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Kingdom Success: Christian | Jesus | Success | Prosperity | Faith | Business | Entrepreneur | Sales | Money | Health
KS 415 - The 90-Day Bible Challenge
A chance YouTube video about a 96-year-old pastor who had read the Bible over 1,200 times sparked my curiosity and challenge: could I read the entire Bible in just 90 days? Not only did I complete this challenge once, but I've just finished my second consecutive 90-day reading plan—essentially consuming the entire Scripture twice in six months.
This accelerated approach to Bible reading revealed something profound that my previous annual reading plans never could. Rather than examining small portions of Scripture in isolation, reading large chunks daily allowed me to step back and see God's grand narrative unfold like viewing an entire painting instead of focusing on a two-inch corner. The chronological arrangement provided crucial context, especially when moving between historical books and prophetic writings. Witnessing Paul's missionary journeys in Acts alongside his epistles brought new depth to familiar passages.
My method combined visual reading with audio input—following along in my physical Bible while listening through earbuds—which required 30-45 minutes of daily commitment. The dual-input approach helped maintain focus and improved retention. Throughout this experience, God's persistent faithfulness became unmistakably clear, even through the sometimes-depressing sections of judgment found in the prophetic books.
Despite the tremendous benefits, I'm now feeling led to slow down again. The rapid pace left little time for meditation, journaling, and allowing specific passages to deeply penetrate my heart. There's a balance to be found between seeing Scripture's grand narrative and camping out in individual chapters where the Holy Spirit can speak personally.
Have you ever read through the entire Bible? Whether you choose a 90-day sprint or a more measured pace, I challenge you to experience the fullness of God's Word in 2024. If this approach intrigues you, consider joining me in the YouVersion Bible app where chronological reading plans make this journey accessible to everyone. Let me know how your Bible reading journey is going—I'd love to hear what God is showing you through His Word!
Proverbs 22,. Verse 29 says Do you see a man skillful in his work? He will stand before kings. He will not stand before obscure men. Fellow Marketplace Christians, stop apologizing and start winning. Welcome to the Success Edge, the show that helps you take your walk as a Marketplace Christian to the next level. Here's your host Christian entrepreneur Tyler McHart.
Speaker 2:What's going on? Kingdom Success List. This is Tyler McHart coming at you. Episode 415 maybe, or 416. Anyway, doesn't matter. Glad to be a part of this. Got to be, have you on the journey.
Speaker 2:I'm driving up the road right now, guys, so I might be a little distracted with trying to turn here and turn there to get back to my destination. But I'm excited about actually doing this episode because this will be the first time that I've ever talked about this and the first time I actually have accomplished this. And I want to talk about something that I'm just now wrapping up and something that I set out to do at the beginning of the year and I decided I wanted to do it a little bit more. But I'm deciding I'm going to probably end it and I'll tell you the reason why. But before I jump into all that wine, but before I jump into all that gang, if you are interested in this whole family legacy, family banking hacks that I've been talking about over the last couple weeks here, feel free to send me a message. If you're interested in actually leaving a legacy, not just a financial legacy, but actually a legacy for your children and your children's children, All right, feel free to reach out to me. You can click the little button, send me a text right there in the show notes. You'll see it right there and we'll chat. Okay, just a good little education, education. I might be able to provide some things I've been learning about, and maybe I might actually do an episode later on about this whole thing, just so you'll actually have a better, even better, understanding about it.
Speaker 2:So so here we go. What did Tyler do? Well, I guess I have to back up and tell you a story. So story time. Boys and girls, you should know now, if you've been with me for any length of time, I'm going to tell you a story, or tell you the reason behind why I'm doing what I'm doing, and it involves a story. So back in January or, excuse me, december involves a story. So back in January. Well, excuse me, december, december.
Speaker 2:I had, right around Christmas, usually the time whenever I kind of hunkered down a little bit and started thinking of okay, you know, what are some things that you know I just want to have as far as you know, don't call them goals or objectives or things that I want to kind of set my sights on for the upcoming year, which is totally good, totally fine, and I kind of go before the Lord a little bit with it and talk to him about it, and I decided that I was like, okay, I just got done reading the Bible all the way through for the year, which was awesome Last year, in 2024, I kind of did it a little bit different than what I'd normally have done it. So I read through the Old Testament in a year but I read through the New Testament twice. Okay, I think I did Actually. No, I didn't do that. I read through the New Testament one time in six months and then I actually went through the four Gospels Matthew, mark, luke and John in six months. So I took my time doing that just because I wanted to get a know, get a little bit more into the word and dig a little deeper. But I still read through the whole entire Bible.
