Paths v6n1 2017 winter

News & Views from Walk Thru the Bible

Building Bridges in Latin America Discovering Forgiveness Weekly Devotionals for Winter

Winter 2017

Walk Thru the Bible 5550 Triangle Parkway, Suite 250 Peachtree Corners, GA 30092 www.walkthru.org Volume 6, Number 1 Winter 2017 Published quarterly President Phil Tuttle Vice President of Advancement Michael Gunnin Editor Ashley Mosteller Designer Michael Koiner Contributors Emily Tuttle Doug Linstedt

Walk Thru the Bible ignites passion for God’s Word through innovative live events, inspirational biblical resources, and lasting global impact.

© 2016 by Walk Thru the Bible® Ministries, Inc. Contents may not be reproduced in any form unless authorized in writing by the publisher. Printed in the U.S.A. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.

Copyright © 2011 by Biblica.

Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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his fall, we traveled to Honduras to introduce Chosen: When God Calls Your Name—our study of the life of Mary. Hondurans from every walk of life—from prominent business leaders to street youth, from the most devout Catholics to the most passionate Protestants—were wellrepresented. Whenever I see God’s Word impact a group like this, I marvel at its power to connect with every individual in a unique way.

In this issue of Pathways, you’ll read stories of connection and stories of transformation that God has written through Walk Thru the Bible’s ministry. Within Christian denominations, the mother of Jesus is a fiercely polarizing figure. Some place her on a pedestal and others pay little attention to her story. Neithe r response helps us get to know her as a role model. Chosen is such an effective tool in a culturally Catholic environment because its message transcends denominational filters and challenges preconceived notions. By the grace of God, a centuries-old wall of division can become a bridge of reconciliation.

You’ll also read about the launch of Crucible and Detour—our studies on the lives of David and Joseph, respectively, in West Africa earlier this year. Though West Africa and Latin America are worlds apart in many ways, their people have a hunger for biblical materi als that Walk Thru the Bible can only begin to fill. I pray that as you fill your own spiritual hunger, you find these stories, reports, and devotionals to be a source of life and encouragement.

Thank you for your partnership, prayers, and support as we embark on the next year of ministry at Walk Thru the Bible.

Phil Tuttle President

If you are not currently receiving Pathways and would like to, email pathways@walkthru.org or use the attached envelope to let us know.

WINTER 2017

VOL. 6

NO. 1

FEATURES

6 Building Bridges in Latin America Lessons from the life of Mary Catholics revere her, while Protestants keep their distance. But there is much to learn from the life of Mary, the mother of Jesus. The launch of Chosen in Honduras this fall demonstrated the power of Walk Thru the Bible’s resources to reach a new audience and foster unity in the church.

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Discovering Forgiveness

One Woman’s Transformation In Ghana this year, we heard the story of a woman whose life radically changed when she encountered the story of Joseph through Detour.

Devotionals 22 L G oving

od

Weekly readings excerpted from indeed magazine

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DEPARTMENTS Regional News Highlights from around the world

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Country Profile

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Step Into the Story

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Leader Profile

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Donor Profile

Honduras

Building a Strong Foundation Equipping Our South Asian Team

High Impact Lee Helling, regional director for Southern Africa

Part of the Family Ed and Lorraine Bryant El Cristo del Picacho, Tegucigalpa, Honduras

Regional News Asia > God’s Grand Story, our six-week campaign that immerses entire congregations in God’s Word, is making an incredible impact in Pakistan. Through training pastors, evangelists, Bible instructors, and church leaders, our Pakistani training team has recently had the opportunity to teach God’s Grand Story in three Bible colleges and at least six large cities. In Lahore alone, they have reached 20 Christian churches.

Middle East > Wahid Wahba, Walk Thru the Bible’s Director of International Ministries, taught Crucible, our study on the life of David, to a group of Syrian pastors in Lebanon. He expected 60 to 70 to attend, but 96 made a dangerous journey across the border to receive training and encouragement. Feeding and sheltering so many attendees was a challenge, but God graciously provided and used the conference to strengthen these leaders in their faith. Please pray for courage and safety for them as they continue their ministry in Syria.

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North America > Walk Thru the Bible Instructor Philip Nelson led 46 inmates in a Walk Thru the Old Testament event at Pinkneyville Correctional Center in Illinois. As a result, four men committed their lives to Christ and 35 said in a post-event survey that they would like to attend another live event. Thanks to the positive reception, the warden asked Philip to preach to all 2500 inmates at the Christmas worship gathering. In addition, Philip has the opportunity to teach in three more area prisons in the coming months. “I think we may be walking through a door that is bigger than I could have dreamed,” he says.

Europe > The effectiveness of Walk Thru the Bible’s “train the trainer” model was evident in Kharkiv, Ukraine, where instructor Boris Gnatyshyn led 145 Christian leaders through “400 years of Silence and Walk Thru the Old Testament.” The leaders who participated walked away with

the tools they needed to teach the live event in schools, universities, prisons, rehab centers, orphanages, and other venues.

Dmitriy Oleynik, one of the leaders who received the training held at Kharkiv Christian Church, taught the live event for leaders of another nearby church the very next weekend. “It was a great blessing for me as a teacher to see awakened interest and joy in the eyes of the leaders and ministers,” he said. He has received an invitation to teach “400 Years of Silence and Walk Thru the Old Testament” to the church’s entire congregation. .

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Building Bridges in Latin America Lessons from the Life of Mary

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M

ary, the mother of Jesus. What goes through your mind when you hear her name? Most likely it’s a Nativity scene, the image of a pregnant woman riding a donkey, a statue with a young, pious face, or the chords of a Christmas song.

But how much do you really know about her? What kind of person was she? What happened in her life after Jesus was born? Or after He died?

And most important, why did God choose to use her to accomplish His purposes and what can we learn from her life?

These are some of the questions that inspired the development of our newest course in the Biblical Character Series—Chosen: When God Calls Your Name, based on the life of Mary.

We recently released the English version of Chosen, and we’re already hearing encouraging stories from people who, for the first time, are taking an in-depth look at Mary’s life. But Chosen’s impact is not just limited to North America. The truths that it teaches are opening doors all over the world to

Walk Thru the Bible President Phil Tuttle teaching the Chosen curriculum 8

talk about our faith with people who might otherwise never listen.

Our Middle Eastern partners have eagerly anticipated the international launch of Chosen because of the potential for outreach to Muslims and bridge-building with Orthodox Christians.

Mary is the only woman mentioned by name in the Koran, and Orthodox tradition holds her in high esteem. A compelling study of Mary’s life will open doors in that part of the world that would otherwise be closed to evangelical Christians.

But perhaps the most important fruitful region of the world in which to launch Chosen is Latin America, where the majority of people are Catholic. In Catholicism, Mary is considered the holiest among people, and Protestants often criticize their Catholic brothers and sisters for placing her too near Jesus in their adoration. In response to this exaltation, Latin American Protestants rarely teach about her.

Next year marks 500 years since Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the church door in

Wittenburg, igniting the Protestant Reformation.

What started as a call for the Church to make needed changes led to the biggest split in church history, and the 500 years since have only seen more division. Today, we’re as divided as we’ve ever been. So why is now a good time to study the life of Mary, the biblical figure we least agree on?

