Bible Gateway Blog

Ancient texts that didn’t make it into the canon of the Bible purport to give insight into what happened to Adam and Eve after they left the Garden of Eden, the manner in which Abraham discovered monotheism, and the life of Enoch.

Bible Gateway interviewed Dr. Joel Hoffman (@JoelMHoffman and @GodDidntSayThat) about his book, The Bible’s Cutting Room Floor: The Holy Scriptures Missing From Your Bible (Thomas Dunne Books, 2014).

You begin your book by saying, “The Bible you usually read is the abridged version.” Explain what you mean.

Dr. Hoffman: The Bible contains only some of the scriptures that were considered holy in ancient Jerusalem. One reason I wrote the book was to help people explore the cultures and writings that gave us the Bible.

Why were ancient writings left out of the Bible when it was finally assembled?

Dr. Hoffman: Some parts were left out because they contained background that was too obvious to include: For instance, there’s no way to understand the full impact of Matthew 2:1 without appreciating King Herod’s devastating influence on Jerusalem, but the Bible itself doesn’t describe it. Equally, Paul’s dripping irony in Acts 26:2-3 only comes through if the reader knows who Bernice is, but, again, the Bible doesn’t say. For that matter, Genesis 11:3 explains that the Tower of Babel was waterproofed to withstand a future flood, but modern readers who aren’t experts in ancient materials science would never know it.

Other parts of the Bible were omitted because of the limitations of ancient bookmaking technology. Also, religious leaders at times decided that they no longer liked the messages of the ancient texts. And some parts were even deleted by accident.

What are the Pseudepigrapha and how did you come to select the few books you did to investigate?

Dr. Hoffman: The term “Pseudepigrapha” refers to a subset of the biblical writings that were left out of the Bible. I focus on three particular books — The Life of Adam and Eve, The Apocalypse of Abraham, and Enoch — because of their penetrating answers to the timeless question of: Why is my life like this?

I also include the Dead Sea Scrolls, which are like the Pseudepigrapha, and other ancient sources that help us better understand the Bible.

Why is it important to understand the “thousand-year-long” cultural context of Jerusalem as it relates to the Bible?

Dr. Hoffman: Jerusalem’s violent and unprecedented saga created parts of the Old Testament, almost all of the New Testament, the Pseudepigrapha, and other ancient writings on the Bible’s cutting room floor. Reading them without knowing the cultural context is like trying to understand the Gettysburg Address while knowing nothing about the Civil War.

Does your book question the validity of the canon of the Bible as we know it today?

Dr. Hoffman: Just the opposite. I think the only way to understand the canon in its fullness is to appreciate both what’s in it and what was rejected from it.

One question I address at the end of the book is what Judaism and Christianity might have looked like if religious leaders had made different choices about the canon centuries ago.

Why do you refer to texts outside of the Bible as “holy”?

Dr. Hoffman: Because the people who originally compiled the Bible would have considered them holy.

How does the idea of divine direction in the compilation of the Bible fit with your book’s premise?

Dr. Hoffman: I believe the writings that make up the Bible are, at the very least, inspired by God. There was something unprecedented about Jerusalem during the centuries before and after Jesus. But I think that the Bible as we now know it contains only part of God’s message. (It seems to me that people who don’t see God’s hand in the text of the Bible have a dilemma. They have to explain why, of all the ancient writings, these are the ones that are so widely read.)

If people currently struggle to read the entire Bible, why should they bother to read the books left out of the Bible?

Dr. Hoffman: For two reasons: The parts that were left out sometimes make it easier to understand the Bible. And the parts that were left out are sometimes so compelling that they would be worth reading even if they weren’t biblical.

For example, in the parable of the Man with a Withered Hand, Jesus refers to the obvious merit of saving a sheep from a pit even on the Sabbath (Matt. 12:11). The Dead Sea Scrolls, in something called the Damascus Document, offer a contrary opinion. So it turns out that Jesus was weighing in on a popular debate of his day, an aspect to the text that readers can only appreciate by reading other sources.

Similarly, even if The Life of Adam and Eve had nothing to do with the Bible, it would be worth reading for its high drama and insightful perspectives.

What’s one thing you wish more Bible readers understood about Scripture?

Dr. Hoffman: Scripture frequently welcomed more than one answer to a question. When we limit a question to only one answer, we have misunderstood the Bible.

This is why Jesus is able to say in Matthew 5:39 that turning the other cheek is an expansion of “an eye for eye,” not a contradiction to it. And it’s why Jesus starts his list of six topics there by saying that he doesn’t intend to abolish the law, even though to a modern eye that seems to be just what he is doing. (This is also why later Jewish rabbinic tradition would often record more than one answer to a question.)

How can faith communities bridge the gap between seminaries and the academic/linguistic study of Scripture, and the average layperson sitting in the pew?

Dr. Hoffman: Wow. I could write a whole essay about that. In short? Asking people to yell less and listen more would be a good start.

I feel fortunate that I get to travel to faith communities, seminaries, and secular universities as I talk about my research. One of my great joys is presenting to diverse audiences and exploring how much we have in common.

Bio: A frequent speaker at churches, synagogues, and community groups, Joel M. Hoffman, PhD, is also the author of And God Said: How Translations Conceal the Bible’s Original Meaning and In the Beginning. He is the chief translator for the series My People’s Prayer Book (winner of the National Jewish Book Award) and for My People’s Passover Haggadah. He’s an occasional contributor to The Jerusalem Post and The Huffington Post and has held faculty appointments at Brandeis University and at Hebrew Union College—Jewish Institute of Religion. He lives in New York and can be reached through his website.

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Attempts to measure spiritual growth by constantly seeking the next big breakthrough have left many Christians disillusioned. Another approach to spiritual growth is a renewed appreciation for the commonplace.

Bible Gateway interviewed Dr. Michael Horton (@MichaelHorton_) about his book, Ordinary: Sustainable Faith in a Radical, Restless World (Zondervan, 2014).

Dr. Horton says, “CNN will not be showing up at a church that is simply trusting God to do extraordinary things through this ordinary means of grace delivered by ordinary servants. But God will. Week after week.”

[See all of Michael Horton’s books in the Bible Gateway Store]

Explain what you mean when you say the church should cultivate the joy of the ordinary Christian life.

Michael Horton: As Paul tells Timothy, “But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world” (1 Tim. 6:6). Contentment is the summons to realize and accept our place in Christ and his body—and more broadly, our place in the gift exchange in society through common grace. This cuts off at the root the discontentment—ambition—to change our station in life not only in the direction of prosperity, but also in a self-imposed poverty. This is what Paul himself exemplified and spoke of in his ministry (Phil. 4:12-13).

