At the start of the new year, my hubby and I decided that – each night – we’d set aside some time to read the Bible together. Days 1 and 2 we did great. We missed day 3, and got back to it day 4. Day 5 and 6 were a miss…and we’ve been on and off since then. We really enjoy the time together reading and discussing, but haven’t been able to make it part of our routine. I knew I really wanted to read to better understand the “stories” inside, the timeline for how things happened (we were reading in chronological order), and see how it all fit together. 

Enter: The Story! This wonderful book is written as a seamless tale based on the Bible. It starts at creation and follows every “story” in the bible, using actual Biblical Text (NIV) for a majority of the book and “summaries” where needed to keep the “story” moving along. 

I absolutely loved it! It has the drama, romance, murder, action, and change that traditional books have – yet this one is all in God’s (modernized) word. I couldn’t put it down, and simply loved how the authors carried the storyline from start to finish. It’s definitely abridged, but for those like me – who may not have read cover-to-cover before – it was simply perfect. The best way to describe this is a very detailed and thoroughly Cliff Notes…it’s definitely shorter (by far!) than the Bible itself, but it has a similar impact. You’ll gain insight into the STORY in such a different way than you normally would. 

While this doesn’t take the place of actually reading our own Bible together (in fact, nothing can replace that), this was a great way to get a full picture. It’s actually made the readings we’ve done since then that much meaningful as we already know the storyline…whether it be the story of Noah, Joshua, Ruth, or the many more amazing examples God has provided us with. 

Have you read the book? I’d love to know what you thought of it!

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Overall Rating: 4 out of 5

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NOTE: This post also appears on Catholic Bloggers Network.