The book of 1 Samuel begins with the birth of the prophet Samuel
and ends with the death of King Saul. It contains a catalog of lives for us to
learn from—some exemplary, others not. Samuel was born in the time of the
judges, when “people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes” (Judges
17:6). The people were far from God. Eli was high priest, but the flaws in his
leadership can be seen in the dysfunctions of his own family. Since Israel
lacked strong spiritual leadership, God chose Samuel and prepared him to lead
the Israelites back to God.
Near the end of Samuel’s ministry, the people demanded a king;
they wanted to be like the surrounding nations. God was not pleased with
Israel’s demand, but he chose Saul to lead them anyway. Saul, though a man of
great potential, was self-centered and disobedient; he never achieved what God
had intended for him.
While Saul was still king, Samuel anointed David to be the next king. David became a national hero by killing Goliath, and he won numerous other great battles with God’s help. But when Saul realized that David was in line for the throne, he was consumed by bitterness and tried to kill him.
Finally, faced with defeat in battle, Saul took his own life. This book portrays some who moved toward God and toward wholeness and others who moved away from God and toward disaster. Jealousy, bitterness, and disobedience destroyed the life of King Saul. But forgiveness, trust, and obedience brought David great success. This book clearly shows that the only way to wholeness is by trusting and obeying God and following his program.
THE BOTTOM LINE
PURPOSE: To track Israel’s transition from the period of the judges to the era of kingly rule. AUTHOR: Unknown, but probably most of it was written by Samuel. Nathan and Gad were also contributors. AUDIENCE: The people of Israel. DATE WRITTEN: The book was probably started during Samuel’s lifetime and finished around 930 b.c. SETTING: In Israel, between 1120 and 971 b.c. KEY VERSE: “What is more pleasing to the Lord: your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice? Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice” (15:22). KEY PLACES: Shiloh, Gilgal, Ramah, Bethlehem, Gath, Adullam, Hebron, the wilderness of Judah, Ziklag, Endor, Beth-shan. KEY PEOPLE AND RELATIONSHIPS: Samuel and Eli, Samuel and Saul, and Samuel and David.
The authors of the Life Recovery Biblehave recently released four workbooks that meet the needs of people dealing with compulsive behaviors that go beyond alcohol and substance abuse. These workbooks complement The Life Recovery Bible and focus on developing a biblical foundation for both understanding and successfully overcoming specific areas of struggle. Learn more
Nebuchadnezzar or Nebuchadrezzar (king of Babylon)
by Mark D. Taylor, Chairman / CEO, Tyndale House Ministries
Nebuchadnezzar II was king of Babylon for 43 years—from 605
to 562 b.c. He is mentioned in
many ancient Babylonian documents, and he played a pivotal role in the fall of
the Kingdom of Judah. As described in 2 Kings 24:1—25:26, Nebuchadnezzar
invaded Judah three times. The first invasion was in 605 b.c., the first year of his reign. The
second was in 597 b.c., in the
eighth year of his reign. Finally, he invaded again in 588-586 b.c., when he destroyed Jerusalem and
the Temple of the Lord.
The story of Nebuchadnezzar’s impact on the Kingdom of Judah
is told in five Old Testament books—2 Kings, 2 Chronicles, Jeremiah, Ezekiel,
and Daniel. His actual name is found 91 times in the Hebrew (or Aramaic) text,
but it is spelled two different ways—Nebuchadnezzar (with an “n”) and
Nebuchadrezzar (with an “r”). The translators of the King James Version (KJV),
Revised Standard Version (RSV), and New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) chose
to follow the different Hebrew spellings as they transliterated the name into
English. Most English translations, including the NLT, use the more common
spelling—Nebuchadnezzar—throughout the text to allay potential confusion on the
part of readers. The NLT also provides a textual note for each chapter in which
the Hebrew spelling Nebuchadrezzar (with an “r”) is transliterated as
Nebuchadnezzar (with an “n”).
This is just one example among many, many ways the NLT translators have worked to make the English text as clear as possible for our readers.
by Dr. Barry C. Black, Chaplain of the United States Senate
The One Year Pray for America Bible provides springboards for prayer that enable you to pray more effectively. It gives a different prayer prompt each day, encouraging us to pray for our government and make petitions on behalf of our leaders and fellow citizens for security, forgiveness, mercy, justice, humility, and wisdom. Prayer enables us to make our voices heard in heaven regarding America’s needs.
Prayer helped to make America a beacon of freedom. At the
birth of this nation, people sought God’s help in making the dream of Liberty a
reality. At the 1787 Constitutional Convention, when the participants had reached
an impasse, Benjamin Franklin suggested that they pray, and they eventually
did. Those prayers aided in our nation’s birth.
One of the first acts of the new American legislative branch
in 1789 was to establish a chaplaincy. A key responsibility of this chaplaincy
was to begin each legislative session with an invocation. Prayer has continued almost
uninterrupted since that time, because seeking God’s assistance for a person,
nation, or world is laudable. The Bible reminds us, “Godliness makes a nation
great, but sin is a disgrace to any people” (Proverbs 14:34). Humanity can
cooperate with Divinity in making a nation great.
If our nation started with prayer, perhaps we should also
sustain it with the same. We should get back to praying because, after all, God
is sovereign over all nations. Job 12:23-24 says this about God: “He builds up
nations, and he destroys them. He expands nations, and he abandons them. He strips
kings of understanding and leaves them wandering in a pathless wasteland.”
These verses make it clear that humanity will not have the ultimate word in
what happens to nations; God will.