Speaker 2:Okay, and, as you guys know, I did my Proverbs. Okay, proverbs is like eat my vegetables. I did it every, do it every day. Just, you know me. If you ever want to be part of our Wise Guys group that I have actually on the YouVersion Bible app, you're welcome to send me a message and reach out to me and I'll add you to that group, because we do it every month. I've got several listeners that actually participate in that group. If you ever want to be a part of that, anyway, we call ourselves the Wise Guys. Ha ha, want to be a part of that. So, anyway, we call ourselves the wise guys, ha ha. Um, my good friend Chris actually was the one that came up with that idea. He's, he's very creative, but anyway. So back to Jane. Uh, back to December. Uh, right after Christmas.
Speaker 2:I'm like okay, what do I want to do? Well, you know, who knows, if AI or the Holy Spirit, I don't know, don't really care, because you know there's no such thing as coincidences in the Christian life. There's no such thing. The Bible didn't even the word coincidence doesn't even exist, actually, in the bible. So so I pop onto youtube and as I pop onto youtube, I'm sitting there going, okay, you know, uh, why I'm on youtube right now.
Speaker 2:So I kind of scrolling through youtube just kind of looking at some different things, and I noticed this one youtube, uh, this is about five minutes long and it has this gentleman, this older gentleman. That, basically, is the thumbnail on the YouTube video, I guess. Whatever post says he read the Bible 1,000 times. And I'm like ooh, that seems interesting, because just even reading the Bible once a year, you know, you might sit there and go, okay, I might have read the Bible. You know, five or six times in a year, I might have read it. You know, even if you read it your whole entire life and it takes you a year, golly, that's pretty dadgum good, but this guy had read it over a thousand times and I'm like whoa. So the interview goes on to, you know, interview this gentleman.
Speaker 2:He was a pastor down here in actually South Georgia and he's I think he was the age of 96. Let me get a quick swig of water, guys Hang on down here in actually South Georgia and I think he was the age of 96. Let me get a quick swig of water, guys, hang on. I just got done working out doing some physical therapy. Anyway, so this gentleman he's highlighted as reading the Bible a thousand times and he talked about how he got know the age of like in his mid-20s and dedicated his life to the Lord and wanted to actually, you know, start learning the Bible. Well, when he got to around about 30, he read about a guy that had read the Bible about 500 times and he said, wow, that's pretty inspiring that he read the Bible about 500 times. And he said, wow, that's pretty inspiring that he read the Bible 500 times. So he said I'm going to try that. So he got to started doing that and got to about 500 times of reading the Bible when he was in his 50s. Okay, since he's 96. And so he's like, okay, you know what, why not, I'm just going to keep reading the Bible? And he keeps reading the Bible and winds up. Now he's over.
Speaker 2:I think the official count is like close to 1,200 times he's actually read the Bible and he grabs one verse of Scripture. It was so cool. They showed his office how he's got all these file cabinets of all these planners, like physical planners, and he's got his whole entire agenda and his appointments he has. But he also has at the very top and he's got where you know he's got his whole entire agenda and his appointments he has. But he also has the very top and there's the same planner it wasn't even wilder about it the same planner, and at the very top he has one scripture verse that he wrote at the very top that he got out of his reading. Out of all those times he's read his Bible, out of all those times he's read his Bible. So cool, so cool.
Speaker 2:Well, mr McCart got inspired. I'm like dude if he did it. And so I started figuring it out. I was like, okay, he had to have read the Bible. If he's able to do it this that amount of time, I'm like he probably did it. Read the Bible at least, you know, three, possibly four times a year. Okay, reading the entire Bible three or four times a year.
Speaker 2:And it just was like I couldn't even at that moment. I'm like no way, there's no way in the world that I right now could see myself. Because he said, yeah, it would take me about, because he would talk about how much time it would take see myself. Because he said, yeah, it would take me about it because he would talk about how much time it would take. He said it would take me about two hours to read through all the amount of scripture that he would need to read. And I'm like, um, I, I, right now I don't, I can't dedicate two hours to actually reading that much of the bible. So I'm like, okay, what can I do? Well, I found actually in the u-version bible app a 90-day bible reading plan. Okay, I looked at actually, maybe, um, I looked at there was a month one. I'm like that's way too much, right there. But I'm like maybe 90 days. So, but I'm like maybe 90 days.
