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“‘In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.’ When I think there was a day when a human hand first wrote those words, I am filled with awe. This sentence is a masterpiece of compression. It approximates as closely as words allow the instantaneous realization of an intent, the bringing into being of the diversity of things that make up the world of fundamental human experience.”
— Marilynne Robinson
The words that open Genesis — and the Bible — are so well and widely known, it’s easy to overlook their incredible uniqueness and power. As Robinson, a world-renowned novelist and essayist, points out, nothing quite like them exist anywhere else in ancient literature.
The Story of God Commentary series, with 11 volumes from the Old Testament now available with Bible Gateway Plus, is the perfect resource to help understand the full impact of those words (and many more) with fresh eyes and ears.
As you study, you’ll find that the commentary on each passage is broken into three sections:
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What is a favorite Bible passage of yours and why?
Choosing your favorite verse is like choosing your favorite child – it’s kind of impossible! A verse I recite to myself often is, “I love the Lord for he heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy. Because of this, I will call on him all the days of my life.”
I just noticed those two verses have a lot in common: mercy! I guess I always feel in need of God’s grace, and grateful to hear that it is unfailingly present.
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By Matt Chandler
If you and I are going to be Overcomers and live courageously in this mess, it’d be helpful to understand some of it. After we see ultimate reality in Revelation 4–5, in Revelation 6 we get more help seeing behind all the mess. We get some good news about how we can endure and stand with confidence in light of all this pain—the pain of others and our pain as well.
When it comes to suffering, we see several things in the Scriptures that form a paradox we should hold in tension as finite, created beings seeking to understand an infinite and eternal God. The first is that God is good (Mark 10:18), all the works of His hands are faithful and just (Psalm 111:7), and there is no darkness in Him at all (1 John 1:5). God is love. It’s not something He has or does; it’s who He is. God doesn’t do evil; He does love.
Have you wondered if the Bible’s genealogies are an important part of Bible study?
Many of us skim through the genealogies, but they are important and play a part in how we can come to understand the cultural nuances around the time of each person’s life in the Bible. That’s why we are introducing All the Genealogies of the Bible to Bible Gateway Plus.
God’s plans for each of us extend back long before we were born, which you can discover by studying the lineage of Biblical heroes. You will discover that God’s love embraces more than we can comprehend, especially if we are focusing only on ourselves in this time and place without the context of God’s Word providing direction in our lives.
People all over the world are under His care and have been since He made Adam. And, if you’ve ever doubted the plans He has for you, let’s look at the story of Ruth.
Continue readingBy Robert J. Morgan 
Anticipation keeps me going. What about you? Do you feel the need to look forward to what’s ahead—a vacation, a weekend at the beach or in the mountains, the birth of a child or grandchild, the diploma that concludes your studies, the day you retire, or even the fresh taste of tomatoes in summer?
Over the past five years, I’ve grappled with three tremendous losses. Because of my wife’s multiple sclerosis, I stepped away from my life’s work of pastoring. That was a greater loss than I realized at the time. Sometime later, Katrina passed away. And then my dream of serving in my own local church of forty years evaporated. I was no longer needed.
by John MacArthur
Jeremiah recounts more of his own life than any other prophet, telling of his ministry, the reactions of his audiences, testings, and his personal feelings. Jeremiah served as both a priest and a prophet and was the son of a priest named Hilkiah. He was from the small village of Anathoth (1:1), today called Anata, about 3 mi. NE of Jerusalem in Benjamin’s tribal inheritance.
As an object lesson to Judah, Jeremiah remained unmarried (16:1–4). He was assisted in ministry by the scribe Baruch, to whom Jeremiah dictated and who copied and had custody over the writings compiled from the prophet’s messages (36:4,32; 45:1). Jeremiah has been known as “the weeping prophet” (9:1; 13:17; 14:17), living a life of conflict because of his predictions of judgment by the invading Babylonians. He was threatened, tried for his life, put in stocks, forced to flee from Jehoiakim, publicly humiliated by a false prophet, and thrown into a pit.
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Zondervan, a division of HarperCollins Christian Publishing, is pleased to announce the release of the NASB Wide Margin Bible (New American Standard Bible, 1995 Text)—the first of its kind for Zondervan’s NASB line.
“Our mission is to publish beautiful Bibles in translations readers love; we are so happy to bring a wide margin version to faithful readers of the NASB,” said Melinda Bouma, vice president and publisher of Bibles for Zondervan. “By using the margins to deepen their study with notes, reflections and prayers, readers of this Bible will not only deepen their understanding of the Scripture — they’ll also create a beautiful keepsake for their loved ones.”
Continue readingDo you use Bible Gateway to read the Bible each day? You are not alone!
If you have a free account or are a member of Bible Gateway Plus, you’ll be excited by our newest feature! You can now pin your most frequently used Study Resources to the top of the Resources panel!
To access your Pinned Resources, you’ll find them at the top under “Pinned Resources.”
Here’s how:
Continue readingby Joel Muddamalle, PhD
I hate being lost and losing my way. It leaves me disoriented, and honestly, it can be a really scary feeling to not know where you are. Today, we have modern tools like smartphones that give us maps and directions at our fingertips. But before that technology was available, one of the most vital tools that people used to keep from getting lost was a compass.
A compass shows us which direction we should go and keeps us from going where we should not. God’s Word is a type of compass. It points us to where Jesus is and reveals when we start to falter, or get distracted, or are going in a direction that will take us away from him. Yet a compass is only good if we use it. If we fail to keep our focus on it, we will lose our way.
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