Getting Back to
Praying for Our Nation
We should get back to praying for our government because God
has ordained government to establish order in society. The apostle Paul puts it
this way:
Everyone must submit to governing authorities. For all
authority comes from God, and those in positions of authority have been placed
there by God. So anyone who rebels against authority is rebelling against what God
has instituted, and they will be punished. For the authorities do not strike
fear in people who are doing right, but in those who are doing wrong. Would you
like to live without fear of the authorities? Do what is right, and they will
honor you. The authorities are God’s servants, sent for your good. But if you
are doing wrong, of course you should be afraid, for they have the power to
punish you. They are God’s servants, sent for the very purpose of punishing
those who do what is wrong. So you must submit to them, not only to avoid
punishment, but also to keep a clear conscience.
Pay your taxes, too, for these same reasons. For government
workers need to be paid. They are serving God in what they do. Give to everyone
what you owe them: Pay your taxes and government fees to those who collect
them, and give respect and honor to those who are in authority. (Romans 13:1-7)
God ordained government for our good. Paul instructs us that
government officials deserve our prayers, finances, honor, and respect.
We should get back to praying for our government because God
commands us to pray for it. We find these words in 1 Timothy 2:1-4, “I urge
you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on
their behalf, and give thanks for them. Pray this way for kings and all who are
in authority so that we can live peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and
dignity. This is good and pleases God our Savior, who wants everyone to be
saved and to understand the truth.”
We should get back to praying for our government because
life should not be divided into sacred and secular. God has sovereignty over
all our lives because in him we live, move, breathe, and function (Acts 17:28).
According to Proverbs 21:1, even the king’s heart is in God’s hands; the sovereign
God guides the king’s heart as he desires. Our lives are sustained by a
powerful divine providence, and the sacred permeates every part of our
existence, including government.
We should get back to praying for our government because
people of faith have a role in influencing public life and policy. We must give
to Caesar what belongs to him (Matthew 22:21), fostering morality in government
and holding authorities accountable. The Bible challenges us to be salt and
light to our world (Matthew 5:13-16). This means refusing to be missing in
action when it comes to governmental affairs. Esther, Nehemiah, and Daniel are
just three examples of how believers should relate to government constructively.
We should get back to praying for our government because the
ends sought by the government should be morally acceptable. In short, when Caesar’s
dictates collide with God’s commands, we must obey God instead of Caesar (Acts 5:29).
When the Babylonian king demanded that Daniel and his friends eat inappropriate
food, Daniel negotiated an acceptable alternative that satisfied this demand
(Daniel 1:5-16). When, however, the same king insisted these young men bow and
worship an idol or be executed in a fiery furnace, the young men chose to risk
death rather than compromise their faith (Daniel 3:1-18). Therefore, we must
cooperate with government whenever it does not violate our allegiance to God
and resist it when it does. Part of our cooperation entails praying.
We should get back to praying for our government because we
are urged to pray for others. In Jesus’ model prayer for his disciples (Matthew
6:9‑13),
the pronouns are plural. It does not say “My Father” but “Our Father.” We are
not told to pray “give me today the food I need,” but “give us today the food
we need.” Jesus does not admonish us to pray “don’t let me yield to temptation,
but rescue me from the evil one,” but “don’t let us yield to temptation, but
rescue us from the evil one.” Although some may find it difficult to believe
that the effectiveness of prayer goes beyond the private and interior life of
the intercessor, the Bible urges us to pray for others (James 5:16).
We should get back to praying for our government because
intercessory prayer is an affirmation of faith in the God who desires to serve
humanity. God says in Ezekiel 33:11: “As surely as I live, says the Sovereign
Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of wicked people. I only want them to
turn from their wicked ways so they can live. Turn! Turn from your wickedness, O
people of Israel! Why should you die?” In his book on prayer, Eric Hayman
observed, “The power of our intercession is not our isolated pressure on a God
remote from us. It is the action of His Spirit in and through our little souls,
self-offered to the purpose of His will. So our intercession depends on our
keeping open both to the perfect will of God and also the need and suffering of
the world.”* Perhaps this is why Elton Trueblood speaks of the church as a
“fellowship of the concerned.”†
We should get back to praying for our government because God
blesses nations that acknowledge him. Psalm 33:12 states: “What joy for the nation
whose God is the Lord, whose people he has chosen as his inheritance.” God
shows special favor to those who respect his sovereignty. He protects these
nations, surrounding them with the shield of his love (Psalm 5:12).
How We Should Pray
So, how should we pray for our government? First, we should pray for our government’s needs. One Greek word that can be translated as “supplication”in 1 Timothy 2:1 is deēsis, which is a word that suggests that God expects us to ask him to meet our government’s needs. God has promised to supply all our needs out of his celestial bounty (Philippians 4:19). He invites us to cry out to him when we are confronted with trouble (Psalm 50:15).When our government is overwhelmed by moral, financial, and even safety concerns, we should intercede for its needs. We have an example of praying for the needs of the government in James 5:16-18. These verses remind us that Elijah prayed and asked God to stop the rain from falling. Elijah was concerned because the government under King Ahab had endorsed the worship of Baal. The government seemed certain that it was Baal who sent the rain and produced a bountiful harvest, not the God of Israel. Elijah was concerned about governmental deviation from God’s law. He wanted the sovereign God of Israel to assert himself, and God answered his prayer,which was prompted by this need.
Second, we should pray with total dependence on God. Another Greek word in 1 Timothy 2:1 that can be translated as “prayer” is proseuchē. This word suggests that we should seek God as the sole provider of our government’s success. This dependence on God’s power is implied in Psalm 127:1: “Unless the Lord builds a house, the work of the builders is wasted. Unless the Lord protects a city, guarding it with sentries will do no good.” The notion of total dependence upon God is also captured in the Ten Commandments given to Moses by God on Mount Sinai: “You must not have any other god but me” (Exodus 20:3). God desires to be our sole provider.
