WEEKLY COMIC: Furry Treasures

GETTING READY: Kinds of Questions

As you're looking to recruit people for the 2013-2014 season, the first questions that often come up are "What is Bible Quizzing like?  What kinds of questions do they ask?"  Luckily, we have a little video that shows the kinds of questions we face in Bible Quizzing.  Feel free to pass it around!

PHOTO OF THE WEEK: St. Peter's Basilica

The interior of Saint Peters Basilica in Vatican City.

MUSICAL INTERLUDE: Bled for Me

DID YOU KNOW: Who were the human authors of the Bible?

"DID YOU KNOW?" will be a summer series where we review issues of the Bible and the Christian faith of special interest. If you have a suggestion/question that you'd like addressed in a "DID YOU KNOW?" segment, please e-mail the coaches.

Who wrote the Bible, in a human sense?

The Bible is not one book, but a collection of books written by a number of men (as inspired by the Holy Spirit) across the centuries. Did you know just how many people were involved with producing the scriptures you hold today?

Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy = Moses - 1400 B.C.
Joshua = Joshua - 1350 B.C.
Judges, Ruth, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel = Samuel/Nathan/Gad - 1000 - 900 B.C.
1 Kings, 2 Kings = Jeremiah - 600 B.C.
1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah = Ezra - 450 B.C.
Esther = Mordecai - 400 B.C.
Job = Moses - 1400 B.C.
Psalms = several different authors, mostly David - 1000 - 400 B.C.
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon = Solomon - 900 B.C.
Isaiah = Isaiah - 700 B.C.
Jeremiah, Lamentations = Jeremiah - 600 B.C.
Ezekiel = Ezekiel - 550 B.C.
Daniel = Daniel - 550 B.C.
Hosea = Hosea - 750 B.C.
Joel = Joel - 850 B.C.
Amos = Amos - 750 B.C.
Obadiah = Obadiah - 600 B.C.
Jonah = Jonah - 700 B.C.
Micah = Micah - 700 B.C.
Nahum = Nahum - 650 B.C.
Habakkuk = Habakkuk - 600 B.C.
Zephaniah = Zephaniah - 650 B.C.
Haggai = Haggai - 520 B.C.
Zechariah = Zechariah - 500 B.C.
Malachi = Malachi - 430 B.C.
Matthew = Matthew - A.D. 55
Mark = John Mark - A.D. 50
Luke = Luke - A.D. 60
John = John - A.D. 90
Acts = Luke - A.D. 65
Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon = Paul - A.D. 50-70
Hebrews = unknown, mostly likely Paul, Luke, Barnabas, or Apollos - A.D. 65
James = James - A.D. 45
1 Peter, 2 Peter = Peter - A.D. 60
1 John, 2 John, 3 John = John - A.D. 90
Jude = Jude - A.D. 60
Revelation = John - A.D. 90

From GotQuestions.Org.

HUMOR: Antique or Antiquated?

Not mine.  From here.

A collector of rare books ran into an acquaintance who told him he had just thrown away an old Bible that he found in a dusty, old box. He happened to mention that Guten-somebody-or-other had printed it. "Not Gutenberg?" gasped the collector. "Yes, that was it!""You idiot! You've thrown away one of the first books ever printed. A copy recently sold at auction for half a million dollars!" "Oh, I don't think this book would have been worth anything close to that much," replied the man. "It was scribbled all over in the margins by some clown named Martin Luther."

BIBLE NEWS: The Tsunami & The Bible Translators

We hear stories about the horrible things that missionaries had to endure in the old days.  Beheadings, hangings, cannibalism, etc.  We thank God that those kinds of things don't happen anymore, and that missionary work is "safe" these days.  For better or worse, we're simply and completely wrong about that.

John and Bonnie Nystrom are missionaries working in Papua New Guinea with Wycliffe Bible Translators.  They were working with local pastors in the village of Arop village to develop a version of the Bible in the local language when a massive tsunami (giant wave caused by an undersea earthquake) hit the island.

"One out of every three people that we know was killed there, and some of the families that we know lost a lot of people. In fact, after the tsunami, our friend Pastor Peter Marokiki was the only one we knew; we know another family now – where the father mother and all the children survived. Every other family that we knew of, they lost at least some of their family members," Mr. Nystrom told The Christian Post.

As we learned this year in Matthew, Jesus never promised that his followers would escape trouble - in fact he promised the disciples that they would be persecuted.  What he promises is that he will always be there with us, and walk with us through the trials of life.