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Jonathan Petersen
August 1, 2013

Reading the Bible on a Tight Schedule

Even before the sun casts a shadow, the baby is crying and you’ve started your day. As your other kids awake, you feed and dress them while you’re getting ready yourself. The clock is relentless. Rushing out the door to daycare and then your job, you barely have time to nourish your physical body let alone your soul. That’s when you drive down guilt-trip lane.

Your pastor, your parents, your friends, your church small group tell you to read the Bible, study the Bible, even dissect the Bible. But who has time? The crush of each digital second hastens us with the tyranny of the urgent. Keep looking forward because the freight train of deadlines and responsibility is hurtling your way.

In our series of Bible Gateway 20th anniversary reflections, we’re exploring what it means to realistically engage the Bible in our hectic world. We all know the Bible is important to read—the most important book of all; underscored by it remaining at the number one top of the bestseller charts year after decade after century after millennia. It’s God’s Word to us, after all. And yet, once we bring it home from the store, somehow we keep neglecting it. “We’ll get to it… later.”

I speak from experience. My college days came with the commitment to read 12 chapters of the Bible a day: six in the morning; six at night. That soon became six chapters total. Then only three chapters just before bed. Sleep had a way of subduing my reading fervor and I quickly gave up. Through the years my approach is best described as “start/stop feast/famine.”

But we all have the same 1,440 minutes (86,400 hastening seconds) in a day to work with. Why do some people accomplish the impossible in that amount of time and others can’t even get out of bed? The answer: We do what we want to do. It’s that simple. We want to eat. We want to sleep. Nothing (at least for long) can keep us from these physiological basics. So it’s merely a matter of choosing to put the Bible’s “daily bread” intake on the same intransigent level as those essentials. Once you decide that, the rest is simply scheduling.

An initial approach to incorporating the Bible into your life’s routine and rhythm is to intentionally not make it an arduous task. The following are some ideas I’ve used in my own life to help keep the Bible front and center.

1. Do you have a tear-off-a-day calendar in your kitchen? Make it a Bible verse calendar to glance at while you’re toasting your bread.

2. Instead of listening to the radio as you commute to work or drive around town, listen to a CD or MP3 recording of the Bible being read. Find a version that’s audibly understandable to you. Enjoy the read. Let it frame your general point of view in those moments, even if you don’t grasp every detail or remember every verse.

3. Sign up to receive a free daily Bible verse in your inbox so it’s automatically there for you whenever you check your email. Forward it to a friend who would benefit from its message.

4. Download a mobile Bible app so it’s easy for you to open your tablet or smartphone and skim a Bible passage (or listen to its audio version) while you queue at the store or are in your doctor’s waiting room. Take it with you to church and refer to it while the sermon is being preached. Easy on; easy off (and easy locating a minor prophet like Zephaniah without having to flip through hundreds of printed pages).

5. Keep BibleGateway.com open in a tab on your desktop’s browser and click to it when you hear or read a news story that could be contextualized from a biblical viewpoint. And pray for the people at the center of that news.

6.As these methods work their way into your everyday tasks, you may find yourself ready for a little more structure: follow a prepared Bible reading plan that could be as brief as verses grouped together around a specific topic, to reading the complete Bible in a set number of days. This might be when you actually commit yourself to an explicit time and place in which you’ll encounter the Bible. Just as you brush your teeth every morning after getting out of bed, determine you’ll include the Bible in your personal well-being and healthful repetition. If you’ve scheduled a reading plan on a mobile app, let it remind you every day to access it.

Today’s technology can be an onerous time-sucker or it can be a liberating change-agent that helps you engage the Bible and make it an excitedly natural part of your daily 1,440 minutes!

On our Facebook page, tell us how you read the Bible on your tight schedule. And tweet about it using #biblegateway.

Andy Rau
July 31, 2013

Have Archaeologists Found King David’s Palace?

The excavation at Khirbet Qeiyafa.

Has a palace belonging to King David been discovered at Khirbet Qeiyafa? What are Christians to make of sensational claims like this one? It’s hard to discern the significance of impressive-sounding archaeological finds when most of us aren’t scholars or archaeologists ourselves. And after years of sensational claims that didn’t pan out (the Jesus Tomb, the crucifixion nail, the “lost gospels,” etc.), it’s natural to be skeptical.