Third, we should pray confidently, knowing that we have complete access to God. The Greek word enteuxis in 1 Timothy 2:1 can be translated as “petition.” In this word, we can see an admonition to come boldly before God’s throne of grace to receive help in the time of need (see also Hebrews 4:16). We hear this same sentiment in 1 Peter 2:9, which describes believers as royal priests. A priest is someone who has access to both God and the people and is a bridge between God and the people. When we pray for our government, we should intercede with an awareness of our complete access to God in heaven.
Finally, we should pray with thanksgiving. The final Greek word in 1 Timothy 2:1 that shows us how to pray is eucharistia, which can be translated“thanksgiving.” Thanksgiving adds perfume to our petitions ascending to God’s throne. Philippians 4:6 says: “Pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.” Everything includes our prayers for our government. Believers are also encouraged to give thanks in every circumstance (1 Thessalonians 5:18). Continual thanksgiving is God’swill for our lives.
The Difference Prayer
Can Make
Imagine the difference our prayers would make if we asked
specifically for God to deal with the needs of our nation. What would happen if
we prayed for a stronger economy, or more harmonious race relations, or greater
civility among our political leaders, or better cooperation between our
branches of government? Specificity matters. God is waiting for us to be
specific about our needs.
Imagine what would happen if we sought God as our first
option—not the fourth or fifth. It would be wonderful to avoid the mistakes of
the disciples in a storm at sea. They first attempted to save themselves; they
waited before awakening Jesus (Mark 4:35-41). Our prayers for government can be
energized by understanding that God is the sole source of our strength and
help.
Imagine what would happen if we took frequent advantage of
the complete access God has given us to his throne because of our status as
royal priests. It can take months to meet with a government leader, but God has
provided us with continuous access to his presence, mercy, grace, and might.
Imagine what would happen if Thanksgiving came every day instead of once a year. How much more effective our prayers would be if we decided with the psalmist to praise the Lord at all times, with his praises constantly on our lips (Psalm 34:1). Perhaps then we would know experientially the truth of Psalm 22:22-31, which envisions a holy God who is continually praised by his people. The greatest days of our nation are linked to the holiness of its citizens. By God’s grace, let’s get back to prayer. The One Year Pray for America Bibleis a great starting point.
* Eric Hayman, Prayer and the Christian Life (London:
Student Christian MovementPress, 1948), 122-123.
† Elton Trueblood, Alternative to Futility (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1948), 58.
Look Inside the One Year Pray for America Bible
The Transformational Simplicity of the Whole Bible in One Year
What are some first impressions of the Bible? It’s a big
book. It seems overwhelming. It’s filled with people and places that seem
different than us and our surroundings. If we take a closer look and actually
get into its pages, we discover it’s extremely personal, and the people and
places actually look a lot more familiar to us than they did at first glance.
But what about the overwhelming part? It can be hard to know where to begin or
how everything is connected.
The One Year Bibleis a great resource to help us engage with the Bible in a manageable way. It takes the entire Bible and breaks it down into daily readings. It sounds so simple, and yet it’s transformational. From seekers to life-long believers, The One Year Biblehas helped people understand God’s story and what it means to each of us.
Dishy was not a Christian when he started reading the Bible.
He questioned its validity and wondered why people would believe it’s true.
“I have spent much of my life wondering whether any of
Christianity’s teachings were true or just wishful thinking, and perhaps also a
good sales job perpetuated by ancient people with an agenda. But it’s quite
easy to have an uneducated opinion about something you vaguely know about but haven’t
actually read! So, I decided to start putting forth an effort to read the
actual Bible, the whole thing, from beginning to end. I hoped that this
exercise would put the issue to rest in my life and I would be able to decide
once and for all what I thought about Christianity,” he said.
“I really like the read-it-in-one-year concept with
scheduled daily passages. It is helpful to refer to a study Bible to
occasionally get more background and explanation. This One Year Bible encourages me to keep up with it. Since the passages
aren’t very long each day, I think Surely
I can read this for 10 or 15 minutes. So, whoever thought of the concept
had a really great idea.”
Is this still a good Bible for people who have been reading
it most of their lives? Hank thinks so. He is a lifelong Christian and has read
the Bible every day for almost 30 years.
“I love the Bible. It’s such a joy to read it, and I just
want everyone to have that joy and understand what it can give you,” said Hank.
He started with his family.
“For 19 years I read a One Year Bible, and each year I dedicated it to a family member. The notes in the margin were personal, such as ‘This is my prayer for you.’ I’ve underlined, circled, and highlighted many passages, letting them know what inspires me. It is my legacy to them,” said Hank.
Through these Bibles Hank has inspired a love for God’s Word
in others. Sharing his struggles, joys, failures, and triumphs as he moves
closer to God has been a comfort and a catalyst for his family members to grow
deeper in their understanding of God through his Word.
“When I give it to them and they read it, they always come back saying, ‘I didn’t know you were going through that’ or ‘when you wrote this it helped me to better understand what I was facing.’ The Bible gives me joy whenever I read it, and I get joy by sharing it with others. The more you get into it, the more your joy will grow,” said Hank.
Take a Look Inside The One Year Bible
Was Mary, Jesus’ Mother, Ever Afraid?
We often think of Mary, Jesus’ mother, as the beautiful young woman who the angel visited to share of the coming of Christ. And that the Messiah would come into the world through her. We know Mary sang out in praise to God, but that wasn’t the end of her story. Read more about Mary’s story from the Life Application Study Bible
Motherhood is a painful privilege. Young Mary of Nazareth had the unique privilege of being mother to the very Son of God. Yet most of the pains and pleasures Mary experienced in motherhood can be understood by mothers everywhere. Mary was the only human present at Jesus’ birth who also witnessed his death. She saw him arrive as her baby son, and she watched him die as her Savior.
