2017 Christmas resources run out the door!

Published: 30/11/2017 ~ 0

More than 3,000 families throughout New Zealand will be sharing the well-good news of Christmas with their children this year.

Bible Society’s free booklet The Well Good News of Christmas has literally run out the door. Families and individuals snapped up the special offer of the free book which saw all 3,000 copies given away within three weeks.

“The response to our offer of a free book about the Christmas story has been overwhelming. We were inundated with orders and the feedback we got once people recieved their free book was very encouraging,” Bible Society’s Stephen Opie said.

Bible Society is committed to reaching young people and children with the message of the Bible and helping resource parents and families to pass on their faith to the next generation.

Here are some of the comments we received from delighted recipients…

“Thank you very much. The children love it, and it has been a wonderful blessing.”

“My copy for my 6-year-old arrived yesterday. I am going to put it in his Christmas box. Thanks so much – it’s a beautiful book.”

“Thank you! Love the illustrations and poetic wording.”

“Thank you so much. My kids love it and have already read it.”

“These books are wonderful for our community children who come to church each Sunday.”

“I would really love one for my granddaughter becuase I can’t find good books about Jesus on her level.”

“Love it for my moko.”

In addition, Bible Society’s annual Christmas leaflet for children, this year called Escape to Egypt, was also a great success with churches and individuals throughout New Zealand quickly snapping up the 90,000 free copies available.

Mai Chen and her Bible – a reality check on life

Published: 12/09/2017 ~ 0

Prominent top lawyer, twice New Zealander of the Year finalist, and with qualifications too numerous to list, Mai Chen is a phenomenal success.

Her name opens doors. Today she is managing director of Chen Palmer Barristers and Solicitors, Australasia’s first public law specialist firm, a BNZ Board director, an Adjunct Professor at Auckland University Law School, and surprisingly… a Bible enthusiast.

Bible Society’s Sarah Richards speaks with Mai Chen about how the Bible influences her.

“The Bible is so important. I read it first thing every morning,” she says.

When I ask her how she finds time to read it she replies, “It’s easy. You just get up in the morning you switch on your morning devotion on your iPhone and you read it. I also have an NIV Bible app and I quite often run and listen, or walk and listen or drive and listen. It’s always good to hear the Bible and be bought back to the things that really matter.

“I would rather have the Bible going through my head than Katy Perry,” she says. Mai believes it helps with the self-talk we have going through our heads every day. “It (the Bible) helps me to have God in mind, it helps me enormously.”

“The wonderful thing about the Bible is it’s all about our imperfection. Jesus didn’t come for the wealthy and righteous, he came for the sick – so you just take what medicine you can when you can. I try and read it when I can, if I get some solitude at the weekend, when I walk or run the dog – I find it helps me. I listen to the Bible instead of listening to music or podcasts.”

Elaborating on this Mai says the Bible helps centre her and it’s her guiding light. “It keeps you on course. And I love it because it’s such a radical book and Jesus was such a radical person. He didn’t do what people expected him to do.

“He wasn’t mightier than thou, he didn’t look down on people, he said to the prostitute, ‘I don’t condemn you either, go in peace’. He healed sick people, he hung out with prostitutes and tax collectors. He annoyed people we could consider to be the high and mighty and it’s really good to be reminded of this when we read the Bible.”

I asked Mai what the Bible means to her personally. She replied, “Well it’s the only way I can touch God really . Every now and then, I get a glimpse of God, some manifestation of him in my life and sometimes he speaks to me, otherwise I am learning by reading the Bible.”

However it was on a trip to Israel with her husband, Dr John Sinclair, whom she met at a Scripture Union camp as a teenager, that Mai gained a much greater appreciation of the Bible.

“Israel made the Bible come to life for me. Jesus could have come down anywhere on the planet but he came down in the Middle East. My husband got sunstroke and we were only there in october. And I thought about the verses in the Bible where Jesus said go out into the world, don’t take anything with you, not even a coat and I ‘ll just provide for you. I thought about how hot the climate was when the disciples were told to not take anything.”

Another reason Mai loves the Bible is because it’s a reality check on life.

“The world tells us that it’s all about being happy and not having any problems . And people think being Godly must mean their life is going to go smoothly. But actually his (Jesus’) life was far from smooth. So it’s good to be reminded about this when life is hard. We want to be rich, we want to be beautiful, we want to be loved, we want to be popular, we don’t want pain but the Bible says that those who follow him will have trouble ahead. But the Bible says he will provide.”