In the wake of similar claims in recent years, we’ve published some guidelines for evaluating sensational archaeological claims, and those points remain valid. However, here are three good articles talking specifically about more recent archaeological claims, including the “King David’s palace” story:

So have archaeologists discovered David’s palace? Currid sums up the proper attitude nicely:

Where, then, should we stand on this discovery? On the one hand, we need to be careful not to buy into the speculative sensationalism that we see and read in the news and that, unfortunately, is sometimes purveyed by archaeologists.

On the other hand, we need not fall into the trap of an automatic hermeneutic of suspicion that dominates the field of archaeology. Let us patiently wait for all the evidence of the excavation to emerge. Then we will have a better idea if this is really “King David’s Palace.”

While we all wait for more information on the Khirbet Qeiyafa discoveries, I recommend setting the controversial claims aside and reading up on the subject itself: David’s palace. In 2 Samuel 5, we read about the construction of one such structure:

Now Hiram king of Tyre sent envoys to David, along with cedar logs and carpenters and stonemasons, and they built a palace for David. — 2 Samuel 5

David’s palace at Jerusalem—not the one alleged to have been found at Khirbet Qeiyafa—was the scene of much drama throughout David’s reign. It was impressive enough that David was uncomfortable living there while the Ark of the Covenant was sheltered in a mere tent. It was in David’s palace that the tragedy of David’s affair with Bathsheba played out.

Photo by Wikipedia user YaelS.

Andy Rau
July 30, 2013

500,000!

We’ve just hit 500,000 fans on Bible Gateway’s page on Facebook!

If you haven’t connected with us on Facebook, you’re missing out on the chance to interact not only with us, but with other Bible Gateway fans. We regularly post Scripture verses, discussion questions, Bible Gateway-related news, and noteworthy links, and we often see good discussions taking place between fans. So stop by and “Like” our page on Facebook to join in!

We’re present on most of the major social networks, so wherever you are, take a minute to connect with us:

We’re thrilled to have so many people on Facebook interested in Bible Gateway. And we’re grateful for each and every one of our users, whether you interact with us through Facebook, the website, our mobile app, or any other channel!

Andy Rau
July 26, 2013

Jefferson Bethke: Why We Don’t Read the Bible More

What keeps people from reading the Bible as much as they should? Each of us has their own answer to that question, but it’s possible to identify a few common attitudes that get in the way of Bible engagement. That’s what we’ve been asking throughout our Bible Gateway 20th anniversary interview series, and that’s the question we pose to Jefferson Bethke (the mind and voice behind “Why I Hate Religion”in the video below:

Jefferson identifies two things that get in the way of Bible reading. First, there’s pride—the belief that we’ve got our lives sufficiently figured out that we don’t need the Bible’s guidance. And secondly, ignorance—we simply lack an understanding of what the Bible is really about, and why it’s valuable.

In the second half of his answer, Jefferson imagines what it would be like to be feverishly eager to read God’s Word. That image is very different from the common stereotypes about Bible reading—I suspect that for many people, the words “Bible reading” make them think of Bible reading involves a droning preacher making his way through a parade of “thee’s” and “thou’s,” or invoke a memories of getting bogged down in long Middle Eastern genealogies.

What needs to happen to make Bible reading something you can’t wait to do, instead of a task you grudgingly perform?

Andy Rau
July 23, 2013

Explore the Promises of God’s Word at the “Unwrap the Bible” Study Event

What does God’s Word have to say to you? How do you apply it to your life?

Our friends at Women of Faith are hosting a major Bible event in 2014 to explore and answer these questions! At the Unwrap the Bible Bible study event in February 2014, women from around the country will gather in one place to unwrap the life-changing promises of the Bible.

Unwrap the Bible will feature five gifted Bible teachers, some of whom you may recognize from Bible Gateway’s devotional library: Beth Moore, Christine Caine, Priscilla Shirer, Sheila Walsh and Lisa Harper.

The video below explains more of what you can expect from this event:

We don’t usually highlight Bible events and conferences like this—but Unwrap the Bible is an event that we at Bible Gateway are excited about. We’ve benefited from the teaching and devotional writing of these speakers and writers. We want everyone to engage more fully with God’s Word, but over the last year we’ve made a special effort to add to our library devotionals written by and for women. The Unwrap the Bible event is very much in that spirit.