“I saw people receive this message with openness. There is a lot of potential for future impact from Chosen. We invited many people from the Catholic churches in Tegucigalpa, and their response to Chosen was as positive as the evangelical response was. They felt a strong need for this teaching, and when I shared the gospel the last night, many people made the decision to follow Jesus for the first time,” Dr. Oviedo said.

The reception of the launch was particularly important because it revealed the enormous value of Chosen as a bridge builder between Catholics and Protestants.

Throughout Latin America, we already see that this new resource is uniting people who historically disagree, reaching Spanish speakers in

“[THE CATHOLIC RESPONSE] TO CHOSEN WAS AS POSITIVE AS THE EVANGELICAL RESPONSE WAS.”

BRIDGE BUILDER In October, we traveled to Honduras to partner with our Caminata Bíblica team to launch the Spanish version of Chosen in Latin America.

A large church in Tegucigalpa hosted a two-night event featuring teaching from Walk Thru President Phil Tuttle and Dr. Alejandro Oviedo, Walk Thru the Bible’s director in Central America and the Caribbean.

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new ways, energizing young people in the face of danger and uncertainty, healing people’s hearts in the wake of violence and heartbreak, and overcoming the long-held machismo traditions to unite men and women in their pursuit of God.

CATHOLICS ADORE HER, PROTESTANTS IGNORE HER We’ve spent the last few years carefully developing Chosen as a tool to fill in the gaps for all of us to help us learn about Mary together.

“The way Chosen is written strikes a balance between acknowledging Mary’s importance and her special role, and realizing that it’s Jesus whom we trust as Savior,” Dr. Oviedo said.

“Chosen dives deep into the rest of Mary’s

story after Christmas. She was a real person with real feelings. She felt lonely, and she needed a friend in Elizabeth. She experienced fear when she had to flee to Egypt. She had her heart broken watching her child die, and she had to decide what to do next with her life. I can see so much of my own life in Mary’s story when we study it this way, and I’m learning so much more from her life than I thought I could,” said Paola Mejía, a recent trainee to teach Chosen.

“I CAN SEE SO MUCH OF MY OWN LIFE IN MARY’S STORY.”

Local youth attending the launch of Chosen as part of their street ministry 10

UNITING THOSE WHO HISTORICALLY DISAGREE “There’s a marked difference between Catholics and evangelicals in Honduras,” Dr. Oviedo explained. “Historically, we haven’t gotten along well. Catholics call evangelicals their ‘separated brothers,’ and many

Rocio Sabillon, who translates our resources into Spanish and helps us overcome language barriers at events

evangelicals perceive the adoration of Mary and the saints as a form of idolatry. It shapes how they view the faith of the Catholics in their lives.

They have been ideological enemies for a century, with abuse and accusations from both sides.

“For many people in Honduras, Catholicism is more of a cultural staple than a living faith. Just like the cultural Christianity in the United States where being called a Christian doesn’t always mean the people have a thriving personal relationship with Jesus, we have a lot of nominal Catholicism here. We try to reach out to people whose faith is not active, and we invite them to our churches and to attend our events.”

Ruth Aguilar, an associate pastor at a church in Tegucigalpa, explained why evangelicals don’t teach about Mary. “We’re afraid of offending our Catholic brothers and sisters. We also want to avoid the possible controversy that comes with teaching about someone who matters so much to so many people.

And on top of that, most of us really don’t know much about Mary’s life other than her role as Jesus’ mother, so we’re afraid of saying the wrong thing. That’s why Chosen is so important for us. It’s straight biblical truth explained in a way we can understand that can help us see Mary like the other people in the Bible—as someone we can identify with and learn from.”

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Dr. Oviedo added, “Mary’s story matters to both Catholics and evangelicals, and we believe Chosen is going to be a bridge between the two groups in our country and across Latin America.”

REACHING SPANISH-SPEAKING BELIEVERS IN NEW WAYS Honduras is a strategic place to launch Chosen for many reasons. “I believe this is an important time for the Walk Thru the Bible team in Honduras,” Dr. Oviedo explained. “Here, we have a team that’s equipped to serve the rest of Latin America and the Spanish-speaking population in the States. We are ready to take these resources and make them available to the entire Spanish-speaking world.

“There are 500 million Spanish speakers in the world today. Most people in Latin America speak Spanish, as do millions in the U.S., Spain, Canada, Europe, and parts of Africa. We have a huge work ahead of us, and it’s an important time for us to invest in developing high quality Spanishlanguage biblical resources.

“The needs of Spanish speakers in the U.S. are the exact same needs our people have here. They have the same family issues, the same questions about raising their children, the same big questions about Christian life. And they have the same difficulty finding their purpose in life. They’re the same as us, and we are equipped to serve them.

“Publishers in the United States are doing a good job producing biblical resources in Spanish. But it’s important to understand the culture of most Spanish speakers in regard to the way we learn.

We don’t traditionally like to read much. People in Latin America and the majority of Spanishspeaking immigrants to the United States live very hardworking lives, with very little leisure time. We are verbal, auditory learners. If you can put these

resources in a format where we can watch or listen to them, you’re going to reach more Spanish-speaking people. They will use the resources, study them with their friends and family, and you’ll make a deeper impact in their lives. That’s what we’re doing with Walk Thru the Bible’s courses. We’re making them accessible to our people in the way we prefer to learn.

“Once we translate the Chosen DVD into Spanish, we can have a huge impact on the church and the Spanish-speaking world.”

ENERGIZING YOUNG PEOPLE IN THE FACE OF DANGER AND UNCERTAINTY “Mary’s story is very important for young people to hear,” Dr. Oviedo said. “I think most of us don’t realize how young Mary was when God called her to be the mother of Jesus. She was a teenager, and she already had the faith to trust God in the face of a huge unknown challenge. So many of our young people live on the streets. They face drug addiction and extreme violence, and they live in fear of the future.

For them to see someone their age be chosen by God for one of the most important roles in all of Scripture is very impactful. Our young people need to understand they are also chosen by God for a purpose and a mission, and Mary’s life is an incredible example for them.”

“So many of my students are so unsure of themselves,” Paola Mejía added. “They haven’t discovered their purpose, and they don’t know what they’re living for. I think the story of Mary will be an encouragement to them. A lot of young people think, ‘I’m too young for God to use me. Who am I for God to choose to use me for His work?’ But Mary’s story says you’re never too young or too inexperienced for God to choose you for something great for His plan. If you follow God

“OUR YOUNG PEOPLE NEED TO UNDERSTAND THEY ARE ALSO CHOSEN

BY GOD FOR PURPOSE AND A MISSION.”

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and trust Him with your whole life, He can use you greatly for His glory.”

HEALING HEARTS IN THE WAKE OF VIOLENCE AND HEARTBREAK Honduras has the highest murder rate in the world, along with high rates of domestic violence. It’s not a place most Americans are eager to visit, and for the people who live there, preventing violence or dealing with its consequences is an unavoidable reality of everyday life. The cross-continental drug trade gave rise to cartels, and ruthless gangs rule the streets.

Hondurans are no stranger to heartbreak.

We often think of Mary as pure, tranquil, and the opposite of someone who endured tragedy and heartbreak. But she watched her own child die a horrible death, yet she didn’t back down from her faith. Mary is an example of living out our

God-given calling even in the face of tragedy. The people of Honduras need the hope that her life displays more than ever.