As we are brought into God’s extraordinary kingdom through ordinary means, we are remade, no longer fashioned as competitors for commodities in a world of scarce resources, but as co-sharers with Christ in the circulation of gifts that flows outward from its source without running out. Contentment in godliness is great gain because it signifies the heavenly blessings which God has already blessed us with in Christ (Eph. 1:3-4). This eternal joy can never be taken from God’s people. Therefore ambition, restlessness, and avarice can be put away for the first time as we rest more and more in the work of the Son of God.

How are we not being true to Scripture if we’re not creating “sustainable faith and discipleship in a radical, restless world”?

Michael Horton: Our form of discipleship must be taken from Scripture itself. If we fail to see how the form and content of discipleship belong together, we will fail to prepare people for their ordinary experiences in this world. We will fail in handing down a faith that can actually face the waves of the world, the tides of personal despair, and the fiery darts of the devil. And yet, the more deeply rooted we are in the Word of God, the more our witness will be authentic and imbued with conviction. However, the power of God unto salvation is not our passion for God, but the passion he has exhibited toward us sinners by sending his own Son to redeem us. Our churches and families need to desperately recover the Scripture’s picture of discipleship in actual practice.

Christians must regain this story in order to keep their hand fixed on the plow. Our expectations must be realigned to realize this life is not as good as it gets. There are many wondrous blessings we do have now, but what we see now is only a preview of the coming attraction, when sin and death will be done away with and victory will be seen covering the earth, when the entire cosmos becomes the sanctuary of God. Christians must return to the great story that has its fulfillment in life after death, so we may live and die well in the light of our extraordinary hope that enables us to embrace the ordinary lives God gives us here and now.

How is the “ordinary” reflected in the fruit of the Spirit?

Michael Horton: Everything today must be quick and easy, because that is how the world seems to operate. Yet, the key to maturity is time and community. Discernment and godly wisdom develop in a community that spans generations. The church is called to be this place where the Spirit uses normal patterns and rhythms of the Christian life in a community, so that we may bear fruit like a well-watered tree. Despite common appearances, the church is the place where God’s new creation is coming into existence and being sustained by the Spirit like a great vineyard.

The Spirit cultivates and builds God’s kingdom through very ordinary means. The Lord speaks to our hearts through the law and gospel each Lord’s Day, convicting us of sin and renewing our faith in Christ. The Spirit throws down our man-made divisions and attempts at earning a right standing before him as we hear his word. Our God does not force us into his kingdom kicking and screaming. Rather, he sweetly woos our hearts by his lavish generosity and grace in his Son. He renews a right spirit within us, so we turn and delight in the law of the Lord, according to the grace that is in his Son and by the power of his Spirit. He establishes our faith through teaching and catechesis, so we may come to know the parts we play in his great drama of redemption. The sacraments are the ordained signs of this covenant meeting place of God with men and women, where he sanctifies us and sets us apart for holy callings, preparing us even now for the resurrection. In prayer we learn to submit our wills to God and conform our thoughts to our Lord and Savior, continually praying “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.”

Through such ordinary means of preaching and sacraments the Spirit unites us more and more with Christ and his body. We grow to see each other more highly than ourselves as Christ’s sacrificial love is formed in us by the Spirit. Our needs become aligned through this slow and steady process with God’s kingdom. Through these intentional, structured social practices in the covenant community we come to bear the fruit of Christ’s work in our bodies. All of these things take time, patience, self-control, hard work, love, gentleness, peace, kindness, and goodness. As we practice these virtues in God’s church, the Spirit forms them in us, making them second nature.

What do you mean, “the call to excellence is useless by itself”?

Michael Horton: Excellence is to go over and above the call of duty. But to what end? It becomes a vice or virtue depending upon its ultimate orientation—the glory of God or the glory of man. St. Augustine defined sin as the state of being ‘curved in on ourselves’; the state of continually making how we think, feel, and desire the ultimate priority. We need to love again, to invest our time into something greater than our schemes. We have this worthy object: “The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever,” according to the Westminster Shorter Catechism.

The call to excellence is useless by itself because all it will do is encourage this selfward curvature. We must be given a story and identity that takes us out of our self-infatuation and turns our desires to God by receiving the gift of salvation in Christ, and out towards our neighbors whom God loves. By Christ’s divine power, he has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence (2 Pet. 1:3). True excellence, therefore, must be defined by magnifying the name of God in our daily lives, serving others in love, and must be cultivated in communities where we are formed through the Spirit by the preaching of the Word and participation in the Sacrament together with other generations.

Are we reading the Bible wrongly—especially the Old Testament—when we highlight so-called “heroes of the faith”?

Michael Horton: When we consider this question, we must ask how specifically we are seeing these saints as heroes. It is not that we don’t need heroes for our sons and daughters. The difficulty arises when we read the Old Testament stories as Aesop’s Fables, filled with moral examples, who only teach us how to be better people. This kind of reading tends to reduce even Christ to the Ultimate Hero, when what he means to us and for us is so much greater than that.

The Old Testament itself paints a picture of sinners who themselves need a Savior as much as the rest of us. Even when they act in ways that foreshadow Christ, or believe in the promises of God, it is ultimately Christ who saves and allows his people to overcome the assaults of the world, the flesh, and the devil. When Paul tells the Corinthians that these stories were written for their example, he reminds them of the unbelieving generation in the desert and warns us against unbelief (1 Cor. 10). They are examples to us of faith, but specifically a faith in a Christ, who doesn’t merely provide an example for godly living, but is God in the flesh, descended to earth to redeem us from death, hell, and sin. If this is our guide, we cannot go wrong.

What should the church’s goal be of the ministry of the Word?

Michael Horton: The ministry of the Word is essential to the mission of the church and to the creation of faith in the world. Paul reminds us that, “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Rom. 10:14-17).

In these verses, Paul describes the mission of the church and its ministry, to proclaim Christ in all things. Even Christians need the ministry of the Word to constantly tell them this good news. It is not something we just “get” at the beginning of the Christian life. No, the gospel keeps our eyes fixed on Christ, while the law tells us how to run the race. For as Paul states in the thematic section of Romans 1, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith’” (Rom. 1:16-17).

We never graduate from faith in this simple, yet profound, gospel of grace. It is something we always move deeper in and grow by. It is through such a simple ministry of the Word that God’s people are redeemed and brought into the very light and life of the triune God. Through such a ministry, indeed in the entire church service, God’s people are trained in the faith and enabled to persevere in trials and tribulations which will undoubtedly come to ordinary disciples of Christ. This ministry was established so we might live and die well in the Lord.

