Customer Reviews

A Life Changing Encounter with God's Word from the Book of Galatians (A Nav Press Bible Study/Life Change Series)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Shepherd's Notes series on the Book of Galatians is a very well done and concise overview of Galatians. But it is more than an overview. It also provides:

A Capsule Thought -- an overview of EACH section; Old Testament References; Historical Background; New Testament References; Personal Applications; and a Word Picture.

All these elements together in a small 80+ pages book provide for a great study guide for either an individual or as a group (we used it for a study at our church). The guide is also filled with probing questions and thoughts.

The only drawback may also be the book's strengths. While it provides lots of information in a small amount of space -- ideas like the word pictures can be interpreted in many ways. Sometimes this leads people to misinterpret Scripture (this is a small part of this book). Of course this is not a problem for a class lead by a knowledgeable teacher, but could be a problem for individual study.

The application ideas are at a much higher discipleship level than many other similar type of study books. All in all, the book is a great study guide for booth individual and group study.

I have used several of these NavPress Lifechange studies and enjoyed several aspects of them:
1) They discipline me to ask the standard questions - observing, interpreting and applying the Bible; and
2) They provide enough background information to be helpful, but not so much that it is overwhelming.

For the first time I am using them in a group setting and I have found the discussion questions in the sidebars to be very stimulating and allow us to discuss real issues.

If you want a thorough, in depth study, going into all the issue and answering all the controversies, keep searching. If you want something to help you understand Galatians while reading on your lunch break or something to use as a guide for teaching a Sunday School class, you've come to the right book.

This is a concise commentary, but to the point. There are hints of Calvinism here, but the key word is "hints". It clearly deals with the major issues.

There are some points of imbalance. It does spend a slightly disproportionate time on one controversial verse, Galatians 5:4 ("Fallen from grace"), while it doesn't even mention another controversial phrase let alone deal with it ("the Israel of God, Galatians 6:16).

Nonetheless, this is a good, simple guide in helping understand an important book of the Bible. I highly recommend it. (I'm sure that surprises you that I'd recommend a book I give a 5 star review to.)