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Jonathan Petersen
October 25, 2020

Bible News Roundup – Week of October 25, 2020

Read this week’s Bible Gateway Weekly Brief newsletter
⇨ Bible Gateway Weekly Brief
⇨ Newsletter signupSee the Bible News Roundup archive on Bible Gateway
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Support Bible Gateway—Find the Resources You Need At:
⇨ FaithGateway Store
⇨ Christianbook.com
Order Resources in Bulk At:
⇨ ChurchSource
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Zondervan Releases First-of-Its-Kind Journal Bible for the New American Standard Bible
⇨ Bible Gateway Blog
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Survey from Ligonier Ministries Reveals What Americans Know (or Don’t) About the Christian Faith
⇨ MissionsBox
⇨ The State of Theology website
⇨ Read the Bible Gateway Blog post, How to Live the Bible — Deepening Your Biblical Theology
⇨ Read the Bible Gateway Blog post, Visual Theology: An Interview with Tim Challies
⇨ Read the Bible Gateway Blog post, Experience the Very Best of Writings from Theology Favorites like C. S. Lewis and Dietrich Bonhoeffer on Bible Gateway
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The Neuroscience of Bible Study: Ten Practical Tips from Brain Science for Memorizing Scripture
⇨ Rutgers Memory Disorders Project
⇨ Read the Bible Gateway Blog post, Scripture Memorization 101
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Jonathan Petersen
October 22, 2020

How to Talk About Jesus Without Being Awkward: An Interview with Sam Chan

Sam ChanWhen you try to tell your friends about Jesus, you may have encountered a negative response from them viewing it as being offensive, inappropriate, or insensitive. Studies confirm that the majority of Christians rarely evangelize, worried they might offend their family or lose their friends. How can you build confidence to share your faith?

Bible Gateway interviewed Sam Chan (@drsamchan) about his book, How to Talk About Jesus (Without Being THAT Guy): Personal Evangelism in a Skeptical World (Zondervan, 2020).

Buy your copy of How to Talk About Jesus (Without Being THAT Guy) in the Bible Gateway Store where you'll enjoy low prices every day

[Read the Bible Gateway Blog post, Evangelism in a Skeptical World: An Interview with Sam Chan]

What is the underlying meaning of the title and subtitle?

Sam Chan: There’s an unspoken rule in the West. We can talk about the weekend, weather, and sports. But we can’t talk about Jesus. Because, if we do, we become “that guy.” This puts us Christians in a gut-wrenching dilemma. We want to tell our friends about Jesus. But we also don’t want to scare them away.

So I’ve written this book to show that we can talk about Jesus in socially appropriate ways without being awkward and cringeworthy. We can talk about Jesus and keep our friends!

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Mel Lawrenz
October 21, 2020

How to Live the Bible — Seeking Purification

howtostudythebible

This is the one-hundred-twenty-seventh lesson in author and pastor Mel Lawrenz’ How to Live the Bible series. If you know someone or a group who would like to follow along on this journey through Scripture, they can get more info and sign up to receive these essays via email here.

“Virtue is not the absence of vices or the avoidance of moral dangers; virtue is a vivid and separate thing, like pain or a particular smell.” G. K. Chesterton

Almost every civilization seeks purification. Its features vary widely, but people seek the same end: to be rid of what pollutes us, and to enjoy that elusive quality: purity.

Illustration of extended praying hands

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Jonathan Petersen
October 21, 2020

Quiz: What Does the Bible Say About Thanksgiving?

Buy your copy of One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are in the FaithGateway Store where you'll enjoy low prices every dayThe Bible tells us to be humble and show gratitude to God for his goodness and love. Following are only a few examples in Scripture of people giving thanks. And below that is a quiz to test your knowledge of thanksgiving details in the Bible.

Be sure to sign up for the short-run free email devotional Give Thanks. Each inspirational email contains a Bible story that illustrates an important lesson about gratitude and thankfulness, as well as brief reflection questions to help you think through what you’ve just read. You can enjoy the readings on your own or use them as the basis for a group discussion with your family or friends.

[Browse the Thanksgiving section in the FaithGateway Store and the Bible Gateway Store]

Buy your copy of Thankful in the Bible Gateway Store where you'll enjoy low prices every day

Elizabeth

Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, was thankful that God blessed her with a baby even though she was long beyond child-bearing age (Luke 1:5-25).

Mary

Mary gave thanks for being chosen to be the mother of the incarnate Son of God (Luke 1:46-55).

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Jonathan Petersen
October 20, 2020

Advent is a Time to Recognize the Wonder of God with Us: An Interview with Scott Erickson

Scott EricksonHave you lost the sense of just how full of amazing wonder Christmas is? Maybe for you, the joy of the season is painfully dissonant with the hard edges of life. Or maybe you feel wearied by the way Christmas has become a polished, predictable routine. Or maybe this sacred divine story is too confusing and feels too far removed from our modern world.

Bible Gateway interviewed Scott Erickson (@scottthepainter) about his book, Honest Advent: Awakening to the Wonder of God-with-Us Then, Here, and Now (Zondervan, 2020).