How have the values of free enterprise influenced the gospel?

Michael Horton: In consumer-based cultures, Christians enter into scores of contracts, from credit cards to mortgages to employment. While there is nothing sinful about contracts or free enterprise, a problem arises when we allow contractual (and consumeristic) thinking to expand into all areas of life, leaving little room for God’s ordinary means of grace. The gospel is polluted when we allow culture to provide the paradigm for the Christian’s life and practice. When we are unaware of how Scripture speaks to the method of grace as well as its message, we will unknowingly adopt a method that distorts the gospel and harms the mission of the church.

For example, our society trains us to think of marriage as a contractual arrangement. If one party fails to fulfill his or her end, the contract is null and void. Increasingly children are raised in a contractual environment. When contractual thinking dominates our horizon, we can even make Jesus or the church an asset we think we can manage. Jesus and spirituality can easily become therapies that merely help us cope with life. They can serve us if we chose him over other service providers. We even talk about “making Jesus my personal Lord and Savior,” as if we could make him anything!

The good news is the opposite of this contractual approach to life. The good news is that Jesus is the only Lord and Savior. It is not what we make him, but what he has made us—coheirs of his estate—that the gospel proclaims. The gospel fuels our ordinary discipleship precisely because it is realistic and God-ordained. The gospel alone keeps our eyes fixed on Christ, and counteracts our tendency to add our own doctrines and commands, which in the end burn us out and beat us down.

Explain what the ordinary ministry of the church should be.

Michael Horton: The ministry of the church should orient itself along the commission given by her Lord and Savior, rather than surrender itself to every wind of marketing doctrine and niche strategy. God’s ecosystem for faith takes time and the proper soil for the seeds to grow. For centuries, believers were raised with prayer, singing, instruction and Bible reading with the family each morning and evening. The Reformers and their spiritual heirs not only wrote catechisms for this purpose, but books with each day’s readings, prayers, and songs. They knew that, as central as it was, that the weekly public ministry needed to be supplemented and supported by daily habits. These public and private disciplines cohered and enabled Christians to persevere in their pagan context. This was the ordinary ministry of the church from Lord’s Day to Lord’s Day and everything between. I find my identity, faith and practice, in Christ together with his body. The church is not just where disciples go; it’s the place where disciples are made.

The church is not simply an institution with systematic theology, but an organism with a form of life. Recall the ordinary weekly ministry in Acts 2: “So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (2:41-42). These activities not merely being described as a good idea concerning Christian practice; rather, this is the norm for normal churches established by the apostles.

Bio: Michael Horton is the author of over 30 books and host of the White Horse Inn, a nationally syndicated radio program. He’s the professor of Systematic Theology and Apologetics at Westminster Seminary California and the editor-in-chief of Modern Reformation magazine. A popular blogger and sought-after lecturer, he resides in Escondido, California with his wife and children.

Bestselling author Max Lucado (@MaxLucado) is a friend of Bible Gateway. We publish his weekly email devotionals An Encouraging Word from Max Lucado and his five-day short-run devotional On the Road to Calvary (click to sign up for them), as well as his Christmas email devotional Five Days of Hope.

[Click to see all of Max Lucado’s books in the Bible Gateway Store]

In his book, Before Amen: The Power of a Simple Prayer (Thomas Nelson, 2014), he says prayer is the only tutorial the first followers of Jesus ever requested. And Jesus gave them a prayer. Not a lecture on prayer. Not the doctrine of prayer. He gave them a quotable, repeatable, portable prayer.

In the following question-and-answer, he shares insights he expresses in his book.

Before Amen gives readers a simple way to incorporate prayer into their everyday life.

Max Lucado: It seems to me that the prayers of the Bible can be distilled into one. The result is a simple, easy-to-remember, pocket-sized prayer: Father, you are good. I need help. They need help. Thank you. In Jesus’ name, amen. Let this prayer punctuate your day. As you begin your morning: Father, you are good. As you commute to work or walk the hallway at school. I need help. As you wait in the grocery line. They need help. Keep this prayer in your pocket as you pass through the day.

What prompted me to write Before Amen was the fact that I needed help in my prayer life. There are a lot of books on prayer for people who excel in prayer, but I needed a book on prayer for people who struggle to pray. So really, this book emerged out of a personal challenge that I’ve had in my life—of trying to simplify prayer, understand it more deeply, and practice it more daily.

Should prayer really be simple?

Max Lucado: Prayer, for most of us, is not defined by a month-long retreat, or even an hour of meditation. Prayer is conversation with God. Prayer can be the internal voice that directs the external action.

What do you say to people who think they aren’t good enough at praying?

Max Lucado: That’s a common feeling, yes. But God will teach you to pray. Don’t think for a minute he’s glaring at you from a distance with crossed arms and a scowl, waiting for you to get your prayer life together. Just the opposite. “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in and eat with you and you will eat with me” (Rev. 3:20 NCV). Jesus waits on the porch. He stands on the threshold. He taps … and calls. He waits for you to open the door. To pray is to open it. Prayer is the hand of faith on the door handle of your heart. The willing pull. The happy welcome to Jesus: “Come in, O King. Come in.” The kitchen is messy, but come in. I didn’t clean up, but come in. I’m not much of a conversationalist, but come in. We speak. He listens. He speaks. We listen. This is prayer at its purest form. God changes his people through such moments.

How personal should prayer be?

Max Lucado: Prayer starts with an honest, heartfelt “Oh, Daddy.” Jesus taught us to begin our prayers by saying, “Our Father in heaven” (Matt. 6:9). More specifically, our “Abba in heaven.” Abba is an intimate, tender, folksy, pedestrian term, the warmest of the Aramaic words for “father.” Formality stripped away. Proximity promised. Jesus invites us to approach God like a child approaches Daddy. Become as little children. Carefree. Joy-filled. Playful. Trusting. Curious. Excited. Forget greatness, seek littleness. Trust more, strut less. Make lots of requests and accept all the gifts. Come to God like a child comes to Daddy.

How can we trust that God hears our prayers?

Max Lucado: God’s unrivaled goodness undergirds everything else we can say about prayer. If he’s like us, only slightly stronger, then why pray? If he grows weary, then why pray? If he has limitations, questions, and hesitations, then you might as well pray to the Wizard of Oz. However, if God is at once Father and Creator, holy unlike us and high above us, then you, at any point, are only a prayer away from help.

Is your world different because you prayed? In one sense, no. Wars still rage, traffic still clogs, and heartbreakers still roam the planet. But you are different. You have peace. Most of us can take our problems to Christ, but leaving them there? For good? With faith? Resist the urge to reclaim the problem once you’ve given it up. Jesus responds with this invitation to life: “Bring your problems to me.” State them simply. Present them faithfully and trust him reverently.

