Category: Study Bible

Taken from the Christian Basics Bible

“Rather, you must grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. All glory to him, both now and forever! Amen.”

2 Peter 3:18, NLT

The birth of a baby always brings excitement to a family, but how worried that family would be if the baby always stayed a baby! After all, babies are born for one thing: to grow up. And that’s exactly how it is when we become Christians. God does not want us to stay spiritual babies; he wants us to grow up, in both our knowledge and experience, as Peter encourages in 2 Peter 3:18.

Acts 2:42 lists four key practices that helped the first Christians to grow: “All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer.”

We can follow their example, first, by studying the Bible—for if we do not read it, how can we know what God is like and what he wants?—second, by sharing fellowship with other Christians to encourage one another; third, by sharing the Lord’s Supper together to remind us of Christ’s sacrifice and to keep him central in our lives; and fourth, by praying—talking to God—both alone and with others. Note that these four things weren’t occasional occurrences; rather, the first Christians devoted themselves to them. Doing the same today will help us grow and mature, not just intellectually, but in a living experience of God’s grace.

Take a look inside the Christian Basics Bible

Note from the Christian Basics Bible

“These are the commands, decrees, and regulations that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you. You must obey them in the land you are about to enter and occupy, and you and your children and grandchildren must fear the Lord your God as long as you live. If you obey all his decrees and commands, you will enjoy a long life. Listen closely, Israel, and be careful to obey. Then all will go well with you, and you will have many children in the land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, promised you. Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength.” Deuteronomy 6:1-5, NLT

With Israel about to enter Canaan, with its many religions and various gods and idols, Moses needed to underline that there was only one true God: “Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone” (Deuteronomy 6:4).

In declaring the uniqueness of Israel’s God, Moses was affirming what the Bible says from the beginning. “In the beginning God . . .”—not a god, or the gods, but God. This belief in one God lay at the heart of Israelite faith—though sometimes they would forget that and so would be challenged by the prophets (e.g., 1 Kings 18:16-18; 2 Kings 17:7-20).

In light of this affirmation of the uniqueness of God, Israel was called, first, to have no other gods (Deuteronomy 5:6-7) and not to make any idols that might lead them astray (4:15-19; 5:8-10), and second, to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength” (6:5). Why? Because if there were no other gods, they need not keep anything in reserve to offer to them. Why? They simply do not exist.

Jesus himself said that this commandment, to love the one God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, was the greatest of all the commandments, and that it, along with the commandment to love our neighbor as ourselves, was the basis of God’s entire law (Matthew 22:37-40).

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Taken from the Africa Study Bible

A Swahili proverb says, Muvumbo wa kañonyi ye witubula
kajo ko aja, meaning, “The beak of the bird is what tells us
the things it eats.” In other words, the kind of person that you
are is shown by your words.

Psalm 77 is a typical psalm of lament. The writer is in
deep trouble and crying out to God. Like a bird’s beak, the
psalmist’s own words describe him as crying out and shouting
(Psalm 77:1), troubled (Psalm 77:2), moaning (Psalm 77:3),
searching for God (Psalm 77:2), longing for help (Psalm 77:3),
and so distressed he cannot pray or sleep (Psalm 77:4). Some
Christians think that showing these kinds of emotions is a lack
of faith, that a person of deep faith only expresses positive
emotions like joy and peace. Some people teach that the
emotional words found in this psalm show that a person is
spiritually weak and does not trust God. But the psalms of
lament teach us something different. The very fact that over
one-third of all the Psalms are laments or complaints shows
us that God is ready to hear our cry. He chose to include an
important number of these kinds of prayers in his holy Word
so we could learn how to express our distress.

Lament psalms follow a pattern with certain characteristics,
some of which can be seen in Psalm 77. Four of the main
parts are calling out to God and asking for help (Psalm 77:1-
3), expressing the lament (Psalm 77:4-10), then choosing to
remember how God acted in the past, and then praising him
on that basis (Psalm 77:11-20).

Verses 10 and 11 are the turning point of the psalm. The
writer was so discouraged that he wondered if God had turned
against him, but then he chose to start thinking about all the
wonderful things God did in the past and it changed his outlook.

God does not ask his children to pretend to be something
they are not or to be dishonest about their struggles.
He encourages us to tell the truth about our distress and
trouble, to give voice to our doubts and fears. But we should
not stop there. We must go on to remember with praise and
thanksgiving all the ways God has proved himself in the past.
Those memories and offering praise for God’s great deeds give
us hope for the future. Let our words show that we are weak
and struggling people who choose to trust in a powerful and
faithful God, even when all seems dark around us!

Read Psalm 77

I cry out to God; yes, I shout.

Oh, that God would listen to me!

