The Bible Sherpa

Bi·ble   (bī’bəl)   –noun

1. The sacred book of Christianity, a collection of ancient writings including the books of both the Old Testament and the New Testament.

Sher⋅pa [sher-puh, shur-] –noun

1. a member of a people of Tibetan stock living in the Nepalese Himalayas, who often serve as porters on mountain-climbing expeditions.

The Bible is the most amazing book in the world. I have seen it radically change the lives of countless people from every background imaginable. Yet for most Christians, much of the Bible is still very hard to understand. Seriously. How many believers have wholeheartedly begun a journey in Genesis only to give up in exasperated confusion by the time they got half way through Leviticus? Every one of us needs a little help sometimes to understand exactly what the Bible is talking about. That’s why God gives us teachers (Ephesians 4:11, Nehemiah 8:8), and that’s where the Sherpa comes in.

Sherpas are known to be the greatest mountain climbing guides in the world. They’re good because they live in the Himalayas, the largest mountain range in the world. A Sherpa is a guide who knows the territory, who has traveled the terrain and explored many paths. He has learned about the mountain from generations of wisdom passed down.  He knows the trails, not as a frequent tourist, but as one whose entire life is on the mountain.  

(For those of you who get confused by analogies like that – the mountain represents the Bible. A Sherpa is a mountain guide – a local expert who leads climbers safely to the top. Put that together, and a Bible Sherpa is someone who knows the Bible well and leads you through it. Just thought I’d put that in plain English so nobody gets lost before we even get started).

As we develop theBibleSherpa.com, we intend to provide a blog, podcast and reading guide that will lead you through books of the Bible, one chapter at a time. Our goal is to make the Bible itself the main message, and to help you really get it. There are many wonderful and powerful teachers who preach and teach their message, and use God’s word to back it up. We aim to share God’s message directly from the Bible, and use our words to help you understand it.

As you journey through each chapter, your Sherpa guide will help you get a grasp of the heart and soul of the story. He will share insights that he and others before him have found on their journeys, and challenge you to apply God’s word to your own life. Your real guide should be God Himself, as the Holy Spirit leads you and speaks into your heart as no one else can. No one knows your life like He does. However, God has a funny way of using human teachers to speak to you. That’s just how the Spirit likes to work. 

The goal of the Bible Sherpa website is to guide you on your expeditions through God’s Word, one book at a time, one chapter at a time. We want to help you get the heart and soul of God’s message in each chapter. It comes down to a daily plan: you read a chapter of the Bible, we help you get what it’s saying. The next day, we hit the next chapter and do it again. 

PART 1: THE BIBLE SHERPA PODCAST  To guide you on your journey, we’re planning to provide a daily podcast with a ten minute intro to the day’s chapter. It’s not a full sermon or anything like that – just a short intro that’s fun and informative to give you the big picture and help you find the heart of God’s message for you that day. Subscribe to the podcast and you’ll get your daily dose automatically. That’ll keep you going on your reading. Once you’ve listened, you can read the chapter on your own, or for more help you can download … 

PART 2: THE DAILY BIBLE GUIDE  We are busy creating pdf Bible Guides that walk you through the chapters of the Bible one at a time. They’re designed to help you understand what you’re reading by giving you background info, pointing out key verses and connecting the chapter you’re reading to the bigger picture in the Bible. Like a good Sherpa, the Bible Guide will make your journey clear by explaining prophecies, pointing out important symbols, and connecting the chapter to related verses in other places. Most importantly, the guides will challenge you to take the message to heart, with questions aimed to help you examine your own life. In every chapter you read, there will be at least two messages for you to search for – the clear message of the text, and the deeper message that God wants to speak to your heart.  

PART 3: THE BLOG  The blog will have a little more freedom than the podcast and the Bible Guides. Sometimes it will be a great insight in a Bible chapter we’re studying; sometimes it will be ridiculous silliness (occasionally that silliness may even have a point). Other times it may be a story – something that has really challenged me in my life. I love telling stories, so if I have a good one, I’ll probably share it. Don’t worry, you won’t get a daily record of doing dishes or waiting in line at the DMV – not unless the dishes are stinkin’ hilarious one day. You may get the occasional anecdote about my kids – cuz, well, my kids are just plain funny sometimes. I may also challenge you with some bit of life or truth that I am wrestling over myself. I’ll try to make sure it’s a real thinker, and not just kid’s stuff. I may start a thread and ask you to respond, then develop it as time goes on and we all learn some life lessons and get some insights. If we’re talking about real stuff, we’ll always look to the Bible to find God’s perspective on whatever we’re dealing with. The blog should be lots of fun.

WHO’S IT FOR? The studies are for Christians who want to go deeper in their Bible study, but anyone can follow along. They’re geared for youth and young adults to really connect, but everything will be clear enough for all ages to follow. Some topics in the Bible are a little racy for kids, and we’ll warn you when those come up.

GROUPS: The Bible Guides will also make for a great guide for discipleship groups, youth groups, or families to study together. Tell your youth pastor about it and ask him what he thinks. Sometimes your church may disagree with us about some bit of doctrine or something, and it’s important for you to hear both sides so that you can make up your own mind. It’s always good to get an opinion from someone you trust, and youth pastors are pretty much the coolest people in the world . Discussing it with a group can really help too. A belief that can’t stand up to a challenge isn’t worth believing, and group discussions are great for challenging you. Members of a group can use the guides to study on their own time, then get together regularly to discuss what they got out of it. You can share what God has been speaking to you, discuss your answers to questions, and tell jokes about what a geek the podcasting guy is (totally uncool and proud of it baby). Getting together can be a powerful time, and don’t be surprised when you find that God has given you an insight that is meant for someone else’s life. He just loves to connect us together that way.

Dictionary References:

bible. Dictionary.com. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/bible (accessed: January 17, 2009).

sherpa. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc.http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sherpa (accessed: January 17, 2009).

In the Bible Sherpa Library