Hey, Bible readers. I'm Tara Lee, and I'm your host for The Bible Recap. If you've ever closed your Bible and thought, What did I just read? The Bible recap is for you. The good news is you're not alone. Lots of people struggle in their relationship with scripture. Most people who struggle try to stick to the Psalms and Proverbs because at least those make sense to them. Or maybe they flip around in their Bible and try to find something relatable, but then they hit something confusing or offputting and they can't seem to make sense of how it all fits together. Maybe they decide to start a Bible reading plan, usually at the beginning of the year when they're working on New Year's resolutions. They launch out with ambition and zeal on January 1, but they begin to lose interest in a few weeks, and by mid February, they've fallen off the wagon altogether. This was me too. It was like, okay, I've read through Genesis eight times, but nothing beyond that. Can you relate? Are you on track to being a Genesis scholar right along with me? Or maybe you've never even ventured into the Old Testament at all because you're only comfortable with scripture after Jesus seems to show up on the scene.

Maybe you didn't know he's actually throughout the Old Testament as well, that it's actually all about him. Some people are so perplexed by scripture that they just leave their Bible on the shelf and use a daily devotional instead. They figure, Obviously, I'm not capable of hearing from God firsthand, so I'll just hear from him secondhand. Don't get me wrong, some devotional are great. I love some of the stuff by Spurgeon and Chambers, but a lot of the things we're consuming today are self-focused or fluffy, bordering on self-help. It's basically Tony Robbins in a prayer shawl. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Maybe you've tried at all and you wonder if you'll ever love reading the actual Bible or if you'll always just feel intimidated by it. Are you tired of losing steam after six weeks? Or maybe you've never tried to read through the Bible because you aren't quite sure if God is even real or which religion is right if he is real. But at least you're curious and proactive enough to try to take a step toward getting some information. Otherwise, you wouldn't be here. I'm glad you're here. You're not alone either.

This is a place where you can ask your questions without fear of being shamed. Regardless of where you're coming from, the Bible recap is here to help. Let me tell you who we are and how we'll help. I'm using the Royal we because it's mostly just me, Tara Lee, Kabul. You can call me Tara Lee or even TLC since those are my initials. I'll be here walking you through this every day. Here's how it works. Imagine yourself sitting down each morning with a friend who's read through the Bible several times. Also, imagine this friend is invisible and lives in your phone. That's me. You'll spend about 12 minutes each day reading that day's Bible verses. Then you'll open up your podcast app and we'll have an eight minute conversation about what we both just read. I'll point out the things that I've learned about that particular passage on that particular day, but also through years of reading it. It's that simple. That's what we'll do together. If I've done the math right, this trip you and I take through the Bible together will be my 10th time doing this particular reading plan. In our next prep episode, I'll tell you more about how I learned to love reading the Bible because I didn't always.

It took me a long time. Be sure you subscribe to this podcast today because I have a feeling a lot of you are going to be able to relate to my story. Since this isn't my first Genesis to Revelation rodeo, I'll be able to speak from the vantage point of the whole meta narrative so you can begin to see how it all fits together and understand why things happen the way they do. Not that there won't be mystery involved. God can be super mysterious when he wants to. But overall, I think this tool will be really helpful to you in not just reading scripture, but loving reading it because you'll finally understand it. In case you can't tell, I'm not exactly an academic. I did not go to seminary, and I'll only occasionally mention what the original might mean, and even then, chances are I'm going to mispronounce it. Overall, my approach in these recaps will be less like a scholarly Bible commentary and more like an overview and highlight reel rolled into one. What that means is I'm less inclined to use big theological terms and more inclined to point to the character of God as it's revealed in that day's reading.

I want to help you learn how to find and see and know God and his character more than anything else. I don't care if you never know what year the temple was built and destroyed and rebuilt and redistroyed. Those are great details to be aware of, but they will never serve you like the personal knowledge of God. They will never bring you joy or sustain you in trials. They will never draw you in to spend more time with God out of sheer joy and delight. Each day, I'll be summarizing the overarching storyline so we can keep pace with the meta narrative. At the end of each episode, I'll point out something we saw about who God is. We call that section, The God Shot, which is basically our way of saying, This is the picture of God and his character that we saw in today's reading. Yours will probably be different than ours because there is so much to see about God in each passage. By the way, this is not our application point or our to-do list. This is our to-behold list. We're looking for God in The God Shot. Now, just a bit about the plan we'll be doing together.

We'll be reading a one year chronological plan. You can either print out your own paper copy from the start page of our website for free, or you can use a free app to help keep you on track. The app we use is called the Bible app by LifeChurch, but it's also known as the YouVersion app. Since there are lots of different chronological plans on this app, be sure you search for the plan called The Bible Recap with Tara Lee Cobble. We've linked you to it in the show notes of this episode and on the start page of our website. By the way, if you're new to podcasting and don't know how to find show notes, do a web search of your particular podcast platform and the phrase, How to find show notes. This is a lot of information. I would never expect you to remember it all, plus you're probably driving. So the next time you're parked, just check out the show notes where you can download the Bible app as well as get the direct link to the plan we're using so you don't even have to search for it. And it's all free.

