The Life Recovery Bible, Personal Size Edition: New Living Translation (NLT)

THE Life Recovery BIBLE PERSONAL SIZE\ \ By Stephen Arterburn David Stoop \ Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.\ Copyright © 1998 Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.\ All right reserved.\ ISBN: 978-1-4143-1625-3 \ \ \ Contents\ The Twelve Steps...............................................A8 Steps for Recovery.............................................A10 The Books of the Bible.........................................A11 Alphabetical Book Listing......................................A13 A Note to Readers..............................................A15 Introduction to the New Living Translation.....................A21 NLT Bible Translation Team.....................................A23 User's Guide...................................................A25 Preface........................................................1 OLD TESTAMENT..................................................1193 NEW TESTAMENT..................................................1673 Life Recovery Topical Index....................................1726 Index to Recovery Profiles.....................................1727 Index to Twelve Step Devotionals...............................1729 Index to Recovery Principle Devotionals........................1730 Index to Serenity Prayer Devotionals...........................1731 Index to Recovery Reflections \ Chapter One\ Genesis\ THE BIG PICTURE\ A. GOD SETS THE STAGE (1:1-11:32)\ 1. Formation of the Universe (1:1-2:25)\ a. God creates matter, energy, and the natural order (1:1-2:3)\ b. God prepares pristine surroundings for the first family (2:4-25)\ 2. Fall of the Human Race (3:1-24)\ a. Commission of sin (3:1-8)\ b. Curse on sin (3:9-24)\ 3. Failure of Society (4:1-9:29)\ a. Failure of humankind (4:1-6:22)\ b. Flood of judgment (7:1-9:29)\ 4. Folly of Rebellion (10:1-11:32)\ a. Dispersal of the people (10:1-32)\ b. Disobedience of the people (11:1-32)\ B. GOD CHOOSES THE PLAYERS (12:1-50:26)\ 1. Abraham (12:1-25:18)\ 2. Isaac (25:19-27:46)\ 3. Jacob (28:1-36:43)\ 4. Joseph (37:1-50:26)\ The book of Genesis is a book of beginnings. It records how the world began and how God created it to be good. It tells us about the first people and how God made them to be excellent. But then it tells us about the beginning of sin-about the first time people decided to reject the program God had laid out for them. It records the first days of shame and of covering up. It records the beginning of our separation from God, each other, and the world God gave us.\ We will see how people with perfect health, living in a perfect environment, rebelled against God. And we will see the consequences of their rebellion. We are given intimate glimpses of individuals dominated by hatred, drunkenness, lust, unhealthy family relationships, greed, cheating, irresponsibility, dishonesty, jealousy, violence, and other problems.\ But the book of Genesis doesn't leave us in despair. It tells us of yet another beginning. It records how God chose a man named Abraham to father a special nation. And through this nation would come the solution for our separation from God, each other, and the world God gave us. Genesis begins the story of how God began his work of healing broken humanity-a healing to be expressed in the laws he would give his people and culminating in the coming of Jesus, the promised Messiah.\ The book of Genesis reminds us of where all our problems began. It spells out the fatal consequences of rejecting God's program. But it also begins the agelong story of God's amazing love for the human race. Through this book we will discover that the only pathway to spiritual wholeness is in following God's program.\ THE BOTTOM LINE\ PURPOSE: To tell us about the beginning of things, including human opportunities and difficulties, and to demonstrate that God's solutions are the only ones that work. AUTHOR: Moses. AUDIENCE: The people of Israel. DATE WRITTEN: Chapters 1-11 deal with the undatable past; the events of chapters 12-50 are to be dated between about 2000 and 1800 B.C. The book was probably written shortly after 1445 B.C. SETTING: Mesopotamia, then Canaan, finally Egypt. KEY VERSE: "And Abram believed the LORD, and the LORD counted him as righteous because of his faith" (15:6). KEY EVENTS: Creation, the Fall, the Flood, the Tower of Babel. KEY PEOPLE: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph.\ RECOVERY THEMES\ A Good Creation: Everything about God's creation was described as being good except the fact that Adam was alone. In fact, Adam's isolation is the only thing in the first two chapters of Genesis that God considered to be a problem. When God created a partner for man, God was pleased with everything in his creation. Because God was pleased with what he created, he stayed involved, even after Adam and Eve disobeyed him. In fact, ever since the Fall, God has been seeking to make things right again. Our sinfulness always leads us away from God and distorts the way God created us to be. But recovery always involves growth toward God's original ideal for the human race. As we progress in recovery, we take part in God's re-creation of our fallen world.\ A Ruined World: Adam's and Eve's disobedience affected all of God's creation. The idyllic world of the garden was gone forever, and life became a struggle. Our futile attempts to avoid the realities of a ruined world have led us into all kinds of destructive behaviors. Recovery begins when we squarely face the broken realities of our world-its daily struggles and hardships. Once we have done this, we have started down the road of recovery. We have entered the spiritual arena where battles are fought to regain what has been lost.