Day: May 13, 2020

Holman’s Life Essentials Interactive Study Bible

There are a million Bibles out there. For many years, I’ve been a strong advocate of choosing a scholarly, reliable translation of the Scriptures with simple cross-referencing tools, a few detailed maps, and a helpful index. For study, I’ve been partial to the NIV, NRSV, and NASB translations. Alongside of a reputable Bible, I’ve recommended obtaining a one-volume commentary, an atlas, and a Bible dictionary. I think those are cornerstones in any home library. With all the choices that are out there, it has been my preference to keep things streamlined and simple.

In my experience leading others, however, I’ve come to see how a study Bible can be helpful for a person with limited resources, a deepening interest in biblical study, and a limit on shelf space. It’s nice to be able to pull one book off the shelf that you can read in a coffee shop or carry with you to a worship service, open it on your lap, listen to what you’re hearing, and then use the available tools (commentary notes, book introductions, etc.) to inform and apply the Scriptures to personal circumstances.

Holman Bible Publishers has done something innovative, taking the idea of a study Bible another step forward. They’ve released the Life Essentials Study Bible, which not only features brief commentary on Scripture, but is designed to be read with a tablet or smartphone in hand. Each text note features a QR code, which can be scanned with a tablet or phone camera. LifeWay has paired the Bible with an application that uses the QR codes to gain access to the teaching of Dr. Gene Getz, who comments on the corresponding Scripture text and offers principles that can be directly applied to the life of the learner, not only in the text notes that you’ll find in the Bible, but with video (Need links? I’ve got you: Apple’s App Store or Google Play). Here’s an example of what you’d find as you study the text:

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This is a portion from the book of Nehemiah. First, in the image above you’ll see the Scripture text. Several years ago, Holman published the Christian Standard Bible. That’s the translation. You can read about their translation philosophy here. After this Bible translation released, I bought a copy for devotional reading, and used the CSB in my daily meditations on Scripture in 2018. It’s readable, and the translators were committed to maintaining a close correspondence to original meaning of the Greek and Hebrew texts.

Second, you’ll note the portion highlighted in blue. This indicates to the reader a portion upon which they will find a principle and corresponding commentary.

Thirdly, the dark grey heading indicates a principle topic (principles in each book are numbered), and the text in blue below the heading is the principle itself. Then there is commentary, which features cross-referencing.

Fourthly, you’ll notice a reflection and response question, which is designed to help the reader move toward application not only in a general sense, but in the reader’s specific life circumstance.

Finally, you’ll see a QR code, which, if scanned in the app, will lead you to a video teaching from Dr. Getz.

This video is a helpful introduction and overview of the Life Essential Interactive Study Bible:

 

If you’ve never heard of Gene Getz, he is a pastor, writer, church planter, and college and seminary professor. He’s a Christian educator who hosts a syndicated radio program called “Renewal.” You’ll find that one of the first things listed in his bio is that he is a graduate of Moody Bible Institute. I know Dr. Getz from my time at Dallas Theological Seminary, where he served as adjunct faculty. Though I never had him as an instructor, I knew of him. During my DTS years, several of my friends attended Fellowship Bible Church North, where Dr. Getz still serves as pastor.¹

I know one of the biggest challenges many people face in reading the Bible comes in answering these three questions: “What does it say?”, “What does it mean?”, and “How, then, do I live?” In the Life Essentials Study Bible, these three questions are consistently answered. Dr. Getz helps the reader understand the text, interpret it, and apply it to daily life. Dr. Getz also addresses a fourth question: “How does it fit within the overall Bible?” His answer is simple, straightforward, and life changing. Dr. Getz consistently directs the reader to the ways each text points us to Jesus Christ.²

The Life Essentials Study Bible features a concordance, footnotes, and full color maps. Each book introduction offers a summation of the key principles found therein as well as an outline of the book as a whole. But the main feature that makes this Bible unique is the ease at which reading is paired with access to video teaching. As a bonus, the app has a tab featuring a  daily Bible principle, a topical index that one can use to search for specific principles, and the ability to favorite video teachings for later reference.

Two more things to disclose. First, I received a copy of this Bible from the publisher as part of a promotion effort. I was glad to write about it, and very glad to review it. I think Holman is doing good things, and I particularly respect Dr. Trevin Wax.

Second, I did not have time to read every piece of commentary or view all three hundred hours of available video. It is fairly easy for me to say that I wouldn’t agree with Dr. Getz on every point. But we share in the essentials.

Nevertheless, I did find this Bible to be one that I would recommend for those who desire to diligently study the Scriptures, apply the Word to their daily lives, and who are looking for a one-stop, interactive, and unique resource by which to do so.

  1. I was a student at Dallas Theological Seminary from 2002 to 2005 in the Masters in Christian Education program (MACE).
  2. Granted, biblical interpretation is a challenging task, and there is more than one informed, scholarly perspective concerning the best understanding of the most difficult texts of the Bible. Dr. Getz offers principles and perspectives that are shaped by his training, experiences, and study of Scripture. Other Christians differ with Dr. Getz.