“In a country like Honduras, where there is so much violence, there are a lot of hurting people.

Chosen is a course that comforts people,” Dr. Oviedo explained.

“We are planning to teach Chosen in the prisons in Honduras. There are many prisoners who are imprisoned for serious offenses, and they are basically without hope. This course says to them, ‘You’re never beyond hope, and God can still use you to do His will if you follow Him.’ “Chosen says to a hurting person, ‘You can get up. You can move forward. If you have a mission in your life and you discover your purpose, you have a reason to live. God has chosen you for something important, and this is the moment to stand up and follow Him.”

La Basílica de Nuestra Patrona la Virgen de Suyapa, Tegucigalpa, Honduras

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OVERCOMING MACHISMO TO UNITE MEN AND WOMEN Even though she plays a central role in Scripture, Mary’s life is a topic usually reserved for women’s groups and moms’ Bible studies, not something the wider church tackles on Sunday morning. Sometimes it’s just a coincidence or a result of focusing on her role as a wife and a mother, but in Latin America there is another factor at play in the decision to ignore Mary’s story.

“In Latin America, machismo is deeply rooted in our culture,” Dr. Oviedo explained.

“It’s the belief that men are superior to women, and men must act a certain way to be considered macho.”

“For centuries we’ve placed a higher value in our culture on the thoughts and decisions of men over women,” Ruth’s husband Geraldo Aguilar added. “Women have been overlooked or treated

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badly by men as a result of the patriarchal culture and the idea of machismo. But I believe any man who loves God should have no problem learning from the life of a woman. God came to remove the barrier between us and Him, but also between one another. Mary is a heroine of our faith, and I think men in Latin America have a lot to learn from her.

“For us, Mary is considered the first believer,” Geraldo continued. “She was the first person to believe that Jesus was the Messiah and dedicate her life to following Him. We should take some of the mystery and controversy away and learn from her like we learn from Peter or Paul or David.”

“When I looked around the room during the launch of Chosen, to my surprise it was not a room full of only women,” Dr. Oviedo said. “Out of 1200 people, probably 40% of them were men.

Men came to learn about a woman’s life, and they kept coming back. Chosen is written in

a practical way—it does not focus exclusively on Mary’s role as a wife and mother. Instead, Chosen takes lessons from her life and shows us how we can relate them to our own lives, and everyone, regardless of their gender, can learn from her.”

Mary’s life was one of challenges, uncertainty, tragedy, resilience, and a deep abiding faith that guided her through it all. Regardless of who you are or where you come from, there are important lessons in her life for you.

Oscar Irías, a chaplain in the Honduran Army, explained, “In the army we have a command: ‘Maintain your position!’ If you hear that, you cannot move, even if the enemy comes straight for you. You have to hold your position in the face of danger and uncertainty, and this is exactly what Mary did throughout her life.

“She was trained since childhood to follow God, and when he called on her to do something

difficult, she said, ‘Here I am, use me as You will.’

When she was faced with the unknown of being a pregnant virgin, she didn’t abandon her faith or run from the challenge. When Jesus’ safety was at stake, she didn’t back down, and she protected her son. And when it was time for her to watch Him die, she didn’t turn away or stop believing God was good. Mary was as strong as any soldier I’ve seen” he said.

“As the leader of Walk Thru the Bible for Central America and the Caribbean, my dream is for Honduras to become a center of training and equipping of leaders for all of Latin America and the Spanish-speaking population in the United States,” Dr. Oviedo said. “I’m looking forward to the day when Chosen is available to people throughout every country in Latin America so we can build more bridges for the sake of the gospel.” .

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Country Profile

Honduras the world) Population: 8.9 million (94th in erindian American & European) 90%, Am Ethnicity: Mestizo (mixed Native 7%, Black 2%, White 1% ive American dialects Language: Spanish (official), Nat ublic Political system: Presidential rep in the world, slightly smaller than Geography: 103rd largest country Tennessee Religion: Roman Catholic 80%,

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Protestant 20%

Cuba

Jamaica

Mexico

Belize Guatemala

Honduras

El Salvador

Nicaragua San Jose

Panama

Colombia

H

onduras has been a predominately Roman Catholic country since it became part of the Spanish empire in the 16th century. Though Catholicism remains a central pillar of culture, only about 20% of Catholics actively participate in the Church. In recent years the percentage of Hondurans who self-identify as evangelical has risen to more than one third of the population.

Prayer Needs: As Catholicism’s influence declines in Honduras, evangelical churches are growing exponentially. The agreement between Catholics and evangelicals over many communal and social issues presents an opportunity for partnership in addressing the severe poverty, gang violence, disease, and other societal problems that plague Honduras. Pray for: • Unity in the church. The evangelical movement in Honduras is deeply fragmented into countless denominations, largely as a result of the divisions imported by outside missionaries. Pray especially for the Confraternidad Evangélica, an organization that leads the effort to promote cooperation and fellowship across denominations.

• Mission vision. In the past decade the Honduran church’s commitment to cross-cultural evangelism has increased significantly. There are now several mission agencies that train and send cross-cultural workers. Pray that God would continue to expand their vision for outreach and mission.

• Walk Thru the Bible Central America. Pray for Alejandro Oviedo, who directs Walk Thru’s ministry in Honduras, as he seeks to work in unity with other Christians to reach local communities with God’s Word. .

Sources: U.S. Department of State (www.state.gov), CIA World Factbook (www.cia.gov), and Operation World

by Jason Mandryk, 7th edition, ©2010.

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Vida Martey 18

Discovering Forgiveness One Woman’s Transformation

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orgiveness is one of the most difficult, most important choices a person can make. God forgives us from even the most “unforgivable” sins, but following His example is hard.

Many of our favorite stories are of people who suffered horribly at the hands of others and had to choose between living in bitterness and forgiving their offenders. We see the power of forgiveness in the lives of people like Nelson Mandela and Corrie ten Boom, and we often wonder how they could choose to forgive after experiencing so much hurt and injustice.

Perhaps no one’s life better illustrates the power of forgiveness than the Old Testament character Joseph.

As his father Jacob’s most favored son, he had everything he could ever want. Out of jealousy, his own brothers stole it all from him. They beat him, sold him into slavery in another country, and told their father he was dead. They ended the life Joseph loved and broke their own father’s heart in the process.

Years later, when Joseph came face to face with his brothers again, he made the incredible choice to forgive them instead of giving them the justice they deserved.

The lessons in Joseph’s life are powerful, and all over the world we’ve seen people’s lives change

when they realize they can make the same choice he made. Detour, an in-depth study on Joseph’s life, has been translated into many languages, and stories continue to pour in from around the world of people learning from his example and choosing to forgive.

In Ghana, we met Vida Martey and heard her incredible story of forgiveness. This is her story in her own words: “I grew up in Koforidua, near Accra, the capital of Ghana. When I look back on my childhood, all I can remember is pain and sadness. You cannot imagine how I felt growing up.

I don’t remember any love.

“I have four siblings, and I’m the second oldest.

When I was 12 years old, I was orphaned because my parents got very sick. There was nobody to take care of us, so we went to live with our aunt.

