Eat This Book Challenge

Welcome to the Eat This Book Challenge! You are about to embark on an amazing adventure that just might change your life! And that is the hope of this challenge...life transformation. The ultimate goal is NOT just to read every verse in the Bible. NOPE. The ultimate goal is to work into your life a daily rhythm of BIBLE READING and MEDITATION that ultimately translates into ACTION so that you reflect God's reign through your life. In short, the goal of the Eat This Book Challenge is to READ IT, EAT IT, and BLEED IT.

And we want to help you SUCCEED on your adventure! The truth is that the Bible can be confusing and seem far removed from our culture at times. This is because the Bible wasn't written yesterday. It was written over a period of thousands of years! But we don't want this confusion to be a barrier. NO. We want the Bible to come ALIVE to you over this next year. And so we will be providing resources to help you as you read through the Bible.

Here’s the scoop. . .

THE READING PLAN

We will be using www.youversion.com (or their app available at the app store for free). We will be using the Eat This Book reading plan. To access this plan go to www.youversion.com click on the READING PLANS tab on the left side of the page, select WHOLE BIBLE from the tab on the left, scroll down to the EAT THIS BOOK: ONE YEAR BIBLE WITH DAILY PSALM, and press START THIS PLAN and follow the instructions. We will begin the reading plan on Monday, September 10.

COMMENTARY RECOMMENDATIONS

The journey will also be a lot more enjoyable if you pick up a commentary. Trust me on this one! A commentary simply explains what the Bible is saying in a language that you and I can easily understand (and is especially helpful when it comes to those confusing Old Testament passages). Reading a commentary is like having a conversation at Starbucks with someone who has many years of experience studying and interacting with the Bible. My commentary recommendations are: 

The NIV Compact Bible Commentary by John H. Sailhamer
LINK to NIV Compact Bible Commentary

The New Bible Commentary by Gordon Wenham et al
LINK to New Bible Commentary

VIDEO BOOK OVERVIEWS AND WEEKLY BIBLE GUIDES

Blackhawk Church in Madison, WI has provided 5-minute video overviews and Weekly Bible Guides for each book of the Bible. These will help you get the lay of the land before you actually read through a book of the Bible. The Bible in Five videos can be accessed at LINK to Bible in Five and the Weekly Bible Guides can be accessed at LINK to Weekly Bible Guides. 

THE WEEKLY BLOG

I hope you know by now that following Jesus is a community effort and not just an individual pursuit. With this in mind, we want to read through the Bible as a community. This is where the blog comes into the picture. Each week a blog post will be made at www.oakwoodbigtree.blogspot.com with insights into one of the weekly readings. You can simply comment on the post or use this blog post as a forum to ask ANY question that surfaces as you are reading through the Bible. All you need to do is place a comment under that week's post. The hope is that we will wrestle with God's Word TOGETHER!

THE WEEKLY TALK
Each week at Sunday morning Encounter, you will hear a talk pertaining to one of the following week's Bible readings. The goal of each talk will be to show you how to apply the Bible to your everyday life. Passages will be chosen that seem especially far removed from our culture because we are convinced that ALL of the Bible still speaks to us today!

I’m super excited about our Bible reading journey together and I hope you are as well. Let me know if you have any questions. You can contact Cindy in the office or post a comment on the blog.