Mai Chen has accomplished many things such as writing the Public Law Toolbox and the Superdiversity Stocktake and setting up the Superdiversity Centre as well as establishing groups including New Zealand Asian Leaders and Superdiverse Women.

She says there is no doubt her gifts are God-given.

“I can’t sit on them (the gifts). I have to use them and I am lucky to have them. I don’t have very many and there are days when I feel totally inadequate. But God gave me the ability to think. I have a good mind. I have a lot of ideas. A lot of these ideas drop into my head whole, I am really fortunate to be like that.

“Time is a gift. The question is what you do with it. I spend most of my time productively. I read things, listen to things, think about things, or I am doing something meaningful with my family. It’s not often I slump on the couch, eat ice-cream and watch TV. Time is short and I don’t have very much of it, I don’t want to go with all my gifts not used.”

Youth and the Bible in the 21st Century

Published: 11/09/2017 ~ 0

By Roger Moses, Headmaster, Wellington College
Board Member, Bible Society New Zealand

It was the dynamic 19th century preacher, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, who once said memorably that “A Bible that’s falling apart usually belongs to someone who isn’t!”

Spurgeon, of course, spoke in an age far removed from the post-modern world of the early 21^st century; a world where Christians and non-Christians alike would have been familiar with common Biblical stories and themes that had helped shape the morality and ethics which underpinned Western civilisation. The stories of creation, Noah’s Ark, David and Goliath, Daniel in the lions’ den, Jonah and the Whale, the Nativity story, Jesus’ feeding of the five thousand and the Death and Resurrection of Jesus would have all been known to the wider populace, even those with no personal commitment to the Christian faith. Influential writers took for granted the positive influence the Bible had on the world around them. Charles Dickens, for example, wrote that “The New Testament is the very best book that ever was or ever will be known in the world.” Abraham Lincoln, the most legendary of all American presidents, said “I believe the Bible is the best gift God has given to man. All the good from the Saviour of the world is communicated to us through this Book.”

The contemporary world of New Zealand however, presents some very different challenges for those who still believe that the Bible is the Word of God. No longer can we take for granted that the young people we are endeavouring to reach have any knowledge of the scriptures or, indeed, the one who throughout the past two millennia has been known as the Saviour of the world. In a very real sense, we find ourselves once again in the same circumstances as Paul when he addressed the Greek philosophers on Mars Hill. Like Paul, we need to present the Gospel in both the language and context that is meaningful to our audience.

Young people today in New Zealand are as hungry as ever to find genuine meaning and a moral compass that gives direction to their lives. The fundamental questions are as relevant as ever. Who am I? Where do I come from? What is my purpose? What happens when I die? Millions of searchers throughout the centuries have found the answers to those questions in the Bible. In the words of St Augustine, “The Holy Scriptures are our letters from home.” The challenge for us today is how to communicate that message in a post-modern culture which assumes the relativity of truth and often marginalises historic Christianity as narrow, outmoded and largely irrelevant. Yet despite the obvious challenges of the day, Charles Colson’s words ring true:

“The Bible-banned, burned, beloved. More widely read, more frequently attacked than any other book in history. Generations of intellectuals have attempted to discredit it, dictators of every age have outlawed it and executed those who read it. Yet soldiers carry it into battle believing it more powerful than their weapons. Fragments of it smuggled into solitary prison cells have transformed ruthless killers into gentle saints.”

Kaikoura earthquake survivor says the Bible helped her recover

Published: 12/07/2017 ~ 0

Kaikoura resident and local business owner Denice Devine (Dinn), appearing in one of our short films for Bible Month, says the Bible helped her post-earthquake recovery.

The 47-year-old wife, mother and now grand-mother shares how her faith, and particularly how the Bible, helped her during the traumatic time.

“I took part in Bible Month (in the film) as I thought it would be nice to share a bit about the effects the earthquake had on me and my family and how God’s love shone through.”

“Mostly what I want people to take away from my own story shown in the film is that no matter what happens in our life good, bad, easy or hard, God’s word (the Bible) is the foundation to stand on and one that will not be moved!”

A Psalm provided a life-line

Dinn said on the night of the earthquake God directed her to Psalm 104. This Bible passage helped her deal with the fear immediately following the earthquake and still gives her comfort today. Dinn’s post-quake fear was so great she was unable to eat, sleep or be left alone.

“This whole scripture reaffirms to me who God is and how great he is, it reminds me that he created everything in this world to work together and for a purpose. All I know is my fear of the unknown has gone.”

Reading the Bible is a commitment

Dinn says what the Bible means to her is ‘life’. “The Bible is life-giving truth,that cannot be denied. As hard as I find it sometimes to read my Bible I will never turn my back on it. Sometimes when I read the Bible I have no idea what God is saying to me and other times wisdom and revelation just flow.

