Welcome to I-Life Foundations 1.0

Wayne pulled me aside after our Home Fellowship coaching meeting this afternoon and said, "Are you available and willing to help make this happen? We've been talking about this for too long. Can you help us get a website started for I-Life Foundations?"

"Yes," I said.

And, so it begins.

What is I-Life Foundations?

I-Life Foundations is the brainchild of Wayne, one of our veteran pastors here at Illini Life.

The vision is that I-Life Foundations could evolve into a fine-tuned curriculum for young and growing disciples of Jesus Christ who have decided to join in with our community, while studying at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign.

Bible reading plans. Teachings. Books. Articles. Films. Music. You know, a diverse array of muscle-building, calorie-burning discipleship tools for folks who want to follow Jesus and "train yourselves to be Godly." A life of devotion to Christ requires discipline and we want to help train and equip you as we follow Christ together!

"Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize." 1 Corinthians 9.24

"For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come." 1 Timothy 4.8

The Holy Scriptures of God

For centuries they have been the sacred treasures of all people who seek to know God, understand his ways and find wisdom for this life and beyond. The Psalmist urges us to consider carefully the things written in God's word. If we do, the reward will be immense (Psalm 1:1-2).

In ancient times, God spoke to the people of Israel and urged them to seek the counsel of his word: "This book of law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may be careful to do all that is written in it; for then you shall make your way prosperous and successful." (Joshua 1:8)

It is this Word of God in written form that Paul tells us is "God-breathed" and "useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness." (2 Timothy 3:16) The written texts provide us with an accurate preservation of God's counsel across the ages. They make God's word available for careful study and discussion, which leads to better understanding and more complete obedience to his will.

Finally, God's words in writing make God's message accessible to the whole world. The truths and inspiration of Scripture translate across all languages and cultural barriers.

Based upon this high view of the Scriptures, we want to encourage - even challenge - everyone in Illini Life to a careful and complete reading through the Bible. There are many ways to plan out such a project, but we would like to suggest two. They are both based on a two-year time table. We think this time frame will allow for a more careful reading and less guilt-laden feelings than the one-year plans that are so common.

The Genre Approach

This is our first two-year reading plan approach.

Similar to many of the classic old Bible reading plans, this plan paces the reader day by day. What's different is that the genre approach allows you to read each week from every genre or style of Biblical text. You will constantly engage the texts of the gospels, the law, history, psalms, poetry, prophets and epistles. It's a kind of "cross-training" reading of the Word.

You can download the Genre Approach PDF here: download me!

Three Year Approach

Here is our second Bible reading plan.

This plan is a three-year reading track, not two.

You can download this PDF here: download me!