Read through Revelation in a year

I generally do not make New Year's resolutions. I feel that if there is something worth doing, I should immediately start to incorporate it into my schedule and not wait for an arbitrary time of the year.

That said, at the end of last month, coincidental with the first of the year, I decided to spend a significant amount of time in devotional reading of the book of Revelation. Since there are 404 verses in the book, and since a year is a convenient unit of measurement, I further decided to spend 365 days doing this and double up 39 days to make it all fit. I arbitrarily assigned Sundays as the days to meditate on two verses.

My goals are to each day, read through the chapter for that day and then spend concentrated time on that day's verse. Throughout the year, I plan to post random thoughts and observations shortly after I finish a chapter.

In order to facilitate keeping track of where I should be through the year, I created a spreadsheet and have shared it for those interested in doing the same.

If I did everything right, clicking on this link will display a spreadsheet with three columns in green in the center. These columns indicate the date and its corresponding chapter and verse. Ignore the other columns; they are just for calculation.

Right now, the starting date is set to 1/1/2009 and all the dates follow from it. If you select the File | Export | .xls option, you can save it on your computer and bring it up in Excel. When you do this, you should be able to change the start date to whatever suits you and all the other dates should update automatically. (I think if you have a Google account and are setup for Google Docs, then you can also make your own copy and edit it directly.)

If there are any problems accessing the spreadsheet or errors in the formulas, please let me know, and I will try to rectify the issue.

Finally, I encourage everyone to spend time reading and studying Revelation. It is not as hard to understand as some in the church would have you believe. Remember that God gave it to us so we would know what is to take place. He wants us to know and understand what it says. He has also promised a blessing on those who read, hear and take heed to what it says. (Revelation 1:3)