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What is the Bible for? This is the question my hermeneutics professor asked on the first day of class. Dr. Donald Burdick oversaw the original NIV translation of the New Testament. He was exacting and concise but also fluid; scholarly but extremely humble. “Translating the Bible isn’t easy,” he told us. “But there is something even more difficult – allowing the Bible to translate our lives. Our problem lies not in a lack of understanding but lack of heart. In the end, it’s not how much you go through the Bible that counts. It’s how much the Bible goes through you.”

The Bible is more than a repository of divine truths, or instructions on how to find favor with God, or a medicine cabinet filled with spiritual pain relievers.