\ Promises of Healing: The book of Genesis presents us with a series of new beginnings that come out of the ruin of our sinfulness. In the original Fall, God promised hope and healing for us when he told the serpent that the offspring of the woman would crush his head. When people generally continued to disobey, God sent the Flood as judgment for their sinfulness. After the Flood, God again promised victory and confirmed that promise with a rainbow. Then the people rejected God again, building a great tower as a memorial of their pride. In response, God confused their languages, further fragmenting society. Then God chose a man named Abram and promised to bless all nations of the world through his offspring. Each time human sin brought ruin, God promised victory and recovery in the face of it.\ Hope for Reconciliation: As people began to experience the terrible consequences of their disobedience, God didn't leave them to figure out a plan for recovery all alone; nor did he leave a long list of principles or rules to follow that would repair their damaged relationships. Instead, God always worked with people on a very personal level in the recovery process. As we enter into the recovery process, we find it to be relational in nature. It requires us to seek reconciliation with people close to us, and this includes God. In Genesis, God modeled this pattern for us time and again. He chose certain individuals and worked patiently in their lives, reconciling them with himself and the people around them.\ CHAPTER 1\ The Account of Creation\ In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.\ 3 Then God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good. Then he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light "day" and the darkness "night."\ And evening passed and morning came, marking the first day.\ 6 Then God said, "Let there be a space between the waters, to separate the waters of the heavens from the waters of the earth." 7 And that is what happened. God made this space to separate the waters of the earth from the waters of the heavens. 8 God called the space "sky."\ And evening passed and morning came, marking the second day.\ 9 Then God said, "Let the waters beneath the sky flow together into one place, so dry ground may appear." And that is what happened. 10 God called the dry ground "land" and the waters "seas." And God saw that it was good. 11 Then God said, "Let the land sprout with vegetation-every sort of seed-bearing plant, and trees that grow seed-bearing fruit. These seeds will then produce the kinds of plants and trees from which they came." And that is what happened. 12 The land produced vegetation-all sorts of seed-bearing plants, and trees with seed-bearing fruit. Their seeds produced plants and trees of the same kind. And God saw that it was good.\ 13 And evening passed and morning came, marking the third day.\ 14 Then God said, "Let lights appear in the sky to separate the day from the night. Let them mark off the seasons, days, and years. 15 Let these lights in the sky shine down on the earth." And that is what happened. 16 God made two great lights-the larger one to govern the day, and the smaller one to govern the night. He also made the stars. 17 God set these lights in the sky to light the earth, 18 to govern the day and night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.\ 19 And evening passed and morning came, marking the fourth day.\ 20 Then God said, "Let the waters swarm with fish and other life. Let the skies be filled with birds of every kind." 21 So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that scurries and swarms in the water, and every sort of bird-each producing offspring of the same kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 Then God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply. Let the fish fill the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth."\ 23 And evening passed and morning came, marking the fifth day.\ 24 Then God said, "Let the earth produce every sort of animal, each producing offspring of the same kind-livestock, small animals that scurry along the ground, and wild animals." And that is what happened. 25 God made all sorts of wild animals, livestock, and small animals, each able to produce offspring of the same kind. And God saw that it was good.\ 26 Then God said, "Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground."\ 27 So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.\ 28 Then God blessed them and said, "Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground."\ 29 Then God said, "Look! I have given you every seed-bearing plant throughout the earth and all the fruit trees for your food. 30 And I have given every green plant as food for all the wild animals, the birds in the sky, and the small animals that scurry along the ground-everything that has life." And that is what happened.\ 31 Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good!\ And evening passed and morning came, marking the sixth day.\ CHAPTER 2\ So the creation of the heavens and the earth and everything in them was completed. 2 On the seventh day God had finished his work of creation, so he rested from all his work. 3 And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because it was the day when he rested from all his work of creation.\ 4 This is the account of the creation of the heavens and the earth.