New Devotional by Trevin Wax -- Reading Through the Letters of Paul in 30 Days

A new devotional based on the Letters of Paul, and prepared by Trevin Wax, is now available.

If you are a listener to the Blessed Hope Podcast you know that in every episode, I urge listeners to read through the letters of Paul (especially as we go through them), or listen to them read aloud. Trevin Wax has made reading all of Paul’s letters a bit easier to do. Wax has arranged Paul’s letters (along with several devotional elements) in short readings so that you can make your way through all the letters of Paul in but thirty days. I highly recommend this volume to you (albeit with a couple of minor caveats), if you are a listener to the Blessed Hope.

Caveat # 1: In order to make it through the body of Paul’s letters in 30 days, Wax suggests three readings per day (morning, noon, and evening). This is great for a disciplined reader or someone who is retired or works from home. This was done to achieve the goal of reading all of Paul in 30 days—a bit artificial. But I see no reason why you couldn’t set your own pace and do one reading per day and thereby read all of Paul’s letters in 90 days (Wax acknowledges this).

Caveat # 2: Since the volume is published by Holman Bible Publishers, the translation used is Holman’s Christian Standard Bible (CSB). I’ll spare you my rant (well, some of my rant) about how the proliferation of English Bible translations has led to Christians reading multiple translations, thereby making Scripture memorization much more difficult (since each of the English translations has subtle differences from the others). I lay the fault for this at the foot of those publishers who fund their own translations and then refuse to share rights with other publishers to protect copyrights and their market. The church would be better served if one translation became the standard and we were all using it.

Caveat # 3: I do appreciate some, but not all, of the devotional elements. Maybe less (just the letters of Paul) would be more (then adding the devotional elements, many of which are repetitive).

But enough about that. Although I prefer the ESV, the CSB works well enough for a volume such as this one.

Bottom line—if you want a good way to facilitate reading through all of Paul’s letters, this is a great option.