I became responsible for caring for everyone. For the next ten years, I lived there, and I have no happy memories from that time.

“My aunt and uncle did not love me. I became like their servant. I was made to do everything in the house—all the chores, all the cooking.

I had to go on the street as a child and sell bottles of water to earn enough money for us to eat. At age 12, I was the breadwinner for the whole family.

“YOU CANNOT IMAGINE HOW I FELT GROWING UP. I DON’T REMEMBER ANY LOVE.”

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“I did all these things for my aunt, uncle, and their children, but they did nothing for me. They did not provide me with an education, they did not feed me, and they did not love me. It was a very painful way to grow up.

“When I was a teenager, my cousin got cancer and became very ill, and I was put in charge of making sure he was treated. My aunt and uncle didn’t take any responsibility for their own son’s care, and it all fell to me. I took him from hospital to hospital all over the city making sure he received medical care.

“Because I spent all my time caring for my cousin, I wasn’t able to go to school. I never got an education, and that’s always been a source of shame for me.

“In Africa, we cherish education. We cherish accomplishment, and we want to move up in society, but you cannot do that without education. I feel like my aunt stole my life from me, and she stole my chance to succeed before I was able to make any decisions for myself.

I was so bitter about the way they stole the life I had imagined for myself, that for years and years I could not imagine forgiving.

“The way I grew up shaped everything about my adult life. Because I didn’t have an education, I had no way to earn money and I needed help, so I married too early. I entered marriage without knowing what I was getting into because I was desperate. It was a mistake, and he was not the person I should’ve married, but I didn’t know what else to do. Since then, I’ve had children, and my husband has died, leaving me to raise them alone.

“I used to tell my children, ‘I wish there was a video of my life growing up so you could see how hard it was. You cannot imagine what I went through, and I can’t explain it to you with words. No one loved me.’

“Now that I’m a mother, I cannot imagine treating my own children like my family treated me. I cannot conceive of not loving them and doing everything in my power to provide for them.

I want my children to have the chance to grow and learn and be kids. These are the years where they should be protected so they can focus on their futures, and that’s my job. I’ve been a widow for seven years now, and I don’t want to remarry, because I want all my focus to be on being the best mother I can be to my children. I want everything for them, and I’m doing everything I

“I WAS SO BITTER . . . FOR YEARS AND YEARS I COULD NOT IMAGINE FORGIVING.”

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can to give them the opposite life from what I had.

My hope is that they never know the same pain I’ve known, and they can always look back on their childhoods and know they are loved.

“My life was defined by my pain and by the way I grew up. Every moment of my life, I was under the heavy weight of pain and anger toward my aunt for stealing my childhood from me. My aunt was responsible for me not getting an education. She did so many horrible things to me. I held anger against her in my heart for years, and even when she was very sick, I could not forgive her. She died without my forgiveness. Even after she was dead, I could not bring myself to forgive her, and the weight of that unforgiveness was crushing me.

“Last year, our church went through the Detour study on Joseph’s life. That study changed my life. When I went through the Detour course, I saw my own life in Joseph’s story, and it relieved some of my pain. It took some pain out of me, because I learned that if Joseph could forgive his family, so can I. “Joseph was betrayed by the people who should’ve been closest to him. His own family deliberately hurt him and ruined his future, and when I read his story I could see myself. I could see

that I wasn’t the only one whose family didn’t love them. I wanted to know how Joseph dealt with the pain of his family turning their backs on him.

“Joseph went through a lot, but he did not store the pain inside himself. Even though he went through so much at the hands of his brothers, he didn’t pay them back. He forgave them. That was so important for me to understand.

“I learned to forgive, and it’s changed everything for me. The Lord’s Prayer says we should forgive others just like God has forgiven us, and I wasn’t doing that. I was saying it, but I wasn’t able to do it. I was living my life the best way I knew how, I was caring for my children and serving in my church, but I was so unhappy because the bitterness I carried toward my aunt poisoned everything.

“When I finally made the choice to follow Joseph’s example and forgive my aunt, even though she was already dead, I felt like a thousand pounds lifted off of me. I feel so relieved and free. Now that I have forgiven her, it has given me such a better relationship with God. I am free! I feel joy, and I’m able to feel happy for the first time in so long.

“Forgiving has changed everything for me.” .

“I LEARNED TO FORGIVE, AND IT’S CHANGED EVERYTHING FOR ME.”

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Into the Word w e e k l y

d e v o t i o n a l s

LOVING GOD

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alk Thru the Bible exists to ignite passion for God’s Word wherever we go and to provide the opportunities and resources for eternal truth to work its way into people’s hearts.

One of the best ways for the truth of Scripture to sink in is to meditate on it daily. The following devotionals, adapted from indeed magazine, are a valuable tool to aid that process.

One devotional is provided for each of the next 13 weeks. You can read the weekly reading any day during your week, but you may also want to revisit it every day of the week to make it a regular part of your time with God. If so, many have found this approach helpful: On Monday, read the devotional. Become generally familiar with the Bible verse, its original context, and the insights in the devotional reading. On Tuesday, look upward. How does this verse or passage apply to your relationship with God? What does it teach you about His will and His heart? What aspect of His character is He inviting you to experience and enjoy? On Wednesday, look inward. How does this truth apply to your heart

WEEK 1

January 2-6 Luke 10:27

GO “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind” (Luke 10:27) IN WORD Most Christians walk a fuzzy line between devotion to God and devotion to other things. We believe in our hearts, of course, that we should be wholly committed to God and love Him fully, and we desire to do so. But at war against our undivided love for Him are other attractions—things we might

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o n

and your own spiritual growth? What does it teach you about yourself, your needs, or your goals in life? In what aspects of your personal life is God inviting you to grow and mature? On Thursday, look around. How does this truth apply to your relationship with others? What does it teach you about how to relate to them? What is God inviting you to do differently in your relationships? On Friday, look outward. How does this verse or passage apply to your ministry and mission in life—to your role in God’s kingdom, in society, and in the world? What does it teach you about God’s purposes? What part of His mission is He inviting you to participate in? On Saturday, look forward. How does this verse or passage apply to your future, both in this age and in eternity? What does it teach you about God’s plan for your life, now and forever? What aspect of eternity is God inviting you to participate in?

This approach can help you look at God’s Word from every angle and incorporate its implications into your life. As you saturate yourself in Scripture, God will shape your heart to align with His own.

call minor flaws or distracting habits; attitudes we might know are pushing the limits of Christian character but are hard to resist; pleasures we might entertain without wanting to ask God whether or not they are within His parameters. We can live with a little bit of impurity.

But Jesus doesn’t ask for low levels of tolerance for impurities and indiscretions. He implies no tolerance for them.

What He specifically asks for is wholehearted, undying, all-out, passionate love for the Creator. According to the law of Moses and the gospel of Jesus, God desires everything that is in us. Every corner of our hearts, every ounce of our strength, every impulse of our minds, every breath of our souls. He wants it all.

Everything.

The grand deception of the enemy is that this type of passion for God would

rob us of pleasures and privileges. Satan wars against that kind of love, and so does our self-centered flesh. We are divided in our hearts, and are miserable.

Paul felt it, too: “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24). But he didn’t have to tell us. We have experienced it ourselves.