\ The Man and Woman in Eden\ When the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, 5 neither wild plants nor grains were growing on the earth. For the LORD God had not yet sent rain to water the earth, and there were no people to cultivate the soil. 6 Instead, springs came up from the ground and watered all the land. 7 Then the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man's nostrils, and the man became a living person.\ 8 Then the LORD God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he placed the man he had made. 9 The Lord God made all sorts of trees grow up from the ground-trees that were beautiful and that produced delicious fruit. In the middle of the garden he placed the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.\ 10 A river flowed from the land of Eden, watering the garden and then dividing into four branches. 11 The first branch, called the Pishon, flowed around the entire land of Havilah, where gold is found. 12 The gold of that land is exceptionally pure; aromatic resin and onyx stone are also found there. 13 The second branch, called the Gihon, flowed around the entire land of Cush. 14 The third branch, called the Tigris, flowed east of the land of Asshur. The fourth branch is called the Euphrates.\ 15 The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it. 16 But the LORD God warned him, "You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden-17 except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die."\ 18 Then the LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him." 19 So the Lord God formed from the ground all the wild animals and all the birds of the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would call them, and the man chose a name for each one. 20 He gave names to all the livestock, all the birds of the sky, and all the wild animals. But still there was no helper just right for him.\ 21 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. While the man slept, the LORD God took out one of the man's ribs and closed up the opening. 22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib, and he brought her to the man.\ 23 "At last!" the man exclaimed.\ "This one is bone from my bone, and flesh from my flesh! She will be called 'woman,' because she was taken from 'man.'"\ 24 This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.\ 25 Now the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame.\ CHAPTER 3\ The Man and Woman Sin\ The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the LORD God had made. One day he asked the woman, "Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?"\ 2 "Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden," the woman replied. 3 "It's only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, 'You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.'"\ 4 "You won't die!" the serpent replied to the woman. 5 "God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil."\ 6 The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too. 7 At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.\ 8 When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the LORD God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees. 9 Then the Lord God called to the man, "Where are you?"\ 10 He replied, "I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked."\ 11 "Who told you that you were naked?" the Lord God asked. "Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?"\ 12 The man replied, "It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it."\ 13 Then the Lord God asked the woman, "What have you done?"\ "The serpent deceived me," she replied. "That's why I ate it."\ 14 Then the Lord God said to the serpent,\ "Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all animals, domestic and wild. You will crawl on your belly, groveling in the dust as long as you live.\ 15 And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel."\ 16 Then he said to the woman,\ "I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy, and in pain you will give birth. And you will desire to control your husband, but he will rule over you."\ 17 And to the man he said,\ "Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat, the ground is cursed because of you. All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it.\ 18 It will grow thorns and thistles for you, though you will eat of its grains.\ 19 By the sweat of your brow will you have food to eat until you return to the ground from which you were made. For you were made from dust, and to dust you will return."\ Paradise Lost: God's Judgment\ 20 Then the man-Adam-named his wife Eve, because she would be the mother of all who live. 21 And the Lord God made clothing from animal skins for Adam and his wife.\ 22 Then the LORD God said, "Look, the human beings have become like us, knowing both good and evil. What if they reach out, take fruit from the tree of life, and eat it? Then they will live forever!" 23 So the Lord God banished them from the Garden of Eden, and he sent Adam out to cultivate the ground from which he had been made. 24 After sending them out, the LORD God stationed mighty cherubim to the east of the Garden of Eden. And he placed a flaming sword that flashed back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.\ (Continues...)\ \ \ \ \ Excerpted from THE Life Recovery BIBLE PERSONAL SIZE by Stephen Arterburn David Stoop Copyright © 1998 by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.. Excerpted by permission.\ All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.\ Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site. \ \