The Barbour Bible Study Companion - A Review

The Barbour Bible Study Companion

Edited By

Christopher D. Hudson

A Review

The Barbour Bible Study Companion is a Study Bible with the text of the Bible, thus allowing it to be used with the reader’s preferred translation.  The book is a reprint of an earlier title, The Layman’s Concise Bible Commentary, originally published in 2013. No explanation is provided for the change in title, even though the book is being reprinted by the same publisher.

The notes include brief introductions to each book which discuss the book’s theme, its author, and the occasion of its writing. The notes themselves are similar in quality to that found in most one volume commentaries - not a great deal of depth, but aimed to help the general reader appreciate the Bible’s major history, teaching, and application.  At nearly 500 pages, there is plenty of content for the reader to mull over as he or she reads the Scriptures. The commentary is essentially evangelical in its interpretation, though estimated dates are omitted for significant events such as the Exodus.

Published with an imitation leather cover, the book has an attractive feel and appearance. It would make the perfect gift for someone needing a well-done Study Bible, but who already has a good translation. It would also make for an inexpensive addition to a student’s Study Bible or Commentary library.   

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This review is based on a free electronic copy provided by the publisher for the purpose of creating this review. The opinions are mine alone.

The Case for Grace - A Review

The Case for Grace

by

Lee Strobel

I had been a Christian for almost 20 years, and that was 20 years ago, when I first began to  truly  understand Grace.  I had failed my wife, my family, and my God. And I finally learned what Grace was all about. Though it was not the beginning of my understanding of Grace, Chuck Swindoll's The Grace Awakening made the biggest dent in my understanding of Grace back then; but every so often, I need a swift hit on the side of the head to remind me what Grace is all about.

This year, Lee Strobel's The Case for Grace provided that hit. The book provides a series of biographical sketches, including his own, of men and women who, after living particularly trying lives, came to understand the nature of Grace in their own lives and found ways of sharing that Grace with others. The stories are well done, with enough detail to let the reader know the backgrounds, both the good and bad, of each character, but also provide keys to how they had discovered Grace and how it changed their lives. In some ways, each story echoed my own from 20 years earlier.  

My greatest disappointment as I read the book was finding men and women who had already been or who would have been highly successful whether they found Grace or not. I would like to have found a story or two of ordinary men and women, people from the working class, people who had to struggle with tight budgets, clogged drains, and broken cars, whose attitudes and actions had been touched by Grace.  Lee Strobel's stories focus on those whose lives have made a visible impact - where many who are touched by Grace will find an appreciation for who and where they are, not so much changed by what they do, but by how they perceive the world in which God has already placed them. These stories may not be as inspiring, but they would give a more complete look at the effect of God's Grace on a broken world.

Strobel begins by quoting Thomas C. Oden, "[Grace is necessary] to know truth, avoid sin, act well, pray fittingly, desire salvation, begin to have faith and persevere in faith.  [Grace ...  is nothing less than] the motivating power of the Christian life."  The book accomplished this thesis for this reader. My thought is that it will for others as well.

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This review is based on a free electronic copy provided by the publisher for the purpose of creating this review.  The opinions expressed are my own.