By Simon Bubb
Bible Gateway asked Simon Bubb (@simonbubb) to offer his thoughts about narrating the New King James Version, NKJV, Voice Only Bible (Thomas Nelson, 2019).
It was a very great privilege to be asked to narrate the latest edition of the New King James Version. Although I’ve read – or been read – most of the Bible over the years, I had never actually gone through it in its entirety. I’m very grateful that I’ve now been able to do that, and not just by reading it but by narrating it.
This is the seventy-eighth 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.
See Mel Lawrenz’s book, How to Study the Bible: A Practical Guide.
Was the Jesus story a fabrication?
Luke says he “carefully investigated” the whole story so that he could provide “an orderly account.” The early believers in Jesus knew that their message would seem implausible to people. Jesus was not the kind of Messiah anybody was expecting. The idea of miraculous healings fit into the category of magicians’ tricks. And this thing about the empty tomb, and a coming back to life was over the top.
By Bob Goff
What does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
MICAH 6:8
Have you ever been able to change someone’s heart and mind with a compelling argument? Yeah, me neither. I’m a lawyer. I win arguments for a living. Still, what sways a jury won’t reshape our worldview. I think there are a number of reasons. One is that we can try to convince someone about what’s “true,” but we can’t make it matter to them, and people will only move forward
on things that matter to them. I’m not saying we shouldn’t voice our opinions or disagree with people, but I think we need to reboot how we’re having the debate. I’ve learned the power of letting other people have the last word. It won’t kill you. Yield the last word and you’ll make an impression.
The next time things get a little heated, make it an opportunity to show love and grace, even if you’ve got a different opinion. Say the truth in love but be willing to concede the last word. When we let other people have the last word, we let them know we’re more interested in spreading love than winning arguments. Instead of convincing people we’re right, let’s be humble. Humble people know when to speak up and when to be silent. People listen to our lives even more than our words, and it will be love that moves them in the end.
In what ways can you be more humble today?
Also read the Bible Gateway Blog posts:
The above article is excerpted from Live in Grace, Walk in Love: A 365-day Journey (Thomas Nelson, 2019) by Bob Goff (@bobgoff). Copyright © 2019 by Bob Goff. Published by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission of Thomas Nelson. www.thomasnelson.com. All rights reserved.
Live in Grace, Walk in Love is published by HarperCollins Christian Publishing, Inc., the parent company of Bible Gateway.
Bio: Bob Goff is the founder of Love Does, a nonprofit organization that operates schools and pursues justice for children in conflict areas such as Uganda, Somalia, Afghanistan, Nepal, and India. The author of several bestselling books, Bob is a lawyer and serves as the honorary consul for the Republic of Uganda to the United States. He is an adjunct professor at Pepperdine Law School and Point Loma Nazarene University and lives in San Diego with Sweet Maria, their kids, and extended family.
Learn more about grace and love when you become a member of Bible Gateway Plus. Try it free right now!
Do you have good intentions of reading the Bible but find it confusing, boring, and irrelevant? What do you do if your experience with the Bible gets in the way of building a personal relationship with God? What small steps could you take to sustain a vibrant spiritual life where the Word of God is alive and active for you?
Bible Gateway interviewed Nicole Unice (@nicoleunice), author of Help! My Bible Is Alive!: 30 Days of Learning to Love and Understand God’s Word (NavPress, 2019).
Why do people need to read the Bible?
Nicole Unice: The simple answer is that people need to read the Bible if they want to be connected to their Creator. The Bible is God’s chosen instrument for speaking to his people today. Second Timothy 3:16 says all Scripture is God-breathed. The entire Bible has meaning and relevance to our lives. Timothy continues in this verse with a powerful list of things the Word does in our life: teaching, correction, and training.
Verse 17 says the Bible is designed to make us thoroughly equipped for every good work in our lives. Not partially equipped, not somewhat equipped, not equipped if we’re only working in a church, but every single one of us—no matter how old we are, what stage of life we’re in, or what position we have—will be completely equipped for life through the Word.
By John R. W. Stott
The concept of divine revelation, and of our need to submit to it, is both eminently reasonable and practically wholesome. It is reasonable because it acknowledges that the infinite God is altogether beyond his finite creatures, and that we could never have known him if he had not taken the initiative to make himself known. It is also wholesome because submission to God’s self-revelation in Christ and in the full biblical witness to Christ, far from inhibiting the health and growth of the church, is actually indispensable to them.
God’s Word, received and responded to, has a central role in the faith and life of God’s people. I will give five examples.
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When you read the New Testament, do you intentionally try to think like a first-century Jesus follower to capture the visceral excitement of the early Christians? What was the first-century understanding of the kingdom of God? What is the real meaning of the resurrection in its original context? As 21st-century people, how do we recover the adventure of what it was like to live as Christians in the first or second centuries in the world of Second Temple Judaism amidst Greco-Roman politics?
