Here's an excerpt from an e-mail I sent a friend in 2006:

It really is so important that we read the Bible regularly on our own. No matter how many messages we hear or how many spiritual books we read, nothing can replace directly hearing from the Lord through His word. Even something as simple as reading one chapter a day (which takes no more than just 5 to 10 minutes) will get you through the entire New Testament in just under 9 months. Reading one chapter a day will get you through the entire Bible in just three years and three months. That might seem slow, but compare how long you've been a Christian, and consider how many times you could have read through the New Testament or even the Bible if you had developed this habit. I'm not at all saying this to discourage anyone, but rather to encourage you that a little bit carried out consistently will go a long way in a surprisingly short amount of time. The most important technique for building consistency is to fix a regular time of day—every day—to read. If you don't establish this, then no reading plan will work. A good time for you might be while you're riding the metro to or from work each day, and on days you don't use the metro, to read for five minutes once you get home in the evening. The important thing is to find an activity that you do every single day, and then read the Bible during that time. (Reading before you go to bed at night is not always a good idea, since it's so easy to fall asleep .