You don't even have to buy a chronological Bible. In fact, we encourage you not to because it's probably laid out differently than the order of our plan. I love this plan we're doing, the chronological plan, because unlike the front to back plan or the plans that have you read a little of the Old Testament and a little of the New Testament each day, the chronological plan takes you through the story of scripture as it happened. Our Bibles aren't laid out in that order, so this plan will occasionally have you flipping back and forth a bit. But again, you don't need to buy a chronological Bible to do this. The Bible app will tell you what we'll read each day. Or if you prefer, you can use the printable plan from our website, thebiblerecap. Com. Then you can read each day's chapters on the app, or you can have the app read it to you, which will take about 12 minutes on average. Or you can open your regular print Bible and read it there. That's what I do. In the Bible I'm using, most days readings are about three pages long. By the way, you can read any version of scripture you'd like.

I happen to use the ESV, the English standard version, so that's the version I'll be referencing each day. I also want to say a bit about Bible translations because I know that can be confusing. There are a lot of different Bible translations, and it seems like everybody has a favorite. Some people prefer readability, other people prefer precision. I think the ESV has a great mix of both. Now, it's not necessarily the most readable translation, but I've chosen it over other translations that are slightly easier to read because it's a word for word translation. I bought it when I first started reading through scripture because I figured if I'm going to invest a year of my time reading the Bible, I want to get as close as possible to the original ideas God wanted to communicate. The options that are sometimes slightly easier to process, like the New Living translation or the new international version, are often phrase for phrase translations, not word for word like the ESV. Some versions, like the message, for instance, are best read as commentaries because they're more of a retelling than a translation. Feel free to use whatever version you'd like or even change it up.

One of the great things about the Bible app is that you can test out all kinds of versions for free. Then, once you find the one you want to use, I recommend getting a print Bible in that translation. I know this is a digital age, but when it comes to scripture, having a tangible Bible can often serve as a reminder to read it. You're less likely to forget the Bible exists if it's sitting on your dining room table instead of buried in a folder on the third page of your phone. Each day you'll open the Bible app to see what we're reading, or you can use that printable reading plan on our site. Then you'll open up your Bible and read your chapters. When you're done, you'll open your podcast app and listen to the Bible recap, where we'll talk about what you just read. Most episodes are about eight minutes long, but sometimes I get really excited and it's hard to shut me up. On the days that I do manage to keep it at about eight minutes, both your Bible reading and my Bible recapping will take most readers around 20 minutes a day.

That's only one % of your day and it will change everything. In addition to that, we've designed some tools to help you with this process. We have the podcast in book form, which is great if you're a visual learner. It's called The Bible Recap Book. It's a very polished version of the podcast content for all 365 days. We've also got a daily journal that is customized just for this reading plan, and it lays flat so you can write in it. We also have a daily study guide which has about five questions per day. These questions are designed to not only help you learn more, but also to equip you with some new tools for studying scripture that you can carry with you forever. The Daily Journal and the daily study guide are both intended for you to use on your own. If you're doing the Bible recap with friends or through your church, we also have a weekly discussion guide. It's a great tool for helping foster reflective conversation about what we've read each week. The questions in the weekly discussion guide are entirely different from the ones in the journal and the daily study guide, but they're all three designed to work together beautifully.

To get your own copies or to see sample pages from each, click the store link at thebiblerecap. Com. We truly believe these tools will not only help you stick with your Bible reading plan each day, but to love it. Here's what I'm picturing for you this year. Picture yourself being drawn to God and his character instead of feeling alienated by the God of the Old Testament. Picture understanding his motives behind his actions instead of feeling confused or even frustrated by what he does. Picture yourself actually hearing from God in his word and feeling closer and more intimate with him than you ever have before just because you've committed to spending the first 20 minutes of your day with him. If all you gain from this is one new insight about God, that might legitimately change the rest of your life and your relationship with him. I believe this is your year. I believe this is the year you read through the whole Bible and your relationship with God grows in joy and delight. I believe this is the year you gain freedom in areas where you've struggled as a result of delighting in him more.

I believe this is the year you learn to hear from God first hand by reading His word instead of being confused or disengaged or only hearing from him secondhand. Let's do it, Bible readers. Click, subscribe to this podcast today. Don't wait, jump in now because I promise you, he's where the joy is. The Bible recap is brought to you by D Group, discipleship and Bible study groups that meet in homes and churches around the world each week. For more information on D Group, visit mydgroup. Org.