As a teacher, I have always encouraged that everyone should experience a study-trip through the WHOLE Bible at least once in their lifetime. Of course, the excuses were usually a 'flat tire' in II Chronicles, a 'brain-fuse blown' in Leviticus, or the dreaded 'TID (terminal interest deficiency) syndrome' somewhere down in Numbers! Now Larry Richards has made every excuse against WHOLE Bible study obsolete!

In fifteen minutes or less a day, one can learn (not read) the entire Bible in a year...and actually enjoy it! Richards is not only evangelical and solid in his theology (yes, there IS theology in this 'devotional'!) but includes helpful maps, drawings, overviews, key words, practical application....WOW, this is just a great book for the hungry Christian, who, with just a little discipline will reap a plethora of learning!

There are also alternative reading plans, theme studies, insightful wisdom from Proverbs, archaeological notes, timelines, as well as nutshell summary-blocks.

Although not every text of scripture is (or could be) included, no chapter is omitted. This book is not to be confused with merely READING the Bible in a year. Here, you STUDY the Bible in a year!! The difficult part is stopping each day!

Having studied the Bible for decades, and earning a seminary doctorate, I can say that I have never come across a 'devotional commentary' this thorough or well organized. Truly, if your goal is to LEARN the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, you will find a seminary education here, made as user-friendly as a devotional. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

This combination devotional and commentary is excellently written. Richards' scholarship is reliable, and his insights are very often profound. I strongly recommend this book to all Christians, whether you are brand new in your relationship with God or have been walking with Him for many years.

I like this book so much it's my favorite gift to give graduates - and they always come back to me and tell me how useful it is. There are so many different ways it can be used. I've used it as a reference for teaching Sunday School on certain subjects or on certain passages. For my personal study, the short devotional sections are perfect for morning, then I do the longer study on the same passage as my evening or weekend study when I have more time. The many different "reading" plans included in the front provide different ways of reading through the Bible each year. Plus, the Personal Application and Quotable sections for each day are great summations of the text and short enough to stick with you for the day. Richards' definitely has a God-given knack for getting right to the meaning without wasting a lot of words doing it. This is just the perfect tool for both study and devotions - and heavy on the most important part - application!

This is the Bible most used by students at our private school. Buying a Bible is part of their school supplies, and this one is perfect for many years of learning and enjoying!

I bought each of my children the Adventure Bible, Revised, NIV. My daughters read it every night. This bible is easy for kids to read and understand.

My 11 year old son has this Bible and we use it to do our family devotions. There are 'Lets Live It' sections that point out a specific Bible passage and then ask some questions to solidify our understanding and make the Bible relevent to our lives today.

Other attractive qualities include "did you know?",with definitions of difficult terms, "words to remember" and "Bible times" all geared to increase undrestanding of God's word. There are also brightly colored pages with the ten commandments, 12 disciples and other important information. There are also maps in the back.

I would recommend it for anyone from 8-15 and parents like it too.

This is a valuabale study tool. It includes outlines of every book, a synopsis of every chapter along with notes to references that need clarification. There are also lots of illustrations, maps and other helps for anyone on any level who is reading God's word. It is easy to understand, but goes deep enough for the serious student.

The Bible Reader's Companion is a very nice concise overview of the Bible with numerous black & white drawings. The comments are interesting and the conclusions are generally conservative and traditional. If you like this book you may also enjoy THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO THE BOOK OF PROVERBS by Cody Jones. Numerous biblical characters are pointed out who illustrate King Solomon's witty observations on human nature.

I haven't read it all yet, but everything I have read I understand fully. You also find some pretty interesting stuff.

In this book Dr. Richards defines the goals of Christian education. The primary goal, reasons Mr. Richards, is to produce faith as life. He bases this belief on John 10:10 when Jesus says, "I have come that they may have life, and have it more abundantly." Furthermore, another goal, believes Richards, is transformation. Thus, Christian education is not a medium that simply offers religious information, but to the contrary, it is to produce transformation. Transformation, then, becomes the fundamental nature of Christian education. After Mr. Richards establishes these two goals, he then offers other goals that CE is to achieve. Definitely a must read for pastors and laymen alike. A true CE classic!

In college, I majored in Christian education. Shortly after I graduated, I discovered Larry Richards and began relearning about 90% of what I'd learned in college.

My college Christian education classes consisted of how to run traditional Christian education programs--Sunday school and youth groups. Richards doesn't talk much about how to run programs; he focuses on how to make disciples.

The goal of discipleship is not to fill the learner's head with cognitive knowledge, but rather life transformation. "The disciple when he is fully trained," says Jesus, "will be like his teacher" (Luke 6:40, NIV). It does not say the disciple will know what his/her teacher knows. It says the disciple will be like his/her teacher. This is the starting point for discipling, both in goal and in method. The goal is Christlikeness. The method is teaching by example in the context of an intimate, trusting relationship, in real life settings.

There is a world of difference between training Bible scholars and making disciples, and by the time you have digested this book, Richards will have helped you to think in terms of making disciples rather than pouring knowledge into the minds of Sunday school students.

Yes, this book is a classic. I first read it in the mid-70s (the first edition was published in 1975), and it began the process of redefining how I understood Christian education and the whole question of how the church makes disciples. Today, as a full-time church consultant, Richards' mentoring continues to shape the way I work with every church I consult with.

Richards' books on CHURCH LEADERSHIP and CHILDREN'S MINISTRY, which I read after this one, continued to remold my thinking about Christian education. If you have a passion for making disciples, and if you're not married to the way we've always done Christian education, you need to discover Larry Richards.