What do you say to someone who isn’t being physically healed? Is God not listening?

Max Lucado: He will heal you: instantly or gradually or ultimately. He may heal you instantly. One word was enough for him to banish demons, heal epilepsy, and raise the dead. He only had to speak the word and healing happened. He may do this for you. Or, he may heal you gradually. If Jesus heals you instantly, praise him. If you’re still waiting for healing, trust him. Your suffering is your sermon. He will heal you, my friend. I pray he heals you instantly. He may choose to heal you gradually. But this much is sure: Jesus will heal us all ultimately. Wheelchairs, ointments, treatments, and bandages are confiscated at the gateway to heaven. God’s children will, once again, be whole.

You describe the “They need help,” part of the prayer as intercessory prayer at its purest, a confluence of paucity and audacity.

Max Lucado: Yes. It’s says, Father, you are good. They need help. I can’t, but you can. “I can’t heal them, but God, you can.” “I can’t forgive them, but God, you can.” “I can’t help them, but God, you can.” This prayer gets God’s attention. He never sleeps. He’s never irritated. When you knock on His door, he responds quickly and fairly. Intercessory prayer isn’t rocket science. It acknowledges our inability and God’s ability. We come with empty hands, but high hopes. Why? God “is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think” (Eph. 3:20 NKJV). He “shall supply [our] needs according to His riches” (Phil. 4:19).

Theologically, what does prayer do? In particular, praying “in Jesus’ name.”

Max Lucado: Prayer slaps handcuffs on Satan. Prayer takes problems out of the domain of the devil and into the presence of God. Prayer confesses: “God, can handle it. Since he can, I have hope!” When we pray in the name of Jesus, we come to God on the basis of Jesus’ accomplishment. “Since we have a great High Priest [Jesus] over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith” (Heb. 10:22 NASB). As our High Priest, Jesus offers our prayers to God. His prayers are always heard. “Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you” (John 16:23 NASB).

You uncovered some interesting statistics about prayer. Which was most surprising to you?

Max Lucado: Of all the statistics that I uncovered regarding prayer, I think the one that surprised me the most had to do with the practice of unbelievers. One out of every five unbelievers prays every day. I don’t know exactly to whom they pray or exactly why they pray, but they do, which to me speaks to that inner desire that even the most reticent among us have to talk to our Creator. We long to connect, and we long to connect with God.

What message do you want readers to take away from Before Amen?

Max Lucado: I hope readers close the book, convinced that God will help them pray and that prayer matters. God invites us to pray, and when we pray it affects the future. It impacts the direction of our lives. Yes, it even impacts the direction of history. And it certainly impacts the condition of our hearts. We’re happier after we pray. We’re healthier after we pray. We’re better people people after we pray. I hope when people read Before Amen they will believe that prayer truly matters.

Bio: More than 120 million readers have found comfort in the writings of Max Lucado. He ministers at the Oak Hills Church in San Antonio, Texas, where he lives with his wife, Denalyn, and a sweet but misbehaving mutt, Andy.

In today’s fast-paced world, investing time in a business career, maintaining the home environment, raising responsible children, developing social roots, and many more time-demanding activities all have a tendency to encroach on a woman’s consistent attention to establishing her own deep spiritual roots.

Bible Gateway interviewed Bible study leader Jen Wilkin (@jenniferwilkin) about her book, Women of the Word: How to Study the Bible with Both Our Hearts and Our Minds (Crossway, 2019).

Your book is directed at women. How is reading the Bible as a woman different than as a man?

Jen Wilkin: Ideally it isn’t that different. Certainly men and women may interpret and apply Scripture in some ways that are gender-specific, but reading comprehension should happen in much the same way for both genders. In recent years, however, the resources written specifically for women tend to target our emotions before our intellect. I directed my book at women because I want them to rediscover the joy of loving God with their intellect when they approach His Word.

How do you compare rhumba tights with reading the Bible?

Jen Wilkin: As a little girl I loved rhumba tights but couldn’t stand that the frilly ruffles were in the back where I couldn’t see them. So I wore them backwards, which wasn’t such a great idea from a comfort or coverage standpoint. Rhumba tights were not meant to be worn backwards. Many of us approach the Bible in the same way. We want it to speak to us on our own terms, but it was not written to be read any way we feel like reading it.

What do you mean, “We must read and study the Bible with our ears trained on hearing God’s declaration of himself”?

Jen Wilkin: Many of us have been told that the Bible is a road map for life, an instruction manual, a sort of cosmic self-help book that will answer all of our questions about what we should do and who we should be. This kind of thinking can cause us to begin regarding the Bible as a book about us. The Bible is not a book about us. From Genesis to Revelation it’s a book that articulates the nature and character of God. Rather than read it to discover truths about ourselves, we must first read it asking what it teaches about God. Only when we do that does the Bible begin to show us truth about ourselves—not independent of Him, but in relation to Him.

How does the statement in your book, “…pleasure increases in something when we learn its history, origin, and deeper nature…” pertain to reading the Bible?

Jen Wilkin: Many Christians believe that the way to grow their love for God is by having repeated experiences of Him. If they feel spiritually dry, they listen to praise music or read inspirational writings, they journal or go on a retreat. But our pleasure in something (or in this case, Someone) actually grows the more we learn about them. We learn about God in His Word. So, to say that we love God implies that we would devote time to learning about Him in His Word. Otherwise, we worship an unknown God, attaching our uninformed emotions to a deity we know very little about.

What is the case for biblical literacy?

Jen Wilkin: I believe the church today is in a full-blown Bible literacy crisis. With the decline in expository preaching and mid-size teaching groups like Sunday School or weekly Bible studies, many churches now have no (or very few) environments in which their people are learning the Bible according to any kind of structure that builds literacy. Topical studies and devotional material tend to cultivate only a spot knowledge of the Bible. To gain a hearing, the false teacher and the secular humanist rely on biblical ignorance. We have proven quite reliable. I’d like that to change. I propose that we call the Church to love deeply the text that teaches us the knowledge of our God, that we reject anti-intellectualism as incompatible with a living faith. I propose that we demystify Bible study so that the church can once again reclaim her heritage as people of the Book, rather than as people who read lots of books about the Book.

[Also see our blogposts, Ten Obstacles That Get in the Way of Bible Fluency and The Church is Starving Itself: An Interview with Kenneth Berding.]

You say women should study the Bible with purpose, perspective, patience, process, and prayer. Briefly explain what you mean.