Until Gabriel’s unexpected visit, Mary’s life was quite satisfactory. She had recently become engaged to a carpenter, Joseph, and was anticipating married life. But her life was about to change forever.
Angels don’t make appointments before visiting. Feeling as if she were being congratulated for winning the grand prize in a contest she had never entered, Mary found the angel’s greeting puzzling and his presence frightening. What she heard next was the news almost every woman in Israel hoped to hear—that her child would be the Messiah, God’s promised Savior. Mary did not doubt the message; instead, she asked how pregnancy would be possible. Gabriel told her the baby would be God’s Son. Her answer was the one God waits in vain to hear from so many people: “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true” (Luke 1:38). Her later song of joy shows us how well she knew God, for her thoughts were filled with his words from the Old Testament.
When Jesus was eight days old, Mary and Joseph took him to the Temple to be dedicated to God. There they were met by two devout people, Simeon and Anna, who recognized the child as the Messiah and praised God. Simeon directed some words to Mary that must have come to her mind many times in the years that followed: “A sword will pierce your very soul” (Luke 2:35). A big part of her painful privilege of motherhood would be to see her son rejected and crucified by the people he had come to save.
We can imagine that even if she had known all she would suffer as Jesus’ mother, Mary would still have given the same response. Are you, like Mary, available to be used by God?
Look Inside the Life Application Study Bible
When the Fears Don’t Go Away
“The disciples went and woke him up, shouting, “’Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!’” Matthew 8:25, NLT
“Although the disciples had witnessed many miracles, they panicked in this storm. As experienced sailors, they knew its danger; what they did not know was that Jesus could control the forces of nature. We often encounter storms in our lives where we feel God can’t or won’t work. When we truly understand who God is, however, we will realize that he controls both the storms of nature and the storms of the troubled heart. Jesus’ power that calmed this storm can also help us deal with the problems we face. And he is with us. Jesus is willing to help if we only ask him. We should never discount his power even in terrible trials.”
Reflection from Evie, Bible Team Marketing Coordinator
It was the third e-mail in a month from our daughter’s middle school. “Violence has been threatened against the school, but we are handling the situation and the person who initiated the threat is not on campus.” That was basically all we got. We spoke to Els about the situation and she didn’t seem overly concerned. In what is unfortunately our reality we moved on thinking it was “just” a social media prank. We prayed with her, told her to pay attention to her surroundings, and to share with her teachers and us if anything didn’t feel right or she was scared.
But at dinner the next night Els said, “My friend was shaking she was so scared. She was on the bus when she heard a boy say, ‘Don’t come to school during 5th–7th period today because I’m going to shoot up the school.’”
As any self-proclaimed protective momma bear would, I ran
around the table hugging her as a million thoughts consumed me. How can we
homeschool her? What is wrong with that school? Wait until the principal gets
an earful from me! Who is that kid? I am talking to his parents! But in the
midst of my chaotic thoughts her sweet voice broke through. “It’s okay, Mom.
God knows what’s going on. It’s going to be okay.”
Taking extra time to tuck her into bed that night, I glanced
around her room. There were porgs, cuddly droids, and strange looking animals
from a galaxy far, far away spilling from her bed to the floor. The half-read
giant encyclopedias filled with information about strange looking creatures
with even weirder names were hastily placed on surfaces throughout her room. She
was just a kid. She shouldn’t have to worry about her safety. I took comfort in
knowing that in just a few days we would be able to get away to Disney World. She
needed an escape—I needed an escape—from the fears of violence at school. And
the chance to be immersed in a Stars Wars land—I couldn’t wait to see her face!
The day arrived to visit Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. It was still dark when we boarded a bus from our resort to head to the park. Els seemed quiet, and we thought she was just tired from such an early morning. As we made our way toward the immersive land she started walking slower and then stopped. “Mom, I don’t want to go!”
“What? You love Star Wars. You are going. You’ll love it!”
“No. Kylo Ren is there. I’m not going.”
Our brave, mellow preteen broke down sobbing. She panicked. We
couldn’t get her to move. She just sobbed saying, “I’m scared. I’m too scared.”
I had never seen her so upset and honestly didn’t know what to do. She was
paralyzed with fear.
With a lot of convincing and some bribing about blue milk we finally got her to move. As we walked into this totally immersive experience, I prayed that Kylo would stay in his own galaxy far, far away and we wouldn’t lose Els’ trust. She was shaking from fear when we noticed one of the characters working on a ship.
We started talking to him and I explained how our daughter was very scared of the First Order (the bad guys). I asked if he had any tips for avoiding them while we visited his planet (I totally bought into the whole immersive thing). He said, “Oh yes! I’m finishing here. Let me grab my tools and I’ll take you to the Falcon.” He jumped over the low wall and encouraged us to follow him. “Hi, I’m Immanuel. Don’t worry, I know all the best hiding places. I will get you there safely,” he said smiling at Els. He guided us through the entire extremely detailed and beautiful imaginary world. As he ran ahead to check that everything was safe and then signaled for us to follow, I watched Els’ fears fade. Her eyes began to sparkle as fear lost its grip and enjoyment and excitement grew.
When we neared the Millennium Falcon, with his reassurance that we were safe, our hero left us extremely thankful. (Sorry Han Solo—Immanuel is now my favorite Star Wars character!) My mom in all her wisdom turned to Els and said, “Do you know what Immanuel means? It means God with us. What you were afraid of never went away. Your fears were always around you, but you could get through it because Immanuel was with us. If we are walking with God, it doesn’t matter what’s going on around us. We can be confident knowing he is with us.”
When I think about those weeks and my mom’s words, I am
taken to the boat where Jesus and the disciples are traveling across the lake.
While Jesus naps, a storm hits and the disciples are paralyzed with fear.
