Lightly dotted blank pages and 130+ elegant hand-lettered gold ink illustrations throughout the full text of books of the Bible invite you to creatively engage with God's Word alongside specific passages. Illustrations by Dana Tanamachi, whose work has been featured by Google, The Wall Street Journal, Random House, USPS, and Target. ESV Illuminated Scripture Journals pair the entirety of individual books of the New Testament with a lightly dotted blank page opposite each page of Bible text, providing space to creatively engage with and reflect on the Word of God. Hand-lettered, gold-ink illustrations by renowned artist Dana Tanamachi are interspersed throughout the blank pages, inviting readers to add their own artwork or reflections to each page. These thin, portable notebooks have unique gold-foil stamped covers and are great for art journaling, personal Bible reading and prayer, small-group Bible study, or taking notes through a sermon series.
Books can be attributed to "Anonymous" for several reasons:
* They are officially published under that name * They are traditional stories not attributed to a specific author * They are religious texts not generally attributed to a specific author
Books whose authorship is merely uncertain should be attributed to Unknown.
The Apostle Paul was an eloquent writer, and his words inspire people all over the world to this day. There's a lot of details here, some of which are easily missed if you read too quickly; an audio Bible will help you get more out of it.
There are so many things to learn from Paul's writings. The thirteenth chapter of this book is perhaps its most well known. However, I soaked in a few things prior to and after that chapter as well. Such great wisdom and advice. Wonderful instruction and encouragement. I really like this book and how much it challenges me. I'll be visiting it again soon, no doubt.
Another wonderful letter from Paul! Lots of good stuff. I especially enjoyed chapter 13, the "love chapter". Truly, it's so profound. I'm working on memorizing it...and living it out in my life! So often we get caught up in other seemingly important things, but LOVE is truly the greatest of all.
Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies. And if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, this one is known by Him.” I Corinthians 8:1-3 NKJV
“You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men.” I Corinthians 7:23 NKJV
“No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.” I Corinthians 10:13 NKJV
“For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.” I Corinthians 14:33 NKJV
“Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.” I Corinthians 13:4-8 NKJV
“Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body” (1 Cor 4:10) I wasn’t able to spend the time I would have liked studying this book. Still, it changed me, and I’m sad that I have finished this particular study of it. That just makes me look forward to getting back to it again in the future. So these are the lessons that really stood out to me. - This is how we respond to those who have sinned against ourselves or others. They aren’t toxic people. They are sinners in need of repentance. Paul is staunch in defense of the truth, but his ultimate goal, sought with tears and pleadings, is the restoration of those who have sinned. He longs for them to return to the truth and accepts those that do with open arms. Forgetting what they have done and restoring them with great rejoicing and humility. And he wants it all for the glory of God. That is how we should respond. - The motivation for confronting those in sin with the Gospel is because it is right, loving, and our necessity. - The pastoral heart and actions. If you are looking for a church as I am, a study of Paul’s ministry clears up a lot of questions about what to look for. Don’t worry, I know that no ministry is perfect, but it shows us what God deems important in a pastor. (And monetary openness) - Generosity. How short I fall! Just study chapters 8 – 9. What a beautifully strong motivation to demonstrate our love practically. But it’s also a very practical freeing chapter. It’s between you and God. He doesn’t ask you to give what you don’t have. He doesn’t ask you to deprive yourself or loved ones. He asks you to share what He gives you joyfully, and not worry about if it is enough. He is the provider not you. - Really what stood out to me the most through this study, is how Paul related to everyone. He loved them enough to do everything He could to further their relationship with Christ. I pray that I can grow in the Lord enough to be that kind of friend to everyone I meet. So read it. If you want to be shaken out of your comfort zone, and encouraged to take the next step of obedience in following His will.
This letter is part of Paul's correspondence with the most troublesome of his churches. It is his response to reports of alarming happenings in the church at Corinth and answers to burning questions addressed to him by the Corinthians themselves in a letter. This serves as the backdrop for Paul's most profound teaching concerning the true wisdom and power of God in the cross, the foundational truth of Christ's resurrection, the unity of the church, the sacrament of the Lord's supper, and the principles of Christian ethics.
My favorite part is the beautiful description of the highest of Christian graces, love, in Chapter 13.
"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud, it is not self seeking. It does not dishonor others, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not rejoice in evil but rejoices in the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be ceased; where there is knowledge, it will pass away."
"What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him."
"For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you did not?"
"Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, for you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain."
"For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power."
"God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things- and the things that are not- to nullify the things that are, so that none may boast before Him. It is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God- that is, our righteousness, holiness, and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: 'Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.'"
Enjoyed this book of the Bible. Especially touched by the focus on love, in chapter 13, verses 4-7:
"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices in the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."
MY BIBLE CHALLENGE: In January 2015 I set myself the challenge to read the complete Bible within a year. I discovered that was an unrealistic challenge, and decided to pick up my Bible as and when I felt ready to read more of it. Here is a link to all the reviews in my Bible challenge so far:
1 Corinthians is a letter written by Paul to the church in Corinth, to strengthen the Christians in their walk with God. As this is in the Bible and inspired by the Holy Spirit, each idea and message is exciting. This book really goes deeper into how we should live out our faith. I love that even through passages explaining how sin pulls you down, the main message that God's love transcends sin and changes us into new people still shines through. We understand more of God's character, as it explains the real definition of love: God.
This letter written by Paul is filled with practical wisdom for the early church that is great for the church today as well. I think 1 Corinthians 16:13 is a great way to sum up the wisdom of this book. "Be on your guard, stand firm in the faith; be people of courage; be strong. Do everything in Love."
There's so much to learn from this book . My pastor opened my eyes to this book more by comparing how similar the Corinthian culture is to our modern day American culture . He reminded us that the Corinithians had even more pressures than us but they were still instructed to live for Christ and not conform to this world . I'm really excited to start 2 Corinthians !:D
через такі тексти, чесне слово, вони щоразу almost have me але завжди рано чи пізно настає це:
If there is something they want to know, they can ask their husbands when they get home. It is disgraceful for women to speak in church. (1 Corinthians 14:35 CEV) 🎀🙄🎀🖕
Paul speaks of a division of leadership in the church of the Corinthians. This spoke to me as the USA is currently under a divisive type of leadership. Trust in God’s plan is the only solace I could find here. No one person can surpass God’s will. God is perfect and trust in his purpose is needed not secular power wars. I am praying for the strength to put more trust in God, personally, at this time. And, praying for my country. There are also great reminders in this section about the meaning of love.
UPDATE 1/19/21: The TPT version of the "love chapter" (1 Cor. 13) highlights the beautiful imagery of the words in ways that will delight even the most seasoned reader of the text! Consider taking a look at it on a site like Bible Gateway :-)
5/7/2020 Review: 1 Corinthians features some of the most beautiful passages in the whole of the New Testament. The famous "love" chapter (Ch. 13), for instance.
It also features some of the most controversial language in the whole of BOTH Testaments.
For most sections of the Bible, I usually just read without commentaries. But here, after finishing Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, I couldn't resist reviewing some of the interpretations of Paul's remarks on women in the church.
It's VERY tempting to get offended (and I feel that temptation myself), but I think there's far more going on here than most postmodern readings of Scripture give Paul credit for.
For me, the most compelling readings of 1 Corinthians tend to see Paul's remarks on gender in a context-specific light that was never meant to be applied universally, through all time.
To put it bluntly, this church was a MESS. Three illustrations ought to do:
- A man in the congregation was having sex with his father's wife, had no shame about it--and no one in the congregation apparently cared enough to call him out on it, either! (5:1) - When the church came together for a meal, the people who had a lot were showing off by pigging out and getting drunk, while the poor in the congregation sat hungry. (11:20-22) - The Corinthian Christians were apparently suing each other left and right . . . in secular courts. Not the best advertisement for the church, I'd say. (6:1)
And that's just for starters.
So when Paul directs several pointed remarks at the women in the church . . . I tend to think there was something awkward going on here that we just don't have the full story on.
"If they [women] want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home." (14:35)
Women back then rarely had anything approaching the opportunities for learning that MEN had. Given that harsh reality, I found this scholar's explanation of 14:35 particularly intriguing:
"This sounds very patronizing today, but it would have been liberating to the original hearers. It meant women could receive the education they’d been denied. But this directive for women to learn is about much more than a probing question over lunch about something that happened in worship. The verb in Greek has an intensifier. Lexicons suggest 'question,' or 'interrogate,' or even 'accost with an inquiry!' So women are instructed—even empowered— to take the initiative for a full religious education." ~Chesna Hinkley, https://www.cbeinternational.org/blog...
I had honestly never really thought about it in that light.