Unwrap the Bible takes place on February 21-22, 2014 at Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas. Visit the official website to learn more. If you’re interested in attending, you can register online now or call 1-888-49-FAITH to reserve your seat. There’s still time to get the best seats before the event goes on sale to the general public on August 5; enter code BibleGateway when you register.

Andy Rau
July 17, 2013

Annie Downs: What Obstacles to Bible Reading do Young Women Face?

Annie Downs is an author who loves helping teen girls and young women overcome the challenges that life puts in the way of their spiritual development. Her upcoming book Speak Love: Making Your Words Matter challenges teen girls to end the “mean girl” mentality and become a generation who use their words to build up, not take down.

Annie is also a Bible Gateway fan, and graciously took time to chat with us as part of our 20th anniversary video series. We’ve been talking about the obstacles that keep us from reading the Bible—and so we asked Annie if there are any specific issues and challenges that keep girls and young women from engaging with God’s Word. Here’s what she shared with us:

In Annie’s experience, many young people (boys and girls both) get the false message that the Bible is for adults, not kids and teens, and thus don’t imagine that it has something meaningful to say to them. Is this something you experienced when you were growing up? If you’re a parent or interact with kids a lot, is this something you see?

As the father of a five-year-old girl who loves reading and hearing Bible stories, I’ve wondered about this. How I can encourage my daughter, as she grows up, to nurture her love for the Bible even once she outgrows the “cool stories!” stage of Bible understanding?

Can you relate? What can we do to show the children in our families and communities that the Bible holds meaning for them regardless of their age?

Andy Rau
July 16, 2013

What Bible Gateway Looked Like in the 1990s

Remembering getting these in the mail?

Do you remember the internet of the mid-1990s? If you do, you were on the cutting edge—probably using Mosaic or Netscape Navigator to browse the hundreds (maybe even thousands!) of websites on the World Wide Web. There was a quirky and chaotic vibe to the web; all-knowing search engines like Google didn’t yet exist, and if your company, organization, or church had a website, odds are it had been designed by an enthusiastic employee in her spare time, or by somebody’s tech-savvy nephew.

The internet of the 1990s in a nutshell.

As you may have guessed, it’s also a time and environment that evokes a lot of nostalgia for me and many others. This year, Bible Gateway is celebrating its 20th anniversary—20 years since it was first “born” on a as a student project on a Calvin College server—which means that Bible Gateway came into being as part of that early, adventurous period of internet history.

So what was the Bible Gateway of the mid-1990s like? What did it look like, and what could you do with it? Let’s take a trip down memory lane and find out what Bible Gateway looked like in its earliest days.

We don’t have screenshots from Bible Gateway’s earliest years, when it lived on a college server. (For the truly interested, a search of Usenet discussions on comp.infosystems.announce and other newsgroups turns up discussions of these earliest incarnations, now lost to time.) However, by 1997, here’s what Bible Gateway visitors were using (click to enlarge):

Bible Gateway as it appeared in 1997.

Bible Gateway as it appeared in 1997.

I’ll pause a moment so you can go ahead and get the giggles out of your system—it looks crude to modern eyes, but believe or not, this was state-of-the-art in 1997. Take a look at what Apple.com and Yahoo.com looked like that year! (And hey, at least there’s no blink tag!)

What immediately jumps out at me is that as far back as 1997, the core features of Bible Gateway were already present: you can search the Bible by passage or by keyword, and you can access a (small, but promising) selection of both English and non-English Bibles. At this time, Bible Gateway’s library consisted of seven English Bible translations and 1-2 Bibles each in German, Swedish, Latin, French, Spanish, and Tagalog.

While some of those Bibles were (and are) in the public domain, several were provided by organizations like International Bible Society (now Biblica) and The Lockman Foundation—partners who continue to make Bibles available on Bible Gateway today. From its earliest days, Bible Gateway has worked with partners in the Bible translation and publishing community.

Here’s what you got if you looked up a Bible passage on 1997 Bible Gateway (click to enlarge):

A Bible Gateway passage view from 1997.

A Bible Gateway passage view from 1997.

It’s pretty basic—no sign of the many different text display and formatting options that you’re used to today. But it does the job.

And… that’s about it. In the years to come, Bible Gateway would add a great many new features—not just a bigger Bible library, but also more advanced search and display options. And here are some of the big features we may take for granted now that were nowhere in sight in 1997:

  • Audio Bibles.
  • The ability to view more than one Bible passage or translation side-by-side.
  • Commentaries, Bible reference works, reading plans, and devotionals.
  • A mobile-friendly site (let alone an app).

