Do you love to read? Do you want to learn to love to read? Do you enjoy reading books that cross the whole spectrum of topics and genres? Then I’ve coordinated with Visual Theology to create something that may be right up your alley—the 2024 Christian Reading Challenge.
Whether you are a light reader or completely obsessed, this 2024 Christian Reading Challenge is designed to help you read more and broaden the scope of your reading.
How It Works
The 2024 Christian Reading Challenge is composed of 4 lists of books, which you are meant to move through progressively. You will need to determine a reading goal early in the year and set your pace accordingly.

The Light Reader. This plan has 13 books which sets a pace of 1 book every 4 weeks.
The Avid Reader. The Avid plan adds another 13 books which increases the pace to 1 book every 2 weeks.
The Committed Reader. This plan adds a further 26 books, bringing the total to 52, or 1 book every week.
The Obsessed Reader. The Obsessed plan doubles the total to 104 books which sets a demanding pace of 2 books every week.

Begin with the Light plan, which includes suggestions for 13 books. Choose those books and read them in any order, checking them off as you complete them. When you have finished those 13, advance to the Avid plan. Use the criteria there to choose another 13 books and read them in any order. Then it’s time to move to the Committed plan with a further 26 books. When you have completed the Committed plan (that’s 52 books so far!), you are ready to brave the Obsessed plan with its 104 books. Be sure to set your goal at the beginning of the year so you can make sure you’re reading at the right pace.
All you need to do is download the list (or buy a printed version—see below), choose your first few books, and get going. Happy reading in 2024!

Ideas

Take the challenge with your spouse and divide the list in two.
Take the challenge with your family and divide the books between the entire family
Take the challenge with your youth group or small group and divide the books between all of you. Regularly report on your progress with short reviews.
Set your goal and read the books from all of your lists in any order (rather than progressing from Light to Avid to Committed).
Discard all the rules and choose books from any plan in any order. Use the 2024 Christian Reading Challenge as a guide to diversifying your reading.
Use #vtReadingChallenge to connect and to keep track of others on social media.
Have fun with it!

Get the Challenge
The 2024 Christian Reading Challenge is available from Visual Theology and you can download it for free. Alternatively, you can purchase it as a professionally printed poster or an HD file that you can print at home or take to a local printer. Either way, happy reading!

I have often expressed my fascination with nineteenth century religious poetry. In a time when there were few means through which strangers could engage with one another, poetry periodicals would often print a poem in one issue, then responses or rebuttals in future editions. I found just such a situation with a poem titled “A Mother’s Love” which was penned by a grieving, anonymous poet.

Still she keeps rocking him,Ever caressing him,Brushing his hair from his colorless brow;Softly they’ve whispered her,‘Life has gone out of him;’Gently she answers—‘how still he is now!’
Still she keeps rocking him,As though she would shake from himThe cold hand of death, like the weights from his eyes;Rocking the clay of him,While softly the soul of himAngels are rocking far up in the skies.
A second anonymous poet subsequently replied with a poem of her own, a kind of gentle rebuttal that was meant to bring Scriptural encouragement.
Why does she weep for him,Mourn and lament for him,Craving at mostBut a handful of dust?Cold, lifeless clay at best,Cold on her yearning breastLost is her treasure,But where is her trust?
Let her not cling to him,Striving to fling from him,Death’s chilly hand,With its firm, frozen hold.Death has not made the choice,’Tis but the Shepherd’s voiceCalling the little lambBack to its fold.
Why, then, go sorrowing,All the day borrowingMemory’s mourningAnd memory’s gloom?Rather let hope uniteWith faith’s celestial light,Casting a haloFar over his tomb.

May the God of love and peace be with you today.

Today’s Kindle deals include a collection of systematic theologies.
(Yesterday on the blog: Was It A Waking Dream?)
Death, Miracles, and Tears: The Loss of a Baby
This is a heart-rending story from Cameroon. “About three years ago I took a girl in our village named Mami to get an ultrasound. At the clinic I met her boyfriend named Koo who was visibly concerned about her pregnancy. So much so that he made a deal with God: if his baby survived, he would dedicate his life to the Lord.”
In what ways are sinners both active and passive in their salvation?
Michael Reeves explains in this video from a Ligonier conference.
Eternal Surprise
Familiarity breeds contempt, they say. It can also breed apathy, as this article shows.
The Weightiness of Words
“In a world of spin and marketing, self-promotion and self-pity, Facebook comment sections and Twitter mobs, we are drowning in a typhoon of words poorly used, carelessly cast, angrily angled. When words are many, transgression is certainly not lacking (Prov. 10:19).”
What is “Progressive” Christianity?
“One of the benefits of studying church history is that you realize that Solomon was right: ‘There is nothing new under the sun’ (Eccl 1:9).” Michael Kruger shows that progressive Christianity isn’t actually an entirely new thing.
God’s Wonderful Protection
“I love coming across little comments in the bible that are mentioned seemingly in passing, but have huge implications.” This is a neat example of just one of them.
Flashback: Which Christian Best Portrays Christ?
…we have no right to pass judgment on another man’s character when his portrait of Christ differs from our own in its emphasis. Rather, we must understand that as Christ has gifted us all differently, he has burdened us all differently. He is seen as much in that other person as in us.

All through the Bible, God is working to bring people like us to know and enjoy him through Jesus, and to delight in him forever in a completely fixed-up universe. —Gary Millar