Buy your copy of Honest Advent in the FaithGateway Store where you'll enjoy low prices every day

For those unaware, please explain the concept of Advent.

Scott Erickson: “Advent” in Latin means coming. So the season of Advent is an applied structure of anticipation for the coming of the newborn King. Advent will always be modeled best by the pregnancy experience. You adjust your life, rhythm, senses, and priorities around this new life that is coming into your midst. You’re preparing a place for Life to be amongst you. In the same way we do this in our faith communities: intentionally making a space for New Life to make his home with us.

[Sign up for the free email devotional, Looking for Light: An Advent Journey Through Scripture]

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Jonathan Petersen
October 19, 2020

Zondervan Releases First-of-Its-Kind Journal Bible for the New American Standard Bible

Buy your copy of the NASB, Journal the Word Reference Bible, Red Letter Edition, 1995 Text, Comfort Print in the FaithGateway Store where you'll enjoy low prices every dayThe New American Standard Bible (NASB) is now available in a Comfort Print® format that allows you to record your thoughts next to personally treasured verses while also cross-referencing other Scripture.

[Read the New American Standard Bible (NASB) translation on Bible Gateway]

The NASB Journal the Word™ Reference Bible, 1995 Text (Zondervan, 2020) offers the word-for-word approach of Bible translation. This print edition joins Journal the Word™ Reference Bibles in the NIV, NRSV, NKJV, and KJV translations.

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Jonathan Petersen
October 19, 2020

Overcome Personal Challenges in 2020 with Bible Gateway’s Free Online Bible Study by Dr. David Jeremiah Starting November 9

Join the free Overcomer Online Bible Study with Dr. David Jeremiah

6-Week Video Series Based on the Armor of God

The year 2020 has been packed with anxiety producing challenges and hardships from the COVID-19 pandemic, social unrest, and more; and it’s not over yet. Bible Gateway, the most visited Christian website in the world, is sponsoring the free Overcomer Online Bible Study with pastor, author, and broadcaster Dr. David Jeremiah November 9–December 25, 2020 to help end 2020 with the overcoming victory that comes from putting on the armor of God. Free registration for the event is at BibleGateway.com/Overcomer.

In this series of videos, released one per week for six weeks, Dr. Jeremiah—senior pastor of Shadow Mountain Community Church in San Diego, California, author of more than 50 books, and the founder of Turning Point, an international Bible teaching ministry on radio, television, and the internet—will help participants discover the path to victory over trials facing everyone right now, such as loss, disappointment, betrayal, abuse, injury, lies, addiction, self-doubt, mistakes, grief, anger, worry, and regret.

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Jonathan Petersen
October 18, 2020

Bible News Roundup – Week of October 18, 2020

Read this week’s Bible Gateway Weekly Brief newsletter
⇨ Bible Gateway Weekly Brief
⇨ Newsletter signupSee the Bible News Roundup archive on Bible Gateway
▼
Support Bible Gateway—Find the Resources You Need At:
⇨ FaithGateway Store
⇨ Christianbook.com
Order Resources in Bulk At:
⇨ ChurchSource
▼
Zondervan Releases First-of-Its-Kind Journal Bible for the New American Standard Bible
⇨ Bible Gateway Blog
▼

First Bible on the Moon Lands at Bonhams
⇨ Fine Books & Collections
⇨ Read the Bible Gateway Blog post, Communion on the Moon
⇨ Read the Bible Gateway Blog post, The Bible Says the Moon Shows the Glory of God
▼

⇨ See other Bible News Roundup weekly posts

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Jonathan Petersen
October 16, 2020

How to Use the Bible Gateway Plus Atlas

The location of Joppa on the Bible Gateway Plus AtlasThe Bible Gateway Plus Atlas features scrollable, zoomable, interactive maps that help you orient your understanding of the location of places mentioned in the Bible as you’re reading Scripture. Each map is synchronized with Bible verses, so it’s conveniently accessible with a click of your mouse to help you quickly get your bearings.

For example, while you’re reading the first chapter of Acts, you come upon verse 8, where Jesus is telling his disciples they will be his witnesses “in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth,” and you want to know where the Judea region is located in the Israeli landscape. The Bible Gateway Plus Atlas lets you see the location of the Judea region and how it relates to other places mentioned in Acts 1.

[Read the Bible Gateway Blog post, Bible Gateway Plus Members Gain Biblical Insight with Zondervan Academic Maps]

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Mel Lawrenz
October 15, 2020

How to Live the Bible — Says Who? Says God!

howtostudythebible

This is the one-hundred-twenty-sixth lesson in author and pastor Mel Lawrenz’ How to Live the Bible series. If you know someone or a group who would like to follow along on this journey through Scripture, they can get more info and sign up to receive these essays via email here.

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20

Illustration of Jesus ascending

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    The Bible Gateway Blog features the latest news, announcements, and reflections from Bible Gateway. We hope what you find here will add to your understanding of and appreciation for the Bible.