New Project | A Gift for You | Your Help

Friends,

Excited to share a new writing project I have committed to publishing.

I love the Old Testament and want you to as well. My life was radically changed when, as a 22-year-old, I sat in the living room of Pastor Tommy Nelson’s house four mornings a week at 6 am.  We started in late August on a Texas hot Monday morning in Genesis 1:1 and ended in May with the last chapter of Nehemiah. That journey through the 17 historical books of the Old Testament made God so personal to me, made the New Testament come alive, and convinced me that our Bible is one story, and that story is all about Jesus. 

My “diet of scripture” (reading on my own, doing Bible Studies, listening to sermons and podcasts) has always seemed so weighted towards the New Testament. I bet yours has as well. Since that formative year, I have led thousands of men and women through the same type of study of Old Testament scriptures that I got to experience. 

Most of my students were like me; I had heard a bunch of Old Testament stories, but I had no idea where they were, and not much idea how they tied together, and almost no ability to connect the Old Testament to the New Testament.

I taught a year-long journey through the Old Testament, each of my last three years in Denton. I started a new program in Memphis that I taught for three years, then we rolled my emerging leaders program into the start of Downline, and I taught the Old Testament there for 12 years. This material has three decades of adjustments and improvements, and I felt it was time to codify it to enhance personal Bible Study.

In the years since first getting exposed to the Old Testament and learning the nuts and bolts of who and what fit where, I’ve fallen deeper in love with making the connections of the Old Testament to the New Testament and vice versa. I’d argue today, you cannot fully know the New Testament without the Old Testament, nor the Old Testament without the New Testament. There is so much Genesis in Revelation and so much Revelation in Genesis. 

Sometimes acorns in the Old Testament become Oak Trees in the New Testament.

In Genesis 15, Abraham believed God and “God reckoned it to him as righteousness.” The truth that righteousness is reckoned to oneself, not mustered up by oneself, becomes massive Oak Trees like the books of Romans and Galatians in the New Testament. I want you to be equipped to begin reading your Bible “in stereo”. One eye on Exodus, with the other on Hebrews. One ear on Matthew, with the other on Genesis.

In the last three decades or so of my study of scripture, a major additional shift has occurred in my reading of the Old Testament that has exploded my heart. I will call it a shift from reading moralistically to reading Christocentrically. I explain that more in the study.

I desire to write to the “common” man and woman, my people (I’m a public school dude from Kentucky!) To write to the millions of Christ followers who are looking for something more than a devotional and something less than a commentary. I have already finished Exodus and Joshua and started this past month on Genesis.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

Before I write any more or move what I’ve written any deeper into the publishing process, I want some feedback, “crowd-sourced” if you will. I’m attaching Genesis Part One (chapters 1-11). It is raw and version 1.0.

If you would be willing to ignore typos and grammar mistakes and read through one or any number of the 11 lessons and email me some feedback (constructive criticism, encouragement, this helped, this did not help) that would be amazing and deeply appreciated. I’m sure 3 or 400 of you owe me a favor or two. Ha.

I also finished a book last year that I have yet to publish. The working title for now is “Walking with God; My Faithful Father and Faithful Friend. A Memoir, Kinda”.

Using the 15 Psalms of Ascent as a guide, I got to tell some of my story, life in Denton, Memphis, back to Kentucky, etc. Highs and lows. Brag on God. It’s from the heart. It’s close to 200 pages, but if you’d be willing to read it and get feedback to me, that would be awesome. Email me, and I’ll send you a pdf of it.

If you are covered up or not interested, no worries.

Thanks, ya’ll.

JB