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    Open the Bible in 30 Days
    Open the Bible in 30 Days
    Open the Bible in 30 Days
    Ebook160 pages1 hour

    Open the Bible in 30 Days

    By Colin S. Smith

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    About this ebook

    Discover the whole Bible story.

    Though the Bible is the perennial best-selling book, many people don’t know where to begin. Open the Bible in 30 Days is a comprehensive and engaging tool that gives you an overview of God’s Word. Colin Smith opens the Bible in three stages: the Old Testament where we meet God the Father, the Gospels where we learn to trust Christ the Son, and the New Testament letters where we discover life in the Holy Spirit.

    Open the Bible in 30 Days can be used individually or alongside “Open,” an online guided journey through the life-changing story of Scripture. Grab a copy of Open the Bible in 30 Days and visit openthebible.org to get started.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMoody Publishers
    Release dateJul 28, 2020
    ISBN9780802499684
    Author

    Colin S. Smith

    COLIN S. SMITH is the senior pastor of The Orchard Evangelical Free Church in Arlington Heights, IL, where he has been since 1996. He is the author of The 10 Greatest Struggles of Your Life and can be heard on his Unlocking the Bible broadcast with Moody radio.

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      Book preview

      Open the Bible in 30 Days - Colin S. Smith

      © 2004 by COLIN S. SMITH as Unlock the Bible in 30 Days

      Reissued 2020 as Open the Bible in 30 Days

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

      All Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

      Scripture quotations marked NASB taken from the New American Standard Bible® (NASB), Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.Lockman.org

      Scripture quotations marked (ESV) are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

      Published in association with the literary agency of Wolgemuth & Associates.

      Edited by Jim Vincent and Kevin P. Emmert

      Interior and cover design: Erik M. Peterson

      All websites and phone numbers listed herein are accurate at the time of publication but may change in the future or cease to exist. The listing of website references and resources does not imply publisher endorsement of the site’s entire contents. Groups and organizations are listed for informational purposes, and listing does not imply publisher endorsement of their activities.

      ISBN: 978-0-8024-2344-3

      eBook ISBN: 978-0-8024-9968-4

      Originally delivered by fleets of horse-drawn wagons, the affordable paperbacks from D. L. Moody’s publishing house resourced the church and served everyday people. Now, after more than 125 years of publishing and ministry, Moody Publishers’ mission remains the same—even if our delivery systems have changed a bit. For more information on other books (and resources) created from a biblical perspective, go to www.moodypublishers.com or write to:

      Moody Publishers

      820 N. LaSalle Boulevard

      Chicago, IL 60610

      TO A. J., WHOSE LIGHT IS STILL SHINING

      Friend,

      Thank you for choosing to read this Moody Publishers title. It is our hope and prayer that this book will help you to know Jesus Christ more personally and love Him more deeply.

      The proceeds from your purchase help pay the tuition of students attending Moody Bible Institute. These students come from around the globe and graduate better equipped to impact our world for Christ.

      Other Moody Ministries that may be of interest to you include Moody Radio and Moody Distance Learning. To learn more visit www.moodyradio.org and www.moody.edu/distance-learning.

      To enhance your reading experience we’ve made it easy to share inspiring passages and thought-provoking quotes with your friends via Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, and other book-sharing sites. To do so, simply highlight and forward. And don’t forget to put this book on your Reading Shelf on your book community site.

      Thanks again, and may God bless you.

      The Moody Publishers Team

      Contents 

      Introduction

      PART ONE: KNOWING GOD THE FATHER

      1. Creation

      2. Curse

      3. Promise

      4. Pain

      5. Covenant

      6. Chaos

      7. Kingdom

      8. Conflict

      9. Restoration

      PART TWO: TRUSTING CHRIST THE SON

      10. Born

      11. Tempted

      12. Sovereign

      13. Opposed

      14. Transfigured

      15. Suffered

      16. Crucified

      17. Forsaken

      18. Risen

      19. Doubted

      20. Ascended

      21. Waiting

      PART THREE: LIVING IN THE SPIRIT

      22. Power

      23. Weakness

      24. Peace

      25. Conflict

      26. Joy

      27. Suffering

      28. Life

      29. Death

      30. Glory

      An Invitation

      Index of Scriptures

      Study Guide

      Introduction

      YOU ARE ABOUT TO EMBARK on a fascinating journey as we travel together through the Bible story. You will discover who God is and what He is doing in the world. You will also learn about yourself and God’s purpose for your life.

