I’ve been playing around with the ideas of Goals or Projects for a long time, but if I stand back and ask what I’ve learnt, three things stand out rather quickly.
Category: bible study
The Gospel Transformation Bible is an outstanding study Bible at a remarkable price. Here’s why you should buy one today.
If our bible reading is getting stale, the problem is never with the bible: the always fresh, living, Word of Life. No, the problem is with our sleepy eyes and sluggish heart. Here are nine lessons I’ve learned as I have tried to avoid the dangers:
I was still quite a new Christian at university, when I was put onto the importance of reading my Bible consistently and comprehensively. Back then there was only one tool to help me do that, now there are dozens, but I think the original is simplest, and best. Robert Murray M’Cheyne was a Scottish minister
The latest NIV Study bible is a clear competitor to the ESV Study bible. Which to buy?
I’m delighted to to announce that my next book will be out in the summer. IVP will be publishing it, under the title: ‘Cutting to the Heart: Applying the Bible in Preaching and Teaching.’ The basic argument is that God uses his Word to change us to be like Jesus, and when we preach we should
Yesterday I had the same experience, twice, in different settings. With a bible open in front of me, I looked at a passage I thought I knew really well, and realised that there was a sequence of words (that is, a verse) that I had hardly registered but now hit me between the eyes. I
Moving house recently meant that there was huge encouragement to de-clutter. And I did the brave thing of not only de-cluttering the house but de-cluttering my study. I. Chucked. Books. Out. There, I said it. But I don’t think I threw away any bibles, and that wasn’t for either superstitious or nostalgic reasons. I think
Two new Bibles have just thumped onto my desk. They are both handsome specimens of their kind, and I thought it would be worth reviewing them side by side. The Proclamation Bible (PB) is produced with the aim of equipping preachers. It is based on the 2011 NIV, and a magnificent range of practising preachers
Are your home groups in a rut? Needing something to shake them up? Here’s an interesting idea – stop meeting in each other’s homes. I heard recently of a church was pushing back on the idea of being pushed to the margins. They realised they were colluding with the idea of being invisible to a
It was one of the foundational insights of the Reformers – the priesthood of all believers. No more priestly caste, because we confess our sins to “The Reverend One-Another” They even did away with the very word. ‘Presbyter’, or ‘elder’ was preferred, and the anchor point of their work was teaching. But because we are
I recently had lunch with an old friend who is also the pastor of a large (in UK terms) church – 600 members, grown pretty much from scratch. I was hungry for my Thai curry, but hungrier to learn. As we mulled over various things, he sketched out some of the basic maps he uses
A friend was once in what she called ‘bible study by mind-reading’. The leader had some questions – and the right answers – on a piece of paper, and the group was only allowed to look at Question 2 when it had correctly answered Question 1. ‘Correctly’ meant using exactly the same words as on
If your bible studies are feeling stuck in a rut because you always approach passages in the same kind of way, here are twenty ideas to try (well, nineteen plus the one you already use). They all aim at the same goal, of understanding the passage properly, but the tasks are a little bit different
Coming together as a group of Christians to study God’s Word together should be a rich experience. Paul describes the results of such an experience in Colossians 3:14-17, and we can see six elements: Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be
You’ve probably been in a bible study where the leader asks a question and there’s that awkward silence. Is the question too hard, too easy, or too badly phrased? Often it’s down to the kind of question that’s been asked. In particular, we need to know the difference between an open and a closed question.
We’ve all been there – the cramped seat, the plastic food, the person sitting next to you whom you don’t know and don’t wish to know… I’m writing about Bible studies and comparing them to a plane flight, and the jokes seem to write themselves. But there’s a point. Passengers can doze and watch a