In this Q&A, N.T. Wright (@profntwright) and Michael Bird (@mbird12) talk about their book, The New Testament in Its World: An Introduction to the History, Literature, and Theology of the First Christians (Zondervan, 2019).
Before we get into specifics of the New Testament, how would you describe the grand narrative of Christian theology?
N.T. Wright and Michael F. Bird: Christian theology is storied theology. It tells the grand narrative about God and God’s relationship with the world, from creation to new creation, with Jesus in the middle. The narrative concerns a creator and his creation; humans made in this creator’s image and called to perform certain tasks; the rebellion of humans and the dissonance of creation at every level; and particularly about the creator’s acting, through Israel and climactically through Jesus, to rescue his creation from its ensuing plight. The story continues with the creator acting by his own Spirit within the world, to bring it towards the restoration and new flourishing which is his intended goal.
This is the seventy-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.
See Mel Lawrenz’s book, How to Study the Bible: A Practical Guide.
One way of talking about “living the Bible” is to focus on a whole range of issues that are called “biblical ethics.” The concept of “ethics” is the perception of and commitment to certain standards of morality that are good for oneself and good for society. Over the ages some people have viewed morality as absolute and universal principles. Others view morality as subjective: that one person’s morality and that of another may not match, and that’s okay.
By Bob Goff
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
MATTHEW 11:28–30
I remember learning to ride my first bike, but my favorite bike memories are when I taught my kids. Without fail, at the beginning, the front tire would wobble back and forth more and more wildly just before one of them bit the dust. And they all bit the dust. Sometimes they would try again; sometimes they would call it quits. Learning to ride a bike at first is completely unnatural. Once it clicks—the balance, pedaling, steering—it’s hard to imagine not knowing how to do it. With enough practice, you don’t even think about riding a bike anymore. You just do it.
Jesus talks about taking up a challenge to live differently. It’s sort of like riding a bike. He wants us to live in grace and walk in love, but at first it is a gangly, wobbly wreck. We might even get banged up a little. Then, after a while, you just know how to do it. The Bible describes it as a rhythm, like breathing itself, where we are taking in grace for ourselves and holding out love for others. It is not natural, and it takes some practice. But Jesus showed us the way. Maybe one day we’ll look a little more graceful and pull off some cool tricks—hop a couple of curbs, do a wheelie or a bunny hop. Not unlike Peter and John, who healed a man in Acts 3, Jesus wants us to stick with him through the awkward learning parts so we can learn to ride like he does. He wants to take our mind off of falling so we can pedal more fearlessly. Sure, there will be some scratches and scrapes. But we can pick each other up and help each other get back on for another go.
What habits and rhythms do you need to practice to help you naturally experience God’s grace in your life?
Also read the Bible Gateway Blog posts:
The above article is excerpted from Live in Grace, Walk in Love: A 365-day Journey (Thomas Nelson, 2019) by Bob Goff (@bobgoff). Copyright © 2019 by Bob Goff. Published by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission of Thomas Nelson. www.thomasnelson.com. All rights reserved.
Live in Grace, Walk in Love is published by HarperCollins Christian Publishing, Inc., the parent company of Bible Gateway.
Bio: Bob Goff is the founder of Love Does, a nonprofit organization that operates schools and pursues justice for children in conflict areas such as Uganda, Somalia, Afghanistan, Nepal, and India. The author of several bestselling books, Bob is a lawyer and serves as the honorary consul for the Republic of Uganda to the United States. He is an adjunct professor at Pepperdine Law School and Point Loma Nazarene University and lives in San Diego with Sweet Maria, their kids, and extended family.
Learn more about grace and love when you become a member of Bible Gateway Plus. Try it free right now!
What do you know about the growth and impact of Christianity from the apostles to the present day, not only in the Western world but also globally, including the development of Eastern Orthodox and Armenian Christianity, as well as considering Christianity in Latin America, Southeast Asia, the Baltic and Slavic states, and India? And why is it important to have this knowledge?
Bible Gateway interviewed Stephen Backhouse, author of the Zondervan Essential Companion to Christian History (Zondervan, 2019).
[Read the Bible Gateway Blog post, The Biography of Christianity: An Interview with Ian Shaw]
What is so “essential” about this book?
Stephen Backhouse: Ha! I doubt I would ever try to argue for long that anything I wrote is ‘essential.’ However, it seemed a good word to describe what we were trying to do with this book, namely, provide a rollicking ride through 2,000 years of Christian life, thought, art, politics, and culture in such a way as to mention as many people, places, and events as possible without focusing on only one tradition or national expression. So it’s ‘essential’ insofar as it offers the essence of Christian history, distilled into a hopefully readable and interesting form.
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