I haven’t always been a Lutheran. I was evangelized into the Christian Faith out of generic unbelief, into a small Holiness denomination. (That whole adventure, and my discovery of the Lutheran Reformation is a story for another time.) Less than a year after my conversion I moved to Houston, Texas to attend my denomination’s Bible College.

I was excited and really amped up to learn the Word and study theology. Core requirements? What were those? I promptly loaded up on New Testament Survey, and as many theology and church history courses as I deemed prudent. English 101 and the like would have to wait until later.

This denomination really stressed Bible reading, and my pastor had done a good job inculcating a love for the scriptures in me. Still, I wasn’t prepared for Old and New Testament Survey under Dr. Nelson Trick. The first day of class in his NT Survey, as the class ended, I’ll never forget the quote “Ladies and gentlemen, your assignment for tomorrow- all the books of the Bible, memorized, in order and spelled correctly. See you in the morning.” I stayed up all night studying with flash cards I made and had a perfect score on the test the next morning. For the unit on the Minor Prophets our test consisted of twelve phrases or bits of verse with a blank next to it for us to write in the name of the prophet who spoke those words. These classes were hard, and to do well we really had to know the text of Scripture and understand the surrounding history and context. Dr. Trick was a cantankerous old prof, and academically demanding. Lots of students did not like his classes, and attempted to slide by with a minimum effort. However, the knowledge I gained, and the familiarity with the Scriptures I received in those classes has served me well in my sojourn through evangelicalism to the Lutheran Reformation. I no longer agree with the doctrinal teachings of that denomination, but the gift of the Scriptures that Dr.Trick and Gulf Coast Bible College gave me has benefited me spiritually all the years since then. For that I am thankful.

One of the things that troubles me about the church at large and many Christians I meet is a serious lack of familiarity with the Scriptures. On occasion I have silenced would-be debaters (usually on the subject of the Lord’s Supper, or infant baptism) by saying “I’ll be willing to debate doctrine if you can recite all of the Ten Commandments.” Never once has anyone risen to the challenge. People want to debate doctrine and worship styles and whatever else, but lack a rudimentary grounding in God’s Word.

An area that I struggle with is knowing Luther’s Small Catechism as well as I should. I was an adult convert to the Lutheran Reformation, and much to my shame glossed over the memorization work in Catechism Class.

With these thoughts in mind, we partners at NRP wanted to offer some resources to help people learn the Scriptures and the Catechism.

The first of these is the audio CD entitled ‘Bible in an Hour’. This CD is quite simply one of the finest overviews of the Scripture in existence. It follows the themes and storyline of the whole Bible, inserting each book into the narrative in its proper place. Once you grasp the whole picture and connect ‘all the dots’ it really is quite stunning.

We have a limited supply of these CDs because they have gone ‘out of print’. When we run out, this resource will be gone.

The other two CDs are ‘Lessons from Luther’ and ‘Listening to Luther’. These are great aids in memorizing Luther’s Small Catechism. These audio presentations of the catechism will aid in familiarization and memorization. With enough repetition this stuff will sink into your bones and become part of who you are.

One more resource that I strongly recommend (even though we do not yet carry it in our store–hopefully we will soon) is the ESV Listener’s Bible New Testament CDs. This is the NT on audio CD narrated by Max McClain. I received this set as a Christmas gift from my wife, and still use it regularly a couple years down the road. The Scriptures were meant to be heard. It is amazing the things that come to light when you hear whole chapters and books in one sitting, instead of chopped up into little snippets of text or soundbites. I realized after listening to the Gospel of John, that chapter 6 of that book is a whole chapter on the subject of eating. I never understood that before.

You can find these CDs at: www.cph.org. Just do a search for ‘Bible CDs’.

Just imagine what listening to ‘Bible in an Hour’ and ‘Lessons from Luther’ a couple of times a week for a few weeks while driving to work would do for you. Your understanding of the Scriptures and the Small Catechism will skyrocket and grow exponentially. It would be time very well spent.

I really think that every Christian should have a copy of the ESV Listener’s Bible New Testament in their cars or on their iPod. Avail yourselves of a set of these as soon as you can. They are indispensable devotional tools.

It is our hope that you will find these resources to be an invaluable help in your faith and life.

By Pat K

Posted in General