Review: Rooted: The NIV Bible for Men

Bible Gateway has given me the opportunity to review Zondervan Bibles' Rooted: NIV Bible for Men. I have to tell you that I received a copy for free as a member of Bible Gateway Blogger Grid, and I have to tell you this can be purchased through FaithGateway where the hardcover edition I received is currently on sale for $34.99, or on Amazon. All of the legalities out of the way, let's get started.

As I said, I reviewed a hardcover edition, not exactly a personal fave. I do have a hardcover I keep in my office, strictly for study and reference (the NKJV Evangelical Study Bible), but for trucking back and forth to worship or Bible studies, a softcover is my personal preference. This is the New International Version, also not my preference, but I won't belabor that point. 

Personally, I think this is targeted toward younger men or men relatively new in the faith. The language is sort of Hey Dude! and the additional articles don't seem to provide much depth when it comes to character studies ("Get to Know" the men of the Bible) or "Knowing God," a series of blurbs meant to draw men toward knowing better the God they worship and serve. I think reverence is primary when it comes to knowing our Father, and I just didn't get that from these articles. If I was going to encourage anyone to know who God is, it would not be through a lens of "what that means to me as recipient," but in terms of God as He is to be worshipped and feared. That being said, the Myth/ Truth articles are interesting. Based on one hundred men and their experiences, these comparisons address issues like Parenting, Sexual temptation, Money, Friends --what culture says (Myth) versus what Scripture says (Truth). However, with regard to the indexing of these commentaries, the "How to Use" at the front of the Bible lists only twenty-five of the articles and page numbers (though there are one hundred scattered throughout the text) and there seems to be little rhyme or reason to their order. The Scriptures linked to these articles are also a bit unusual to the topic. For instance, the Myth/ Truth of Money is addressed in Deuteronomy 11, a passage about loving and obeying the Lord, and again in Luke 2, when twelve-year-old Jesus is found in the temple. Additionally, those pieces are listed in the index in reverse order, the Luke article first, and the Deuteronomy article second. Maybe I'm missing something.

Other add-ons include "Think About" prompts and "Rooted: Questions for Growth." Now these I can almost get my teeth into --a little more meat on the bone in these helps. There are Think Abouts on all sorts of topics: Abandonment, Caring for Others, Community, Gambling, Grief, Leadership, and like the Rooted questions, they correspond to the Scriptures with which they are linked. Sadly, once again, there is a humanistic bent to some of the questions. For instance, two of the Rooted Questions accompanying Psalm 139:7-12, ask:

What might cause you to change your environment (work, home, city, etc.)?

Why is it important to know that wherever you go, God is there?

If this is targeted toward making strong, leading men of God, shouldn't questions be framed around God calling men to move in unusual or uncomfortable directions, not men choosing or "being forced by circumstances" to change their environment? I read into this, If your boss wants to demote you, God will rubber stamp your resignation. Whatever you choose God's on board. Maybe it's just me.

There are no words in red or maps in the back if you're into all of that. There are short intros to each Book of the Bible; there's a presentation page, a dust cover on the hardcover edition, and a satin bookmark. The pages are thin, so be mindful when writing, highlighting, or turning with those fat fingers. There's a Table of Weights and Measures, a Subject Index which directs the reader to all those additional commentaries and articles; there are four different reading plans and three helpful articles on spiritual discipline at the very back: Being a Mentor/ Finding a Mentor, Seek 'N Hide, an article about the importance of Bible memorization, and Lasting Change: How to Experience Growth in the Spiritual Life.

Lastly, and maybe most importantly, a man's point of view. I think you can tell by now, I am not particularly a fan, but I wanted a man to check this out and give me his opinion. My husband, who pulls no punches when asked his thoughts, gave me his first impressions: it reminded him of a low-cost, mass-produced high school textbook. And, without any prompting from me whatsoever, he focused on the Rooted questions and suggested they might be useful. So that's that. I hope this helps, and don't forget to use BibleGateway for all your study needs.                      

Update Your Perspective

I am in the process of building a new BrokenToBreathless. I'm planning the launch in October. Having said that, the first week of this project did not go well. I had used the same format years ago, but things have changed since then --including me. I seem to have developed an impatient, sort of get-to-the-point approach to doing things. Maybe it's because I've been blogging for so long, I'd rather not deal with the hiccoughs that come with new technology or learning new technology; I'd rather update things without having to update my perspective. Somehow, I don't think that's going to work.

Life is all about updates, isn't it? We learn to walk, we go to school, we graduate. With every milestone we move closer to the person we were meant to be. Or at least, that's how it's supposed to work. Sometimes the updates we experience are not the upgrades we prefer. A new medication to add to our seemingly never-ending list of expenses; the death of a parent that leaves us not only grieving but mired in difficult family debates; a job transfer only months before our planned retirement date. Easy to adjust our perspective when things are heading in the direction we approve, but to be told, You just need to accept it, or You're going to have to rework your plan... those are not the things we want to hear, especially if you're one of those strong-willed people like me.