View more Good for Life short stories

Bible Month 2017 – The Bible: it’s good for life!

Published: 22/06/2017 ~ 0

We believe the Bible is good for life! That’s why, in time for this year’s Bible Month, we’ve launched the new Good for Life initiative.

“Good for Life is all about equipping Christians with the tools they need to ensure the Bible remains an important part of their faith,”

Bible Society CEO Francis Burdett

To help churches encourage Bible reading this Bible Month, we’ve produced a set of unique Good for Life videos showing the transformational impact the Bible can have in people’s lives. These stories feature a surfer who broke his back, a Kaikoura earthquake survivor and a young girl who loves Bible stories. Watch the videos on the Good for Life web hub.

And to help church leaders understand more about the relationship New Zealanders have with the Bible, we teamed up with Nielsen to conduct a nationwide Bible reading survey. One key finding centred around the ancient biblical truth, “Do to others has you would have them do to you”.

Respondents were asked what they thought the main message of the Bible is. Aside from those that answered ‘Don’t know’, the strong impression from the general population is that the Bible points to the Golden Rule, “Do to others as you would have them do to you,” Luke 6:31 (NIV). In fact, some young people quoted the verse directly from the Bible.

Another interesting finding was nearly three out of five New Zealanders over 13 years old own a Bible and 7% read the Bible every day. A further 5% read the Bible weekly, meaning more than one in ten New Zealanders over 13 read the Bible every week.

Teenagers (13-18) are more likely than those aged 19-64 to read the Bible and attend church regularly. Those aged 19-24 are significantly different to all other age groups in many areas of the survey.

The 2017 Bible engagement survey also reveals the top barriers to Bible reading for Christians as a lack of self discipline (28%), being distracted by other activities (26%) and being too busy (24%).

You can order your free copy of the survey here. Other Good for Life resources include Bible posters, a six month Bible reading challenge and small group Bible studies. All these can be found on the Good for Life web hub.

New Zealand’s Favourite Bible Verse

Published: 04/04/2017 ~ 0

New Zealand’s favourite Bible verse in 2016 was Jeremiah chapter 29 verse 11:

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.”

YouVersion says New Zealanders highlighted, shared and bookmarked this verse in their mobile app more than any other last year.

YouVersion makes the Bible available globally in more than 1,000 languages, thanks to United Bible Societies’ Digital Bible Library (DBL). The DBL is an online digital asset and licensing management platform developed and maintained by United Bible Societies. The DBL gathers, validates, and safeguards a large collection of quality, standardised, digital Scripture texts in more than 1,000 languages. YouVersion is one of the organisations holding a ‘library card’ that enables their users to access the Scriptures in various languages via the YouVersion app.

Overall the most searched for verse in the YouVersion community was Zechariah chapter 14 verse 9, “The Lord will be King over the whole earth. On that day there will be one Lord, and his name the only name.” This had the most shares, bookmarks and highlights in nine different countries.

Bible Society partners with game studio on innovative Bible game

Published: 22/12/2016 ~ 1

Thousands of kids around the world are playing a New Zealand-made online Bible game designed to bring the Scriptures alive.

“We love it,” was the resounding comment from kids at the Hope Centre, Lower Hutt, who recently trialed The Aetherlight: Chronicles of the Resistance. So far, the game has more than 15,000 players across multiple platforms, mainly from New Zealand, Australia and the United States, with 400 kids playing the game every day. Game makers Scarlett City in Auckland estimate more than 30,000 hours have been played worldwide.

The game tells a tale paralleling the story of the Bible, re-imagining the Bible story as a ’steampunk’ allegory, taking characters and stories from the Bible and putting a fresh face on them to connect with kids. Bible Society is partnering with Scarlett City to help families and churches connect the story kids encounter in the world of Aethasia to the real story of the Bible.

”Reading the Bible for most kids these days is a foreign concept. This is a way for them to engage with and understand the Bible,” said Hope Centre Children’s Pastor, Sarah Hart.

Ten-year-old Mackensie Te Pohe loved playing the game. “It’s really fun and interesting,” she said.

Episodes are released every few months (episode two The Resistance Takes Flight was released in July 2016).

“By connecting game players to the big story of the Bible, The Aetherlight brings a significant opportunity to help pre-teens understand the Bible’s relevance in their lives,” said Stephen Opie, Bible Society Programme Director. “It really is the ancient art of storytelling for the 21^st century.”