Speaker 2:So at the beginning of January I set out to start reading the Bible in 90 days. Well, I started it and after 90 and actually Amy, my wife, she actually joined me and she, she actually did the plan right along with me, which was actually kind of cool. We kind of had a little bit of a tag team and you know, because of that, we were actually reading the same stuff, so we can actually talk about what we were getting or what we were kind of reading about in the word. And I'm not going to lie, guys, it was actually really awesome. It was very probably as far as reading through the whole entire Word. I'd never done that before and it was really something special. So much.
Speaker 2:So I said, okay, you know what, after 90 days so I think that would be the end of March I'm like I'm going to do it again. And I went at it again and so I read through the Bible, bible. And here I am right now. I'm actually, I think I wrapped up day 87 at the time of this recording 87, and I've read through the Bible. Okay, I've got, you know, a couple of days left and, uh, when the time of this episode comes out, um, it'll be in July. So obviously I'll have changed some things up. Well, I'm probably not going to do this 90-day plan again. I don't feel led to right now, although Holy Spirit and I haven't really talked about it, and I'll explain why in just a second.
Speaker 2:But I do want to talk about what were some of the benefits of me reading through the Bible in 90 days? Well, number one I could see the whole picture of what was going on and how God was relating to different people and how they were relating to the Lord. In 90 days. It was just an awesome, awesome story for me to see. It's like instead of.
Speaker 2:The only way I can describe it to you is, you know, if you look at a painting all right on the wall and like if I read the Bible, say you know, read the entire Bible in a year I might be taking like a certain corner, like a two by two, two inches by two inches of that painting and just kind of focusing in on that one area. That's all I see that day. I don't look, don't kind of scan back and look at the whole picture, whereas this 90-day plan, all of a sudden I scale back and now I see maybe, like you know, if the painting's pretty big, I'm seeing like the whole entire quarter of the painting. Maybe not a quarter, that might be a little too much, but anyway you get my picture. You get no pun intended on that, but you get, you get my message on that. I'm seeing much more of the, of what is going on with the story of God and the human race and how God is trying to get his creation back to the way it was supposed to be the original intent of it. Well, and it was really awesome. Well, and it was really awesome. The other thing that I really enjoyed is seeing how God never gives up on us and seeing that these stories and being able to see the whole story. Like you know, it wasn't like.
Speaker 2:Right now I'm reading I'm just I just literally wrapped up today the book of Acts and I read probably about seven or eight chapters, from chapter 20 all the way to chapter 28. I read a couple other chapters in Romans. I think I read chapter 15 and 16. And then here I am reading chapter 20 through 28. But I'm seeing in those chapters, right there, the story of Paul and his missionary journey and all the different things that are going on. I'm seeing how God talks to Paul and how he appeals to King Agrippa and how he it's just all these little storylines that I would normally not ever get and seeing how God was working with Paul and how God was very persistent in his time of going after his purpose and his mission of first evangelizing the Jewish people and then, secondly, going to the Gentiles and taking ultimately what was to the Gentiles the gospel. Okay, so these things right here were pretty awesome. I would sit there. It would take me.
Speaker 2:I've had this question whenever I've mentioned this to only a couple people, that I'm doing this. I was like, well, how long does that take you? Well, if you know how I'm reading, how I read the Bible, anyway, I utilize the Bible app. I have my physical Bible in front of me and I had my headphone, my earbud, in and I'm listening to the Bible being read, but I'm reading along with the actual person. Okay, and so that's how I consume. The content is, I've got my eyes on the scripture, but I'm also hearing it in my ear, so I'm getting a double, double thing for that, which is really good for me. Well, probably the reason why I'm not going to do it again. Right, and again, like I said before, this might change. I might change and go back.
Speaker 2:Don't hold me to that, okay, but right now I really am longing for just kind of slowing down inside a chapter, like, for instance, yesterday not today, but yesterday I read the first. I think it was want to just kind of chew on that Paul talks about in Romans and I wanted to kind of slow down and camp out in some of those areas. Now, could I have still done that after reading for about 45 minutes, because that's how long it would take me. It traditionally would take me anywhere between 30 to 45 minutes, depending upon the amount of the plan called for. But I was reading about 30 to 45 minutes of the Bible pretty much every day, which is great. But again, I wanted to slow down.
Speaker 2:I wanted to be able to kind of chew on or meditate inside, say, the specific thing that's going on inside that chapter or inside that. You know one to two chapters that I might be meditating on and kind of putting myself in the picture. Because meditation, guys, I feel like meditation is probably the probably one of the most important things. That if you're studying the bible, reading the bible, you actually slowing down to meditate on the word and actually seeing yourself in the word, putting yourself actually in the story or thinking about how does this apply to my life? Or I know I'm kind of giving you a lot of ors or actually seeing through the eyes of Jesus or seeing yourself through the eyes of the person that actually Jesus is working with or God's working with. That's kind of you have to use your imagination. That's meditation. That's actually kind's kind of you have to use your imagination and that's meditation. That's actually, you know, kind of turning that whole entire scene or whole entire thing over and over, so you're getting some good insight into that.
