Around the Bible in 80 Days: The Story of God from Creation to New Creation

by John Mark Hicks

Discover the Beauty of the Bible’s Big Picture

Scripture shares a basic story, from God’s first creative act in the beginning to its final scene—the renewal of all creation as a new heaven and earth. Around the Bible in 80 Days offers you an accessible guide to the Bible’s high points that can enrich your faith and help you better understand God’s overall redemptive story. On this 80-day excursion, join master teacher John Mark as he encourages you to reflect deeply on specific Scriptures and what they say about God’s unfolding drama. Each short section ends with prayer and meditative questions that can help you better understand God and yourself.

Genres: Theology

256 pages, Paperback

Published April 12, 2022

Reviews

[Devin Morris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a narrative retelling of the story of scripture. Hicks breaks his down into five, clean parts: Creation, Israel, Messiah, Church, and Recreation. I think this was masterfully done with very little left wanting in the sense of an overview of the bible while touching on major theological themes.

[Janalyn, the blind reviewer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Around The Bible In 80 Days it’s a book that covers the name most popular stories in the Bible with daily meditations and questions you can ask yourself to explore your own feelings about the story you’re going to read or the one you have just read. I have never read the Bible from cover to cover and I thought this would be a good way to do that. I wasn’t wrong and I totally enjoyed this reads. I do think some of the questions were ridiculous or more questions you would ask about a human and not God but for the most part they were really great questions and I thought a great way to explore my own feelings about the story. Even if you’ve read the Bible from cover to cover this is still a great way to explore your own Christianity and have your daily Bible devotional. I was given this book by net galley and I am leaving this review voluntarily, please forgive any grammar or punctuation errors as I am blind and dictate my review but all opinions are definitely my own.

[Douglas Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Bible is a large and complex book that at times, and without a wise guide, can be confusing. Many people believe that reading scripture is important, but few make the jump from believing to actually "doing" the reading because it is a challenging endeavour! There is a sense that there should be unified narrative, but it eludes so many readers. So the great majority settle for taking isolated passages from the Gospels, Epistles and Psalms. Hicks helps greatly by walking the reader through the entire narrative of scripture in 80 bite-sized portions that are encouraging, logical, spiritual and theologically orthodox. This is a really useful book for anyone wanting to understand what the Bible is about. I would recommend this to people who are exploring or new to the Christian faith. I would also recommend "Around the Bible in 80 Days" for a church wide campaign to increase biblical literacy.

[David Price · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is not mind-blowing necessarily in it's content. However, I am pleased with it's structure, and in it's simplicity. I don't say simplicity meaning that it is dumbed down material. What I mean to say is that this book does a great job taking difficult theology and making it digestible for a general audience. I love the prayers and questions at the end of each chapter, and believe this book would be great for discipleship groups, youth groups, and anyone who is in and not in theological education.

[Bart Croasmun · Rating 5 out of 5]

what a gift of a devotional genre book

This book creates such a profound shift in how to approach the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. To consider the notion of a 5 act Theodrama that tells a single story takes initial emphasis away from personal response and gives such a vivid vision of what God is already doing that shifts the narrative away from the person’s response and gives such insight into what God’s relationship to his creation has always been.