Lori Komlos began sharing with us how God worked to inspire her to read the whole Bible in 2021. We asked her to share her story by answering a few questions! Check out the interview OR listen to Lori sharing personally in the video below!
Why did you set out to read the whole Bible in 2021?
I think as a Christian who is hungry for the Word a logical aspiration is to read through the whole Bible. You hear of people who have not only done it once, but several times - so that makes it feel very obtainable. My thinking is I grew up in the church and should’ve done this by now! But each time I have buckled down to try to do it I fall off the wagon shortly after starting - usually when I get to a boring chapter that makes no sense.
Rachel Webb recommended the Bible Recap podcast, and as I checked it out I was even more inspired!
One of the initial podcasts talks about why someone would want to read through the Bible. The host interviews the man who inspired her to read through the Bible. He said “for anyone who is already a believer and has even a grain of sand of understanding of God’s love for them, why would you not want to read these words He has put out there to give you a universal understanding of how much bigger even His love for you actually is?”
Bam - that’s a pretty good reason.
He also said “if you don’t read all of scripture you might have a tendency to go off on one extreme in your beliefs based on a small part of a big story. The mystery of salvation, about God’s sovereignty and man’s free choice... inside of that, is a deep mystery that seems in places like it's the total opposite of how it operates. You need to see all of scripture so you can dwell in the mystery. What cults have been formed from one, singular passage of scripture taken to extremes to the exclusion of others.“
Bam - another good reason.
Tell us about achieving this goal using the Bible Recap Reading Plan.
I’m using the Bible app plan “The Bible Recap by Tara Leigh Cobble.”
What I have loved about this plan is that it bites it off in digestible pieces and adds a short (7 minutes tops) podcast each day to break it down for me. I love that she asks each day, “What is your God shot from today’s reading?” This encourages thinking about who God is in all of these small snapshots in time. I also love that it is done in chronological order which is important to me for the stories to make sense. I highly recommend this plan. There are several different levels of engagement, too, including only doing the New Testament.
What are some other things that have been helpful about that plan?
Their language is easy for me to follow and so far, I haven't skipped a beat! It's quick and doable. They also link a YouTube summary of each book of the Bible every time they skip to a new one which has been super helpful and informative.
There’s a guided prayer at the beginning of each day that includes these 5 items. It’s really helpful!
1. God, give me wisdom, knowledge, and understanding.
2. God, let any knowledge I gain serve to help me love You and others more, and not puff me up.
3. God, help me see something new about You I've never seen before.
4. God, correct any lies I believe about You or anything I misunderstand.
5. God, direct my steps according to Your Word.
Amen!
If Lori's story inspired you to engage with a reading plan follow the links to The Bible Recap plan or head over to loveshelbyville.com/readingplans to find plans that our discipleship groups use!