It’s hard to believe that it is 2012 already… I trust that you said that correctly. It is NOT pronounced “Two-thousand twelve.” That’s right, the correct way to say the year is to say, “Twenty twelve.”  Don’t argue with me. You will lose.

First, say out loud the year 1965.

You probably said nineteen sixty-five, which is correct.

Now say out loud the year 1710.

You probably said seventeen ten, which is also correct.

Now say out loud the year 2012.

Two thousand twelve just sounds stupid.

But I digress…  It’s not my intent to write my first post of 2012 on proper pronunciation. (Did you say it correctly this time?) I’ve been known to make up a lot of words in my time anyway.

Something new for me this year is the addition of a systematic Bible reading plan.  While I delight in studying my Bible, I have never been a big fan of the plethora of plans to assist you in “getting through your Bible in a year.”  However, when I came across a blog post at Challies.com, my interest was peaked. Tim Challies and a bunch of his readers are participating in the The 3650 Challenge. Using Professor Horner’s Bible Reading System, participants will read 10 chapters of the Bible each day. According to Challies.com:

“This means that over the course of 2012 anyone who uses the plan will go through all the Gospels four times, the Pentateuch twice, Paul’s letters 4-5 times each, the Old Testament wisdom literature six times, all the Psalms at least twice, all the Proverbs as well as Acts a dozen times, and all the way through the Old Testament History and Prophetic books about 1.5 times.”

The popular smart phone Bible app YouVersion has the reading plan built into it to assist you in keeping track. It’s not to late. Jump on the bandwagon folks.

One other noteworthy item to begin the year is a free audio book that I highly recommend. ChristianAudio.com is giving away J.I. Packers book Knowing God for the month of January. Before you get all bent, let me say that I am a huge fan of ACTUAL BOOKS… you know… the ones with covers and bindings and pages? But after I have read and reread some of my favorites, I have discovered that I love listening to the audio versions. I usually do my listening while driving.

Do yourself a favor and get this one. I would consider Knowing God by J.I. Packer to be one of my top 5 books that every Christian should read. Get it and read it! Or… at least download this and listen to it if you are not a reader.

So, here is to an amazing year ahead, with good friends, good books, good theology and amazing coffee.  Sola Deo Gloria!