After reading the Bible, do you ever ask yourself, “Now what?” We know the Bible is filled with amazing, transformative truth, but what do we do with it? Honestly, I was a bit put off by the NLT translation at first. The New Living Translation is a free translation, which means it paraphrases the ideas of the author into concepts easily understood in English. The sentence is a whole is used as the unit for translation. This results in a very understandable translation, but it only reproduces the general sense of a sentence, which isn’t my first choice for a study Bible. Art of Life Bible weaves the beautiful NLT text into a rich tapestry of artwork, illustrating many living things mentioned in Scripture—people, plants, and animals. Captions highlighting their significance and the wide-margin design offer readers a unique way to meditate on Scripture by focusing on God’s creation.

It’s hard to picture a world that’s so different from ours, and some of the stories and metaphors simply don’t make sense to 21st-century Westerners.This is a good Bible, especially for those who are not comfortable with complicated wording or difficult language. However, some of the translation choices they choose to use are clearly derived from editorial commentary rather than the original Greek/Hebrew texts. For instance, this Bible has the word "friend" in 219 verses, which is far more than any other translation out there (ESV: 110, KJV: 99, NKJ: 106; NIV: 164, NASB: 118). I thought it would be hard to top the fairly liberal NIV, but this version does it by over 50 instances. In most of these unique instances, "friend" is not a valid translation of the Greek. There are 200 word studies throughout the text and their definitions are placed here in this section. It gives the word, Strong’s number, definition, and key verses where the word is used. It also gives information about word studies and how to use and interpret them. Features Index Taken from the Illustrated Study Bible Samuel lived at the end of the period of the judges and ushered in the period of kingship. He was Israel’s last judge (1 Sam 7:6, 15‑17) and first prophet (3:20; Acts 3:24; 13:20). He functioned as a priest (1 Sam 2:18) and was a great man of faith […] It’s the Living Word that gives life, and as much a person spends on the Word, allowing the life to come and work in him or her, that’s how much strength and life is at work inside the inner man.

These contrasts are a foretaste of things to come. In Jesus, the God of Israel and Lord of all the earth has come to visit and to save his people. The Divine One reaches down to meet them where they are. Throughout Luke’s Gospel, Jesus will show special concern for the lowly, the poor, the outcast, and sinners. These are the ones he has come to Change will always be part of our lives, but we can help our loved ones confidently take the next step, knowing they are grounded in the Word of the Lord, which will help establish a firm foundation for exciting adventures to come. Reading Bible can be jeopardized with many issues in the daily life of Christians, not enough time, too hard to understand, what’s the application of the verse for my life today… are the questions I’ve asked. And did skip reading the Scriptures. But the Word of God shouldn’t be ignored, nor shouldn’t be skimmed. So imagine my delight when Tyndale Publishers sent me over to review an NLT illustrated study Bible that’s full color, filled with pictures, ladden with charts, and stuffed with maps, tables, timelines, and everything else a visual learner could want. Whether finishing college, high school, middle school, or even kindergarten, graduation is a time of transition and change. It is an exciting time that also comes with a bit of trepidation about the future. What’s next? How does this change my relationships? Is the best really yet to come?

The book of Acts clearly highlights the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. Before the coming of the Spirit, Jesus spoke of the Spirit’s influence on the growth of the church (1:8; see John 14:15‑17, 26; 15:26; 16:7‑15). The Spirit’s guidance was clear in the selection of Spirit- filled leaders to care for the needs of the Hellenistic widows (Acts 6:1‑7) and in the appointing of Barnabas and Saul for missionary service (13:1‑5). Substantially fundamentalist theological point-of-view means that this Bible will not help you if you are looking for a conservative alternative to a literalistic interpretation of Genesis 1 or to Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch But that is only in some ways. This one relatively minor disappointment should not overshadow my high esteem for the NLT Illustrated Study Bible, in general. Conclusion

NLT Illustrated Study Bible. Carol Stream, Illinois. Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 2015. ISBN: 9781496402004 Summary Now see why. Recapture the wonder of God's Word. See what God is doing in a whole new way. The Illustrated Study Bible is a stunning visual study experience that will open your eyes to the truth of God's Word. Hundreds of windows to the Bible world and over 1000 images bring the story of Scripture to life in a new and compelling way. The NLT Illustrated Study Bible boasts nearly 26,000 study notes, hundreds of feature articles and word studies, and comprehensively written book and section introductions. These are the bread and butter of any study Bible, and the NLT Illustrated Study Bible does not fail to impress in this regard. Filled with genuine historical and theological content, the commentary of the NLT Illustrated Study Bible is rarely if ever pure devotional fluff.

Book Introductions, Notes, and Articles

The NLT Study Bible is a great Bible to help you on your investigative journey. Filled with thousands of study notes, maps, and insightful articles, it helps you take that deeper dive into Scripture. For even more insight, you might want to try a commentary series, like the Cornerstone Biblical Commentary series or the Swindoll’s Living Insights New Testament Commentary series. Footnotes are placed just under the text and show the chapter and verse number. They include textual variants with the manuscript identified, weights and measures, verse number differences in Hebrew, Hebrew and Greek explanations, alternate renderings, where verses are quoted from, meanings of names, and cultural or historical information about places, things, and people, and more. Word Studies Taken from the Illustrated Study Bible “I walked by the field of a lazy person, the vineyard of one with no common sense. I saw that it was overgrown with nettles. It was covered with weeds and its walls were broken down. Then, as I looked and thought about it, I learned this lesson: A […] When the first church council met to consider the membership of Gentiles in the church, those present followed the Spirit’s direction (15:28). Christian workers such as Stephen and Philip were filled with the Spirit and preached by his power (6:1–8:40), and Paul’s ministry was charged with the Spirit’s energy from the beginning (9:17).

Change will always be part of our lives, but we can help our loved ones confidently take this next step, knowing they are grounded in the word of the Lord, which will help establish a firm foundation for the exciting adventures to come. Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this beautiful Bible through Tyndale House Publishers in exchange for an honest review.Recently I was studying Eve’s temptation, and the notes made it easy for me to pinpoint exactly where Eve changed the wording of God’s original command to not eat of the fruit. As I was preparing a lesson on how to resist temptation, this helped me explain the importance of clinging to God’s Word and not changing it.