But God! When we trust God with the events, circumstances, and "updates" of life, it really doesn't matter the specifics, what those things look like, or when they occur, we are not in them alone, nor are they the tragic end to our story. Scripture assures us "all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose." (Rom. 8:28) In other words, as we experience those changes, we can actually rejoice that God is doing something. Whatever the situation, if we trust God's plan for us, we have to trust the circumstances associated with that plan, we have to trust the "updates" He allows. Difficulty, failures, pain, loss --certainly not upgrades as far as we're concerned, but hear what Jesus says in Luke 6:20-23:

Blessed are you poor,
For yours is the kingdom of God.
Blessed are you who hunger now,
For you shall be filled.
Blessed are you who weep now,
For you shall laugh.
Blessed are you when men hate you,
And when they exclude you,
And revile you, and cast out your name as evil,
For the Son of Man’s sake.
Rejoice in that day and leap for joy!
For indeed your reward is great in heaven,
For in like manner their fathers did to the prophets.

He has just rolled out all these things no one wants to be: poor, hungry, sorrowful, hated, excluded, slandered. And then He says Rejoice in that day and leap for joy! People have been hostile toward one another since Adam (If you don't believe me, read how he threw his wife and her Creator under the bus in Genesis 3:12), and the world is under a curse. Children of God or not, we are going to face some of the same things those who reject Him face; the sun rises on the evil and the good, and the rain falls on the just and the unjust. But it's our perspective, our relationship to the God of all creation that will make the difference, that will enable us to rejoice or will cause us to give up. If we see ourselves as alone, victimized, persecuted, without hope or purpose, unforgiven (or unforgiveable), overwhelmed, trapped, or without hope, if we see the things that take place around us as bearing some sort of inescapable leverage over who we are or were meant to be, we will abandon the project; we will give up. But if we keep our eyes on the One who loves us and is working all things together for our benefit, our perspective with regard to life's "updates" will take on an accuracy we never dreamed possible. We will see things as Truth Himself sees them; we will interact with others as Love Himself interacts with others; we will experience life as Peace Himself experiences life! 

That's more than an update, that's a definite upgrade!

It's a Process

I have spent years hung-up on Paul. Not some guy on whom I've had a secret crush, but the Paul of the Bible, the Pharisee, the bounty hunter, the copious church planter and letter writer, the STOP IT guy. All throughout his letters, Paul tells those who believe in Jesus to stop acting as if they don't: stop walking "as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God..." (Eph. 4:17-19). Just stop it! Live like you are free --which those who have Jesus as their Lord and Savior are. But for me, that's been easier said than done; it's been tough relearning how to walk. Maybe the same is true for you.

Years ago, I had throat surgery. As a result, I had to relearn how to swallow. To swallow! Such a simple, natural thing. But, after my procedure, if I were to swallow in the same manner I'd always been doing it, I could aspirate. At the least, it would result in a terrible fit of choking. Everything about relearning to swallow was counterintuitive. They started me off with solids, even thickening my coffee and milk with a sort of gelatin. Only when I'd been able to tolerate those things could I move on to water or un-thickened liquids. Additionally, when swallowing, I now had to tuck my chin into my chest. Not what you'd expect, right? Normally, if you're trying to swallow, say a vitamin or something, you'd throw your head back, opening up your esophagus. Nope, I now had to tuck my chin to protect my trachea and my lungs. When I forgot to tuck or took too large of a gulp, I choked. It terrifying, but it was a process.

Relearning how to walk --now in newness of life in Christ, after we've been walking for years in the bondage of sin and death --can be a process as well. And it's required the sometimes unconventional and counterintuitive methods of the Holy Spirit. Maybe the folks in your neighborhood all attend the same church; maybe the new family who moves in next to you is really opposed to any sort of organized religion. The Holy Spirit may just be giving you an opportunity to use the gift of love and peace in a practical setting, honing those things in you, rather than surrounding you with people you love and people who agree with you. Maybe you've been praying about the new job you've been offered; instead, you might experience a health scare, which refocuses your attention on the thing He's been calling you to do for years, and you obey. Maybe you know you need to stop swearing, but you just can't seem to leave it behind. Who joins your gym? The guy who, when he's run out of obscenities makes up his own. It's like holding up a mirror; you are so repulsed, you stop swearing completely. You are relearning to walk, but it's a process.

It might be a long process, however. There are Christians who have struggled with gossip for years. If you need a prayer warrior or a faithful giver or a servant, they are your people, but every so often, they just can't keep loose lips zipped. Or Christians who are still working through substance abuse. They walk, they run, they soar, and they fall on occasion; but they repent and lean into truth, praying and hoping they will resist the next time. And I don't mean this is the way it's supposed to be, but I also don't believe failure has no purpose. Jesus tells us that in this world we will have trouble, and instructs us how to restore relationships with our Christians brothers and sisters; we are told to teach and admonish one another, forgive one another, and to confess our sins to and pray for one another. Would we need these things if we were all getting everything right all of the time? Failure can help us understand the struggles of others. Failure can keep us humble. It can show us the ways we are resisting that aren't working, and it can give us a window into the situations that can cause us to mess up in the first place --the times and places the Accuser is likely to make his appearance. Failure can be a part of the process. 

We need the teachers like Paul. Today, Paul is to my Christian walk what choking was to my relearning to swallow. Just stop it! Do what you know you're supposed to do. Stop insisting on your own way, or what you used to know. One by one, and by the grace of God, I am burning ships. I am committed to walking away from things I used to do or say or love, things that were the result of my separation from Jesus, and I am turning fully toward Him. I am not as fixated on what I am doing (or not doing), as I am on Jesus, the Reason I'm doing it. But it is a process.

Photo courtesy LuAnn Martin