Start! The Bible for New Believers

Start! The Bible for New Believers*

By Greg Laurie
Published by Thomas Nelson

Hardcover: $24.99, Leathersoft: $59.99, New Testament Edition: $7.99

Yes it’s a Bible and Yes! I chose to review it and Yes! I enjoyed using.

There is something very attractive about the design of this book. You just want to pick it up and read it, and the juxtaposition of colors was very welcoming. My favorite translation of the Bible is the King James Version, but this version (NKJV) was pretty good too.

The purpose of this Bible (as you can imagine from the title) is to introduce new believers to basic foundational truths of the Christian faith, and to guide them in their search for meaningful content and this Bible does that well. From the beginning were it talks about “The plan of salvation,” “secrets to spiritual success,” and the notes interspersed within the scriptures under categories like “Learn,” “Know” and “Live,” to the end which gives “Essentials: What every Christian needs to know about God and Jesus” and the Topical index, you can tell that the editors really gave careful attention to what they were trying to teach. The notes were not too overwhelming or underwhelming. It was certainly helpful.

Now the not-so-good-news: My Critique

Everything was going great until I got to the “Essentials” segment and read about the “Sovereignty of God.” Anyone who has been reading this blog for even 3 days will know by now that God does not control everything – for more discussion on that you can click here.

With that said, I do like this version of the Bible very much and I will certainly encourage everyone to purchase a few copies and give it to new believers (and some not-so-new believers).

A free download of the entire Gospel of John from Start! The Bible for New Believers and additional details are available by visiting http://www.thestartbible.com.

* Thomas Nelson provided me with a free copy to review

The ONE thing

There are so many things fighting for your attention.

The news. Advertisements. Your job. Your fears. Your disappointments. Everything…and everything else.

The problem is that when you get distracted by everything you find yourself going around and around in circles. You feel productive because you feel like you have done so many things today, but really you have just “kept busy” and achieved very little.

It’s okay to be interested in multiple things, but there has to be the ONE thing that motivates you during the day. The ONE thing that if you didn’t have to think about money or people’s opinions you would spend your whole day doing. The ONE thing .

Think for a moment. What is your ONE thing ?

There’s power in focusing your attention, your time, your everything on just ONE THING!

When you focus on one thing, you have no choice but to be EXCELLENT!

Quit Now!

We all have a limited amount of time and we must focus our attention on the things that drive us. The things that make us passionate. The things that motivate us.

Yes! these things may be hard. Challenging. But these are things worthy of our pursuit.

To accomplish our passionate goals we must learn to quit strategically. Since you can’t be good at everything, it’s time to quit those things that are wasting your time and taking your focus away from those things that really need your attention. There’s pride in quitting things that waste your time. There’s pride in quitting one approach and trying another.

There is no pride in choosing not to quit just because…

The takeaway: If you can’t see yourself being the best at whatever it is you are doing, change your mindset, or quit now. End waste.

C'mon you know you want to

I would like to personally invite you to a new forum for ChristFollowers with Ideas.

The purpose is to give Christians a place to share ideas.*

My hope is that here we can start discussions on how we would like to create change in our community, or how we would like to pursue our passions.

We all have different strengths and weaknesses, and we can all benefit from each other’s experiences.

Please join us. We would be delighted to have you in the community.

And please feel free to share with your friends!

https://www.bigtent.com/groups/thechosen

* Ideas may include book ideas, business ideas, workplace suggestions, book suggestions, ideas for church activities, art ideas, music ides, computer software, video games, event ideas, news articles of interest. Any idea that you can think of!

**This is not a place to sell your services. But we can help each other market our passion and our services.

Letting go

It’s time to let go of what I never had, and what I can never have:

That I will one day have enough money to never have to think about money again
That all my problems are caused by others
That I will one day meet the one person who will solve all my problems
That they won’t love me if I say no
That they will always love me if I say yes
That if I don’t forgive them, I will be punishing them
That the world would be better if everyone was like me
That my life would’ve been better if I had made different choices

…Now I’m free to embrace the truth. Everyone hurts.

