Bible Study Magazine—May–June 2010 Issue

• Feature Stories
  Discover new ways to connect the Bible with your ministry and life through reading great interviews with and articles from the biggest names in the church and biblical scholarship.
• Bible Study Tips
  Thoughtful and engaging authors tackle the tough passages in Scripture, explain difficult concepts, and confront complex interpretations in a way that helps God’s Word make sense to your life.
• On the Cutting Edge
  Keep up-to-date on the latest news in biblical research, including archaeological and historical findings.
• A New Kind of Bible Study
  Encounter God by yourself or with other believers with an ongoing Bible study in each issue.
• On Teaching
  Get advice on how to preach or teach the Bible in any setting from well-known pastors and teachers who use the Bible every day.
• Tool Box
  Learn how to effectively use the latest Bible study tools with our how-to guides.
• In the News
  Keep informed about the latest news in biblically-related topics, discoveries, and events.
• Thoughts from the Ancients
  Read the Bible along with those who have come before you, and learn from the wisdom of the early church—in their own words.
• Word Studies
  Get a close-up view of the Bible! Each issue contains insights about specific words found in the Bible, and tutorials on how to do word studies.
• If Only Someone Would Explain It to Me
  Enrich your understanding of the Bible with explanations of biblical and theological concepts by top scholars.
• Did You Know?
  Discover interesting facts about the Bible in the contemporary and ancient world.
• What They Don’t Tell You in Church
  See things you never noticed in biblical passages you have read dozens of times.
• Biblical Humor
  The funniest stories and the best comics related to the Bible, useful for any setting.
• Book Reviews
  Stay on top of the latest books about Bible study. Each issue contains reviews of the books and commentaries to equip you in your study of God’s Word.

Excerpts from the May-June 2010 Issue!

“Christians must not come to church every week expecting the preacher to chew up their food for them,” says Ed Stetzer. “Growing and mission-focused believers are self-feeders. God has given us His Word to correct, rebuke, train and reprove us—to train us in righteousness. The Word of God is given to us as means of spiritual maturity and it must lead to transformation.”

Stetzer is the president of LifeWay Research. He believes that a lack of biblical knowledge is hindering people from understanding and walking with God. A lack of biblical grounding is limiting their spiritual effectiveness.

Bible Study after Death: 90 Minutes with Don Piper

Twenty years ago Reverend Don Piper suffered a catastrophic head-on collision with a tractor-trailer truck and was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics. That began an extraordinary journey which, says Piper, included a glimpse of heaven. After being miraculously revived, Piper documented his remarkable experience in the international bestseller, 90 Minutes in Heaven—A True Story of Death and Life.

As far as reading and studying the Word, Piper refers to the Bible as “an answer book” and when he opens it, that’s what he wants—for both personal and ministerial reasons. “I think all we need to know is in the Bible.” Piper believes current Christian teaching often puts too much emphasis on the New Testament. He insists both New and Old work in tandem for the benefit of the believer.

Being like Jesus: A New 8–Week Study on Colossians

“I rejoice in my sufferings for you.” Likely in a dark pit, Paul uttered these words to a scribe. Pain, filth, turmoil and rejoicing? Most of us would be saying, “God, why have you abandoned me?” Not Paul; he saw an opportunity to serve Jesus. Paul had met Jesus on his way to kill Christians. Via a blinding light, scales on his eyes, and a vision, he became a Christ-follower. But it wasn’t Paul’s vision that gave him spiritual stamina.

His fellow workers in the early church seem to be enduring similar circumstances. It was his dependence on a God who could not only overcome the visible forces of evil, but the unseen forces that lurked in the darkness.

The Odd Books of Peter and Jude: When the Pieces Don’t Fit

The letters of Peter and Jude are pieces that don’t seem to fit in the New Testament. They’re not like the letters of Paul or John. They’re odd. They jump between uncommon subjects: angels, the apocalypse, and comparing baptism to the ark. The early church didn’t even know where to put these books in the Bible. Every time you open an ancient bible, it is a wild goose chase to find these letters—they constantly move in the order of biblical books.

Why do we have them in our Bible then? For starters, they carried apostolic authority. When an apostle (or someone close to them) wrote something, it became authoritative because of its immediate connection to Jesus.