All of those features came later.

But even in its relatively simple 1997 incarnation, Bible Gateway was a groundbreaking tool. For one thing, in an era of expensive computers and proprietary software, it was free—a showcase of the fledgling internet’s culture of generous and open access to information. It showed that the Christian church could be present on the cutting edge of the internet era. And with its ability to be accessed all around the world—even in countries hostile to traditional missionary and evangelism work—it had tremendous implications for international missions and discipleship.

Of course, the individuals behind Bible Gateway (and it really was individuals—Bible Gateway started out as, and has always been, a project run by a small, very dedicated team) didn’t have all those lofty visions in mind when they put it online in the mid-90s. But today, we can look back at their work and marvel that through God’s grace, this college student project has grown to present the Word of God to millions upon millions of people, all around the world.

Andy Rau
July 11, 2013

Lee Strobel on Why People Don’t Read the Bible

Why don’t we read the Bible more than we do?

We took that question to several leading Christian writers and thinkers this year, and they each offered their own perspective on the question. First up is apologist Lee Strobel with his answer to the question What prevents people from reading and engaging with the Bible?

Lee identifies apathy as the reason more of us aren’t reading our Bibles regularly—people just doubt that the Bible has something meaningful to say to them, so they don’t bother to take a look. Does this ring true you? If you don’t read the Bible regularly, does this describe you? And for those of you who do read the Bible regularly… was this one of the obstacles you had to overcome before Bible reading became a habit?

In the second half of his answer, Lee also hints at a natural follow-up question: what would you recommend to somebody who wants to overcome that apathy and experience the Bible, maybe for the first time? Lee’s favorite starting point is the book of Luke in the New Testament. What about you?

Stay tuned next week for the next installment in this series. In the meantime, if you missed them, click here to see other videos we’ve posted as part of our 20th anniversary project.

Andy Rau
July 10, 2013

Why Don’t We Read the Bible As Much As We Want?

Earlier this year, a Barna report found that a vast majority of Americans—nearly nine out of ten—own a Bible. But you can probably guess the catch: a much, much smaller percentage actually read those Bibles on a regular basis. Thirteen percent read the Bible each day. About half read the Bible “at least four times a year.”

Here’s what I find most interesting about the study’s findings, however: most people wish they read the Bible more than they do. So why don’t they? Almost all of us have Bibles sitting on the bookshelf (an average of 4.4 copies, in fact). What’s keeping us from reading them?

This is an important and productive question to ask yourself—not just to make yourself feel guilty, but because if there’s an obstacle in your life that’s keeping you from reading the Bible, the first step in overcoming it is identifying what it is. So what’s keeping you from reading the Bible as much as you’d like? Here are a few that have hindered me at different points in my life:

  • A packed and hectic daily schedule.
  • A fear that the Bible is difficult, boring, or confusing to read.
  • A belief that the Bible isn’t relevant to modern life.
  • Laziness—I know I should, but I simply don’t take the effort to make it happen.

Maybe you can relate to some of these, or perhaps you’ve got different reasons all your own.

Starting this week, we at Bible Gateway hope to add some insight into this discussion with a new series of interviews about the obstacles that keep us from reading God’s Word. As with our recent video series about Bible verses that speak to the year 2013, we’ll talk to Christian authors and thinkers like Lee Strobel, Jefferson Bethke, and Annie Downs. It’s all a part of our 20th anniversary celebration, during which we’re exploring the topic of Bible engagement in 2013 from a variety of angles.

Look for the first installment in our “obstacles to Bible reading” series tomorrow. And in the meantime, take a few minutes to consider the obstacles in your own life. Do you want to spend more time in God’s Word? What needs to happen to make that a reality?

Andy Rau
July 9, 2013

Praying and Learning During Ramadan

Today is the first full day of Ramadan, the month-long Muslim period of fasting. Ramadan is one of the few times during the year that many Christians in the West hear about Islam in a context that isn’t political, and I think it’s a good opportunity for Christ-followers to learn a bit more about what Muslims believe.

Here are a few interesting and useful links about Ramadan, and how Christians can understand and approach Islam.

Lastly, in the video clip below, apologist Lee Strobel is asked what distinguishes Christianity from Islam, and why he has chosen to follow Christ. How would you answer if you were asked why you believe the Bible’s claims, and not the Koran’s?

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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.