TV will suck all the creativity out of you

My pastor in Philadelphia always used to talk about how the TV will take away your creativity (Praise God for Pastor Stevens at Harvest Time Christian Fellowship), and he is sooo right. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against TV, it’s always great to see what other people have created, and how they are making their millions. But the emphasis is on “other people.” Do you realize how many great ideas are inside of you that you never give a chance to come out? Do you realize that after a while everything you say or do is based on something that you watched on TV? Do you realize that the statistics show that more successful people read more books? Do you realize that you can get educated on any subject that you are interested in for free online now (yes that’s right I said it- FREE)?

Why don’t you do something this week that you have never done before…decide to take one hour out of your TV watching schedule and read a book (I can even give suggestions if you would like). Or for those of you that are extreme, take a day off (from watching TV) this week and read a book or sit down quietly and just come up with ideas of things you would like to do, or changes you would like to see in your life in the next five years.

Remember that as a man thinks in his heart, so is he…so if you think that you are too busy or tired to invest in your future, then you are. But if you think that you are special and you are worth much more time and investment, then you are.

Have a great week my dear!

My anger tells me

My anger tells me:

Something inside hurts
Something inside has not been resolved
I have not set or upheld my boundaries
There’s something inside I need to let go

But my anger is never because of you. I choose.

Vote because…

They don’t expect you to

They really don’t want you to

Only you can change things

If you don’t, you give someone else the control

You have nothing “better” to do

We don’t want to hear you complaining when “they” win

You are a GENIUS!

So over the summer my car air conditioner stopped working. I did not mind it in Philly where I only had to drive 10 minutes to get anywhere I needed to go, but in North Carolina where I even have to drive to my mailbox, it was ridiculous. I would get to job interviews wet and sweaty with my pants sticking to my thighs and my shirt doing all sorts of unflattering things. Nope I did not look like someone you would like to offer a job to. I finally couldn’t take it. I had saved some emergency money, and this was certainly an emergency. My brother and I took the car to the mechanic, where I was informed that something was broken that would cost me $850 to fix, umm “investing” $850 into a 97 Chevy cavalier that was only worth $1200 just did not seem reasonable, especially considering how much I had spent to get new brakes, a new muffler system, new tires in the last few months…but the lack of AC insanity just had to stop…I had two options get it fixed and pay $850, or don’t and suffer the wrath of the Southern heat…

Then an amazing thing happened, my brother suggested an idea that had not even crossed my mind. Why don’t we just pay to get freon added to the system. Yes the freon would eventually leak out, but it would probably last until the end of the summer, then I would not need the AC, and at the price of $170, I could afford to get it done every summer or get a new car by next summer. As you may have guessed, at that moment I knew my brother was a genius!

So as I ride around in my car with the AC blasting I think to myself all the times that many of my friends have come up with great ideas, and creative solutions that no one else could see. I’m sure you have done the same many times before, but you never dared to call yourself a genius…I give you the permission to do it now…YOU ARE A GENIUS!

Why not do something this week that you have never done before. Give yourself the permission to be a genius. When you come up with an idea/solution, share it with someone. Don’t be afraid that it may be a bad idea, sometimes its the “bad ideas” that end up being great ideas!

Remember as a man thinks in his heart, so is he…so if you think you are stupid and you only come up with stupid ideas, then you are and you do. But if you think that you are a genius and there are so many genius ideas just waiting to burst out of your mind, then you are and they will!

Have a great week my dear!

I'll change… tomorrow

If you can’t change yourself, why do you think you can change other people…
Even if you could change yourself, you still can’t change other people…

So when are you going to stop blaming everyone else for all the problems in your life… (your boss, your husband, your wife, your significant other, your parents, your family, your church etc.)

To be successful it’s important to know that the only change I can make begins and ends with me. Today.