“The disciples went and woke him up, shouting, ‘Lord, save
us! We’re going to drown!’ Jesus responded, ‘Why are you afraid? You have so
little faith!’ Then he got up and rebuked the wind and waves, and suddenly
there was a great calm. The disciples were amazed. ‘Who is this man?’ they
asked. ‘Even the winds and waves obey him!’” Matthew 8:25-27, NLT.
It wasn’t like the disciples hadn’t seen Jesus perform
miracles before that moment. They had seen him heal numerous people, including
Peter’s mother-in-law. They had heard his powerful teaching, and they were
still afraid. Many of them were seasoned fishermen who had been in loads of
storms, and yet it was at this moment that they panicked. It was a fear they
knew and understood. So much of what they were hearing from Jesus they couldn’t
fully understand, but this . . . this they knew.
What they didn’t fully understand yet was the power of
Immanuel. They knew to run to Jesus to be saved, but that deeper trust of being
confident in his presence was still being formed in them.
So what about my life? The things I’m afraid of won’t disappear. My stomach still churns each time I see an e-mail pop up from Els’ school. Els is still afraid of Kylo Ren. But when we learn to bask in the understanding of Immanuel, when we know that he has the power and compassion to walk with us through the unknown and the known fears, we can go forward with confidence. We can experience an overwhelming peace knowing he can bring calm to any storm.
Where did Immerse come from? Turns
out, it’s the result of over a decade of research and experimentation by the
Institute for Bible Reading (IFBR), the creators of Immerse.
We caught up with Glenn Paauw, Senior Director of Content for Institute for Bible Reading, to dig deeper into the history, research, and mission behind Immerse.
Tell us about the Institute for Bible Reading and its mission:
The Institute for Bible Reading (IFBR) is a nonprofit ministry working to change the way the world reads the Bible. Coming out of a long history in Bible publishing, our founding team members have both the experience and passion to focus on the vital mission of making sure people not only have Bibles but also read and understand them.
We believe that the ongoing research into the place of the Bible among God’s people reveals a glaring problem. The lack of attention to the Bible, of sustained reading, of knowledge and understanding is an epidemic. Some voices are even promoting a “Bibleless Christianity”—growing out of their own inability to understand how the Bible really works and informs our faith. It is crazy that the church has been given this essential gift from God, yet it is not intimately familiar with it. Christian communities often take the Bible for granted. “Of course we’re biblical,” we say. But are we? Do we actually read the Bible? Do we understand how it works? Do we have a good pathway for living out its ancient story in our own world?
These are the questions that animate the work of IFBR. Our goal is to do new, ground-breaking research into what is actually happening with the Bible in our churches. We listen and learn from the finest biblical scholars about the meaning and context of the Bible. We interact with pastors and church leaders to hear their concerns and needs. Then we work hard to translate all this learning into real help and real resources for the life of the church. We provide education and resources like Immerse that are well-informed by the best insights of scholarship yet straight-forward and accessible to everyone.
We’re an activist think tank, therefore everything we do is deeply oriented toward giving people real-world help for reading, understanding, and living the Bible well.
Why did your team feel the need to create Immerse?
The Bible is the bestselling book in this country every
single year. But as pollster George Gallup used to say, the Bible is the bestselling,
least-read book in America. As we
became increasingly aware of the research showing that people owned Bibles but did
not know the Bible’s content or live out its message, we shifted the target of
our own work to Bible engagement.
Too often we end up using the Bible in minimalistic ways and are guided by our own agenda. But God had his own purposes for giving us the Bible. We have this magnificent collection of books in order to invite us into his story of redemption and restoration. The only way to know this story well, and to live it in our own day, is to regularly read it—at length and in depth.
It’s clear that even highly-motivated people are struggling to read and live the Bible well. They pick up the Bible and it’s flat-out hard to read. It’s confusing. It can be kind of dry at times. So eventually, most of them give up. We knew that just telling people to do better and try harder was not going to cut it. They need new “tools” (i.e., a differently formatted Bible made for reading) and new practices that give them a fresh experience.
But we were also motivated by the positive vision that lies in front of the church: What if people loved reading the Bible? What if more and more people knew the Bible deep down in their bones? What if the majority of Christians were not only Bible literate but actually fluent in the Bible’s story? What would be the new story of the impact of the church in the world?
So we created Immerse as a new resource and a fresh experience for the church with the Bible. We knew that it would take a different kind of Bible presentation and a new kind of communal engagement for churches to have breakthrough encounters with the Bible. So we set out to provide something no one else is providing: a simple yet significant program to help people rediscover the riches of God’s word.
Your website says that Immerse: The Reading Bible was designed with one goal in mind: to
provide the best reading experience possible. Can you talk about why the 6
volumes are designed the way they are?
We looked closely at the history of the Bible—the whole long journey from ancient oral tradition to contemporary electronic access. It’s clear the Bible is a cultural artifact that has changed in form over time. People have chosen to design and present the Bible in very different ways in different historical eras. As the medium has changed, so has the way people answer the two crucial questions: What is the Bible? and What are we supposed to do with it?
One of the critical periods for the development of the form of the Bible was the birth of the modern era. Within about 100 years of the printing press being developed, Bible translation took off, and a new chapter-and-verse format came to the forefront. As more people began to get their own copy of the Bible for the first time, what they encountered was a two-column, reference book presentation in which every verse was presented as a new, stand-alone paragraph. Add in new study notes and section headings, and the modern Bible format was born.
This led to a whole new set of Bible practices, adapted to the new form. This wasn’t a reader-friendly Bible, so it became harder and less likely that long-form reading would happen. Think about it: What other book have you ever read that is formatted like the Bible?
In place of long-form reading came the practice of proof-texting and focusing on single verses, often taken out of context. As Philip Yancey has said, we’ve now created an entire culture of Bible McNuggets.
