HERE’S A SECRET OF MINE.
I write for people who don’t read.
I know that seems odd because you might then wonder who reads my stuff.
- Not the people who read, since I don’t write for them.
- Not the people who don’t read, since they don’t read.
It’s like this. I figure if I can write something that catches the eye of people whose eyes are hard to catch, then maybe I’ll draw the attention of the more easily attracted folks as well.
It’s writing for New York City. If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere.
I’ve been working lately on a Bible paraphrase for folks who don’t read: the Casual English Bible. You’ll get to see a beta version of it, featuring the first book in the Bible. It’s coming in the not-too-distant future.
My marketing-guru son and I met yesterday with our creative web designer guru to talk about the launch of the Casual English Bible website.
We’re starting with Genesis, the first book in the Bible.
It makes sense not only because Genesis is the first book in the Bible. But it works nicely with my July release, A Visual Walk Through Genesis—an illustrated guide to the Book of Genesis.
The Casual English Bible started as a Bible study experiment.
While I was writing A Visual Walk Through Genesis, I decided that for my devotions, I would try putting Genesis in words I would use if I were telling the same stories to people.
When I finished my first-pass beta edition, it seemed like it might work as a helpful resource to accompany A Visual Walk Through Genesis. So I decided to make it available as an added tool.
In addition, I’m including more than 350 discussion questions—one set of questions for each of the 50 chapters in Genesis.
These aren’t your typical Bible study questions. These are hard-hitting questions, like you might expect from a news reporter—which is what I used to be. Many of the questions will make longtime Christians squirm. But they are solid questions that Bible newcomers want to ask. So I ask the questions for them. That’s what a good reporter does.
I’ll keep you posted.
For more about Genesis
- Genesis, plain and simple
- Seeing NASA in Genesis
- Was Noah’s Flood just another flood myth?
- Book: A Quick Guided Tour Through the Bible, pages 11-38
- Book: Complete Guide to the Bible, pages 10-28
- Video: Noah’s Ark: Looking for a boat 3 miles above sea level
Free review books
If you haven’t gotten a free copy of a book from me before, and you’re in the USA, I have some review copies of my newest release A Quick, Guided Tour Through the Bible.
Send me a note and I’ll send you one at no cost to you.
I get author copies of books from my publishers, and I don’t sell them. I give them away to help get people into the Bible who might not otherwise go there.
Would love to read a free copy of your book. I have read several of your books and enjoy every one.
You got it, Judy.
Reminded me of this…The Living Bible (TLB) is an English version of the Bible created by Kenneth N. Taylor. It was first published in 1971. Unlike most English Bibles, The Living Bible is a paraphrase. Taylor used the American Standard Version of 1901 as his base text.[1]
According to “Ken Taylor, God’s Voice In The Vernacular” by Harold Myra in a 1979 issue of Christianity Today, Taylor explained the inspiration for preparing The Living Bible:
“The children were one of the chief inspirations for producing the Living Bible. Our family devotions were tough going because of the difficulty we had understanding the King James Version, which we were then using, or the Revised Standard Version, which we used later. All too often I would ask questions to be sure the children understood, and they would shrug their shoulders—they didn’t know what the passage was talking about. So I would explain it. I would paraphrase it for them and give them the thought. It suddenly occurred to me one afternoon that I should write out the reading for that evening thought by thought, rather than doing it on the spot during our devotional time. So I did, and read the chapter to the family that evening with exciting results—they knew the answers to all the questions I asked!
His paraphrase ended up spawning Tyndale House publishing.