Bible Study Review

I've been itching to start a deep study lately so when Tyndale offered me the chance to review a Life Application Bible Study, I jumped on it. Life Application -- I love that title, as I don't want to simply read the Word and let it slip away. So I had lofty thoughts of doing the study as a family or maybe just as a couple to try it out.

Then I opened it up. "A Note to Readers" in tinier print than this blog with literally no spacing between sentences took my three times to not read. In other words, I tried and couldn't succeed-- it was that wordy, and, in essence, defending and documenting the history of the New Living Translation. What followed was the introduction about translation philosophy and methodology and the team... again in the same tiny print that makes newspapers and grocery receipts look like large print reading.

It's not until 15 pages into it that you get to the actual scripture and even then the commentary takes up more of the page than the verses and it's harder to read than my study bible. And I took Theology in college and read a 700 page textbook so I'm no stranger to commentary. This is simply not for the average person hungering to learn more. This is for someone who enjoys to immerse themselves in academic study.

Finally the questions. They start off very slow and very impersonal. A lot of what do some people, what to do some Christians, type of questions. If you're patient enough it gets to some good personal questions but I doubt many are going to get that far. If you choose this book for a small group, just know that most of your attendees are not going to be reading any of the pages prior to the questions. And I don't blame them. But if you want to have a goal of what to read on your own and then use the questions for discussion, then it's not half bad. 2.5 book lights out of 5.