IN DEED When it finally dawns on us that an all-out passion for God—regardless of whatever petty sacrifices it may involve—is incredibly fulfilling, we’re amazed that we were ever divided in the first place. Missing out by obeying and loving God? That’s ludicrous. Jesus was right. This is the greatest commandment.

Be obsessed with it.

WEEK 2

WEEK 3

WEEK 4

John 16:25-28

John 16:25-28

Luke 7:36-47

January 9-13

January 16-20

January 23-27

ANOTHER LOVE

ALL ABOUT HIM

FORGIVEN MUCH

“The Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.” (John 16:27)

“The Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.” (John 16:27)

“He who has been forgiven little loves little.”

(Luke 7:47)

IN WORD This verse usually doesn’t surprise us at all, because we know, according to Scripture, that God is love (1 John 4:8).

We would expect Him to love His disciples—and us. But if we read it carefully, it may surprise us that there seems to be a condition attached to God’s love. Jesus tells us that the Father loves us “because.”

Doesn’t unconditional love mean God loves us, period? Why is our having loved Jesus first given as a condition of the Father loving us? Why is there this frightening “because” in the text?

In Jesus’ long discourse of John 14–16, He has been speaking up to this point mostly of agape love, that unconditional, noblest form of love by which God defines Himself and the community of His believers. But here, Jesus switches terms. This is the phileo kind of love, the brotherly affection that characterizes true friendship. God loves (agape) everyone in the world; but He has a genuine, enthusiastic intimacy (phileo) with those who have affection for Jesus. It is not unconditional.

It is a very human kind of love, and God took on a very human form to have it with us. Amazing, isn’t it?

IN WORD One of the keys to our understanding the love of God—whether it’s agape or phileo—is that it’s all about Him. We have a hard time accepting His love because we know that we’re often unlovable. And we have a hard time loving Him, because we’re often unloving. It’s not our nature to love unconditionally, or to accept unconditional love. It’s not even in our nature to love and be loved conditionally with any real consistency. Whenever we think that love is about us, we are easily confused.

Love is about God. He doesn’t love us because we’re lovable—too often, we aren’t. He loves us because He is love. It’s His nature. On the other hand, we don’t love Him because we’re loving—too often, we aren’t. We love Him because He is lovable. That’s also His nature. There’s nothing unlovable about Him. Whether God is on the giving or receiving end of love, the source of that love is Him. It’s His nature to give it, and it’s His nature to receive it. We actually have the easy end of the deal.

IN DEED We often love Jesus because we ought to, not because we just can’t help ourselves. And we should love Him this way. Agape is the only kind of love that stands firm when circumstances shift. But we should love Him with pleasure, too.

God means to be enjoyed.

What kind of love do we have for Jesus? Is it only the agape love—noble and purposeful, but sometimes lacking in the warmth of friendship? Or is it the phileo kind of love as well—an irrepressible affection for One whose presence we actually enjoy? If we believe in Jesus—lovingly and enthusiastically—we experience the kind of love that comes from the heart of God not only because it is right, but also because it is enjoyable. Cultivate both kinds of love. Enjoy the blessing of God’s affection.

IN DEED Is the love of God lost on you?

Are you one of the many who find it hard to believe God’s love for you is unconditional? Do you find it hard to love Him back? The burden of love is not on your shoulders, either in giving it or receiving it.

It’s all about Him. When you find it difficult to accept God’s amazing, unconditional love, meditate on His loving nature, not on whether you are worthy of it. Consider how Someone who defines Himself as “love” could think of you in any other way—regardless of what you’ve done. And when you find it difficult to love God with the type of worship and adoration He expects, meditate on His worthiness, not on your ability to love in return. Love isn’t mustered up, it’s completely absorbed in its object. Let Him occupy your thoughts, and love will flourish. Where He’s involved, it always does.

IN WORD The greatest commandment of all, said Jesus, is to love God with everything we are and everything we have. We are to have passion for the Almighty that exceeds all our other passions. It’s what we were created for. But here, in the context of fallen humanity, Jesus lays down a principle about our love. It is contingent on the mercy we have experienced. The fallen human heart does not love the holy heart of the divine unless mercy paves the way.

And where love is faint, mercy has been missed.

Simon the Pharisee demonstrated little love for Jesus. Curiosity, perhaps.

Some level of hospitality, of course. But little love, if any. What does this say about his understanding of God’s mercy?

According to Jesus, it means he has missed it. He doesn’t have a clue. He probably sees himself right with God already. And he sees Jesus as a prophet, a teacher, a troublemaker who needs a good lecture, or something other than the One who takes away the sins of the world. He does not know Jesus’ forgiveness, and he doesn’t know his own need. And his love for Jesus—and for God—is miniscule.

IN DEED What about your love for God? Does it overflow with gratitude? Does it weep at His feet? If not, go back to the Cross. Get a good understanding of what happened there. Contemplate the huge chasm that once lay between the deadness of your spirit and the life of your God. Remember the cold rebellion—that chilling apathy toward our Creator—that we’ve all started out with. Understand that we were separated from any deserving claim on His goodness. Everything that brought us back to Him was all grace—nothing else. Pure, unbridled mercy. A love that knows no restraint and accepts no resistance.

Few people really understand God’s mercy. Become one of them. Know the magnitude of His grace. And let your love for Him reflect it.

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WEEK 5

WEEK 6

WEEK 7

Luke 7:36-47

Mark 7:1-8

Revelation 2:1-7

January 30-February 3

February 6-10

February 13-17

FORGIVING MUCH

NEAR HEARTS

FIRST LOVE

“He who has been forgiven little loves little.”

(Luke 7:47)

“ ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.’” (Mark 7:6)

“You have forsaken your first love.”

(Revelation 2:4)

IN WORD Not only does Simon the Pharisee not understand God’s mercy toward him, he doesn’t understand God’s mercy toward the sinful woman. And if he doesn’t understand that, he certainly can’t demonstrate it. He is woefully unequipped to be a minister of God’s grace.

We fall into the same trap. We accept God’s mercy, but when it leads us to righteousness, we complacently forget our constant need for the mercy we once accepted. And we forget that whenever God lets us experience His character, we are to assume that character and demonstrate it to others. God doesn’t just show Himself to unbelievers in the Bible and in sermons. He shows Himself through the church. But if the church doesn’t act like Him, how will unbelievers see Him? We become as unequipped as Simon.

The person who has encountered God’s grace—really, deeply experienced it—will show it. It is a traumatic event when our need for mercy is revealed. It changes our whole perception of everything. We suddenly find that we who have been judged and forgiven have no basis for judging anyone. We discover that while the world operated on principles of pettiness and payback, the ground of God’s kingdom is mercy. Everything turns upside down. Or right-side up.

IN WORD Throughout Scripture, God says He takes pleasure in the praises of His people. Regardless of whether those praises come from the mouths of babes, the songs of the assembly, or the stones crying out, God enjoys worship. But there is a prerequisite. It’s not every form of praise that He enjoys. It’s every form of genuine praise. It must be heartfelt. If it doesn’t spring forth from an overflowing heart— or at least a heart repentant for its lack of overflow—it shouldn’t spring forth at all.

Lip service has no place in His kingdom.

