Posts Tagged ‘BibleFresh’

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Grab on to the Bible

Tuesday, January 24th, 2012

Many churches in the UK focused on getting back to Bible basics last year, as part of the celebrations for the anniversary of the Authorised Version. But in all the excitement, it’s easy to overlook the parts that made it hard to stay in the Bible in the first place.

There are all those genealogies, laws and prophets to get your head around. But that’s just difficult to read because we don’t understand them — sometimes the bits that we do understand are even harder to take in. How do we deal with issues like evolution, or the genocide that God appears to condone?

Last year, Biblefresh ran a series of classes and published a book called Get a Grip, made to tackle these kind of questions. The book is still available from Biblefresh here, and half of the profits go towards Bible translation.

If you missed the classes, you can still experience a bit of that too – videos from some sessions held at Kings College London are available, with experienced scholars and pastors answering some of the hard or ‘I-never-thought-of-that’ questions about the Bible.

Catch the videos here.

You know those parts of the Bible you don’t understand? There are Christians around the world longing to read them who can’t because the Bible isn’t in their language. Help translate the Bible.

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400 years on…

Thursday, November 17th, 2011

Yesterday, the Queen and others gathered at Westminster Abbey for a service to mark the anniversary of the King James Bible. The service marked the end of a year of celebratory events to observe the date.

Talking about the translation, Archbishop Rowan Williams said that, while no perfect translation could ever be completed, the majesty of the language in the KJB can focus our minds back on God and grace:

Photo: Chris Jackson/AP

“The temptation is always there for the modern translator to look for strategies that make the text more accessible.

“When that temptation comes, it doesn’t hurt to turn for a moment—for some long moments indeed—to this extraordinary text, with its continuing capacity to surprise us into seriousness, to acquaint us again with the weight of glory – and, we hope and pray, to send us back to the unending work of letting ourselves be changed so that we can bear just a little more of the light of the new world, full of grace and truth.”*

Also at the celebration was the People’s Bible, a collection of handwritten verses from all around the country. Read more about it in this earlier blog.

As we draw to the end of a year commending this influential and beautiful Bible translation, we continue to look to those who still don’t have the Bible in their own language. They number more than 300 million. Celebrations of the KJB this year have played a part in sharing the Bible, through Biblefresh support of translation in Burkina Faso. Find out more about translation in Burkina Faso and about Biblefresh.

*Read the source article from The Telegraph.

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Get a grip on the Bible

Saturday, October 22nd, 2011

Do you ever struggle with those seemingly slippery Bible questions? Do you ever find it hard to get your head around the ‘boring’ bits of the Bible? Help is at hand…

The end of this month sees the start of a series of Biblefresh teaching days running across the country. The ‘Get a Grip’ days each cover a series of subjects, concentrating on intellectual, practical and spiritual applications for getting into the Bible.

Classes tackle issues like genocide in the Bible, evolution and how we approach a difficult passage. You can get to the classes in any of four locations:

  • Glasgow, on 28th October
  • Cardiff, on the 3rd November
  • London, on the 7th November
  • Durham, on the 8th November

You can find more about classes, locations and booking your place on the Biblefresh website.

But even if you can’t get to one of these days, you can get insights on unconventional or troubling passages from a new Biblefresh book called Get a Grip. Buy it here.

Biblefresh has been a year-long celebration on the anniversary of the King James Bible to help people get back into the Bible. You can still get involved.

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Alister McGrath speaks at Wycliffe Bible Translators event

Thursday, October 6th, 2011

On 5 October 2011, over 60 church leaders in London gathered at the Emmanuel Centre Westminster to hear Professor Alister McGrath speak on the origins and the significance of the King James Bible (the Authorised Version).  He described one of the great themes of the reforming movements of the 16th century: that of accessibility, removing barriers which stopped ordinary people from having access to the riches of the Christian faith.

Alister McGrathThere was a recognition that language really matters.  There is no point having something of immense value if it’s locked in a box, confined there in a language that people cannot understand. 

Following Professor McGrath’s message, Eddie Arthur Director of Wycliffe Bible Translators, shared some of his experiences.  Eddie lived in the Ivory Coast, working on the translation of the Kouya New Testament.  He described the people he’d got to know through this work, and the impact that the Kouya Scriptures had in their lives and community.

