All of life is a journey. We learn from life expectancy charts that the average person’s life is made up of approximately seventy to eighty years, which translates into between 25,550 to 29,200 days. During each of our days on earth we are taking numerous daily journeys such as going to work, school, play, running errands, etc. It is the same with our spiritual journey. I would like to invite you to join me on an exciting reading journey of 1095 small “trips” through the Bible as events happened in chronological or time sequence order. Someone once asked the question, “How do you eat an elephant?” The answer is, “One bite at a time!” The Bible can seem like an “elephant” because it is so lengthy, but as the saying goes, “Life by the yard is hard but by the inch it’s a cinch!”

The Time Sequence Bible was originally conceived as my doctoral dissertation back in 1990. The regular Bible is not arranged chronologically, but instead by books such as the Pentateuch, poetry, prophets, psalms, etc. This can be very confusing for the average reader, since many of the books duplicate each other in places and skip back and forth in time sequence. Unfortunately, most people only hear bits and pieces of the Bible, and never really understand how it all goes together. No wonder so many are confused about what the Bible and the Gospel is about and what it all means! They have simply never had the whole story clearly explained from the beginning, in correct order. Since I’ve always been a very practical person, the idea for my doctoral thesis was to show how you can take a normal Bible of any translation and read it through in chronological order at your own “traveling pace” with a reading guide and commentary. This idea became my thesis and turned into an almost one thousand page work.

After obtaining my Doctor of Ministry degree, I decided in the early 1990’s to rewrite the dissertation into three separate volumes as a daily Bible devotional study, and named these volumes, Daily Light Daily Devotional Guide, Volume I-III. I published a handful of volumes for church members, but got so busy being a senior pastor, I neglected to do any more with the project. In 2009 I wrote the book, Pastor Survival to encourage pastors, then turned my focus to Christians in general by rewriting and publishing volume one of the three year chronological Bible reading adventure and renaming it, “Pillar of Fire: Chrono Bible Devotions”. I have further refined the plan into 1095 segments rather than a schedule of three years so you can start at any time and read at any pace you desire. If you are an avid reader and student, you may want to go on the “super highway” and take numerous “trips” each day, finishing the entire Bible in time sequence order in a matter of months. On the other hand, you may want to “walk” leisurely through and just do a “trip” per day, finishing in three years. The important thing is that you enjoy the journey, no matter what pace you choose to travel. When I drive at sixty miles per hour in my car I don’t see nearly the sights and detail that I would if I walked the same route!


Trip 1: Prehistory and Development of the Early World: Creation, Days 1-3
READING ASSIGNMENT: __PSALM 93:2, __90:2; __COLOSSIANS 1:17; __JOHN 1:1-2; __PROVERBS 8:12, 22-31; __GENESIS 1:1; 2:4; __DAY 1: GENESIS 1:2-5; __DAY 2: GENESIS 1:6-8; __ DAY 3: GENESIS 2:5-6; 1:9-13
Focal verse(s): Col. 1:17:” He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.”


Close your eyes for 30 seconds and think about the empty void that must have existed before God spoke the universe and galaxy into existence! Just imagine, everything we see in our world… plus all the planets, stars, galaxies, were all created by God the Father. And when time began, God the Father and Jesus the Son were already there, because Colossians 1: 17 tells us that He is before all things, and we discover that “In the beginning was the Word (Jesus). Scientists now tell us that the universe was created by the “big bang” theory, that is, that there was an immense explosion which created the universe. Well, Mr. Scientist, you should have read your Bible, because when God snapped His fingers to create the heavens and the earth, I guarantee you there was a “big bang”! As you go through your day today, try to notice all the things God created on the first three days: light, water, land, the sky, plants, herbs, rain, fog, grass, and trees! Stop and “smell the roses” on your way to work. Many times we fail to notice the beauty that God has created for us… just think how horrible it would be to live in a bleak desert surrounded by nothing but sand! If you're in a “desert” spiritually, then start thinking about God and His wonderful creation, and you'll want to agree with the writer of Proverbs 8:30-” Then I was beside Him, as a master workman; and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him.”


Trip 2: Creation, Days 4-7

READING ASSIGNMENT: __GENESIS 1:14-26; __2:7; __5:1; __2:18-25; __3:20; __1:27; __5:2; __1:28-31; __GENESIS 2:2-3
Focal verse(s): Genesis 2:7: Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.”
God was busy the fourth and fifth day making the Sun and Moon, then filling the waters with great creatures like whales, and causing the sky to be filled with winged fowl to fly above the waters. But the sixth day was special, because after God created land animals and insects, He decided to create man in the image of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. (Genesis 1: 26- “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness… ” )…