The Bible with Nicky and Pippa Gumbel, Express Version, 2024Sample

Happy Leap Year!

I wanted to write a brief note to encourage all of you taking part in the *Bible in One Year* challenge to keep going. Rick Warren has written that ‘reading the Bible generates life, it produces change, it heals hurts, it builds character, it transforms circumstances, it imparts joy, it overcomes adversity, it defeats temptation, it infuses hope, it releases power, it cleanses the mind’. I hope and pray that reading the *Bible in One Year* brings much benefit to your life, just as it has done to mine.

Psalm 1:1-3

1. Keep delighting and meditating on God’s words

‘Blessed is the one...
||whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
||and who meditates on his law day and night.
That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
||which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither –
||whatever they do prospers’ (Psalm 1:1–3)

John 5:39

2. Keep focused on Jesus as you read

‘You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me’ (John 5:39).

Deuteronomy 4:1-2

3. Keep putting God’s word into practice

‘Now, Israel, hear the decrees and laws I am about to teach you. Follow them so that you may live and may go in and take possession of the land the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you. Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give you’ (Deuteronomy 4:1–2).

Pippa Adds

Hurray! A day off!

References

Rick Warren quote from NIV BiOY, p. viii