“The Kouya NT won’t have the global impact that the KJV had, there are only 14,000 Kouya.  It’s not going to be a world changing book…  But by God’s grace we made history for the Kouya people.  Not because we’re anything special, but because this Word is special.”

Listen the full message here [1:03].

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Extreme Bible Reading

Friday, September 9th, 2011

This Biblefresh* year of celebrating the 400th anniversary of the KJV has been wonderful so far, not least by the way that it has provoked people to get back into the Bible for themselves.  In the news today David Bathurst’s record-attempt exploits have been reported, which should probably carry a health warning!

World record attempt crumbles after Bible reader nods off
An effort to break the world record for reading aloud, by reading out the entire Bible, failed after the reader lost consciousness while reading Jeremiah.  (full post from Christian Today)

Despite having to take a rest on Saturday, he went on to complete his reading on the Sunday.  David is to be commended for having reached as far as Jeremiah, though he would have read these verses from Psalms along the way:

‘I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety’ Psalm 4:8
‘In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat – for he grants sleep to those he loves’ Psalm 127:2

So, it appears the Lord’s love overcame him in his record-breaking attempts.  Many other churches have taken up similar challenges to have Biblefresh* Bible-read-a-thons this year, and have had great fun in the process. 

Meanwhile, over 340 million people worldwide do not have access to even one verse of Scripture in their own language, and Wycliffe Bible Translators along with partners are helping to change this fact.  You can be involved.

biblefresh logo*Biblefresh: a movement of churches, agencies, colleges and festivals seeking to encourage and inspire churches across the UK to a greater confidence and appetite for the word of God.

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Handwritten, buried treasure

Sunday, September 4th, 2011

Through the Biblefresh* year this year, we’re having a great time connecting with other agencies who are also passionate about people having and reading the Bible for themselves.  Open Doors Youth share this story in their new resource ‘The Dangerous Book’.

CHINA: “We took shifts copying for 20 days continuously, two copying and two correcting. By the last night, we finished and went to return the Bible. Exhausted, we fell asleep on the way. Morning came and we rushed to return it to the elderly woman, constantly apologizing. We started reading Open Doors Youth logoour hand-copied Bible immediately. At the time we had 10 churches, and we used that Bible during meetings. This copy was lent among the churches. This Bible is very precious to us. We hid it at a meeting place by digging a hole, putting it in and covering it with a rock. I used it for 10 years, until it was discovered and confiscated.”

Millions of people across the world are cut off from God’s word.  Some don’t have access to it because of persecution.  Some don’t have access to it because their language isn’t written down, and there’s no translation yet.  Those without it are hungry for it.

‘How can they call on the one they have not believed in?  And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard?  And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?’  Romans 10v14

Or how can they hear when the word is confiscated, or not in a language they can understand?  God is reaching out in so many ways, and using very ordinary people to do extraordinary things.  Whilst Open Doors supports Christians who are persecuted for their faith by supplying Bibles to them, Wycliffe Bible Translators is pressing on by starting a Bible translation projects for every remaining language that needs one.  Find out more about the persecuted church through youth.opendoorsuk.org, and check out their new resource ‘The Dangerous Book‘.  You can also  get involved with what God is doing through Bible translation by reading more on the Wycliffe Bible Translators UK website.

*Biblefresh: a movement of churches, agencies, colleges and festivals seeking to encourage and inspire churches across the UK to a greater confidence and appetite for the word of God.

 

 

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Biblefresh So Far

Sunday, August 14th, 2011

As you may know, Wycliffe Bible Translators and lots of other organisations have been celebrating the ‘Year of the Bible’  through Biblefresh. Biblefresh is an initiative to help people get back into the Bible. So with the Biblefresh year more than halfway gone, how have things been going?

How has the Bible changed you? Photo from Biblefresh

Here are some of the numbers we’ve seen since January 1:

120 different organisations and agencies have come together sharing a single vision under the Biblefresh banner.

12-plus different dishes inspired by the Bible such as locusts and wild honey, Passover supper, pigeon, partridge and quail and bread and fish were served up by members of the Churches Together in Sidmouth.