Jen Wilkin: In the book I offer a study method that incorporates all five of those elements. It’s a method that I believe is accessible to any student, whether she has a seminary degree or a high school degree, whether she has hours or minutes in her day to give to study. The method offers women basic tools to help them grow in Bible literacy over the long-term. It’s not a method that removes our emotions from our study of the Bible, but rather, one that helps us worship God with emotions that are informed by right thinking.

Bio: Jen Wilkin is a speaker, writer, and teacher of women’s Bible studies. During her 13 years of teaching, she’s organized and led studies for women in home, church, and parachurch contexts. Jen and her family are members of the Village Church (@villagechurchtx) in Flower Mound, Texas.

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A young student arrived at Baylor University in the autumn of 2008 with his life figured out, then slowly each piece of his secure world fell apart: his church, his life of study, his politics, his girlfriend, his best friend, and his God. Perhaps you can identify with his story.

Bible Gateway interviewed Preston Yancey (@prestonyancey) about his book, Tables in the Wilderness: A Memoir of God Found, Lost, and Found Again (Zondervan, 2014).

The title of your book is taken from Psalm 78. What has this Scripture come to mean to you?

Preston Yancey: The psalmist recounts how the children of Israel, having gone through so much, having seen so much, nonetheless still demand of God food as if God, who has led them out of Egypt across the Red Sea, cannot meet the need. It says they grumble against God, asking if God can make tables in the wilderness. What’s interesting about the psalm as a whole is it’s an exercise of the command God gives Israel in Deuteronomy 6, that they are to pass down to their children the stories of their exodus, of what it means to be called the people of God. The psalm does this, make the recounting, so when you arrive to the line about tables, you as the reader, or more aptly, the prayer of the psalm, already can see the joke. Of course God can; look at everything else God has already done!

And yet, we live the same way as the Israelites. We forget the stories of our exodus, the stories of God’s faithfulness to us, and we suddenly stumble over or into or along something and throw up our hands and wonder where God went. All the while God is likely standing beside us, tapping a foot patiently until we get the point. My memoir is an exercise of its own in this regard, it is a recognition that when God went silent I threw up my hands, but God waited me out until I recounted the stories that formed the story of my own exodus, caught up in the great stories of the Church, and I realized that there had been tables all around me, that the testimony of the past was prophecy of the future, that God does not abandon.

Describe how you viewed the Bible, and its role in your family, growing up with a Southern Baptist pastor as your father.

Preston Yancey: The Bible gave me my imagination, or, at least, the deep roots of it. What I believed and still believe about redemption, not only of individuals but also of communities; systems of power and justice; holiness and sanctification; diversity and unity, all were informed by the patterns of taking Scripture seriously, into myself, as part of the daily rhythm of being caught up into the life of God. Our imaginations say a lot about who we are. They reveal both what we believe at present and what we believe the future could be.

You entered college with convictions in the Bible and God, and then you say God fell silent. What happened?

Preston Yancey: God didn’t fall silent all at once. That took about three years. The short version would be that as I became increasingly self-identified as a liturgical Christian, the more I was relying on liturgy for my engagement with God. God had made space for the liturgy in my life during the seasons in which I could not bring myself to pray on my own, but after a few years, I had clung to it too much like a crutch. God fell silent to remind me that being liturgical doesn’t make you a better Christian, doesn’t draw you closer to God, that this way of praying that is so valuable to me is not the only way God can or wants to be found. It was a reminder to seek God with abandonment.

How did the Bible help you find God again after you lost him and how have your views of the Bible changed from when you were growing up?

Preston Yancey: In Deuteronomy 6, the Israelites are told that the way they will pass down the laws of God to their children is by telling them the stories of who God is. God is the God who brought them out of the house of slavery, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The focus of the teaching is through the power of the telling, that we confess to our children the marvelous works of God. The psalmists frequently take up this theme and, in a way, the genealogy of the Gospel of Matthew is working out the same reasoning. The Bible helped me find God again by reminding me to confess the stories of God, part of the larger story of God, a blend of personal testimony, church history, and the stories of Scripture. As to how my views changed, in one sense I became even more conservative about my belief of the Holy Spirit’s inspiration in the writing of Scripture and in another more liberal in how I understand each book of the Bible to be written in different genres and styles that are trying to accomplish different things depending on what they are. Genesis 1-11 is not seeking to make the same factual points that the Gospel of Luke is, nor is the Gospel of Luke concerned with the rich and deep metaphors of the Gospel of John.

Why have you moved from the Southern Baptist tradition to Anglican?

Preston Yancey: That’s a complicated question. I want to say it’s because God said to, but, I also want to say it’s because Anglicanism is how my faith roots. Southern Baptists are people of the Book. They love Scripture and they take it seriously. I am indebted to that element of their tradition and how it has shaped my own understanding of the world, as I mentioned earlier. According to the Tradition, the rabbis taught the world was created after the Torah, that the world was created for the Scriptures. I think Southern Baptists get at that more consistently than many denominations, even if I don’t always find the conclusions they reach to be theologically where I would align. It was this love of Scripture that led me into Anglicanism, because when I read the description of the church in Acts 2, I see the expression of faith that I now call my own: the submission to the teaching of the apostles under the authority of Jesus, the centrality of the Eucharist, Christ made known in the breaking of the bread week after week, among other things.

Explain how The Book of Common Prayer helped you in your faith journey.

Preston Yancey: To talk about The Book of Common Prayer is to talk about Scripture. The majority of liturgy is taken from the Psalms, the Letters to the Corinthians, the Gospels. The BCP puts the scriptural texts in conversation with one another prayerfully, which in turn reminds you to be prayerful as you read Scripture. Moreover, the BCP provides words when sometimes you have none to pray. In my early days of liturgy, the BCP was a guiding force that gave me something to say back to God, full stop, but increasingly it has become a tool that gives me a starting point, a place to center myself to then intercede further, chasing after the wonder that is God.

[See our previous blogpost: The Book of Common Prayer Remains a Force: An Interview with Alan Jacobs]

How do you recommend a person keep listening when God seems profoundly silent?

Preston Yancey: Begin by realizing that your presumption that everyone around you is still hearing God is likely false. More often than not, it’s simply that the people around you don’t feel particularly bothered by a silent God and so can’t quite work out why it is so significant to you.

The mystical tradition of the church shows us that the feeling of God’s absence can be a sign of God’s desire to bring you further into relationship. Gregory of Nyssa wrote of Moses on the mountain that the darkness that Moses enters when he seeks to see God face to face is not darkness at all, but a superabundance of light. It blinds Moses for a time, but God was closer than ever before. Keep doing the rooted things, the things that keep you connected. In a paraphrase of the apostle, don’t give up coming to church, reading the Bible, prayer. How you do those things may look different, but keep the spirit of them alive in you.