So in order to help the church get
back to big, contextual reading, we reverse engineered the Bible to an earlier,
more holistic format.
First, by collecting the books into
six manageable volumes instead of one massive book, the intimidation factor is
reduced.
Next, we placed the books in an
order that makes more sense for good reading. For example, rather than using
the size of books as an organizing principle (like in the
prophets and Paul’s
letters), we’ve put the books in those sections back into a better
historical order. This allows readers to follow events in a chronological way
and make more sense of things. We’ve also reunited books that were split into
smaller books: Samuel–Kings, Chronicles–Ezra–Nehemiah, and Luke–Acts. In the
New Testament, we’ve gathered books around each Gospel that naturally fit with
that telling of Jesus’ story—for instance, Peter’s letters are now with Mark’s
Gospel, and so forth with the other Gospels.
Then, in a crucial move to enhance
better reading, we’ve removed all the modern additives. So there are no chapter
and verse intrusions, no footnotes, no section headings or cross-references—all
features that tend to distract readers and work against big, immersive reading
of whole books. This allows us to present each book with its natural literary
sections intact. So the five natural sections of Matthew’s new Torah can be clearly seen, letters look
like letters, songs like songs, proverbs like proverbs, etc.—all across the
literature of the Bible. This restores the Bible to the kinds of literary forms
that authors chose and God inspired and helps us to have a more authentic
interpretation.
Finally, we’ve designed each page
for easy and smooth reading. The single-column text, comfortable type size, and
generous margins and line spacing—all surrounding the clear, straight-forward New Living Translation text—make for a
significantly rich Bible reading experience.
What is your vision for normalizing Bible “book clubs,” and how are
these different from Bible studies?
The original experiences of God’s people with the Bible were all communal experiences. Before the books were written down, ancient stories were being recounted and passed on to new generations; prophets were delivering their oracles openly and publicly at city gates and Temple entrances; and regular, ongoing Bible readings and discussions were organized in local synagogues. Traditions about Jesus were being told and retold in villages and early Christian gatherings. All of this was done in community.
Then, even when the Scriptures were first written, the copies were few in number and always read aloud in groups. Think of the apostles’ first letters to churches as an example. These would have been written down, transported, and then read to gathered followers of Jesus, most of whom were not literate. People overwhelmingly heard the Bible read, and they listened together.
It was only much later in church history that technological advances gave individuals the chance to have their own copy to read alone. Personal use of the Bible began to replace the previous communal experiences.
Personal reading of the Bible is, of course, a great thing, and none of us should stop that. But something different and very important happens when we read the Bible in community. It’s crucial to remember that the Bible’s own goal is the formation of a distinctive Christian community of people. It is addressed to communities and meant to be lived out as communities.
When we read and discuss the Bible together, we get beyond our own biases and filters. We get to hear how the sacred text impacts others. We see more and learn more. Our own personal understanding is enhanced. It is also important for us to practice the virtues (the fruit of the Spirit) required for true community. Patient listening, striving to understand the point of view of my neighbor, and shared learning are all critical parts of being a genuine Christ-following community.
Traditional Bible studies tend to focus on dissecting smaller parts of the Bible text. While there is certainly value in doing that, what’s been missing from the church’s experience with the Bible is taking in the messages of whole books and having bigger, more open-ended discussions about them.
A book club approach to our gatherings around the Bible is a fresh way for Christian communities to read, learn, and even struggle with the Bible together. And if we were to embrace this as a regular, ongoing pattern of the Christian life, we could begin to see more serious discipleship in understanding and following the way of Jesus. Not just in our personal lives, but our community presence is meant to be a witness to the coming of God’s gracious rule into the world.
The first vision of God’s people for engaging the Bible was a pattern of lectio continua—the continual (weekly or even daily) immersion of the community into whole books of the Bible. Ongoing penetration into the depths of God’s word allowed gatherings of believers to understand all that God had said before and to effectively live into the story in their own day. A re-envisioning of church life today—around deep engagement in the word of God—could strengthen our struggling churches and empower a new sense of identity and calling.
How do you think Immerse and
the other work of the Institute for Bible Reading can help the church?
Once upon a time, God’s people were known as the People of
the Book. Israel developed the only religion in the ancient world that was so
deeply oriented toward a set of sacred texts. Then the earliest followers of
Jesus, who were all Jewish and were shaped by this orientation, continued this
profound commitment to reading, knowing, and living by the Scriptures.
The early church did whatever it took to make sure every new congregation of believers in the growing movement had access to the Scriptures and were regularly engaged with them. This happened in a world where 90% of the population was illiterate. The practice of reading through the Bible in regular cycles was brought from Judaism right into Christianity. At one point, being a lector, or Bible reader, was an official church office. It was considered essential in early Christianity that all of God’s people were consistently and significantly occupied with God’s word.
We have fallen from this. The work of the Institute for Bible Reading is geared toward helping the church regain this status and rediscover God’s story found in the Bible. We believe that a renewed commitment from church leaders, together with great new resources that surprise people with the Bible, are the things that can feed genuine renewal in the church. The Scriptures are infused with the power of God to bring real transformation into individual lives and into the life of the world. We believed and practiced it once, and we can do so again.
Lord, Hannah understood exactly who you are. When she prayed, “No one is holy like the Lord! There is no one besides you,” she nailed it (1 Samuel 2:2). May all who search for you—the powerful and the humble— recognize who you really are! Amen.
Prayer Prompt
1 SAMUEL 1:1–2:21 There was a man named Elkanah who lived in Ramah in the region of Zuph in the hill country of Ephraim. He was the son of Jeroham, son of Elihu, son of Tohu, son of Zuph, of Ephraim. Elkanah had two wives, Hannah and Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah did not.