Five stars isn't enough for this book on Christian education! Richards' primary contention is that there is a huge need for informal, relationship-driven, experiental education in the church today. Instead of putting all of our energy into the formal curriculum, we need to spend more effort in charging the lay people to experience God and relationship. This book sparked a revolution in Chritian thought about education. This foundational treatise is a must-read of ALL Christian educators. It offers graphs, probes, and other useful tools for content attainment.

I WONDER WHY THEY DIDN'T MAKE IT ON CD-ROM AS WELL? IMEAN THAT'S WHAT THE IS USE NOW.IN THE FURTURE THAT WOULD BE NICE.

This is an excellent dictionary and well suited for family reference. I recommend it highly. At the same time, if you are student looking for a solid Bible dictionary you really do need something that has page headings to let you know immediately where you are to help you find the article more quickly. I would recommend in this case a dictionary like Nelson's Bible Dictionary, or Holman's Bible Dictionary which are both excellent for students. (This comment was somehow omitted from my previous review.)

This is a very beautifully illustrated and interesting dictionary. It is so interesting in fact, that you don't really read it like a dictionary. Instead of just looking up different terms that you don't understand, you tend to read it like you would read a very interesting book that you leave on display on your coffee table for guests to peruse. It contains study guides for each book of the Bible, summaries, outlines, and gives the historical significance and impact of each book as well. It is written in a style that is very easy to understand so it is w

As a Christian education major in college, I was steeped in traditional programming--Sunday school, children's church.

Shortly after I graduated, I discovered Larry Richards. And I ended up throwing out about 90% of what I'd learned in college and replacing it with the much more exciting--and biblical--approach I found in Richards' books.

A THEOLOGY OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION was my introduction to Richards in the 70s. The first edition of this book came out in 1983, and I think I read it the first year it was out. I was director of a small inner city ministry at the time, and we had been struggling for two years with the question of "What do we do with the kids?"

This book framed an innocent-looking question: Where were the kids in the New Testament church? Were they in Sunday school? Were they in children's church? No, they were worshiping in living rooms with their parents in house church. They were learning how to live the Christian faith by watching--and participating with--adults who were living out Christian community with the kids in the thick middle of it.

This inspired our little group (about five families) to commit to making our house church intergenerational. All our children at that time were age 6 and under. The kids didn't stay with us the entire two hours, but they were fully integrated into community life. It was absolutely the best experience of church we had ever had. For my six-year-old son, house church became the highlight of his week that he looked forward to all week long. The down side of this is that this was such a positive experience of church that my oldest children are seriously spoiled: "church as usual" now leaves them feeling really empty.

Since reading this book, I have been a champion of the idea that children are best discipled in intergenerational community among adults who love them and who are modeling in their relationships with each other and with the children what Christian community looks like--the hurting and forgiving, the serving and sharing, the fun and the tears. Next to this, traditional age-graded Sunday school can't hold a candle. Not that Sunday school doesn't do some good things. It's just doesn't come close to intergenerational Christian community. Most churches, in working with the children's Christian education program, ask questions like, "How can we improve our Sunday school?" or "How can we get more kids to come?" This book asks a much more basic question: "How can we best disciple children?" If you want to discover and implement the answer, not to the first two questions, but to this last one, you're not going to find a better starting point than this book.

This book takes the reader through a five step process of biblical lesson preparation. It begins with Studying the Bible. This step assists the lay person, Bible college student or seminarian in the study of the Bible for the purpose of teaching the Bible. The second step is entitled "Focusing the Message". The reader is instructed in how to take the message of the passage and make it relevant to the modern day learner. Teachers are given practical help in assessing student needs and in designing the class to targe those needs. The third step involves Structuring the Lesson. Here readers are taught how to structure a lesson for maximum impact and student involvement. The fourth step is the teaching step. Here the actual teaching process is explored. The final step is the evaluating step. Effective teaching depends on evaluation and imporvement. This section of the book helps teachers gain insights into their teaching and assists in developing ways to improve. All in all the book is designed to be a systematic presentation of the lesson preparation process.

I have always taken my studies in the Bible very seriously. The scriptures teach us in Acts 17:10-12, to examine the scriptures daily. I needed to do an extensive study on the levels of authority in the church. I found the NIV Encyclopedia of Bible Words in addition to the NIV Bible Dictionary by Zondervan to be very helpful. It truely gives a background history to the different degrees of Authority in the Bible and to what extent it should be impressed upon one another. For example, husbands over wives, the authority that Paul used for building others up and not for tearing someone down and the authority that God gave Jesus...just to name a few. I recommend it for anyone truely wanting to be like the "Bereans". This book will help you with the root meaning(s) of words or with specific books of the Bible.

Published by NASA.Scientific & Tech Pub, 1983, Washington, DC, Trade Paperback, No Jacket, 4to - over 9¾" - 12" tall. ISBN: [0964553716]. 253pp. Profusely illustrated. A record of the voyage and discoveries of the Pioneer spacecraft, it's mission and it's discoveries. Includes information from Soviet studies of Venus, a chronology of the Pioneer mission and previous Earth-based discoveries and the NASA team responsible for this incredible project.

You have to be careful with any Bible Handbook, but in my opinion Mr. Richards book is very insightful. In such a small volume (770 pgs), he provides a wealth of background information and study for every book of the Bible. I find it very, very useful in my search for understanding.