Simone Weil wrote that “the action of grace in the heart is secret and silent” and on the other side of the silence or, in my case, on the other side of my need for God to not be silent as proof that God was still around, you’ll discover that the doing of the faithful things kept you more rooted than you realized, kept you listening, kept you fed. God is never so far, but the knowing of that is a journey that no one can measure for you. For a little while, it’s just going to be you and the ghost of the Holy Ghost, wrestling it out, this mess of being we call a life.

Bio: Preston Yancey is a lifelong Texan raised Southern Baptist who fell in love with reading saints, crossing himself, and high church spirituality. He now makes his home within the Anglican tradition. He is a writer, painter, baker, and speaker. An alumnus of Baylor University, Preston completed a masters in theology from St. Andrews University in Scotland before returning to the United States. He lives in Waco, Texas.

The majority of Bible Gateway users responding to an online survey say they use modern English Bible translations to devote Scripture verses to memory.

We asked blog readers “What English Bible translation do you primarily use to memorize Scripture?” More than 2,000 of you responded. Of that number, 63% chose Bible versions other than the popular 400-year-old King James Version (KJV) and the 100-year-old American Standard Version (ASV), known for poetically old-English words like “thee,” “thou,” “ye,” and “verily.” However, at 34% of the votes, the KJV is the top single translation used by people for memorization. The ASV received 1% of the vote.

The New International Version is the second most memorized translation at 29% and is the top modern English Bible text for memory work.

The New King James Version, which retains the lyrical nature of the KJV but without archaic pronouns, is third (12%), followed by English Standard Version (7%), New Living Translation (4%), New American Standard Bible (4%), Amplified Bible (2%), and New Revised Standard Version, Holman Christian Standard Bible, The Voice, The Message, and the New English Translation at 1% each.

Two-percent of Bible Gateway users say they use other Bible translations for memory work than were listed in the survey.

We’ve talked about Bible memorization before—we offered some memorization pointers in “Ten Tips for Memorizing Bible Verse.” Bible memorization is also the focus of our newest email devotional newsletter, the three-week Memo Devo: Memorization as Devotion. And if you want to delve yet deeper, see the many Bible memorization resources and tools at the Bible Gateway Store.

Our next Bible Gateway poll asks “When Scripture is read publicly in worship service, I….” Cast your vote below:

When Scripture is read publicly in worship service, I...

follow along using my print Bible. (53%, 3,281 Votes)

follow along with the text projected on the church screen. (23%, 1,422 Votes)

follow along using my mobile/tablet Bible app. (14%, 867 Votes)

simply listen without looking at the words. (11%, 694 Votes)

pray. (3%, 156 Votes)

daydream. (2%, 154 Votes)

don’t attend worship services. (2%, 143 Votes)

other. (2%, 98 Votes)

Total Voters: 6,212

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The Story is a dynamic, powerful, and rewarding experience produced by Zondervan for churches, families, small groups, and individuals. The Story is helping people everywhere experience Scripture like never before. Carefully selected verses from the Bible are organized chronologically.

From Genesis to Revelation, participants come to understand God’s story and how their stories intersect with it. Churches and small groups have seen enhanced comprehension of the Bible, newfound confidence to share the Word, unified community, and naturally increased community outreach by using The Story.

Bible Gateway interviewed Shelley Leith, national church coach for The Story (Zondervan, 2011) (website) (@TheStoryLives) church campaign and resources.

[Read our Blog post: One Thousand Churches BELIEVE]

Describe the current state of Bible awareness among Christians today.

Shelley Leith: Several years ago, pollster George Gallup Jr. summarized one of his research projects by saying:

“Churches face no greater challenge…than overcoming biblical illiteracy, and the prospects for doing so are formidable because the stark fact is, many Christians don’t know what they believe or why. Our faith is not rooted in Scripture. We revere the Bible but don’t read it. Some observers maintain that the Bible has not in any profound way penetrated our culture.”

[See our previous Blog posts: Most People Wish They Knew More About the Bible, A Summary of Recent Bible Reading Surveys, The Church is Starving Itself: An Interview with Kenneth Berding, and Ten Obstacles That Get in the Way of Bible Fluency]

What’s the difference between Bible literacy and Bible engagement?

Shelley Leith: If you think about it, it’s entirely possible to be biblically literate but not engaged with the Bible. This would be a person who has perhaps grown up in Sunday school, and maybe even attended a Christian school, so they’re very conversant with the Old Testament and New Testament, yet, their current practice does not include daily Bible reading or personal Bible study. Conversely, it’s possible for a person to be engaged with the Bible regularly, but their reading of Scripture is confined to the Gospels or the Psalms, and they never stray into the places in their Bible where the pages are stuck together, so they’re not biblically literate.

What is The Story? How was it conceived?

Shelley Leith: The book called The Story is a best-selling abridged chronological Bible. There are no biblical structures in the text, and the segments of Scripture are arranged chronologically and connected with transition text written to connect the storyline so it reads like a seamless narrative. For people new to the Bible, this way of reading Scripture reduces the intimidation one can feel when approaching the full-length unabridged Bible, and it gives them a holistic and sequential picture of the storyline of Scripture. For seasoned Bible veterans, the chronological arrangement of the essential texts reveals the way the whole Bible fits together in a single grand narrative. The Story is what I like to call a Bible suction machine, because it triggers discovery and curiosity, and drives people back to the original Bible texts for further exploration.

What is The Story Church Campaign, and why should a church use The Story?

Shelley Leith: Here’s where it gets really exciting. The Story Church Campaign is a collection of resources based on The Story that provides a complete spiritual growth pathway for every member of the family. So, you have completely-aligned 31-chapter Story books for every reading level in the family, plus, you have classroom curriculum for every age-related ministry in the church. Churches, perhaps for the first time, can offer their families a cohesive learning experience where every member of the family, from two-year-olds to 92-year-olds, are on the same spiritual pathway, going at the same rate, for a prolonged period of time. Churches that go through The Story in a journey that aligns their preaching and their adult, youth, and children’s ministries, experience heightened unity across all sectors. There’s something powerful that seems to remove the barriers between age groups when the church does The Story.

How long does it take for a church to complete The Story program?

Shelley Leith: The Story is a 31-week program, which spans approximately seven months. The majority of churches start in September, break for the Advent season, pick back up in January, line up the Resurrection chapter with Easter Sunday, then end around Mother’s Day. Other popular start times are in January where they do the Old Testament in the winter and spring, take a summer break, then do the New Testament in the fall; or many start at Easter, taking no breaks and ending at Thanksgiving.