Each year Elkanah would travel to Shiloh to worship and sacrifice to the Lord of Heaven’s Armies at the Tabernacle. The priests of the Lord at that time were the two sons of Eli—Hophni and Phinehas. On the days Elkanah presented his sacrifice, he would give portions of the meat to Peninnah and each of her children. And though he loved Hannah, he would give her only one choice portion because the Lord had given her no children. So Peninnah would taunt Hannah and make fun of her because the Lord had kept her from having children. Year after year it was the same—Peninnah would taunt Hannah as they went to the Tabernacle. Each time, Hannah would be reduced to tears and would not even eat.
“Why are you crying, Hannah?” Elkanah would ask. “Why aren’t you eating? Why be downhearted just because you have no children? You have me—isn’t that better than having ten sons?”
Once after a sacrificial meal at Shiloh, Hannah got up and went to pray. Eli the priest was sitting at his customary place beside the entrance of the Tabernacle. Hannah was in deep anguish, crying bitterly as she prayed to the Lord. And she made this vow: “O Lord of Heaven’s Armies, if you will look upon my sorrow and answer my prayer and give me a son, then I will give him back to you. He will be yours for his entire lifetime, and as a sign that he has been dedicated to the Lord, his hair will never be cut.”
As she was praying to the Lord, Eli watched her. Seeing her lips moving but hearing no sound, he thought she had been drinking. “Must you come here drunk?” he demanded. “Throw away your wine!”
“Oh no, sir!” she replied. “I haven’t been drinking wine or anything stronger. But I am very discouraged, and I was pouring out my heart to the Lord. Don’t think I am a wicked woman! For I have been praying out of great anguish and sorrow.”
“In that case,” Eli said, “go in peace! May the God of Israel grant the request you have asked of him.”
“Oh, thank you, sir!” she exclaimed. Then she went back and began to eat again, and she was no longer sad.
The entire family got up early the next morning and went to worship the Lord once more. Then they returned home to Ramah. When Elkanah slept with Hannah, the Lord remembered her plea, and in due time she gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, for she said, “I asked the Lord for him.”
The next year Elkanah and his family went on their annual trip to offer a sacrifice to the Lord and to keep his vow. But Hannah did not go. She told her husband, “Wait until the boy is weaned. Then I will take him to the Tabernacle and leave him there with the Lord permanently.”
“Whatever you think is best,” Elkanah agreed. “Stay here for now, and may the Lord help you keep your promise.” So she stayed home and nursed the boy until he was weaned. Hannah took him to the Tabernacle in Shiloh. They brought along a three-year-old bull for the sacrifice and a basket of flour and some wine. After sacrificing the bull, they brought the boy to Eli. “Sir, do you remember me?” Hannah asked. “I am the very woman who stood here several years ago praying to the Lord. I asked the Lord to give me this boy, and he has granted my request. Now I am giving him to the Lord, and he will belong to the Lord his whole life.” And they worshiped the Lord there.
Then Hannah prayed: “My heart rejoices in the Lord! The Lord has made me strong. Now I have an answer for my enemies; I rejoice because you rescued me. No one is holy like the Lord! There is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God. “Stop acting so proud and haughty! Don’t speak with such arrogance! For the Lord is a God who knows what you have done; he will judge your actions. The bow of the mighty is now broken, and those who stumbled are now strong. Those who were well fed are now starving, and those who were starving are now full. The childless woman now has seven children, and the woman with many children wastes away. The Lord gives both death and life; he brings some down to the grave but raises others up. The Lord makes some poor and others rich; he brings some down and lifts others up. He lifts the poor from the dust and the needy from the garbage dump. He sets them among princes, placing them in seats of honor. For all the earth is the Lord’s, and he has set the world in order.
“He will protect his faithful ones, but the wicked will disappear in darkness. No one will succeed by strength alone. Those who fight against the Lord will be shattered. He thunders against them from heaven; the Lord judges throughout the earth. He gives power to his king; he increases the strength of his anointed one.”
Then Elkanah returned home to Ramah without Samuel. And the boy served the Lord by assisting Eli the priest.
Now the sons of Eli were scoundrels who had no respect for the Lord or for their duties as priests. Whenever anyone offered a sacrifice, Eli’s sons would send over a servant with a three-pronged fork. While the meat of the sacrificed animal was still boiling, the servant would stick the fork into the pot and demand that whatever it brought up be given to Eli’s sons. All the Israelites who came to worship at Shiloh were treated this way. Sometimes the servant would come even before the animal’s fat had been burned on the altar. He would demand raw meat before it had been boiled so that it could be used for roasting.
The man offering the sacrifice might reply, “Take as much as you want, but the fat must be burned first.” Then the servant would demand, “No, give it to me now, or I’ll take it by force.” So the sin of these young men was very serious in the Lord’s sight, for they treated the Lord’s offerings with contempt.
But Samuel, though he was only a boy, served the Lord. He wore a linen garment like that of a priest. Each year his mother made a small coat for him and brought it to him when she came with her husband for the sacrifice. Before they returned home, Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife and say, “May the Lord give you other children to take the place of this one she gave to the Lord.” And the Lord blessed Hannah, and she conceived and gave birth to three sons and two daughters. Meanwhile, Samuel grew up in the presence of the Lord.
JOHN 5:1-23 Afterward Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish holy days. Inside the city, near the Sheep Gate, was the pool of Bethesda, with five covered porches. Crowds of sick people—blind,lame, or paralyzed—lay on the porches. One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, he asked him, “Would you like to get well?”
“I can’t, sir,” the sick man said, “for I have no one to put me into the pool when the water bubbles up. Someone else always gets there ahead of me.” Jesus told him, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!” Instantly, the man was healed! He rolled up his sleeping mat and began walking! But this miracle happened on the Sabbath, so the Jewish leaders objected. They said to the man who was cured, “You can’t work on the Sabbath! The law doesn’t allow you to carry that sleeping mat!”
