God’s Big Book of Faith

I know firsthand how important the Bible is to our faith and I want every person who follows Jesus to know about this big book of faith for themselves, because they are the ones who will share their knowledge of Jesus with the people they meet.

So I invite you to join me as we explore God’s big book of faith.

Second, I want to let you know what to expect on this exploratory journey.

I have organized our journey into a series of weekly lessons. The first few lessons will look at the Bible as a whole. We will get to know how the Bible developed and came to its current form, how it is organized and how it was translated into modern English. Then we will begin working our way through the entire Bible with at least one lesson from each book. (If you know how many books are in the Bible – 66 – you have probably figured out this will be a two-year journey.) Along the way we will also explore the Biblical basis of the major Christian teachings.

For each book of the Bible we will look at who wrote it and when, subjects the book deals with, and the primary message or themes of the book. We will study at least one passage from the book in some detail, along with comments by other scholars that help us understand the passage. You will also see some of my reflections on the passage and we will include a verse you can memorize.

One of the most important parts of each lesson is the “Conversation” box that follows the discussion. Your insights — or questions — or interpretations — or experiences can add to everybody’s learning and enhance their faith walk. So please, join our learning community and let us know your response to the lesson. You can register here. 

The lessons will build on each other, but each lesson will be self-contained. So if you have to miss a week you will not be lost when you return (and I will make sure to have back issues available so you can catch up). 

I hope you will grow in your knowledge and understanding of your faith in three specific ways:

• How the Bible is organized and how it came to be in the form we know today.
• How the Bible presents the primary doctrines of our Christian faith.
• How God’s Spirit speaks to each of us through the Bible to guide and support us in our joyful journey with Jesus.
  

(It’s not required, but you might even learn how to pronounce some of those unusual names that come up in both the Old and New Testaments.)

Please join us as we explore God’s Big Book of Faith. Just click on one of the lessons at the bottom of this page, or from the Archives.

Rich Nelson

Just so you know . . .

Translation
All quotes and passages are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Note on abbreviations:
I use the generally accepted abbreviations for Biblical books, as follows:

Old Testament