As they say, context is key. It's easy to judge another time or culture by our own standards, even more so when we don't have all the details . . . but often when we take a closer look, we find out that maybe those unenlightened cretins weren't so unenlightened after all.
Maybe.
I'm not suggesting there aren't parts of 1 Corinthians (or the rest of the Bible) that aren't hard to figure at times.
What I'm saying is . . . it pays not to rush to assumptions about what someone meant or why they said it in the first place.
The apostle Paul, apostle to the Gentiles wrote this letter to one of his churches he founded years before on an earlier mission. Corinth was a city of depravity and sexual perversion, yet the Corinthians had followed Christ eagerly when Paul was there for 18 months.
Now he had reports from their pastor Apollos that they were dividing into factions. He lambastes them for preferring one minister over another, pointing out that each minister performs a different function.
He also corrects them for tolerating sexual sin, where a man was living with his mother-in-law. He tells them to put the man out of their church.
They also are eager to possess supernatural gifts such as tongues and yet they cause confusion in the churches with multiple people speaking at once. He insists tongues be paired with the gift of interpretation or the speaker should be quiet.
This all leads to Paul's discourse on 'the most excellent way', the best gift of all, the gift of love. This chapter alone makes the book worth reading, as it has been for 2000 years.
3 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned,[a] but have not love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;[b] 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Because I’m reading How To Read the Bible For All Its Worth, I read 1st Corinthians all in one go, which this book suggests doing the first time. I mean, I’ve read it many times, but with this approach, the authors suggest to first read it as a letter, all at once. So I did, just taking it all in as a piece.
There’s a lot more to it, and I’ll break it down more as I keep going, of course. But I did read it all, and I wanted to record what I’m doing this year more attentively.
My thanks to the anonymous person who thought to add each individual book of the Bible into Goodreads, though; that’s helpful!
“L’amor és pacient, és bondadós; l’amor no té enveja, no és altiu ni orgullós, no és groller ni interessat, no s’irrita ni es venja; no s’alegra de fer el mal, sinó que troba el goig en la veritat. Tot ho excusa, tot ho creu, tot ho espera, tot ho suporta.” 1Cor 13:4-7
1 Corinthians is a letter the apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth. One of my favorite passages in this New Testament book is chapter 13. There are such good insights on love in this collection of verses.
Love the way to victory, I absolutely love this scripture, Lord help not just to be a hearer and a reader of your Word but a doer also: Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily. It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride); it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly. Love (God’s love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong]. It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail. Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening]. Love never fails [never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end].
Sidenote: The reason for such vague and short and "eh" words on each of these books, is because I wasn't challenging the study of the Bible when I read these. I was challenging myself to read the whole Bible in a year because I knew it would be discipline to keep at it daily. I do, however, plan to pick up a book and study what it is saying. Those will be longer reads and more notes.
So here is my review from my "Read the Bible in a Year" challenge. Usually just snippets of thoughts and random things I liked about the book itself. Nothing in-depth.
So here is my review of 1 Corinthians!
What a WONDERFUL letter from Paul! Really, the major point in this, is that love is what matters. And isn't that true?
I found this work of immense interest and importance. The compilation of historical accounts, wisdom & proverbial insights, and thought provoking texts, along with descriptive and informative footnotes, are of great value. Explanations, including varying scholarly views depicting the material related in this book, are available for each of the 66 individual books of the Bible. This book is but one of the individual 66 books/letters which were written by forty different authors over at least 1500 years in three different languages on three different continents, which comprise the Bible. Read for life-related reasons and personal research. Overall, a great resource for the researcher, enthusiast, and devotee.
Some key topics Paul addresses: – Christian unity (the body of Christ) – morality – spiritual gifts – the role of women – the resurrection
Paul wrote to motivate the Corinthian church to acknowledge the Lord's ownership of them and to inform them of the implications this had on their lives. He wanted to communicate to them the necessity of accepting the Lord's authority over their lives and living in unity under it, and show that the members of the church—the Body of Christ—are to function together.
Paul addressed many specific problems in the church, but the underlying answer to all the problems is for the church and its members to live Christ-centered lives.
Ah, the church at Corinth... so many issues, so much grace. Christians aren't immune to problems and certainly not exempt from the chastening hand of God but oh, His grace! Here are great teachings - agape love in chapter 13, the Resurrection in chapter 15 [along with the concise definition of the Gospel - accept NO substitutes!], the indwelling Holy Spirit, the Lord's supper and so much more.