The Good Book

How many of you like to read? There are so many different genres or categories of literature available today. With the ease of publishing, anyone with money can write a book and literally within minutes have it published and available for sale in electronic form. And as I think about it you really don’t need a lot of money because if you don’t hire an editor, or a graphic designer, or a marketing person, or a publisher, or do a printed book, or copyright it, all it will cost you is time. Now, as an editor I would not advise this path, but it is possible to write and put a book out for sale in a very limited amount of time, just so you can call yourself a published author.

How many of you like to read? There are so many different genres or categories of literature available today. With the ease of publishing, anyone with money can write a book and literally within minutes have it published and available for sale in electronic form. And as I think about it you really don’t need a lot of money because if you don’t hire an editor, or a graphic designer, or marketing person, or a publisher, or do a printed book, or copyright it, all it will cost you is time. Now, as an editor I would not advise this path, but it is possible to write and put a book out for sale in a very limited amount of time.

When you place your book for sale, if you put it on Amazon.com, they want to know the genre of your book. Where does it fit, so when someone starts looking for a certain type of book, perhaps your title will come up.

There are people who prefer certain genres of books and will only read that type of book. When I was a teenager, I read Harlequin Romances. I would spend hours in my room or just off in a corner by myself reading. The stories were about love and in the end the two people always found each other, it was always a happy ending.

So what makes a good book? Well there are a few things. These may vary from person to person, but on average a good book has a

Theme - the book should mean something, it should tell a story and every chapter of the book should contribute to that theme or storyline.

Characters - the characters in the book should be well developed. A good writer can describe the characters to the point you feel like you know them. They can make you love them or hate them just by the way they write about them. The way the character is described can make them the hero or the villain, the savior or the victim.

Take away value - what does it mean to me. Does it make me feel good in the end, does it leave me wanting more, does it spark my imagination, is it relevant to my life, to today, to a certain situation, to a situation.

Satisfying ending - it may not always be a happy ending, but did the writer close all the loops? Did they resolve all the conflicts or did they leave room for the sequel. Did a character suddenly drop out of the story with no explanation of where they went.

Accuracy - is the book well written, is it spelling and grammar free of errors. Does it flow from one scene to the next or is it choppy. Does it make sense? If there are scenes that depict real life, are the events realistic. Even for science fiction, does the writer make you believe the story could be true.

Unpredictability - are there twists and turns to the story. Some of the best stories I’ve read and edited were ones that made me say, “oh snap” and I couldn’t put the book down until I at least found out how that part was going to turn out, or made me emotional, I was laughing, then cheering, then upset, then crying, then praising God.

A book. Books can be powerful, educational, entertaining, motivational, and instructional. The book we’re going to talk about today is all of that and some more, it’s also spiritual, it will save your life and give you the opportunity to receive eternal life. Turn with me to

KJV

Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

Today I want to talk about a book that has all of these things and some more. The title of today’s message is, The Good Book. Just is case you don’t know, I’m talking about, the Bible. This message is more of a topical message than expounding on one Scripture text, so you’re going to need your pen and paper because I’ll be talking about a few Scriptures, but in the end they all have to do with studying to show thyself approved.

You’ll find all types of people who have differing opinions about the Bible. Even with that, the Bible is consistently the number one best selling book, year after year, despite what the New York Times labels #1. There are many translations and paraphrases of this sacred book. A translation is one that attempts to translate the original text into the language of the reader in the most accurate way possible and a paraphrase Bible takes the original text and summarizes it. Be very careful about the Bible you use some are more accurate than others, the closer to the original language you can get, the more accurate it will be. It is important to note if you’re not reading in Greek or Hebrew you are reading a translation of the Bible.

So in addition to what makes a book enjoyable to read there are also genres and the Bible has most of them. Now there are ways the scholars categorize the way the Bible is written.

The first genre is narrative. Narrative tells us what happened, it tells the story. You can find narratives in books like Exodus when we hear about how God delivered the Israelites from slavery and the hands of Pharoah; we see how Ruth left her own people and followed her mother-in-law Naomi back to Judah and ended up married to Boaz and in the , and Acts.

The next genre is poetry, the most expansive book of poetry is the Psalms and there is no translation that carries that beautiful poetic flare like the King James Version of the Bible. Furthermore, probably the most well known Psalm is the 23rd Psalm

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

You will find some poetry in other books also.

2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

Then we have the genre of wisdom, these books include Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes. They are collections of wise sayings meant to shape the moral and ethical lives of the reader. They talk about practical topics. And in the New Testament, the book of James is much like Proverbs in the Old Testament.

3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.