:
faith :
the bible
The Bible Rocks!
Yeah it's a dramatic statement, and in some countries I'd
be locked up for saying that. And in others I'd be taken down be
churches
who might think that was blasphemous.
Me and the Bible
I first became friends
with my bible after reading it through. It took about a year
and a half, I finished on Good Friday 2003 - the day my Grandmother
died. The version I read was the youth bible as this offered
the most accessible english and meant I could actually read
it. I also underlined bits and this really helped me become intimate
with it. I subsequently 'upgraded' to the NIV (nearly infallible
version)
Study Bible, which is excellent and has all the answers to
tricky cell group questions.
My top recommended books are:
- Exodus - contains all the musicals you've ever been
to
- Psalms - good to dip into, some
really beautiful things here
- Joel - some really powerful stuff
- Acts - come on! Just why isn't
the church still like this?
- Peter (1 & 2) - a real easy
read, with some true gems in it
- Revelation - oh yeah baby, this
is the stuff. Fireworks and burning sulphur, great spiritual warfare.
The Message
Right so I've been floating around translations for quite a while.
I started with the Youth
Bible after a church heritage of the
Good
News. I read the Youth right through in my second year and
gained a great deal from that. Then I received a NIV
Life Application Study Bible which is fantastic, this
proved a great tool for getting so much more out of the bible and
helped
enormously
at Bible studies! However
I've found it hard to become friends with the NIV like I did with
the youth bible so I wasn't completely contented.
There was a short interlude in which I went to China. I took a lovely
Good News with me, 'leant' it to a Chinese friends while I was
out there. In Beijing Chongwenmen Church I acquired a NSRV dual Chinese
English bible with gold edging and those little thumb cut-outs for
the individual
books
for
the sum
total of about £2!! I returned with this. In China I also rediscovered
me love for reading the word of God, something I'd lost during the
previous year.
On returning I acquired The
Message which, for those of you who
don't know, is the Bible translated into contemporary language (or,
for the Conservative Evangelicals amongst you, is the devils translation),
but not the Street Bible which is cut somewhat and more of an overview
rather than a full direct translation. The Message is excellent,
I'm already on my third having given away two to friends, with
language that gets the message across in language that really
makes sense. Sometimes it's a little Americanised, and the Psalms
don't work so well, but other than that really rocks and is Bono's
preferred translation. I'd recommend you all go and get this and
give it a go.
The Message Remix
Go on, pick it up and have a read! |