What church traditions/denominations have used The Story?

Shelley Leith: The beautiful thing that’s causing The Story to catch fire across our nation is that it’s Bible-driven, not author-driven or theme-driven. The Story is simply a chronology of actual Scripture taken from your choice of the NIV, the KJV, or the NKJV text, so pastors and ministers and priests and lay leaders are able to teach The Story through the lens of their own theology or their own denominational affiliation. Thus, we’ve seen churches across the spiritual spectrum doing The Story, and we even have resources tailored to these specific denominations included in our online Resource Library:

African Methodist Episcopalian
Baptist
Christian Church
Church of Christ
Episcopalian
Lutheran (LCMS and ELCA)
Missionary Baptist
Non-Denominational
Pentecostal Assemblies of the World
Presbyterian (PCUSA and EPC)
Reformed Church
United Methodist

You’ll find such resources as Lutheran confirmation class adaptations, Episcopalian liturgical readings taken from The Story, charismatic sermons, and a capella worship sets for the Church of Christ tradition.

What are you hearing from churches that have used The Story?

Shelley Leith: Many churches are finding that their parents are actually feeling equipped to become the disciplers of their children, because they’re learning the same thing at the same time as their children. When the take-home materials ask them to lead a spiritual discussion at home, they’re more likely to actually initiate that discussion because they just read the same scriptures and talked about the same topics in their groups and heard a sermon on the same subject, so their confidence is strengthened!

One somewhat unexpected result that many churches have experienced is growth—growth in numbers, growth in offerings, and growth in outreach. This could be explained by a few factors. One is that the people in the church become more confident in knowing what’s going to be happening in church from week to week, so they become more invitational. Another is that the people who attend semi-regularly start coming more consistently because of the “I wonder what’s going to happen next?” element that’s organically built into the chronological arrangement of the program. There’s also the fact that the Bible itself is surprisingly attractional—people who hear that their local church is going through the Bible in this manner are drawn there, because even unchurched or dis-churched people have a desire to read through the Bible sometime in their lifetime.

Is there anything else you’d like to say?

Shelley Leith: Two of my favorite quotes about The Story came from my journey of interviewing people in over a dozen different churches for the film project about The Story.

“The Bible has always been hard to pick up and read. The Story is hard to put down.” (church attender who was new to the church)
“The job of The Story is not to replace the Bible, but to direct you toward the Bible.” (Sunday school teacher for senior adults)

These quotes capture for me the real excitement that one feels when reading the scriptures in this fresh new presentation, and the end goal of this whole project, which is to turn everyday people into devoted Bible readers.

More Info: If you have a question about The Story or The Story Church Campaign, you’ll find answers in multiple videos by church coach Shelley Leith, who draws from her vast background as developer of church training materials to answer some of the most frequently asked questions about The Story.

Scotland has understandably been in the news quite a bit lately. Bible Gateway, alas, has no online Bible in the Scottish Gaelic or Scots languages. But all of the recent discussion of Scottish history and identity prompted me to read up on the history of the Bible in Scotland.

The University of Glasgow has an excellent virtual exhibition showcasing the Bible in Scottish history. Here, it explains the relative dearth of native-language Bible translations in Scotland, and notes that while English-language Scriptures dominated, localized Bible translation projects actually helped to preserve those local languages:

Despite calls within sixteenth-century Scotland for translations of Scripture in the languages of its people, no progress was made. In Gaelic-speaking Scotland, no Scottish Gaelic Bible translations existed before the eighteenth century. The gap was filled by the Irish Gaelic Scriptures, translated from the Greek and Hebrew by Irish Protestant bishops. The Irish Bible, being written in ‘classical common Gaelic’ was comprehensible and usable in Scotland, if not ideal. Classical common Gaelic was a literary language shared by Scottish and Irish Gaels but with which the average Gaelic speaker would have had very limited familiarity.

Between 1766 and 1801 a Bible in specifically Scottish Gaelic was undertaken and published by the Society in Scotland for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge. In part the Society may have seen this project as a means of using Gaelic as a bridge to teach English. Nevertheless, the translation arguably slowed the language’s decline. It helped to stabilise Gaelic orthography and to establish a formal written register which would serve as a model for Gaelic writers for decades to come. Interestingly, later revisions of the Scottish Gaelic Bible owed much in tone to the King James Bible, imitating its English phrasing and pointing.

The language or idiom that fared least well among Bibles in Scotland was Scots, the natural tongue of the vast majority of the non-Gaelic speaking population up to the eighteenth century.

Read more here. Despite the dominance of English-language Bibles, several Scots Bible translation efforts have produced fruit in the last 200 years. It’s a wonderful language to read, even if you can’t speak a word of it. Here’s a gallery (from the University of Glasgow) of Bibles in various Scottish languages and dialects:

When it comes to more modern Bibles, the Scottish Bible Society has undertaken a Gaelic Translation Project, dedicated to producing a new Bible translation in Scottish Gaelic.

The Bible is often seen as a daunting book, written in ancient times and addressed to a vastly unfamiliar culture. Is it really possible to draw relevant insights from it for our lives today?

Bible Gateway interviewed Dr. Jim Nicodem (@JimNicodem) about his Bible Savvy book series, Epic: The Storyline of the Bible, Foundation: The Reliability of the Bible, Context: How to Understand the Bible, and Walk: How to Apply the Bible (Moody Publishers, 2013).

Explain what the Bible Savvy Series is and why you’ve written it.

Dr. Nicodem: The Bible consistently appears at the top of lists of the world’s best-selling and most-influential books. Unfortunately, most people are not in the habit of reading this book for themselves. Some are put off by the Bible’s length—even the Reader’s Digest version is 767 pages long! Others are confused by their lack of knowledge of the Bible’s historical context. And still others have never been taught how to draw practical applications from this ancient book for their modern-day lives.

The four-book Bible Savvy Series provides a brief but comprehensive overview of the Bible for everyone—from first-time readers to Bible study leaders. It covers the Bible’s storyline, formation, rules for interpretation, and steps for application. The BSS also comes with a study guide that has been prepared by small group experts to stimulate life-impacting discussions.

Why is it important for people to become knowledgeable about the Bible?

Dr. Nicodem: Imagine this: You’re at work, and you overhear two people talking in the office cafeteria. To your surprise, they’re talking about you. Your ears prick up the moment you hear your name. They mention certain personality traits of yours, your likes and dislikes, your vocational goals, the causes that you’re passionate about. But here’s the weird part about the information they’re throwing around: you’ve never talked with either one of them. They’re making all this stuff up. They didn’t get their insights about you from you. Wouldn’t that drive you crazy?