      The Bible unveils the amazing story of how God has reached out to this rebel world, offering a relationship with Himself to all people. It explains why life in this world is such a confusing mixture of pain and pleasure, and it tells how God offers to bring us into a life of unclouded joy.

      I find it helpful to think of the Bible story as a magnificent landscape of high mountains and deep valleys. We will climb its mountains of triumph and explore its valleys of disaster. Along the way, we will meet extraordinary people whose experiences of faith, fear, high hopes, and broken dreams cover the whole of life. We will encounter the entire range of human emotions—from love to hate and from dread to joy.

      The first stage of our journey will take us through the Old Testament, where God introduces Himself to us. He made Himself known in five spectacular bursts of activity. But between these great mountaintops were long, dark valleys, where God seemed to be distant, and where the power of evil seemed overwhelming.

      The second stage of our journey will take us through the Gospels, where we meet Jesus Christ. We will focus on six towering peaks where His glory is seen most clearly, but we will also enter His pain and suffering as we travel with Him through the darkest valleys.

      The last stage of our journey will take us through the letters of the New Testament, where we discover the joys and struggles of life in the Spirit. The Christian life has its mountaintops and its valleys, and through our journey, you will become familiar with both.

      Open the Bible in 30 Days includes a short study guide that will help you apply the truths you have learned. You can use its questions on your own or as part of a study group sharing the thirty-day journey together.

      Once you have breathed the air of the mountains, you will want to come back for more. And you can find more at openthebible.org, where you will discover an expanded journey through the Bible story.

      That’s the plan for the journey. Now it’s time to break camp and head for the mountains.

      PART ONE

      Knowing God the Father

      THE OLD TESTAMENT STORY takes us from the beginning of time to about the year 400 BC.

      The main events cluster around five grand occasions when God intercepted human history in a spectacular way. They are

      1. God’s gift of life in creation,

      2. God’s promise to Abraham,

      3. God’s covenant with His people,

      4. God’s kingdom under David and Solomon, and

      5. God’s restoration of His people from exile.

      Between these five mountain peaks of God’s intervention lie four deep valleys. They are

      1. the curse that followed the entrance of sin into the world,

      2. the pain God’s people endured as slaves in Egypt,

      3. the chaos God’s people experienced in the Promised Land, and

      4. the conflict that led to exile in Babylon.

      Once you have explored these mountains and valleys, you will have a good grasp of the Old Testament story and, more important, you will have discovered who God is and what He has to say to you.

      Chapter 1

      creation 

      HOW COULD ANYONE possibly know how the world began? Nobody was there taking notes when it happened! And how could anyone know what was in the mind of God when He made the first man and woman? No one could know these things unless God Himself took the initiative to tell somebody. And that is precisely what He did.

      We can reasonably assume that God spoke with Adam and Eve about His joy in creating the universe and that they passed these stories on to their children. But stories that are handed down from generation to generation in this way become distorted, and so it is important to realize that God revealed these things more directly.

      Later in our journey, we will meet with Moses. God appeared to him visibly and spoke to him audibly (see Num. 12:8). This unique privilege of speaking with God face-to-face enabled Moses to write what God gave him to say in the first five books of the Bible.

      THE CREATOR IS THE OWNER 

      The first thing God wants you to know is that He is your Creator: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Gen. 1:1). That’s important, because a creator always has the rights of ownership over anything that he or she has made. God wants you to know that He is the Creator and therefore the owner of everything, including you.

      That tells you something magnificent, not only about God but also about you. You are not an accident of history whose existence is the result of certain atoms colliding by random chance. God made you on purpose, and you will discover that purpose as you come to know Him.

      A BREATHTAKING INITIATIVE 

      Try to imagine the Creator at work. Day after day, God added new dimensions to His creation: light, sky, seas, vegetation, the sun, the moon, stars, fish, birds, and animals. Each was conceived in the mind of God, and when He spoke, He called them into being. As each creative act was completed, God reviewed His work and announced that it was good.

      It was at this point that God crowned His creation with a breathtaking initiative: God said, ‘Let us make mankind in our image.’ (Gen. 1:26)

      God made you to reflect something of His own nature and glory so that as people look at you, they would see some reflection of God Himself. This is what gives unique dignity and value to every human life. All of the animals were made by God, but none of them were made like God.

      ENJOYING THE GOODNESS OF GOD 

      Adam enjoyed life in a garden called Eden, which God had planted near the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers (Gen. 2:8–14). While we can’t pinpoint its exact location, it was probably somewhere in the area of modern Iraq.

      Life in Eden was

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