- [Narrator] The Bible, what is it and why does it matter?
The Bible is one of the bestselling books of all time,
selling 2.5 billion copies worldwide.
Not to mention nearly 400 million people have downloaded
the YouVersion Bible app.
But many people have questions
or strong feelings about the Bible.
Maybe you've grown up with the Bible in your house,
but never paid much attention to it.
Maybe you've attempted to connect with the Bible,
but found it too confusing.
Maybe you love the Bible
and wanna gain a better understanding of it.
Or maybe you've had a bad experience with a Christian
who used the Bible to point out your faults and failures.
Regardless of your thoughts on the Bible,
it's impact on culture is profound.
The Bible has influenced famous art pieces,
phrases we use in everyday conversation,
movies and even song lyrics.
The Bible was inspired by God, but written by people.
It documents the event Christian faith rests on,
Jesus dying on a cross, resurrecting from the dead
and paving the way for us to have a relationship with God.
It's made up of 66 books, written over a span of 1500 years,
in three original languages, Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic.
By more than 40 authors, some unknown, some prophets,
some eyewitnesses to the death or resurrection of Jesus,
okay, that's a lot, but it's not as confusing as it sounds.
The Bible project makes videos like this one,
about understanding the Bible.
The Bible is a collection of many books
telling one unified story from beginning to end.
But all those books were written
in different literary styles.
Yeah, think of it like walking into a bookstore
where every aisle has a different kind of literature.
There's history or poetry or nonfiction,
and when you choose an aisle and pick up a book,
you're gonna have very different expectations,
different things that you're looking for.
Right, they're all literature,
but they communicate in really different ways.
Yes, and so the same thing is true for the Bible.
If you don't pay attention to what style it's written in,
you will miss out on the brilliance of each book.
So what are the main types of literature in the Bible?
Well, first and foremost is narrative,
it makes up a whopping 43% of the Bible,
after that is poetry, which is 33% of the Bible.
And then there's what you could call prose discourse,
which makes up the remaining 24%.
Still confused?
Here's how those different literary styles connect.
The Bible is one long epic narrative
with multiple movements or acts.
The Old Testament recounts the first series of acts
that give you everything you need to make sense
of the story to follow.
And then in the New Testament, these are all picked up
and carried forward to the stories culmination and Jesus.
Let me show you what I mean.
The first act is about God and all of humanity.
God provides a sweet garden temple for humans,
who are made to be God's partners in ruling the world.
But the humans are foolish
and they give into a dark temptation
and rebel against God's wisdom.
So they're exiled into a wilderness
where they start killing each other.
They build cities that spread their selfishness
and oppression leading up to the big, bad City of Babylon.
But God loves the world and it's foolish humans,
so He sets in motion, a rescue plan,
by promising the arrival of a new human who will destroy
the evil that has lured us into self-destruction.
The next act of the biblical story is about God and Israel,
and it develops the themes and patterns of the first act.
God calls a new humanity out of Babylon,
into a sweet garden land.
Abraham, Sarah and his descendants, the Israelites.
God promises that through them,
divine blessing will be restored to all of the nations.
Surely these are the new humans that we're waiting for,
but the Israelites repeat humanity's rebellion against God,
building their own violent cities
that lead to self destruction and another exile in Babylon.
But God sustains His promise, that the new human will come
from Abraham's lineage.
It will be a priest king, who will now have to rescue
both Israel and humanity from Babylon
to restore God's blessing to the world.
Bible tells the story of not only God, but also His people.
Meaning that it details, but not necessarily endorses
every behavior from those people,
which is why the Bible can be a little messy,
because it's about flawed people like you and me.
It details how God uses imperfect people
to accomplish His perfect purpose.
It gives us a glimpse of the unchanging character of God,
who always keeps His promises and remains faithful,
no matter how faithless we are.
Toya discovered this principle in her own life,
as God used one verse to reveal His faithfulness to her.
- So prior to me having my aha moment with God,
you know, grew up in a two parent home,
nothing too out of the ordinary,
and the focus in our home was to go to college.
And I found myself in college,
like my parents told me to go.
Got my degrees, got married,
had that kind of picture perfect ordinary life
that you strive for.
So I felt like that was that moment, looking at my life,
I'm just kind of living for others
and doing what I hear I'm 'posed to do.
But it came to halt for me
when I ended up rock bottom homeless.
Rock bottom was literally rock bottom.
I was married, I'm in a marriage for seven years,
serving at the church, three beautiful children.
To anyone else, my life looks picture perfect.
And then my husband has an affair
and I stick that out even after that, but then he's like,
"I don't wanna be in this marriage anymore."
And so prior to that, being a stay at home mom and a wife,
nothing was in my name.
Only thing I owned were the clothes on my back.
The judge even gave him the kids because I'm homeless,
what judge would give me kids in their right mind?
And so it's like he moved me out, get out,
and moved his new one in.
So in a homeless shelter and I'm just like boiling,
I'm confused, I'm upset, I'm angry, all these emotions.
I felt like, even though that was the rock bottom,
but that was my up.