3,000 shoeboxes were filled with different items to represent each of the 66 books of the Bible. Boxes included knitted figleaves, Lego men being massacred and the feeding of 5,000 jelly babies. The shoe boxes were displayed at Peterborough Cathedral.

21,000 GBP pounds has been raised so far by asking people to donate £1 for every copy of the Bible they own. This has gone towards translating the Old Testament into Bissa Lebir and the New Testament into Bissa Barka – two native languages of the Bissa people of Burkina Faso, the world’s third poorest nation.

biblefresh logoYou can get more numbers from the Biblefresh press release, available here on the Evangelical Alliance website.

There’s still time for you to get involved with Biblefresh: find out more.

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(Bible)Freshen up for July

Saturday, July 23rd, 2011

We are now more than halfway through the year, and it can be easy to forget those resolutions we made months ago in January. But summer is actually a brilliant time to get back to our resolutions – including getting back to celebrating the Bible.

biblefresh logoBiblefresh* is a brilliant way of getting back into the Bible. And they’ve got ten great reasons why July is a super month to get involved. For example,

1. Free book giveaway – CWR are giving away free copies of Selwyn Hughes’ book Getting the Best from the Bible to everyone in a Biblefresh church. But stocks are limited, so get signed up soon!

…

3. Genesis to Revelation – There are some great resources for getting into reading the Bible cover-to-cover, by yourself, with friends or as a church (and they work just as well starting in July as January!).

A Burkinabe woman holds the Bissa Lebir New Testament close to her heart.…

6. For young people – Soul Survivor has been running a Bible-in-a-year programme, and they start again in September.

Visit the Biblefresh website – biblefresh.com – to fill in the blanks and find out more about the great resources available. Here at Wycliffe Bible Translators, we feel particularly passionate about number 10: ‘Give the Bible’. Biblefresh is raising money to give the Bible to people in Burkina Faso. Find out more.

*Biblefresh: a movement of churches, agencies, colleges and festivals seeking to encourage and inspire churches across the UK to a greater confidence and appetite for the word of God.

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The People’s Bible

Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011

Biblefresh is about getting people back into the Bible. One initiative within the movement, from Bible Societies in the UK, is The People’s Bible, which started its tour of the UK on Saturday.

As the tour crosses the country, different people will pick a verse or two, and write it by hand. Verses are gathered digitally, forming part of an online, handwritten Bible. The tour started in Edinburgh on Saturday and will finish at Westminster in November.

Like the first King James Bible project four hundred years ago, this Bible edition has also gained royal approval: Genesis 1:1-2 in the book were written in by Prince Charles. The Archbishop of Canterbury also contributed, choosing some verses in 2 Corinthians. In fact, the project has received support from quite a few famous faces, including the actor Timothy West and comedian Frank Skinner (right).

You can find out more about the project on The People’s Bible website, where there’s dates of the tour, the latest verses and some celebrity verses.

There are more than 31,000 verses in the Bible. English-speakers can read these in hundreds of translations. But more than 300 million people don’t have even one verse of the Bible a language they can really understand. You can give the Story everbody needs.

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Pentecost Festival 2011 in full swing

Wednesday, June 8th, 2011

Pentecost Festival is arts, music and drama; its comedy, sport and film; its debates and discussions. Its a celebration of the diverse communities in London and an opportunity for people to discover more about Jesus. It offers something for everyone, and everyone is invited regardless of age, faith or cultural background.

Pentecost Festival .co.uk *Right alongside the crowds gathering for the trooping of the colour this Saturday, Methodist Central Hall is well placed for the Biblefresh Zone, where Wycliffe Bible Translators will be exhibiting with many other contributors.  Our extensive display will give you an idea of the many roles involved in Bible Translation, where the greatest need is and how language work can benefit a whole community in education, health, welfare and ultimately revealing God in a powerful way.  There are displays to challenge your own translation skills as well as stories to encourage you as you see how God is at work around the world, impacting thousands of communities through Bible translation.

Here’s the promotional YouTube video, to get a flavour of what’s on this week, and we hope to see you there on Saturday.

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