March through Colossians (the HOW)

* Read the post below on the WHY first.

So, what's the plan for how we're going to read through the book of Colossians together? Well, I think that how we choose to read through it should reflect (as best as we can) the nature of this book.

• It is a letter. We want to read it as a letter and not be so focused on the trees (the individual verses) that we miss the forest (the whole letter). Therefore I'll be including a couple of chances for us to read the whole thing in one sitting (don't worry, it's only 4 chapters which will probably take about 10 minutes).
• It has a flow and an argument or point (or arguments/points). We're not just going to read the first 2 verses, then the next 2, then the next 2, woodenly. I've broken down the daily readings based on the flow of thought in Paul's writing.
• It is the Word of God. The very words that Paul wrote on papyrus or parchment were the God-breathed words of God (2 Tim. 3:16, 2 Pet. 1:19-21). Therefore we will be taking our time, reading only a small chunk of verses per day, so that we can take in as much of what God has given us as we can.

The details:

• I'm not sure how to put a nice calendar together on the blog, so I'll just list the readings (see below).
• We'll start on 3/2 by reading the whole book in one sitting that day (again, 10 minutes). We'll do this again on 3/9, 3/16, 3/24, and 3/31.
• Not counting the whole-book readings, we'll cover an average of 3.8 verses per day (min: 2; max: 6).
• There is a reading every day (no breaks), but it's easy to catch up given the shortness of the readings.
• We'll end up reading through Colossians 6 times total.
• I'll post something every day here on the blog, like a teaching point, a key question to ask, an application, something for further reading, a way to encourage someone else with what you are reading, etc.

Here's the schedule:

-3/2: whole book.
-3/3: 1:1-5a.
-3/4: 1:5b-8.
-3/5: 1:9-14.
-3/6: 1:15-20.
-3/7: 1:21-23.
-3/8: 1:24-29.
-3/9: whole book.
-3/10: 2:1-5.
-3/11: 2:6-7.
-3/12: 2:8-12.
-3/13: 2:13-15.
-3/14: 2:16-19.
-3/15: 2:20-23.
-3/16: whole book.
-3/17: 3:1-4.
-3/18: 3:5-8.
-3/19: 3:9-11.
-3/20: 3:12-15.
-3/21: 3:16-17.
-3/22: 3:18-22.
-3/23: 3:23-4:1.
-3/24: whole book.
-3/25: 4:2-4.
-3/26: 4:5-6.
-3/27: 4:7-9.
-3/28: 4:10-11.
-3/29: 4:12-13.
-3/30: 4:14-18.

So, carve out some time to read the whole book in one sitting on March 2nd, and check back here on the blog for a brief post that day and a reminder of the next day's passage.