The scripture that God gave me in that timeframe
was Matthew 10-39, "If you lose your life,
you'll find your life in me."
And that's when I felt, Him telling me, "Let go
of what you wanted or what people told you
and hear my instructions
and walk in purpose from this day on."
Him coming to me, talking to me like He did in that shelter,
was so phenomenal and I wanted to serve Him,
and I wanted to do what He'd called me to do.
And I did not want anything that was a part of sin
or the world to be attached to me.
And I had so much peace, so much joy.
And that was probably the best time in my life,
as far as living whole in Jesus.
So many things God did because I chose to walk pure
and I chose to walk in His will.
In 2016, I got married and I've been married to this man
for three years and it's been incredible.
And my kids, I'm able to be a part of their life,
I'm able to be involved in them,
and He's brought so much healing, listen to this,
He's brought so much healing for me and my ex husband.
When I tell you God is so faithful, He is so amazing.
And if you put your trust in Him, have you seek Him
for your life, lose the life that you think you have,
seek Him for the life that He has for you,
is no comparison, none.
- [Narrator] Her story is a powerful reminder
that God's word is more than just a book.
Not to mention people in culture are trying to manufacture
what God sent into motion since creation.
Hang with us on that.
People in the technology industry,
particularly Silicon Valley,
have coined the term secular sabbath,
to talk about a day of rest from work.
A day without technology, a day to do nothing,
sound familiar?
After creating the world, God took a day to rest
and rejoice in what He had created.
This became a regular practice for God's people
for thousands of years.
And Jesus reinforces the importance of Sabbath
during His ministry on earth.
So creation, that's us,
is craving something the creator already created.
That's not the only example.
Generosity has proven to increase happiness
and even lower blood pressure.
Gratitude has been linked to an increased happiness,
greater empathy levels and more relationships.
Again, two concepts that we find in scripture,
that culture recreates.
Clearly, there's something about these ideas
that resonates in our human hearts.
It's probably because scripture
is a way for God to speak to us.
It's breathed by God to transform us
into someone more like God.
It's an anchor in a changing world with a time-tested truth.
You may be thinking, it sounds good in theory,
but why add something else to your to do list?
Who's got the time
and isn't it just a bunch of rules or religion?
Scripture isn't about following a bunch of rules,
but finding Jesus and following Him.
Will there be things you should follow?
Yes, but healthy discipline and boundaries are good for you.
In fact, there's a study
from the American Society of Landscape Architects,
about children on playgrounds, that's really helpful to us
when we're thinking about boundaries.
They gathered one group of kids
and took them to a playground with no fences or boundaries.
Then they took the same group of kids to a different,
but similar playground where there was a fence,
aka, a visible boundary.
On the playground without boundaries,
the children huddled together, stay close to their teacher
and only explored a little bit of the playground.
However, on the playground with a fence, a boundary,
the children explored the whole area,
played independently of their teacher
and reported that they felt safer.
God's word brings us freeing boundaries
and time tested disciplines
to help us become better at life.
Still not convinced?
Imagine if everyone treated you
the way Jesus taught them to in His word.
Imagine a world in which love prevailed.
Jesus often said things like,
"You have heard it said, but I say."
Culture says, "compete, compare,
there's not enough for everyone.
Eye for an eye, hurt those who hurt you."
Think about number one, Jesus says,
"You are complete because of me.
There's plenty to go around.
Pray for those who hurt you.
Forgive those who don't deserve it.
Go the extra mile for someone else."
Imagine if we, the body of Christ,
we're known for living out what Jesus taught us in His word.
Imagine if we forgave freely, love deeply
and served extravagantly.
Now imagine your life
without ever hearing or reading those words.
Did you know that some people
have never read the Bible in their own language?
Meaning they've never experienced the Bible for themselves.
In fact, thousands of the world's languages
don't even have a complete New Testament.
And more than a thousand of those languages,
only have a few scriptures,
ranging from a few verses to maybe one or two chapters.
But the amazing thing about the Bible is that,
it's the living and active word of God
that transforms people from the inside out.
In fact, look at what happens when a group of people
who have never heard the Bible in their language,
hears it for the first time.
(woman speaking in foreign dialect)
Imagine hearing the scriptures read to you
in a language you couldn't fully understand.
That's the problem facing over 1 billion people
in the world today.
The YouVersion community is passionate
about ending Bible poverty.
And in partnership with Life Church, has given $1.5 million
to Bible translation efforts around the world.
(uplifting music)
On July of 2018, Life Church had the opportunity
to witness the Obamba and Teke people groups
in Gabon, Africa, received their very first portion
of scripture written in a language
they can truly understand.
The second chapter of the Gospel of Luke,
the Christmas story. (singing)
Together, we'll continue the work that God has called us to,
eradicating Bible poverty.
Can't you sense the joy those people feel?
God's power moves in and through His word to change lives,
and it's a way God speaks to us.
(soft uplifting music)
If you've still got Bible questions, that's okay,
ask God to fill in the gaps.
Keep watching, find some friends to talk about it with.