Listening to design patterns

Unless this is the first time you've visited my blog it's unlikely that you've not come across The Bible Project. They're the team responsible for the Corinthians and the Romans videos that I've posted recently. Whether it's brief videos about individual books of the Bible, videos exploring biblical themes, or videos looking at questions like, 'how do you read the Bible?' - then their site is well worth a visit as it's packed with some really good and helpful stuff.

Back in the day of the iPod Nano (2nd Generation) I used to listen to quite a lot of podcasts. I spent time on public transport travelling around north London and so listening to a whole range of podcasts made good use of my time.

But for whatever reason, at some point, I got out of the habit.

My iPod is long dead and phones have become smart phones. 

And whilst the latest phones struggle to make a phone call they do allow you to do loads of other stuff - including subscribing to podcasts. And so I have recently got back into the habit of listening to podcasts and there is some brilliant material on The Bible Project site.

I am currently listening to their 'Design Patterns in the Bible' series - which is over four hours of spoken material that was a part of the process behind a 6 minute video on the same topic, which is the eighth video in the 'How to read the Bible' series - with each of the previous seven videos having about an hour of spoken material in a previous podcast.

That's a lot of really good material. You'll find the list of their podcasts here or you can subscribe on an appropriate app.

Background to 1 Corinthians

For the next couple of Sundays, as we continue our new series looking at the 'I urge you' phrases in the New Testament letters, we're going to be in the letter known as 1 Corinthians.

This week we're looking at the theme of being united based on Paul's instruction in 1 Corinthians 1:10 

I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought.

Then next week we're looking at submitting and serving one another starting with 16:15-16 

I urge you, brothers and sisters, to submit to such people and to everyone who joins in the work and labours at it.

An important part of working out what the Bible is saying to us now, is to know what it was saying then. Because these are letters - written by an actual person (Paul), to a group of actual people (the church in the city of Corinth), about an actual series of events (issues that had arisen in the church) it is important to know this background before we start to attempt to apply this letter to CBC in 2018.

We're not going to have much time to look at this background - but below is a great overview video from The Bible Project. There's also plenty of other great stuff on the Bible Project website including written content and access to a series of podcasts.

Using the STEP Bible for a word study

On Sunday here at CBC we started a new teaching series looking at some of the 'I urge you...' phrases that we find in the New Testament letters. On Sunday I mentioned that not all English translations of the Bible translate this phrase 'I urge you...' on every occasion - sometimes they use 'I appeal to you ...' for example. So if we wanted to locate every verse where this phrase appeared in the original language - how would we do that?

A few weeks ago our speaker talked about their work with the STEP Bible - a free online resource that would allow us to find the answer to our question above.

Start by visiting the STEP Bible webpage here. It will open up in Genesis 1.

Whilst we use the NIV translation at church, the ESV in the STEP Bible allows us access to many more features so let's have a look at the first verse in our new series Romans 12:1-2 in the ESV and the NIV. Hovering over words in the ESV will give us important information about words in the original language.

We will then have a look at the Greek phrase that is translated 'I urge you'.

We will then search for this Greek phrase in the New Testament - and then limit our search to just the Epistles.

This short video will show you the different steps involved in this process.

I urge you

This coming Sunday we're starting a new teaching series looking at some of the passages in the New Testament letters which contain the phrase, 'I urge you...'.

Are these commandments? Or are they just good advice - a helpful tip in life? Can you take it or leave it?

We're starting with Paul's phrase in Romans 12:1-2.

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

In this series we're going to be dotting around from one letter to another. And it is important to remember that what we are reading are letters from a real person, to real people, in a real context. As always, when it comes to applying the Bible, we need to be able to answer the 'what did it mean then?' question before we can start to think about the 'what does it mean now?' question. A part of this process involves trying to find out as much as possible about the context into which the letter is being written.

This week, we're looking at a verse from the letter to the Romans. By way of introduction here are The Bible Project's videos on Romans.

STEP Bible Resource

This Sunday our preacher at CBC was David Instone-Brewer. David is Senior Research Fellow at Tyndale House in Cambridge - and you can read more about him here.

David did mention his work on the STEP Bible (STEP stands for Scripture Tools for Every Person) and gave a quick demonstration - the idea being that this is a resource that will be accessible to people in the majority world who don't have access to, or can't afford, commercial Bible study software (or books).

You can have a look for yourself by clicking here.

If you want to look in a bit more detail there is also a 'Studies with www.StepBible.org' Youtube channel which you'll find here. These short videos will help you get more out of the STEP Bible. I've included the first one here:

How to read the Bible - some video resources

In my last post I shared a link to Bible Gateway Plus - a great resource that provides us with aids to help us understand what we're reading in the Bible - through dictionaries and commentaries etc - you can read that post here.

Also key to reading, understanding and applying the Bible is an appreciation of the kind of book it is, the different kinds of writing it contains, and its literary and cultural background.

I have mentioned several times on this blog the work of The Bible Project. Although they produce a range of resources they are probably best known for their short videos. Some of these are about a specific book of the Bible, some explore a theme or a word, and one of their more recent series is called 'How to read the Bible'.

This series, which is still ongoing, currently includes videos on: 

• What is the Bible?
• The story of the Bible
• Literary styles in the Bible
• The Bible as Jewish meditation literature
• Plot in biblical narrative
• Character in biblical narrative
• Setting in biblical narrative
• Design patterns in biblical narrative

I have put the first of these videos below. To watch the rest, head over to their website and whilst you're there have a good look around.

Bible Resources free trial

A few weeks ago, following a sermon on Mark 13, I wrote a post about what we do when we come across a passage in the Bible that we don't understand. Do we just ignore it, ask someone else about it, ask Google, or do we have some resources (alongside prayer) that will help us tackle the question for ourselves? You can read that post here.

I regularly use Bible Gateway - and if you've ever clicked on one of the Bible reference links on my blog you will have used Bible Gateway too.

As well as using their main site to read the Bible, Bible Gateway now have Bible Gateway Plus, which comes with a free 30-day trial.

As well as removing all ads from your reading experience this also gives you access to an expanded library - including some similar resources to those I mentioned in my previous post. Click here to read more about Bible Gateway Plus.




I am aware that the resources I mentioned last time do not come cheap so this might be a way of having a look at the resources without any cost - at least for the first 30 days.

Easter Resources - part 2

Following on from Friday - here are links to the resources that we used in our all age service on Easter Sunday.

An Easter Moment - the video about the Easter bunny from Igniter Media

Here is The Seriously Surprising Story from the Bible Society




And here's the Divine Comedy video from Speak Life



The two books that were mentioned in the course of the service were:

The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel and Through Gates of Splendour by Elizabeth Elliot