But he replied, “The man who healed me told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’”
“Who said such a thing as that?” they demanded.
The man didn’t know, for Jesus had disappeared into the crowd. But afterward Jesus found him in the Temple and told him, “Now you are well; so stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you.” Then the man went and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had healed him. So the Jewish leaders began harassing Jesus for breaking the Sabbath rules. But Jesus replied, “My Father is always working, and so am I.” So the Jewish leaders tried all the harder to find a way to kill him. For he not only broke the Sabbath, he called God his Father, thereby making himself equal with God.
So Jesus explained, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he is doing. In fact, the Father will show him how to do even greater works than healing this man. Then you will truly be astonished. For just as the Father gives life to those he raises from the dead, so the Son gives life to anyone he wants. In addition, the Father judges no one. Instead, he has given the Son absolute authority to judge, so that everyone will honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Anyone who does not honor the Son is certainly not honoring the Father who sent him.”
PSALM 105:37-45 The Lord brought his people out of Egypt, loaded with silver and gold; and not one among the tribes of Israel even stumbled. Egypt was glad when they were gone, For they feared them greatly. The Lord spread a cloud above them as a covering and gave them a great fire to light the darkness. They asked for meat, and he sent them quail; he satisfied their hunger with manna—bread from heaven. He split open a rock, and water gushed out to form a river through the dry wasteland. For he remembered his sacred promise to his servant Abraham. So he brought his people out of Egypt with joy, his chosen ones with rejoicing. He gave his people the lands of pagan nations, and they harvested crops that others had planted. All this happened so they would follow his decrees and obey his instructions. Praise the Lord!
PROVERBS 14:28-29 A growing population is a king’s glory; a prince without subjects has nothing. People with understanding control their anger; a hot temper shows great foolishness.
“So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law. Listen! I, Paul, tell you this: If you are counting on circumcision to make you right with God, then Christ will be of no benefit to you. I’ll say it again. If you are trying to find favor with God by being circumcised, you must obey every regulation in the whole law of Moses. For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace.” Galatians 5:1-4, NLT
As Paul continues his letter, he explains to the churches what it really means to live in Christ, free from the law. The burden of following the Jewish law has been lifted by Christ, who fulfilled the law entirely. This is the joy of Christianity. Paul writes that we are free to live out the love of God through the power of the Spirit, experiencing joy and peace as we trust in Christ completely for our salvation.
OBSERVATION POINT The Galatians thought they would please God more if they followed the law while believing in Christ. They had it all wrong. Christ had freed them from the obligations of the law. By his grace, his free gift, they were saved. Salvation is free. God gives it to us out of love for us, not because of what he gets out of us in return. In response to his generosity, we live a life of gratitude and thanksgiving to glorify him.
EXPLORATION POINT Christians are free from the law, but we do not have a license to keep on sinning. We have a choice, either to rely on the Holy Spirit or to yield to our sinful nature. The power of the Spirit within us will guide us to a life filled with peace, love, and joy. If we allow our sinful nature to dominate us, we will live in chaos, strife, and bitterness. We don’t have to battle sin on our own. We have the Spirit’s power to fight our sinful desires and to change our hearts to follow God’s will.
Look Inside the Wayfinding Bible
Finding Roots in God’s Word
As the son of a marine, Joshua grew up moving from military
base to military base. Rarely having time to catch his breath, let alone put
down roots, he moved from one location to the next feeling alone and unable to
connect, especially when it came to church. From talking to the base chaplain
to going to local churches, he kept getting discouraged and gave up on church for
several years. Until he found Cherry Point Baptist Church, a loving community that
encouraged him to find out why he believed what he believed.
“After I was saved, I wanted to learn all that I could about
the Bible. When I heard about the New Living Translation (NLT) my curiosity was
piqued. Reading the NLT has brought a sense of vividness and clarity. I have
read lots of translations, but keep coming back to the NLT,” said Joshua.
Joshua’s enthusiasm for God’s Word continues to grow and he
can’t keep it to himself. He leads a multigenerational Bible study at his
church and has become an active member in a local community feeding program.
“We live in a world filled with competing ideas. Not only reading
but understanding the Bible helps people find their way. If they aren’t in the
Bible, they are putting themselves at risk. I know, because it happened to me,”
said Joshua.
From past experiences Joshua learned the importance of
discernment and finding truth in God’s Word, not in the world around you. In
his Bible study he helps others understand that too. It’s not only about reading
the Word, it’s about studying it and applying it to our lives.
“Readability helps a person to understand what God is
telling them. If a translation is hard to read and understand, I’ve seen people
struggle when asked to read aloud or feel frustrated that they don’t
understand. I’ve had that experience in my own study, finding myself mentally
rephrasing or using a dictionary to try to understand some of the words. I
wonder how many people have given up reading the Bible when faced with these
issues?” said Joshua.
Making sure that doesn’t happen has become paramount to Joshua.
The NLT is used every week in the Bible study Joshua leads to make concepts
clear and help people feel confident while reading God’s Word. He has also found
that the NLT is a great way to engage with people who attend a local feeding
ministry.
Called Loaves and Fishes, this ministry invites community
members to a free meal. Volunteers bring hot meals and desserts and they talk
to people around the tables. The evening includes a short devotional, Scripture
reading, and a time of prayer.
“I started attending as a visitor, and now I’m a volunteer. I
give the devotional, but I also hand out plates, set up the tables, and help
wherever I can. Just being a listening ear or extra pair of hands to someone
who needs it is a powerful ministry,” said Joshua.
“Reading the NLT gives me a sense of peace. I feel I can turn off the distractions of the world around me and just pray, read, and ask God for wisdom,” said Joshua.
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