The game comes with its own companion Bible, which has just been released in the USA and New Zealand. The New Living Translation even includes two unique codes to unlock exclusive game items.

The Aetherlight is available on PC and Macs, as well as Apple and Android mobile devices. Visit www.theaetherlight.com for full details or download the game from the app stores.

The Aetherlight Companion Bible is also now available from Bible Society New Zealand at $24.99 email: orders@Biblesociety.org.nz or telephone 0800 4 BIBLES.

Learn more about The Aetherlight

New waterproof Bibles for the Navy

Published: 14/10/2016 ~ 0

A chaplain for the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) hopes his sailors won’t ever have to test just how waterproof our New Testaments really are!

Chaplain Pete Olds, RNZN, commented, “The practice of offering our new recruits a Bible is one that goes back many years. Now, in the RNZN’s 75th year, we can gift them the good news in a way that really resonates with their new life as sailors; waterproof and wrapped in something of our history as a service. I’ve got to be honest though, we’re praying the waterproof bit will turn out to be unnecessary.”

Bible Society recently supplied 1,350 New Testaments with Proverbs and Psalms to the Royal New Zealand Navy as part of their 75th anniversary. The specially designed Bibles with plastic coated pages include a Navy prayer and front cover design of HMS New Zealand, a battle cruiser gifted to us from Britain in 1911.

These Bible play a role in the new recruits’ training process and often throughout their whole life in the Navy, explained Peter. “The 300 trainees a year go through an ‘attesting process’ where they take an oath on a Bible to join the RNZN or they can choose to make a verbal affirmation. However, the majority choose to ‘attest’ on a Bible, which is now the special design Navy Bible, and then they get to keep it. All trainees are offered a Bible and usually they take one and often they carry it with them from then on.”

“For our sailors, particularly our new recruits, they are embarking on a new life that is quite uncertain and there are a lot of questions that come up, especially in those initial stages of training. They are intensely personal questions such as, What am I doing here in this organisation, Where is this going? Some of these emotional and relational things, such as being separated from family, are big issues. So for them to be able to pick up and read The Word themselves is very important. And it enables us to have a dialogue with them and we can point them to things they may find encouraging, critiquing or shaping in terms of the message,” said Peter.

“Our hope in having these Bibles as a tool and having our presence here as chaplains, is we get to start the dialogue about the bigger meanings found in the world and the story that lies beyond the immediate, everyday stuff. “

“Personally, I find we are living in a world with a ceiling on it and any notion of the transcendence of a larger cause is often removed. We’re so focused on what’s going on here and now, and in terms of faith, a lot of people have just discounted there is anything bigger – a bigger picture. So one of the things we seek to do is engage people’s understanding of that bigger picture because I think it is fundamental to who and what we are. The world is a pretty bleak place at times and if you’re got no concept of ‘other’, of God or spirituality, there are a lot of things you haven’t got any option for other than to just endure because there is not a hope lying behind them.”

New children’s Bible app aims to ignite love for the Bible

Published: 03/10/2016 ~ 3

Bible Society New Zealand has launched a new app for mobile devices that is designed to help parents share the Bible with their kids.

Called The Big Little Bible, the app features New Zealand-made illustrations using a unique ‘one line’ art technique called contour drawing – where the pencil never leaves the page.

Aimed at 8-10 year olds, the app includes 30 Bible stories taken straight from the Contemporary English Version and seeks to bridge the gap from paraphrased Bible stories to independent real text Bible reading.

For illustrator Meesh Holswich, the project was a dream come true. “God gave me the heart to draw and I have been drawing non-stop since I was a child.”

The 100 illustrations took more than six months to complete and were made especially for the app.

And amazingly her unique style of art dovetails with the overall message of the Bible. “One line, one thread, from the beginning of the Bible until the end, it’s all one story. Each illustration is made with one continuous line, which then joins with the next illustration, and the next, representing the one story that runs through the Bible from beginning to end,” she explained.

Meesh’s passion for illustrating goes back to her childhood love for the Bible. “The Bible is a precious gift that gives us insight into the great story of God’s love revealed throughout time. Reading Bible stories shows us how other people, just like us, live out their lives in faith, sometimes in failure, and the wondrous things that happen when we follow God.

“Drawing Bible stories brought me back to when, as a child, I used to wonder at the beautiful illustrations in Bible story books. Remembering those days helped me think of how I wanted to illustrate each story,” she said.

Bible Society New Zealand’s biblical literacy research found that many children would read, listen to or watch Bible stories more often if they were on computer or mobile app. This will be their third mobile app and is free to download. You can download The Big Little Bible app at the Apple and Google Play stores now.