When I was in deep trouble,

I searched for the Lord.

All night long I prayed, with hands lifted toward heaven,

but my soul was not comforted.

I think of God, and I moan,

overwhelmed with longing for his help.

Interlude

You don’t let me sleep.

I am too distressed even to pray!

I think of the good old days,

long since ended,

when my nights were filled with joyful songs.

I search my soul and ponder the difference now.

Has the Lord rejected me forever?

Will he never again be kind to me?

Is his unfailing love gone forever?

Have his promises permanently failed?

Has God forgotten to be gracious?

Has he slammed the door on his compassion?

Interlude

And I said, “This is my fate;

the Most High has turned his hand against me.”

But then I recall all you have done, O Lord;

I remember your wonderful deeds of long ago.

They are constantly in my thoughts.

I cannot stop thinking about your mighty works.

O God, your ways are holy.

Is there any god as mighty as you?

You are the God of great wonders!

You demonstrate your awesome power among the nations.

By your strong arm, you redeemed your people,

the descendants of Jacob and Joseph.

Interlude

When the Red Sea*  saw you, O God,

its waters looked and trembled!

The sea quaked to its very depths.

The clouds poured down rain;

the thunder rumbled in the sky.

Your arrows of lightning flashed.

Your thunder roared from the whirlwind;

the lightning lit up the world!

The earth trembled and shook.

Your road led through the sea,

your pathway through the mighty waters—

a pathway no one knew was there!

You led your people along that road like a flock of sheep,

with Moses and Aaron as their shepherds.

Learn more about the Africa Study Bible

Taken from the HelpFinder Bible

Although burning the breakfast toast is a mistake, it is trivial and leaves no lasting consequences. On the other hand, a doctor who misreads a chart has made a mistake of considerably greater implications. We all make mistakes. Some of our mistakes are innocent—we forget an appointment, we know the right answer on a math test but accidentally put down a different number.

Other mistakes are caused by bad judgment or a disregard for a rule or principle. For example, your boss asks you to do an important task and gives you detailed instructions on how to accomplish it. But you ignore those instructions because you think you know how the job should be done. You botch the job, and your company loses a lot of money. That is a significant mistake that could have been avoided if you had simply followed instructions.

The Bible is God’s instruction manual for life. If you neglect or ignore it, you will make many avoidable mistakes that will bring adversity and grief into your life. God wrote the Bible so that we could understand the rules, techniques, and principles for living the most effective, productive, and satisfying life possible. Follow its words, and many big mistakes can be avoided.

What does God think of my mistakes? Will he still love me if I’ve made a big mistake?
• PSALM 32:3, 5 | When I refused to confess my sin, my body wasted away, and I groaned all day long. . . . Finally, I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide my guilt. I said to myself, “I will confess my rebellion to the Lord.” And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone.
• 1 JOHN 1:9 | But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us.
• PSALM 51:7 | Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
• PROVERBS 1:8-9 | My child, listen when your father corrects you. Don’t neglect your mother’s instruction. What you learn from them will crown you with grace and be a chain of honor around your neck.

If your mistake is sin, confess it as such! God will forgive you completely. When you make a mistake that isn’t a sin, learn from it so that you can grow in character and maturity.

P R O M I S E S F R O M G O D
• JAMES 3:2 | Indeed, we all make many mistakes. For if we could control our tongues, we
would be perfect and could also control ourselves in every other way.
• ROMANS 8:28 | And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of
those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.

Learn more about the HelpFinder Bible

Throughout the Beyond Suffering Bible Joni Eareckson Tada shares personal insights on how God can use anything, even suffering, to bring us closer to him and display his glory. When our lives don’t go the way we want, when the suffering and pain seem too much to bear we have a choice, we can either rely on God or let bitterness consume us. Read what Joni has to say about a time when God brought her face-to-face with her own tendency to hold on to bitterness.

By Joni Eareckson Tada

Troubles. Hardships. Calamities. Ever heard that old adage, “Bad things come in threes”? It’s only folk wisdom, but somehow it seems true.

Bitterness was a temptation for me in the early days of my paralysis. Deep inside I knew it was wrong, but I justified myself by saying, “Surely God won’t mind if I let off a little steam now and then. After all, I am paralyzed!” But as many of us have learned, indulging in bitterness leads us down a path to even more despair and bitterness.

As if that trouble wasn’t enough, God added a second hardship. Several months into my hospital stay, I had an operation on my lower spine. After the surgery, I was forced to life face down for fifteen days while the stiches healed. “I am sick and tired of this,” I complained out loud.

