"The Good Book" (Deron Spoo)

TITLE: The Good Book: 40 Chapters That Reveal the Bible's Biggest Ideas
AUTHOR: Deron Spoo
PUBLISHER: Colorado Springs, CO: David C. Cook Publishers, 2017, (400 pages).

In an increasingly impatient world, we often get challenged by the request: "Just get to the point!" This is a popular method to get us to come down to the very basic of basics. Unfortunately, it could be a challenge when it comes to the Bible. How can anyone get to the point about the sixty-six books of the Bible? Moreover, the Old Testament alone is already a huge amount to work through. Perhaps, the next best thing is to summarize big ideas of the Bible. This book attempts to summarize the beginning of the world; how the world fell into sin; making sense of God in the suffering; learning about what tough love means; the coming of Jesus; and what it means to live for Jesus, through Jesus, for the world.

This book makes the Bible a personal expedition for us to journey along and to find ourselves in the big story of God. It helps us move from Genesis to Revelation without being bogged down by the many chapters and verses. Many people do not read the Bible in its entirety partly because it seems impossible to read such a thick collection of books. Many of the passages are also difficult to read. Though the wisdom of old reminds us about the Power of the Word of God, we still fail to appreciate the Bible partly because we lack the rails to the whole story. Through forty selected chapters, it is hoped that this book will not only give us a gist of where the Bible narratives, teachings, and stories are heading, we are encouraged to read the Bible eventually. Like a mini-walk through the Bible project, this book contains an overview of some of the key ideas of the Bible. Key ideas such as:

• We are created in the image of God
• The world is in sin, including us
• God initiates communications with us
• The reason for the Ten Commandments
• Suffering is real but God has not left us helpless
• Jesus
• We are not to Worry
• Jesus' Death and Ressurection
• The Church
• Heaven
• God's love
• ,,, and many more

It is hard to summarize the Bible in any way. This book is definitely a modest attempt to do that. Forty has been a popular number these days since Rick Warren's Purpose Driven Life was published. Perhaps, it has also got to do with the forty days Jesus spent in the wilderness. Thus, this book can be read like a 40-days devotional in order to get at the key ideas of the Bible. While nothing beats the reading of the actual Bible, this book will encourage us to start with baby steps, and gradually to read the real meat.

Deron Spoo is pastor of First Baptist Church in Tulsa Oklahoma. He has a television devotional called "First Things First" that reaches 100,000 people each week.

Rating: 4 stars of 5.

conrade

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This book has been provided courtesy of David C. Cook Publishers and NetGalley without requiring a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.