Merton’s Life and Holiness

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In 1963, Thomas Merton published Life and Holiness. The book is a brilliant, succinct encapsulation of the Christian vision with five major sections: 1) Christian Ideals, 2) The Testing of Ideals, 3) Christ, the Way, 4) The Life of Faith, and 5) Growth in Christ. There are passages which address matters of relevance in the 1960s which could have just as well been written today. Such is the timelessness of truth.

From the outset, Merton makes clear that the primary emphasis of the book is grace, “the power and the light of God in us, purifying our hearts, transforming us in Christ, making us true sons of God, enabling us to act in the world as his instruments for the good of all men and for his glory.” Merton also stresses “the nature of work and its place in the Christian life” and how “one’s  daily work is an important element in the spiritual life.” Merton well understood that a life of holiness is one that encompasses human activity in every sphere, not only what which we traditionally associate with the sacred.

I appreciate the ways in which Merton exhorts the reader to strive after holiness, or growth in grace. But he balances that exhortation with a reminder that God is the catalyst, the carrier, and the one who grants completion to that work. Merton writes, “If we are called by God to holiness of life, and if holiness of life is beyond our natural power to achieve (which it certainly is) then it follows that God himself must give us the light, the strength, and the courage to fulfill the task he requires of us. He will certainly give us the grace we need. If we do not become saints it is because we do not avail ourselves of his gift.”

This notion of sainthood is one which Merton addresses directly. It is a common temptation to elevate our exemplars to heights which we believe are beyond our reach. Merton says it well:

The popular idea of a ‘saint’ is, of course, quite naturally based on the sanctity which is presented for our veneration, in heroic men and women, by the Church. There is nothing surprising in the fact that saints quickly become stereotyped in the mind of the average Christian, and everyone, on reflection, will easily admit that the stereotype tends to be unreal. The conventions of hagiography have usually accentuated the unreality of the picture, and pious art has, in most cases, successfully completed the work. In this way, the Christian who devotes himself to the pursuit of holiness unconsciously tends to reproduce in himself some features of the popular stereotyped image. Or rather, since it is fortunately difficult to succeed in this enterprise, he imagines himself in some sense obliged to follow the pattern, as if it were really a model proposed for his imitation by the Church herself, instead of a purely conventional and popular caricature of a mysterious reality–the Christlikeness of the saints.

Merton sees that our efforts to imitate these “plaster” saints is ultimately silly. Rather, God is calling us to become most deeply ourselves in Christ. He writes, “It is the strict truth, and until we realize that before a man can become a saint he must first of all be a man in all the humanity and fragility of man’s actual condition, we will never be able to understand the meaning of the word ‘saint.'” Merton points to Jesus, who “was himself the most deeply and perfectly human being who ever lived on the face of the earth. We must remember that human nature was, in him, quite perfect, and at the same time completely like our own frail and suffering nature in all things except sin. Now what is ‘supernatural’ if not the economy of salvation in and through the Incarnate Word?”

By grace God not only conforms us to the image and likeness of Christ, but while doing so mends and remakes us in the divine image, as God intended for us to be, free from sin, and freed to live for the glory of God.

One of the matters that keeps us from pursuing this kind of life is distraction. In a paragraph that has held up, Merton writes, “We must reflect more deeply than we do on the effect of modern technological life upon the emotional and instinctual development of man. It is quite possible that the person whose life is divided between tending a machine and watching TV is sooner or later going to suffer a radical deprivation in his nature and humanity.” Hello, Twitter. This observation still rings true.

What, ultimately then, is a saint? Merton states:

The true saint is not one who has become convinced that he himself is holy, but one who is overwhelmed by the realization that God, and God alone, is holy. He is so awestruck with the reality of the divine holiness that he begins to see it everywhere. Eventually, he may be able to see it in himself too: but he will see it there last of all, because in himself he will continue to experience the nothingness, the pseudo reality of egoism and sin. Yet even in the darkness of our disposition to evil shines the presence and the mercy of the Saviour.

In my pastoral experience, those furthest down the road to sanctification are the least able to perceive it. They are too busy living a life of holiness, living a life that is focused upon God’s will and work. It is others in the fellowship who note those who shine like stars in the darkness (Philippians 2:15), who most evidence they have been with Jesus (Acts 4:13). They whisper, maybe with awe, “That person is a saint.”

Any person who has believed on and in Jesus Christ, who has placed their faith in him, is counted among the company of the saints. A saint is not someone who has arrived, but someone who is on the way. The further they have traveled, the more brightly they shine. Sainthood is the calling of every Christian, not as a static reality, but as a dynamic relationship with the Savior who sanctifies.

What is our next step? Where do we begin? The answer remains, as Jesus said so long ago, “Come, follow me.”