Then, the third distress came: I caught the flu. Suddenly, not being able to move was peanuts compared to not being able to breathe. I was miserable! But as I thought about it, I understood what God was doing. No longer was my bitterness a tiny trickle; it was a raging torrent that could not be ignored. It was as if God was holding my anger up before my face and saying lovingly but firmly, “Stop turning your head and looking the other way. This bitterness has got to go. What are you going to do about it?”

The pressure had gotten so strong that I was either going to give the situation over to him completely or allow myself to wallow in bitterness. Faced with that ultimatum, I was able to clearly see what a wicked course bitterness would be. Sometimes troubles, hardships, and distresses—in groups of three (or more!)—back us into a corner and force us to seriously consider the lordship of Christ.

Lord, when troubles pile on, may I look to you for help and hope.

Looks Inside the Beyond Suffering Bible

WAY-FM’s World’s Biggest Small Group recently did a study on where God is in suffering. They used the Beyond Suffering Bible to explore how to connect the goodness of God with the pain and suffering we see in this world.

Having been a quadriplegic for fifty years after a tragic diving accident, suffering from chronic pain, and battling breast cancer, Joni understands the why question. But it wasn’t until she stopped asking why with a clenched fist and started asking why with a searching heart that she found hope.

In this study she shares the 10 words that changed her life and motivated her to bring God’s infinite hope to a hurting world. Hear her share her heart.

Learn more about the Beyond Suffering Bible study on WAY Nation

Look inside the Beyond Suffering Bible

Devotional from the Life Recovery Bible

Read Proverbs 3:13-26

None of us set out to become addicted to something. We were seeking something else—escape from pain, perhaps, or something to make up for our losses and brokenness—or maybe we had a subconscious desire for self-destruction.

Unfortunately, the things we turned to could not satisfy our deepest
needs or desires. Our needs are legitimate. What must be changed is the tendency to go the wrong way to try to meet those needs. The Bible says, “My child, don’t lose sight of common sense and discernment. Hang on to them, for they will refresh your soul. They are like jewels on a necklace. They keep you safe on your way, and your feet will not stumble” (Proverbs 3:21-23).

Godly wisdom leads to great benefits in life. As we seek wisdom, we will find the other things we desire. “Joyful is the person who finds wisdom, the one who gains understanding. For wisdom is more profitable than silver, and her wages are better than gold. Wisdom is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire can compare with her. She offers you long life in her right hand, and riches and honor in her left. She will guide you down delightful paths; all her ways are satisfying” (Proverbs 3:13-17).

As we change our focus and begin to seek after wisdom, we will find our lives more fulfilled and secure. Godly wisdom will also help us avoid the destructive paths we have previously taken as we tried to fulfill our unmet needs and desires.

Learn More about the Life Recovery Bible

Matt Sherro is the pastor of Abounding Grace Baptist Church, a church plant in Phoenix, AZ.  Abounding Grace is intentional about reaching people for Christ. Instead of meeting in a building, they gather in a local park on Sunday mornings, inviting everyone to come worship and learn more about God’s plan of salvation. Read how Matt is using the Christian Basics Bible to disciple new believers.

I chose to use the Christian Basics Bible as my guide for one-on-one discipleship for many reasons. The primary reason was that it uses the NLT text. Over the last year, the NLT has become my favorite teaching translation. It is very easy to understand and is thus incredibly useful for discipleship. I cannot begin to explain the feeling when the person you are teaching finally connects with the Bible.

Many disciples, my own wife included, have commented that when they began reading the NLT, it was the first time they really felt like God was communicating with them. I would argue that when you begin using the NLT in your church, you will see similar results in the people you are discipling.

For us, the 28-day reading plan gets the most usage of any feature in the Christian Basics Bible, since most of the people I minister to have never seen the inside of a Bible. It is really helpful to begin here because it is a non-intimidating way to enter the journey of understanding Scripture. I am really glad to have this plan because, as a pastor, I sometimes have trouble with the fact that not every Christian is as familiar with or engaged in the Bible as pastors are.

I also get plenty of use out of the topical articles and the “Basic Truths of the Christian Faith” guide, but not in the way you might expect. For many pastors, these articles would be useful as a sermon-preparation tool, to create topical series, for instance. But I like to pair the topical articles with Q&A sessions. I have new learners write down their questions on a particular topic, and then we turn to the “Basic Truths of the Christian Faith” guide to find out what the Bible teaches us on a particular topic. This allows me to connect in a unique way with individuals, as each new learner may have different areas of life in which they need to hear from God.

I’d like to round out my discussion by mentioning the “Now that You Are a Christian” article. This Bible was created to help new Christians develop into faithful disciples, and along those lines I get tremendous use out of this brief article. Here, we can take a new learner through the process of developing an understanding of God, Christ, sin, salvation, and the church. My goal is to help new disciples develop in their theology in such a way that their theology is strong enough to sustain them through the trials that will no doubt come as they mature in Christ.

