Start date: February 4, 2017
End date: September 24, 2017
No doubt about it, I love the Living Bible. A few days after becoming a Christian, my parents--or should I say Santa--gifted me with the Living Bible. (It was nearly Christmas. This was 1986.) I loved it. I took it with me anywhere and everywhere. Including the doctor's office. I couldn't stop gushing about how WONDERFUL a Savior Jesus was. Fast forward ten years to the spring of 1997, I received my first study Bible, the Life Application Bible. It was a Living Bible. It was green. This was the very first Bible that I read cover-to-cover. In my first ten years as a Christian, I'd read the Bible in parts, in pieces. It wasn't until high school that I dared to go places like Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Leviticus. But my freshman year in college, that was when I embraced the whole Word of God. I became absorbed once again in Scripture--finding it to be the very food I was craving. I think I read the whole Bible in about two months or so. I moved on to other translations after that. I bought other translations. NKJV. NASB. NIV. I eagerly embraced new translations and remember when they released: NLT, ESV, HCSB. The Living Bible did not remain my "main" translation for long. I put aside paraphrases and moved onto the battlefield of "thought for thought" versus "word for word."
This year I found a Living Bible at a charity shop. I paid $2 for this well-loved, far-from-pristine edition. I loved its small size. I thought it would be a GREAT Bible for tea-time. (It was.) I had committed to other projects when I bought it, but, I started reading it anyway. I read it "on the side" as I worked my way through other projects: the NIV Tozer Bible and the KJV Reformation Study Bible. I put it down completely for the next two projects: RSV, ESV Reformation Study Bible. But when I finished the ESV Reformation Study Bible, I knew it was time to finish the Living Bible. In many ways it was like coming home.
Hebrews 1:3, "God’s Son shines out with God’s glory, and all that God’s Son is and does marks him as God. He regulates the universe by the mighty power of his command. He is the one who died to cleanse us and clear our record of all sin, and then sat down in highest honor beside the great God of heaven."
Hebrews 2:10, " And it was right and proper that God, who made everything for his own glory, should allow Jesus to suffer, for in doing this he was bringing vast multitudes of God’s people to heaven; for his suffering made Jesus a perfect Leader, one fit to bring them into their salvation."
Hebrews 2:14-18, "Since we, God’s children, are human beings—made of flesh and blood—he became flesh and blood too by being born in human form; for only as a human being could he die and in dying break the power of the devil who had the power of death. Only in that way could he deliver those who through fear of death have been living all their lives as slaves to constant dread.
We all know he did not come as an angel but as a human being—yes, a Jew. And it was necessary for Jesus to be like us, his brothers, so that he could be our merciful and faithful High Priest before God, a Priest who would be both merciful to us and faithful to God in dealing with the sins of the people. For since he himself has now been through suffering and temptation, he knows what it is like when we suffer and are tempted, and he is wonderfully able to help us."
Hebrews 4:12-16, "For whatever God says to us is full of living power: it is sharper than the sharpest dagger, cutting swift and deep into our innermost thoughts and desires with all their parts, exposing us for what we really are. He knows about everyone, everywhere. Everything about us is bare and wide open to the all-seeing eyes of our living God; nothing can be hidden from him to whom we must explain all that we have done. But Jesus the Son of God is our great High Priest who has gone to heaven itself to help us; therefore let us never stop trusting him. This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses since he had the same temptations we do, though he never once gave way to them and sinned. So let us come boldly to the very throne of God and stay there to receive his mercy and to find grace to help us in our times of need."
Hebrews 5: 14, "You will never be able to eat solid spiritual food and understand the deeper things of God’s Word until you become better Christians and learn right from wrong by practicing doing right."
Hebrews 7:19-20, "This certain hope of being saved is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls, connecting us with God himself behind the sacred curtains of heaven, where Christ has gone ahead to plead for us from his position as our High Priest, with the honor and rank of Melchizedek."
Hebrews 7:25-26, "But Jesus lives forever and continues to be a Priest so that no one else is needed. He is able to save completely all who come to God through him. Since he will live forever, he will always be there to remind God that he has paid for their sins with his blood. He is, therefore, exactly the kind of High Priest we need; for he is holy and blameless, unstained by sin, undefiled by sinners, and to him has been given the place of honor in heaven."
Hebrews 9:24-28, "For Christ has entered into heaven itself to appear now before God as our Friend. It was not in the earthly place of worship that he did this, for that was merely a copy of the real temple in heaven. Nor has he offered himself again and again, as the high priest down here on earth offers animal blood in the Holy of Holies each year. If that had been necessary, then he would have had to die again and again, ever since the world began. But no! He came once for all, at the end of the age, to put away the power of sin forever by dying for us. And just as it is destined that men die only once, and after that comes judgment, so also Christ died only once as an offering for the sins of many people; and he will come again, but not to deal again with our sins. This time he will come bringing salvation to all those who are eagerly and patiently waiting for him."
Hebrews 11:1, "What is faith? It is the confident assurance that something we want is going to happen. It is the certainty that what we hope for is waiting for us, even though we cannot see it up ahead."
Hebrews 12:1-4 , "Since we have such a huge crowd of men of faith watching us from the grandstands, let us strip off anything that slows us down or holds us back, and especially those sins that wrap themselves so tightly around our feet and trip us up; and let us run with patience the particular race that God has set before us. Keep your eyes on Jesus, our leader and instructor. He was willing to die a shameful death on the cross because of the joy he knew would be his afterwards; and now he sits in the place of honor by the throne of God. If you want to keep from becoming fainthearted and weary, think about his patience as sinful men did such terrible things to him. After all, you have never yet struggled against sin and temptation until you sweat great drops of blood."
Philippians 4:13, "for I can do everything God asks me to with the help of Christ who gives me the strength and power."
© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible
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