Many years ago a friend gave me a Chronological Life Application Bible. Unlike traditional Bibles that are organized canonically, this one is arranged according to the order of events. Although I know this, I didn’t take into account how this would affect how I read the Bible on a practical level. Or how different the Bible would look.
My frustrations began almost immediately. I was doing a Bible study and wanted to look up a verse. Bible references and I aren’t friends. I have a hard time remembering them. But I will generally have a good idea where the verse is located. Once I have an idea which book the verse is in, my method of verse hunting is to scan the entire book until I find it – although searching it online is much quicker, I don’t like to use my computer during my quiet time. It’s relatively straightforward. However, in the Chronological Application Bible, different chapters of the book could take place over various historical times. This results in books being broken up and scattered throughout the Bible. It makes it hard to study one book from start to finish and/or look up verses in the traditional manner.
I relied very heavily on the canonical index in the front of the Bible to find the locations of books and chapters. It was such a pain constantly flipping to the front of the Bible just to locate the next chapter of a book. I dreaded looking up verses and tried to keep it at a minimum. I lived in frustration for a while until one day I randomly read the introduction and learned how the Chronological Life Application Bible was SUPPOSED to be read. All this time I was reading it wrong. I was reading it the way I wanted to read it and not the way it was intended to be read.
When I began to study it the way the authors created it to be studied, it was amazing! I began to understand the Bible in a whole new way. Everything made sense. There were so many passages that were confusing or repetitious when I read them canonically but reading them chronologically cleared out the confusion. It made Biblical history come alive. Once I began reading it the way it was meant to be read, my frustration went away. Now I thoroughly enjoy everything about this Bible and appreciate its uniqueness.
What I’m Learning
There are so many life lessons that can be learned from my approach to reading the Chronological Life Application Bible. The biggest is the conflict between living life according to my terms versus the way God has for me. I want life to follow my plan. I want to do it my way. Sure, I know what it means to be a follower of Jesus but when it comes down to it, I want God to adhere to MY objectives. To come along with me for the ride and act the way I want Him to. And it’s frustrating when He doesn’t. But life was not meant to be lived like that. It was never written that way. Instead, I was reminded that God is the architect of my future and the author of my story. My goal should be to pursue Him. Everything else will fall into place once I do that. He is after all the author of my story.