People do that all the time with God. What they know about God is mere speculation. But God can only truly be known by revelation. He must reveal himself to us. And that’s what he’s done in the Bible. If you want to know God, you must get to know his Word.

The same goes for God’s plan for your life. All Scripture is God-breathed, writes the Apostle Paul, and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work (2 Tim. 3:16-17). God shapes us into the people he wants us to become through his Word.

Greg Hawkins, former executive pastor of Willow Creek Community Church, did a survey of Christ followers in 1,000 churches to discover what experiences had had the greatest impact on their spiritual lives. To his surprise, the number-one catalyst for spiritual growth was not a church’s weekend services or small groups or serving opportunities. It was the individual’s daily reading of the Bible.

How should knowledge about the Bible translate into practical application for everyday life?

Dr. Nicodem: This topic is so important! A lot of people who read the Bible daily, or hear it taught in sermons, or study it in a small group, never get around to putting what they’ve learned into practice. They are what James would call “hearers” of the Word and not “doers” (see 1:22-25). But application is the whole point of spending time in the Bible. James says that the Bible is like a mirror that should prompt us to make adjustments to our lives every time we look into it.

Unfortunately, many people settle for Bible information instead of Bible transformation. In many cases, this is because no one has ever taught them how to make an application from what they’ve read or studied; how to move from text to life. The fourth book of the Bible Savvy Series is called Walk. And that’s exactly what it coaches the reader to do: walk God’s Word.

What do you consider to be the four essential aspects of the Bible?

Dr. Nicodem: Let me describe the four essential aspects, as I cover them in the four books of the Bible Savvy Series:

The Storyline of the Bible. Like the box cover of a jigsaw puzzle, Epic (book one) provides a big picture view of the Bible to help everyone—from first-time readers to Bible study groupies—understand how its individual pieces fit together. The Bible’s collection of 66 books actually has a single storyline. The theme of that storyline is redemption, which Epic traces from Genesis to Revelation.

The Reliability of the Bible. Foundation (book two) makes the case that the Bible is God’s book. God “breathed” it out through human authors (inspiration), gathered its 66 books into one volume (canon), protected it from errors through centuries of copying (transmission), and faithfully reveals himself and his will for our lives in its pages (revelation). How can we be sure of these claims? Foundation provides plenty of evidence to back them up, giving us the confidence to build our lives on God’s Word.

How to Interpret the Bible. Context (book three) is a mini-course in hermeneutics. Skeptics often complain that the Bible can be used to prove just about anything. The skeptics are right—if the basic ground rules for understanding the Bible are ignored. Just as with any great piece of literature (e.g., Shakespeare’s plays, Tolstoy’s novels, Frost’s poems), the Bible must be interpreted according to certain guidelines, which scholars refer to as hermeneutics. (Hermes was the mythical Greek god who brought messages from the gods to people). Context teaches how to accurately interpret a Bible passage by unpacking its various contexts: first, its historical setting (author, recipient, date, and purpose); next, its literary genre (law, narrative, prophecy, poetry, gospel, or epistle); and finally, its key theological issues.

How to Apply the Bible. Walk (book four) covers Bible application. It begins with a helpful explanation of the role that the Holy Spirit plays in this process. Then it teaches a simple-to-use four step method for enabling Bible readers to become Bible doers. This method is made memorable with the acronym COMA. For every passage you read, you will learn how to: discover its (c)ontext; make (o)bservations about what’s important in the text; determine God’s (m)essage from one of those observations; and craft an (a)pplication of that message for your everyday life.

You sound pretty passionate about getting people into the Bible.

Dr. Nicodem: I am! I plan to have a website called, Becoming Bible Savvy. I’ll encourage subscribers to follow a reading schedule that will take them through the Bible once every five years. This is a good pace for those who want not only to read the Bible, but also to understand and apply what they read.

There will be two postings a week. I’ll write the first one, coaching subscribers through the COMA study method (context-observations-message-application) for the Bible texts they’re reading that week. The second posting will be from guest bloggers, some of whom will be well-known Christian leaders/musicians/athletes—doing the same thing. These postings won’t simply be “devotionals.” They’ll be Bible coaching clinics. My goal is not, as the saying goes, to give people a fish—but to teach them how to fish for themselves.

I’ll also post 5-minute videos on the website every time the daily Bible reading schedule takes us to a new book of the Bible. That video will be a quick interview with a Bible scholar who introduces subscribers to the historical background and main themes of the new book.

If the Bible truly is the #1 catalyst for people’s spiritual growth, then I want to start a Bible-reading revival!

Bio: Dr. Jim Nicodem has been the senior pastor of Christ Community Church (@ccclife) near Chicago since its start in 1984. Beginning with a group of six families, the church has grown to over 5,000 people at four campuses. A significant focus on reaching spiritual seekers has resulted in scores of new believers being baptized each year.

Born and raised in the Midwest, Jim did his schooling in biblical studies (BA/Wheaton College; MDiv, DMin/Trinity Evangelical Divinity School). In keeping with Christ Community Church’s mission to make passionate disciples of Jesus Christ, Jim loves to mentor others in prayer and the study of God’s Word. With that goal in mind, he has authored Prayer Coach: For All Who Want to Get Off the Bench and Onto the Praying Field (2008) and the four-book Bible Savvy series.

Jim and his wife, Sue, have been married for more than 30 years and have three grown children. Jim enjoys biking, hiking and kayaking for recreation. He loves to hang out in Chicago, where he can watch the Cubs play (no better park than Wrigley) or listen to the world-class Symphony Orchestra. The local Starbucks also sees a lot of Jim, accompanied by books (mostly biographies) or friends.

Do you have tough questions about the Bible? (Who doesn’t?) Bible scholar Peter Enns is well known for talking honestly and insightfully about the doubts, problems, and questions that occur to many readers of the Bible as they explore Scripture. His latest book, The Bible Tells Me So: Why Defending Scripture Has Made Us Unable to Read It (HarperOne, 2014) addresses many of those issues, and argues that many of the “problems” we encounter in the Bible are the result of bad assumptions about how to read it.

Let it not be said that Enns is afraid of questions: this afternoon, he’s participating in an “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) thread in the Christianity subsection of Reddit. That means Enns will be responding to questions from the internet as they roll in. The AMA is here and has just now started (although you can certainly visit it after it wraps up to read the complete discussion). So if you’ve ever wanted to stump a Bible scholar, break out those tough questions about Bible interpretation, and ask away!

We’ve featured Enns here on the Bible Gateway blog a few times in the past—last year, he participated in our “Inerrancy Debate” roundtable discussion. His contribution to the roundtable will give you a sense of his approach to reading and understanding Scripture.

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