There are a number of different ways to use the Christian Basics Bible in your ministry. I hope that it is as helpful to you as it has been to me.

If you are interested in learning more about Matt check out his blog.

By Kevin O’Brien, Brand Manager

The world goes by at a million miles per hour, and it seems to get faster and become more complicated at every turn. It’s quite easy to get distracted, disgruntled, and even disillusioned. We chase so hard after the things we think we are supposed to pursue—success, respect, love, money, etc. We adopt the causes we are supposed to adopt, get outraged over the latest injustice that we are supposed to be outraged about. And next week it all changes.

Somewhere along the way, as the routines and cares of the world have distracted us, we have forgotten the reality of our faith. In all the busyness of life, our faith threatens to float away like dandelion seeds in the wind. We need a firm foundation.

We need to get back to basics.

The Christian Basics Bible reminds us what our faith is all about in the first place.

Becoming a Christian is not about deciding to live better, trying to be more holy, going to church, or following certain religious practices or behaviors. It is about beginning a personal relationship with God. Religious rules and duties will always end up tying us up, as Jesus often reminded the highly religious Pharisees of his day. Jesus came not to tie us up but to set us free (see, e.g., John 8:31-32; Galatians 5:1). He came with good news (the meaning of the word “gospel”); and this good news is that ordinary people—even people who feel unworthy or have failed or have done bad things—can know God personally and live in harmony with him. (p. A11)

That’s a pretty “back to basics” truth right there. It’s also unbelievably freeing if we take the time to actually read it, digest it, and be changed by it. But the busyness of life, even the trappings of our faith, can rob us of this truth.

So how can we make a practice of getting back to basics, of being a “basic believer”? There are a lot of good answers to that question, but here’s a starting point, a first step if you will. In the book of 2 Timothy, the apostle Paul wrote to his young apprentice Timothy. Timothy was leading a church in the city of Ephesus. Ephesus was rich, influential, and cosmopolitan. It was a center of religion and commerce and the most important city in the Roman province of Asia. It was the place to be. In fact, minus the technology, it probably had a lot of similarities to the type of crazy environment we find ourselves in today. Unfortunately, the church in Ephesus had all kinds of problems. Here’s what Paul tells Timothy:

“Preach the word of God. Be prepared, whether the time is favorable or not. Patiently correct, rebuke, and encourage your people with good teaching. For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. They will reject the truth and chase after myths. But you should keep a clear mind in every situation. Don’t be afraid of suffering for the Lord. Work at telling others the Good News, and fully carry out the ministry God has given you.” (2 Timothy 4:2-5, NLT)

Here’s what the Christian Basics Bible says about this passage:

A lack of studying Scripture had led the Ephesian church to be led astray by every new idea that came along. So Paul urges Timothy to keep studying Scripture so he can use it to correct error and explain the truth (4:2-5). We need this book because it is not like any other book, secular or sacred. It is “inspired by God” (3:16). That is, God’s Spirit directed the thoughts of its writers so that what they wrote was exactly what God wanted written. The Bible is therefore God’s revelation to us—revealing his nature, heart, and purposes—and his invitation to join in his story. (p. 1387)

Maybe you’re not in a pastoral role like Timothy—and maybe you never will be—but the advice still stands. The only way Timothy could teach others was to be captured by the truth himself, to really know it. Getting back to the basics of our faith and of our relationship with God starts with getting back into his Word.

I want to be a basic believer. How about you?

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Inside the Christian Basics Bible

Article from the Illustrated Study Bible 

“Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see. Through their faith, the people in days of old earned a good reputation. By faith we understand that the entire universe was formed at God’s command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen.” Hebrews 11:1-3, NLT

Hebrews 11 is one of the most extensive essays on faith in the NT and one of the most loved sections of Scripture, yet misconceptions about faith abound. Some see faith as meaning any form of spirituality (“he is a person of faith”). Others understand it as a resolute belief that something good is going to happen to them, a ticket to health and wealth. Still others think that faith is a blind leap against known facts. None of these constitutes biblical faith.

Instead, faith involves confident action in response to what God has made known (11:1‑3). As seen in the examples listed in ch 11, faith comes into play in a variety of life’s circumstances. The results of faith also are various. Some people get rescued, achieve success in life, and get some of what God has promised in their lifetimes. Others get mocked, beaten, tortured, put in prison, and killed. Faith is sometimes rewarded sooner and sometimes later, but people of faith anticipate the rewards because of their confidence in God’s character.

What does it mean to live by faith? It means that, in our various circumstances, we live out our belief “that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him” (11:6). Those who live by faith take confident action based on what God has revealed about his character, seeking to do
his will in all things.

Look Inside the Illustrated Study Bible