1-11), but he withstood the temptations. Jesus even instructed his followers, in the Lord’s prayer, to pray daily for forgiveness of sins just as they prayed for daily bread (Matthew 6:11-12). He would not have included that in a daily prayer if daily sin was not a possibility. It is important that we keep in mind the difference between “justification” and “sanctification”. Justification is the judicial declaration of our innocence on Christ’s behalf and is instantaneous when we put our full trust and faith in Jesus.

Sanctification, however, is a life-long process in which we become more like Jesus Christ. We will never reach perfection in this life and will never be free from the temptations and capacity to sin while in this body. However, we are free to fight sin and to fight the temptation to sin and we are expected to use every weapon possible, even to the point of radical measures if necessary (Matthew 18:9), to fight the fight against sin. If, in this battle, we do sin “we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1) and “if we confess our sins, [God] is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). The believer ill still struggle with sin throughout their earthly life (see Romans 7 for Paul’s battle with sin). But God has rescued us from the “power” that sin had over us and we are now free to swim against the current that once carried us mindlessly along.

If you have a particular question you’d like to have answered, feel free to submit it via the contact page.

Monthly Q&A: August 2020

Posted on August 3, 2020

Q: What did Jesus mean he told the disciples to pray for more laborers?

A: In both Matthew 9:37 and Luke 10:2 Jesus tells his disciples that the “harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.” He follows both of those statements up by telling his followers to pray earnestly that God would send laborers into the field to assist in the harvest. Jesus was a master of simile and allegory. When put into context, especially in Matthew’s account, we get a more clear understanding of what Jesus may have meant. In Matthew 9:36 the Bible says that Jesus had compassion on the multitudes because they had no one to shepherd, or guide, them. So we see that Jesus’ statement about the need for laborers is directly linked to his compassion on the multitudes of people he was ministering to. So what does that mean for us? What we can draw from this is that there are multitudes of people in the world who are walking around like sheep without a shepherd who need someone to share the gospel with them and help them understand God’s plan of salvation for them. Jesus is saying the field is ripe for harvest; there are many people out there who need to hear the message but haven’t had anyone share it with them yet.

The field is so large and so ripe that the number of workers is very few in comparison. That can be seen easily in the fact that approximately 2.1 billion of the 7 billion people on the planet are “Christians” (I use this term loosely because the definition of Christian can vary given this secular survey)*. That begs the question, how many of those Christians are faithfully sharing their faith with the other 5.9 billion people? What Jesus is saying here is that we should be giving our lives to the harvest but also praying that God would bring other individuals, either through conviction or evangelism, to assist in the labor. The Great Commission, which is God’s call for all believers to make disciples, is a difficult task and we should be praying for God to send others to work along side us as we seek to extend the kingdom. So in essence, when Jesus made that statement he was instructing his followers to pray that God would continue to raise up Christians to be emboldened and empowered to take the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ out into the harvest in an effort to bring as many people as possible to salvation.

*”World Distribution of Christian Population,” Pews Research – Religion and Public Life, PewForum.org, retrieved from http://features.pewforum.org/global-christianity/world-maps/weighted-Christian.php

If you have a particular question you’d like to have answered, feel free to submit it via the contact page.

Staying on the Path of Wisdom

Posted on July 21, 2020     1 Comment

Proverbs 4:20-27

Solomon’s words to his sons show us that, if we desire to walk the path of wisdom, then:

  1. What we give our attention to matters.
  2. Our character matters.
  3. The words we speak matter.
  4. What we focus on matters.
  5. Our actions matter.

2020 Coalition to End Sexual Exploitation Summit

Posted on July 14, 2020

The 2020 Coalition to End Sexual Exploitation Global Summit is online this year! We are very excited about the opportunities this provides, including the participation of abolitionists from all corners of the world, creating increased unity for the movement, and decreased costs for attendees. 

So, I wanted to be certain to invite you all to join us and thousands of others this July 18-28 for more than 140 talks, strategy and training sessions and networking events. There will be talks from speakers representing 30+ countries and general admission is FREE. Already, we have nearly 10,000 attendees registered from 103 countries. You can register here.

As more children fall prey to predators online, efforts to decriminalize sex buying, pimping/trafficking sweep legislatures around the world, and mainstream pornography websites actively continue to host sexual abuse videos, it is imperative that our movement be on the OFFENSIVE! This event will equip leaders and aspiring advocates all around the world with the knowledge, resources, and partnerships needed to move towards freedom from sexual abuse and exploitation.

I hope you will join us!

#EndExploitationNow