By Jimmy Lee, Lead Pastor / FEB 16, 2020
A Innovative Way to Enjoy the Bible
If you’re looking for new innovative ways to get into the Bible and not only read it and study it, but to actually engage it and enjoy it, then here is something that you should check out!
I shared the message “Seeking God: Through the Bible” today at church, and when I got home I was looking for some great resources that I hope could help our church seek God through reading, meditating and studying Scriptures. That’s when I came across and just found out about this podcast called “The Bible Recap.”
I read up a little on what it’s all about and listened to various parts of different episodes from their podcast and so far I think it’s really great. From what I know so far, the gist of it is that the podcast is going through the whole Bible from Genesis to Revelation. Just like the name of the podcast, each episode is a summary/recap of a portion of Scripture, including different insights into the significance and meaning of the reading.
A few things I really like so far:
Each episode is not very long, about 7-11min.
The speaker speaks the recap in a way that sounds like actual news/events that have happened, which is exactly as how it should be since these are actual news/event that have happened! I felt like I was listening to someone on the radio who was recapping current events or the latest development in some on-going news.
The host seems to share some great, biblical insights and explanations of the Scriptures.
Check It Out and Let Me Know What You Think!
It really is different from anything I’ve seen or heard and I can’t help but think there might be some of you who will enjoy it! There are plenty of other people who already do as the podcast has over 10 million downloads in just a year and has ranked number one in it’s category beating out the likes of Oprah and Joel Osteen!
Like I said, I’m just starting to learn about it and would love for you to also check it out with me and let me know what you think by commenting below!
There is an article below about the Podcast, how it works, and the person who started it. Also, here are some links to help you check it out yourself:
THE BIBLE RECAP ON ITUNES: Click Here
THE BIBLE RECAP ON YOUTUBE: Click Here
THE BIBLE RECAP READING PLAN: Click Here
Dallas Woman Helps Thousands Love the Bible, Not Just Read It
By Jessica Mouser
February 13, 2020
(churchleaders.com) - A Bible podcast started by a woman in Dallas, Texas, now has 13 million downloads from listeners throughout the world. Because many find the Bible to be unapproachable, Tara-Leigh Cobble started The Bible Recap podcast to help people, not just understand Scripture, but to love reading it—and to love God better as a result.
“When you love something, you want everyone to love it and see how great it is,” Cobble told NBC DFW News. “There is nothing I would rather give my time to than this. I think it’s the best thing I’ve ever done, probably the best thing I’ll ever do.”
Launched in 2019, The Bible Recap is a brief, daily podcast that follows a chronological Bible reading plan. Listeners read the Bible passage of the day and then listen to the podcast episode, in which Cobble summarizes key points from the passage and what it reveals about the nature of God.
Cobble recorded The Bible Recap from her Dallas apartment using about $200 worth of equipment and spending about six hours per day researching, writing and recording the Bible podcast. Before she started the project, Cobble checked to see if anyone had done something similar, but no one had. And once she began, she realized why: “It was so much work.”
Why a Bible Podcast?
Cobble recorded several episodes where she preps listeners for what to expect in The Bible Recap. In the first prep episode, she says, “If you’ve ever closed your Bible and thought, ‘What did I just read?’ The Bible Recap is for you. And the good news is, you’re not alone. Lots of people struggle in their relationship with Scripture.”
When faced with the strangeness of the Bible, people often jump around, avoiding sections that make them uncomfortable and only reading books they find appealing, such as the Psalms or Proverbs. Or they stay in the New Testament because they like Jesus, but don’t understand the Old Testament. Some people give up reading the Bible altogether and instead just read devotionals. Others who have stumbled across Cobble’s Bible podcast might not even be sure that God is real or that Christianity is true. “Regardless of where you’re coming from,” says Cobble, “The Bible Recap is here to help.”
In the second prep episode, Cobble explains that even though she became a Christian at a young age, grew up in a Christian home, and was doing ministry as an adult, she had never actually read the Bible from beginning to end. When a friend challenged her to do so, she found the experience difficult and off-putting. Cobble says it wasn’t hard to understand what the Bible was saying about God. What was hard for her was accepting what it said. She was actually more bothered by what the New Testament said about who God was than she was by what the Old Testament said. But a mentor encouraged her to keep wrestling through what was bothering her. So she read through the Bible again with that mindset, praying that God would help her to see him for who he is. And he did.
The second time around, says Cobble, “I found him. And I fell in love with him. I began to see, not just what he was doing, but why he was doing it, what his heart was behind it. And he answered that prayer to teach me about himself in such a way that I felt like I was learning a whole different God than I’d heard about in church.”
How Does Cobble’s Bible Podcast Work?
If you would like to read through the Bible using Cobble’s plan, you can search for The Bible Recap under “Plans” in the YouVersion Bible App. If you have not yet done so, you will need to sign into the Bible App through Facebook or create your own login. The Bible Recap follows a particular chronological reading plan, so Cobble advises people not to buy a chronological Bible because it will not line up with the podcast.
Once you start the plan, you will read the assigned passage for the day, which Cobble says typically takes about 12 minutes. Then you will listen to the podcast episode for the day, which is usually around eight minutes long. In each episode, Cobble shares a few insights on the passage she has gained through years of reading through the Bible in its entirety. Because she has read through the Bible at least 10 times by this point, she is able to evaluate specific portions of Scripture with the metanarrative of the Bible in mind.
Cobble notes that she is not an academic or a scholar and that she has never gone to seminary. The episodes, she says, are more like an overview or a highlight reel than they are a scholarly commentary. More than focusing on theological terms or historical details, she is concerned about highlighting God’s character. Each episode concludes with a section she calls “The God Shot,” a summary of what each passage shows us about who God is.
Scripture Changes Lives
One listener who completed The Bible Recap told NBC DFW that she saw a shift in her own heart and the hearts of her children as they read through the Bible and listened to the podcast. One result of that change was her family ended up fostering and eventually adopting a little girl.
Says Cobble, “If all you gain from this is one new insight about God, that might legitimately change the rest of your life and your relationship with him.”
This article originally appears here: Click Here