In spite of this verse—it is, after all, a quote from Isaiah, not a new piece of information for Jesus’ hearers—the Pharisees and teachers of the law didn’t get it. We often don’t either. We frequently sing our songs of worship with no real passion, read our responsive readings with no real sense of appreciation for them, and hear our pastors with no real retention of their words. It isn’t that we’re nonworshipers; we just slip easily into lukewarm worship.

It’s a short step from the warmth of interior fellowship with God to the coldness of outward expressions, even when the warmth was once vibrant and genuine.

At those times, the outward expressions were the delight of God. But they easily become empty shells. Our hearts wander far from Him, while our actions remain in place. And when our hearts are far from Him, He seems far from us.

IN WORD The beginning of a romantic relationship is usually its most exciting stage. All things are new, the future is full of possibilities, and love flourishes.

New lovers are apt to do anything for one another and are often embarrassing in their affection for each other. They don’t embarrass themselves, of course—just everyone around them. To them, it’s a perfectly natural thing to lavish praises and passionate words on each other.

But after a while, love can grow comfortable and sometimes even boring.

The excesses of courtship are forsaken for less extravagant displays of affection.

In fact, affection itself may become more obscure. Why doesn’t the passion last for most couples? Perhaps it is that we are finite beings who find the interesting things to explore in our beloved somewhat limited. Perhaps though we enjoy the excitement of passion, we enjoy the comfort of predictability more. But where there is true love, passion can always be rekindled. Always.

The Ephesian church had forsaken its first love. Perhaps it had rejected its Lover outright. More likely, it had just let its love grow stale. Predictable. Boring.

Comfortable, but not too exciting. Like saying “I love you” as a ritual rather than as an overflow of affection. Like mouthing the words of worship without meaning them or even thinking about them.

Jesus calls them back to Himself.

He isn’t satisfied with the predictable and stale. He has never told anyone that his or her praises were too lavish. And with Him, there is no limit to the stage of fascinating discovery. There is always something new to learn—and celebrate—about God.

IN DEED Has God’s mercy made you more merciful? Are you like the woman weeping at His feet? It is difficult to imagine her getting up and rebuking someone else for their sin. Or are you more like Simon the Pharisee? It is difficult to imagine him forgiving a transgressor of the law.

One of them shows clear signs of understanding God’s grace. The other does not.

One’s life is revolutionized. The other’s is pretty much the same as it always has been.

Jesus says the merciful will be “blessed” (Matthew 5:7). They are to be envied and admired. Why? They get it.

They understand. They have tasted the sweetness of mercy, and they invite others to the banquet where it is served.

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IN DEED Do you want the presence of God to be revealed in your life in a powerful way? Worship Him from your heart.

Read your Bible with a passion for His fellowship. Sing your congregational songs while meditating on each word. Fellowship with other believers with a thankfulness for the Spirit that works in and through them. As Paul instructs, “sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God” (Colossians 3:16).

The warm, welcoming presence of God will be as real as the praises of your heart.

IN DEED Would Jesus say such a thing to you? Have you lost your first love? You follow Him, but do you enjoy Him? Is your relationship with God stale and cold, or passionate and exhilarating? God loves the stage of embarrassing affection. It’s His permanent desire. Is He enjoying your relationship with Him? Are you? The fire of first love can be rekindled. Ask Him to ignite its flame in you.

WEEK 8

WEEK 9

WEEK 10

John 6:35-40

John 14:23-24

John 15:9-11

February 20-24

February 27-March 3

March 6-10

JESUS, OUR LOVE

LOVING OBEDIENCE

ENDURING LOVE

“I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.”

(John 6:38)

“If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching.”

(John 14:23)

“Remain in my love.” (John 15:9)

IN WORD Why did Jesus come? Why did the Creator decide to clothe Himself in creation and enter this world through a young girl late one night in the company of livestock? We know the answer, of course.

The Bible is very clear: Jesus came to save us. But His incisive declaration in John 6:38 should tell us something about the will of God: It is good. Jesus defines it for us: “This is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day” (v. 39).

For everyone who has ever wondered how God sees him or her; for everyone who has ever doubted God’s love when a prayer has gone unanswered or a life has become broken; for everyone who has cried out to God, “Are You there?” or “Do You care?”, Jesus has this answer: He has come to do God’s will, and His will is very, very good.

The goodwill of God is a natural, theological belief for those who hold to 1 John 4:8—“God is love.” But as a practical belief, we often fall far short of affirming this. Causing us to doubt God’s love is one of the enemy’s most frequent points of attack and one of the flesh’s most devastating points of corruption. In fact, everything but the Bible itself sometimes seems arrayed against this belief: circumstances, moods, relationships, and the harsh words and deeds of other people. Nevertheless, it is true. Hold out for it. The Bible promises that if we will only believe, God’s will toward us is a cause for celebration, not despair.

IN DEED Jesus came into this world as an act of divine love, not vengeance. When we’re suspicious of His agenda, we need to remember: There is nothing of judgment in His work until He comes again. So relax.

We need no clearer illustration. He is here

by God’s will, and it is God’s will and great pleasure to love us.

IN WORD How reluctant our generation is to link love and obedience! We see love and commitment as two separate entities, whether the issue is marriage, friendship, or discipleship. We want to say we love Jesus even when we have no intention of obeying Him. Jesus gives us no such option. Obedience is an indicator of what’s in the heart. If we obey Him, it means we love Him. If we don’t obey Him, it means we don’t really love Him—not as much as our other loves, anyway. Our hearts will be wherever our treasure is (Matthew 6:21). If our hearts are not invested in His teaching, we won’t follow Him, no matter how much we try to convince ourselves that we are His disciples.

Love and commitment are inextricably linked. Our actions and our hearts are bound together. That does not mean that we can’t act superficially and hypocritically, as the Pharisees illustrate. A person’s actions will sometimes paint a picture that does not originate from his or her internal condition. But a heart that loves Jesus cannot help but be zealous about His teachings; and a heart that does not love Him can only follow His teachings superficially, if at all. Love and obedience go hand in hand.

IN DEED How is your obedience? Is it sporadic? Then so is your love. Is it halfhearted? Then so is your love. You may not always be full of passionate feelings toward your Savior, but the committed kind of love will follow Him persistently, even when the feelings are not there. Do not fall into the trap of thinking that your love for Him is all that counts and your actions do not. You cannot earn His favor with your obedience, but you cannot really love Him without it. Just as a husband and wife must demonstrate their love for one another, so must a disciple and his master.

Jesus has already demonstrated His love.

Show Him yours. Obey His teaching.

IN WORD Are you interested in praying a prayer that could revolutionize your life?

Try this: Begin each day by asking God a series of questions. “Lord, how can I love You today? What act of worship can I do?

What words can I utter that will honor and bless You? What act of service can I do to represent Your love? How would Your Spirit inspire me to pray today?”

If you ask questions like this, and watch for ways God might answer throughout your days, you’ll find something happening deep within your soul.

You’ll find that worship becomes a lifestyle. You’ll find that your faith becomes less centered on you and more centered on God. You’ll find that the greatest commandment—to love God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind—becomes your greatest desire. If you think your relationship with God is cold and passionless, you’ll find it melting in the warmth of His favor. You’ll experience His love in deeper ways than you ever have.