Speaker 2:Well, like I said, I felt like that. I wasn't able to do that. The other thing I'll be honest with you. It's in certain sections, especially once you kind of get towards the back side of the old testament, especially in the minor prophets, I'm just gonna be honest, it gets a little depressing, uh, because it's like god's finally called Israel on the carpet, the children of Israel, and said all right, enough's enough. You're going to be turned over to the Assyrians, you're going to be turned over to the Babylonians, they're going to come in and destroy everything, and it goes on for, like you know, multiple books of the Bible. Not taking anything away from that, there's still good content in there, but it's just, it's a little depressing, honestly, just being transparent with you guys. And then the last thing that I I felt like that I was not able to do because of the amount of time.
Speaker 2:Normally, what I like to do is journal. I like to journal, uh, after I get done with my reading, and I might journal out a little bit of what I read and talk to the Holy Spirit about what I read. Allow him to talk to me or talk about what's top of mind for me. I like to journal out, um, you know, literally in a journal, uh, writing my out my you know what I read and talked to Holy Spirit about that and, quite honestly, that did not happen a lot in these last six months and that was something that I felt like I needed to give back to. So this was an amazing experiment or experience I shouldn't say experiment experience that I had and I would highly recommend. You know, if you've never let me just put it this way If you've never read the Bible, okay, I mean, I have a.
Speaker 2:I had a buddy of mine tell me that he's actually he's reading the Bible a lot, um, himself out loud, so literally he's reading the bible out loud himself and he's doing a year-long thing and I'm just like listening to him talk about I'm like man, actually reading the bible out loud to yourself, so you hear it. That's impressive and it's taken him a whole year to do that and, um, you know, I know that that's something that he he's still kind of like. I think he's probably been a christian for the last five or six years and he finally decided to do that, which I think is amazing. Here I am. I've been saved since age nine and I just started actually reading through the Bible about five years ago.
Speaker 2:I literally started just first time actually reading the Bible, the entire length of it, it all the way through, and actually the thing I did was the Bible recap with Terri Lee Cobble, which is really actually a good first thing. So if you've ever wanted to do that, the the Tara Lee Cobble series, I would recommend that. I don't recommend doing it, maybe the following year, because I did it the following year and it's basically repetitive, because I was like, okay, I remember her talking about that and you know, whatever, but the first year, if you've never done it, I think it's good, because she does a great job of actually kind of explaining some of the history.
Speaker 2:And here's the other thing oh yeah, I forgot to mention this, this is good. Even in the 90-day Bible that I did, and even the Terah Cobble Bible Recap devotional inside the YouVersion Bible app, they do it chronologically. And actually I really like doing the Bible chronologically because it really kind of fits the story. Now, granted, you're going to be jumping around a whole lot in the different places in the Bible, especially if you get to 1 and 2 Kings Chronicles, you'll be jumping in and out of the different minor prophets major prophets, which is Isaiah, jeremiah, ezekiel, and then some of the minor prophets. Then you'll be jumping back into some of the Kings 1st and 2nd Kings and Chronicles just to get context, because that's what you do. And then, even when you get to Paul's journey, you're going to be jumping in and out of Acts and the epistles, because that's basically what it is. But it's kind of cool. It really is actually a really cool text to read through. Of cool. It really is actually a really cool text to read through.
Speaker 2:So, but my call to action. I have two things that I wanted to have as call to actions for you. Okay, my first call to action is this If you never read through the whole entire Bible we're getting ready to be up on the end of six months. It's going to be July, the very first week of July or second week of July when this episode comes out I would challenge you to actually read through the Bible. Challenge yourself, or at least read through the New Testament.
Speaker 2:Read through the entire New Testament, say in six months. I promise you you'll get a lot out of. It'll stretch you and I feel like that you'll come away as a better person. Why not? So I would challenge you. That's my one call to action. My second call to action is if you got something out of this, share, share it Actually. Forward this episode along to someone and share this episode. If this actually helped you out with this content that I talked about and you got some benefit from it, I'm sure that it would benefit someone else, so I'd ask you to share the content, okay? So, kingdom of success, know that you're blessed, you're highly favored, you're empowered to prosper, you walk in divine health. The spirit of breakthrough is upon you and gang, we'll catch you on the other side.
