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For most of my life, I believed in God the same way you believe in gravity. I assumed He was real, but I didn’t really know what that meant. I never slowed down long enough to look in the mirror and ask what I actually believed or why. Then one day a couple months ago, on the drive home from church, my ten-year-old son asked a question I was not ready for. “Dad, how am I supposed to believe this?” He was talking about God. About the idea that Someone could create the universe

When I started this project, I thought I was doing something pretty straightforward. I was trying to make the Bible easier to approach for anyone who might be curious but intimidated or skeptical. Kinda like I’d always been. I didn’t expect it to turn into something more personal than that. A few weeks into it, a neighbor of mine, a devout Catholic, used a phrase that stuck with me. He called it “me-search.” Not research. Not outreach. Me-search. He wasn’t dismissive at all.

Revelation is the final book of the Bible and definitely one that can make people uneasy. Even people who have never read it know certain images from it — beasts, horsemen, plagues, numbers, and the end of the world. It has been used to scare, predict, and speculate more than almost any other book. In its original setting, Revelation was written to real communities in distress, using a style of writing that relied on symbols and vision rather than straightforward explanation.

These books come near the end of the New Testament, after the Gospels, Acts, and Paul’s letters. They’re often referred to as the General Epistles or Catholic Epistles, meaning they were written to broader audiences rather than to a single church or individual. Hebrews is sometimes grouped with them because of its placement and audience, though it stands apart in style and structure and is not always included in the same category. Together, these writings reflect the concerns

After the Gospels and Acts, the Bible shifts again. The story of Jesus has been told. The early church has spread beyond Jerusalem. Communities are forming across the Roman world. And with that growth comes confusion, disagreement, and real-world problems. Paul’s letters reference all of it. They’re not books written for future readers…they’re correspondence. Written to specific people, in specific places, dealing with specific issues as Christianity begins to take shape in e

The Book of Acts, also called Acts of the Apostles, is a historical narrative that picks up immediately after the Gospels and follows what happens next. It tells the story of how the early Jesus movement spreads outward from Jerusalem into the broader Roman world. The focus is not on Jesus’ life, but on how His followers understood His resurrection and began organizing, teaching, traveling, arguing, and sometimes clashing with political and religious authorities. Acts reads p

John is the fourth Gospel, and it feels very different from the other three. While Matthew, Mark, and Luke overlap heavily in structure and content, John tells the story of Jesus with a different purpose and tone. Fewer parables and miracle accounts. Much longer conversations, more reflection, more symbolism. John is less concerned with what happened next and more concerned with who Jesus is. What kind of book is this? John is a narrative account of Jesus’ life, focused on se

Luke is a carefully assembled account of Jesus’ life that pays close attention to people who tend to sit at the edges of the story. Where other Gospels move quickly or assume familiarity with Jewish tradition, Luke slows down, explains context, and repeatedly focuses on those who are overlooked, dismissed, or pushed aside. What kind of book is this? Luke is a narrative account of Jesus’ life, teaching, death, and resurrection. It reads like a researched historical work rather

Mark is the shortest, fastest moving and is likely the earliest Gospel written. Its simplicity, speed, and lack of explanation make it feel raw and immediate. For readers who want to encounter Jesus quickly, without long introductions or theological framing, Mark offers the most direct entry point. He is constantly moving, teaching, healing, confronting, and being misunderstood. The book feels urgent with very little pause. What kind of book is this? Mark is a narrative accou

The Old Testament ends with Israel back in its land, but under foreign rule, with unresolved promises and a long memory of warnings, exile, and return. The prophets speak of restoration and hope, but history does not pause to explain how or when it will happen. Between the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New, several centuries pass. Political powers change. Empires rise and fall. Jewish life continues under foreign authority. The questions raised by the Law

The books commonly called the “Minor Prophets” come at the end of the Old Testament. The word minor does not mean less important. It simply means shorter. There are twelve of them, and together they cover a long stretch of time. Some speak before Israel and Judah collapse. Others speak during exile. A few speak after people return and try to rebuild. They can feel overwhelming because they are dense, intense, and unfamiliar. (Not to mention the names…my kids are partial to Ha

Daniel closes out the Major Prophets, but it reads differently from the books that come before it. Instead of speeches directed at Israel, Daniel is set almost entirely outside the land, during exile. The stories unfold inside foreign empires, primarily Babylon, and later under Persian rule. What kind of book is this? Daniel contains: • Narrative stories about Jewish exiles serving in foreign governments • Court politics and public tests of loyalty • Visions filled with sy

Jerusalem has fallen. The temple has been destroyed. Large portions of the population have been taken into exile. Ezekiel’s voice comes from within the exile, not from the city itself. What kind of book is this? Ezekiel is a prophetic book made up of visions, symbolic actions, speeches, and poetic imagery. It is not written as a continuous narrative. The book moves between: Vision reports Messages addressed to Israel Oracles against surrounding nations Reflections on responsi

Lamentations follows directly after Jeremiah in both content and historical setting. Where Jeremiah records warnings leading up to Jerusalem’s fall, Lamentations comes after the destruction has already happened. The city has been conquered. The temple has been destroyed. The population has been killed, displaced, or exiled. This book doesn’t explain those events. It reacts to them. What kind of book is this? Lamentations is a collection of poetic laments. A lament is a formal

Jeremiah is the second of the Major Prophets that follows the final years of the Kingdom of Judah as it moves toward collapse. The book records warnings delivered over decades, alongside the personal cost of delivering them. Much of Jeremiah takes place as events are unfolding, not after they are resolved. What kind of book is this? Jeremiah is a prophetic book made up of speeches, warnings, symbolic actions, prayers, personal reflections, and historical narrative. It is not

Isaiah is the first of the Major Prophets and one of the longest and most complex books in the Hebrew Bible. I'll try to simplify. It sits at the intersection of history, warning, poetry, and hope for the future. Much of the language is vivid and memorable, which is part of why Isaiah is quoted so often later in the Bible, including in the New Testament. What kind of book is this? Isaiah is a prophetic book made up of speeches, poems, visions, and symbolic actions. It is not

The books we just finished, Job through Song of Songs, step away from history and focus inward. They don’t move the timeline forward. They capture how people think, pray, question, love, work, and wrestle with life. They reflect more on personal experience and much less on public events. The next section shifts outward again. The prophetic books are not philosophical reflections or collections of sayings. They are anchored in history. Kings are in power. Nations are rising an

The first time I read through Song of Songs, or also commonly known as Song of Solomon, I did a double take. It’s a series of poems exchanged between two lovers and it’s explicitly romantic and physical. Bordering on erotic? There is no storyline that advances history. No laws. No wise sayings. No philosophical argument. No prayers directed toward God. Isn't this the Bible? What kind of book is this? Song of Songs is a collection of love poetry. The poems describe attraction,

The first time I read Ecclesiastes, it barely registered. That was about a year and a half ago, when I was trying to figure out my way through the Bible. I remember thinking it felt contradictory, and kinda bleak. I don’t think I finished it. Whatever the case, it didn't have an effect. I moved on. Then a couple months ago, I was pulled back to it. I reconnected with a college buddy I hadn’t spoken to in over 25 years. As he was telling me about his church near Franklin, Tenn

Ecclesiastes is part of the Wisdom and Poetry books, but it does not function like most of the others. There is no collection of prayers, no set of short proverbs, and no narrative storyline. Instead, Ecclesiastes is a single extended reflection spoken almost entirely by one voice. What kind of book is this? Ecclesiastes is a philosophical reflection written in poetic prose. It examines ordinary parts of life such as work, pleasure, success, wisdom, time, wealth, legacy, and