If God created us for worship and commanded us to love Him with all that’s in us, it stands to reason that He would answer, with His abundant grace and power, a prayer designed to fulfill that purpose. We spend so much time asking Him to meet our perceived needs that we miss our real need—to know Him in intimacy and to adore Him in worship. Once that need is met, all others find their proper place. But this one is first. When we pray like this, we agree with God on His highest priority for us.

IN DEED Try praying this prayer several days in a row. See how God answers it.

Make it your personal agenda each day to live for Him in worship and love. Everything else you have ever sought God for will either fade away in irrelevance or be graciously provided by the One who was waiting for you to put first things first. His love is enduring, His fellowship is sweet, and He’s really all we need.

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WEEK 11

WEEK 12

WEEK 13

John 21:15-17

John 21:15-17

Matthew 10:34-39

March 13-17

March 20-24

March 27-31

OUR LOVE

OUR WORK

OUR DEEPEST LOVE

“Do you love me?” (John 21:17)

“Feed my sheep.” (John 21:17)

IN WORD “Do you love me?” Jesus’ question to Peter is more than a sentimental inquiry. It goes to the heart of the purpose of man. Many have observed that if the greatest commandment is to love God with all of one’s heart, soul, mind, and strength, then the greatest sin of all is to fail this commandment. And how Peter had failed! A threefold denial of Jesus is graciously forgiven here in John’s Gospel with a threefold opportunity to affirm his love for the risen Christ. But how contrary to the greatest commandment his denial was, and how deep the shame of such a failure.

No wonder Peter wept bitterly.

What about us? Who among us has kept the great commandment for even a few minutes? We may not consider ourselves grossly sinful. Yet the one thing we were created for—a deep, abiding, consuming love for God—eludes us while we busy ourselves with avoiding greed, pride, lust, anger, impatience, and a host of other sinful traits. We mistakenly think that the battle is fought on these fronts, so we spend our energy fighting symptoms when the ultimate source of our sickness is a loveless heart toward God, the most grievous sin of all.

IN WORD Just as the question in this verse—“Do you love me?”—reminds us of the great commandment to love God with everything that is in us, the imperative of the verse—“Feed my sheep”—reminds us that there is a second great commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves. According to Jesus, those two commandments summarize the Law and the Prophets. So His dialogue with Peter before the other disciples here is an appropriate closure to His ministry in the Gospel of John. It, too, is a summary of the Law and the Prophets, a summary of every believer’s call to ministry—to love Jesus and to feed His sheep.

The correlation between the question and the imperative is clear. To have a heart for God is also to have a heart for that which concerns Him. And God has made it known throughout Scripture that He is passionately concerned for His people. The Great Shepherd tends to His sheep. He watches them, He feeds them, He protects them, He makes them lie down in green pastures and leads them beside still waters.

He cares more deeply than we can know.

“Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.”

(Matthew 10:37-38)

IN DEED True discipleship is an outgrowth of love for Him. After years of trying to follow in Jesus’ steps, we may discover, like Peter, that Jesus values our affections even more than our works, for only out of the former do the latter flow.

We find that to fail at this point is to experience ultimate failure, but to have our love for Him revived is to experience ultimate joy. Does Jesus’ piercing question hit home? Ask Him to kindle in your heart an abiding love for Him.

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IN DEED Do we also have the heart of a shepherd? Are we passionate about the welfare of others? Do we tend to one another with the same concern with which the Great Shepherd tends to us?

Too often we envision our love for God as a separate endeavor from our love for others. But the two are intertwined. The first, if genuine, inevitably leads to the second. John spells this out in his first letter.

To love God is to love our brother. If we are to have any genuine relationship with God at all, we must feed His sheep.

IN WORD We might be tempted to think these verses are only about us and our obligations. But they tell us more about God. God’s desire is for us to know Him in Christ, but how can we if our love is focused elsewhere?

We pursue knowledge of that which we love. Those who love literature get academic degrees in it. Those who love gardening read up on techniques. Those who love photography study the art. If we do not love these things, we will not get to know them well. We do not zealously invest in that which does not interest us.

Our greatest love shapes all our other affections and determines our path.

Isn’t it the same in our relationship with God? Can we really know Him if other loves are greater rivals? His desire is for our single-hearted devotion. This is not the voice of an egocentric god who demands worship. It is the voice of a loving God who knows we will only be fulfilled if He blesses us with Himself.

IN DEED Consider a God who would ask us to love Him more than our deepest human relationships. He is the same God who commanded us to love others. But He knows that our most subtle idolatries are in making the command of God greater than God Himself. They are subtle because they begin with righteousness and obedience to the law of love, but end in disproportionate affections that dishonor Him. Let us be mindful that if He tests us in these loves, it is only because we were created to know Him intimately. .

Step Into the Story

Building a Strong

Foundation

Help Equip Our South Asian Team

“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” (Matthew 7:24)

E

ach January, Walk Thru the Bible’s 30 South Asian instructors gather for a regional training conference in Hyderabad, India.

They travel from cities and villages across India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Bhutan to receive spiritual encouragement, celebrate the lives God has transformed in the past year, and cast a vision for the year ahead.

This winter’s South Asia regional conference will focus on foundations. In the book of Matthew, Jesus teaches us that every brick and every stone we use to construct our lives can come crashing down in an instant if we don’t build on a strong foundation. He Himself is our foundation, and His words are building materials that can never be destroyed.

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Step Into the Story

(Contd.)

Building Family

W

alk Thru the Bible’s South Asia leaders have taken this message deeply to heart. For five days in January, they will focus on building their marriages and families on the firm foundation of Christ so that they are well-equipped to help others grow in their faith. Each trainer and his wife will have the opportunity to join Phil and Ellen Tuttle for daily sessions on building strong marriages, families, and relationships.

Every year our instructors, who receive training from the 30 men attending our regional conference, teach between 22,000 and 25,000 events in five countries. Inevitably, their rigorous teaching and travel schedule produces fatigue. What they need most is a time of spiritual nurturing and refreshing alongside their wives. Your support will help us offer this opportunity to them.

Building Faith

O

ur South Asian director, Sathyabal, harbors a special passion for helping new believers build their faith on a strong foundation. Every year he witnesses more and more South Asians committing their lives to Christ, but they lack spiritual strength and deep biblical knowledge. They know the basics of the gospel, but they have never learned about God’s story of redemption from Genesis to Revelation. The new houses they’ve built are vulnerable to the winds of false teaching and persecution. By showing them the full context of God’s grand story of redemption through our innovative live events, Walk Thru the Bible has the opportunity to help them build a strong faith foundation.

Looking Forward

I

n addition to receiving spiritual encouragement, our South Asian trainers will also use their time together to set goals for 2017. With the planned expansion of God’s Grand Story in the coming year, they have an opportunity to reach even more than

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the 1.2 million lives they reached in 2016.

Why is God’s Grand Story such a valuable tool in a South Asian cultural context? Because we want more for growing churches than an elementary knowledge of the Bible. We desire to see Christians understand the story of salvation from the time of creation. We desire to help them become “walking Bibles”—in the words of Sathyabal—when waves and wind batter their faith.

How You Can Help

T

he annual South Asian conference is vital to the spiritual growth and encouragement of Walk Thru the Bible’s 30 South Asian trainers and their families. Please pray for their safety as they travel and for the new year of ministry the conference will launch.

To make this conference a reality, $18,750 is needed. Every gift of $10 or $20 will help one of our trainers attend the conference and receive needed resources and encouragement. Your support will: • Cover the cost of conference resources and venue for five days.

• Help fund travel expenses for our 30 South Asian trainers and their wives.

• Allow Phil and Ellen Tuttle to travel to India to teach and encourage in person in a culture where interacting with teachers is central to learning.

I

f God has moved your heart to help equip Walk Thru the Bible’s South Asian team, please let us know: • Call Mitchell Ridgeway, Manager of Donor Services, at 678-578-5534 or • Make a contribution at www.walkthru.org/ donate .

Leader Profile

High Impact LEE HELLING, REGIONAL DIRECTOR FOR SOUTHERN AFRICA

W

hen asked to describe Walk Thru the Bible Southern Africa in three words, Lee Helling doesn’t miss a beat. “Trusted, creative, and needed,” he says. The same description applies to the South African native, who oversees Walk Thru’s ministry in the 15 countries that comprise the southernmost region of the African continent.

As a recent college graduate in 1993, Lee was working in student ministry when God called him to help found Walk Thru the Bible Southern Africa.

More than two decades later, he has only grown more passionate about his mission—defined, in his words, as “helping the church live out God’s dream of seeing every community impacted for Him.” Walk Thru the Bible Southern Africa serves a population of 150 million people representing a staggering diversity of languages, cultural backgrounds, and income levels. For the Christian who lives in an impoverished village in Malawi and attends church in the shade of a tree to the Gaborone who lives and worships in a wealthy, modern suburb of Johannesburg, the need for localized ministry is higher than ever.

While the challenge of ministering to people in so many walks of life is daunting and complex, Lee’s vision for Walk Thru the Bible in Southern Africa is clear. “My dream is to partner with and enable more local churches to grow in their impact on their community—and so to see more

lost people coming to Christ, more found people growing in maturity, and the church meeting more significant needs in the community,” he says. Lee and a dynamic team of leaders in Southern Africa have developed a vehicle to turn this vision into reality. The High Impact Network, facilitated by Walk Thru the Bible, is a group of more than 120 churches that partner with Walk Thru to teach biblical resources, offer networking and coaching to church leaders, and fulfill urgent needs through distributing clothing, blankets, and food.

The High Impact Network is expanding rapidly. By 2020, Walk Thru hopes to equip at least one local church in each community to make a measurable impact on believers and unbelievers alike.

According to Lee, Crucible—Walk Thru the Bible’s study on the life of King David—is a resource that makes a particularly strong impact. Every Southern African community is unique, but none are immune from broken homes, poverty, HIV/AIDs, and other societal problems that the local church is called to address. Crucible presents the choice between faith and fear in whatever situation arises.

Through expanding Crucible, along with God’s Grand Story, into more communities and schools, Lee looks forward to seeing Walk Thru the Bible’s ministry continue to flourish in the region.

God is using Lee and his team in incredible ways, but the needs and opportunities in Southern Africa far exceed Walk Thru the Bible’s capacity.

From the Walk Thru family, Lee requests prayer “for wisdom—in knowing not only ‘how to’ but also which opportunities to pursue to maximize the impact that we are having for Christ.” .

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Donor Profile

Part of the Family ED AND LORRAINE BRYANT

I

n 1999, Ed and Lorraine Bryant accepted a friend’s invitation to attend Walk Thru the Bible’s Live the Word Conference in Puerto Rico.

They felt so drawn to the way Walk Thru the Bible presented and organized biblical material in an accessible, memorable way that they returned the next year.

“I was very impressed with the biblical materials,” says Lorraine. “You can go and you can preach, but if you don’t have written material for people, the message can become lost.”

Seven years later, their investment in Walk Thru the Bible deepened when they had the opportunity to participate in a donor vision trip to South Africa.

It was South Africa that “really opened our eyes to what was going on internationally,” Ed recounts. According to Lorraine, the highlight of their trip was being in the field with Elvis Mvulane and Lee Helling, Walk Thru’s South African directors, where they witnessed how Walk Thru’s live events and biblical resources “really affect the people in their day to day lives, how they interact with their families, with neighbors, with strangers.”

Soon after returning from South Africa, Ed left retirement to help shepherd Walk Thru the Bible through a transition in leadership from Bruce

Wilkinson to Chip Ingram. According to Walk Thru the Bible’s current president, Phil Tuttle, Ed played an indispensable leadership role as chief operations officer during a challenging period in the organization’s history. He worked pro bono for the first six months of his two-year tenure and joined the Board of Directors after stepping down as a staff member.

When reflecting on his time at Walk Thru the Bible, Ed says, “I’ve seen the organization as a donor and from the inside. I’ve seen it in all dimensions and still think very highly of it.”

“We feel very much a part of the family of Walk Thru the Bible,” says Lorraine. “It is a joyful giving to give to Walk Thru the Bible, because we understand how it operates both internally and externally.”

How would the couple like to see Walk Thru the Bible grow and develop? “More flags at Live the Word,” they agree, referring to the annual tradition of flying a flag for each of the 139 countries where Walk Thru the Bible is active. They also harbor a passion for introducing more individuals and churches to Walk Thru the Bible’s biblical resources. Their hope is that as more North American churches and Christians discover the value of these resources, they will invest in Walk Thru the Bible’s international ministry around the world.

These days, Ed and Lorraine limit their travel, but they always look forward to learning the location of the next Live the Word Conference.

For the Bryants, next year’s conference in Colorado Springs is not just a ministry conference—it’s a family reunion. .

“IT IS A JOYFUL GIVING TO GIVE TO WALK THRU.”

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The Last Word

A

s 2016 comes to a close and I reflect on Walk Thru the Bible’s year, I’m overwhelmed with gratitude to God for an amazing season of ministry. This was a monumental year for Walk Thru the Bible.

Celebrating our 40th year of ministry gave us the opportunity to look back. It’s hard to imagine all that has been accomplished through Walk Thru the Bible in our first 40 years. Our transformational resources and innovative live events have touched countless lives.

Soon, 2016 will fade into history and we will find ourselves at the start of a new year. I hope you share my excitement about the future of Walk Thru the Bible. I’m more convinced than ever that Walk Thru was created for this time. We are needed now as much as ever.

To those of you who have partnered with Walk Thru the Bible this year—thank you! Many of you have partnered with us in prayer, or you’ve attended an event or purchased one of our resources. And many of you have given generous financial gifts to support our work around the world in 139 countries. Your financial partnership has been critical to the success of Walk Thru the Bible in 2016. You have been God’s provision to enable this ministry to impact millions of lives. Together, we have made an eternal differe nce.

Thank you for making 2016 a phenomenal year! I hope we can count on your support as we enter a new year with great expectation of the many ways God will use Walk Thru the Bible for the expansion of His kingdo m.

Sincerely,

Michael Gunnin Vice President for Advancement

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Pastor Alejandro Oviedo, Walk Thru the Bible Central America and the Caribbean’s Regional Director, teaches Chosen to a crowd in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

Discover more about Walk Thru the Bible at

WWW.WALKTHRU.ORG