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The NIV Study bible is what I had when I got saved. It's the Bible that helped me get saved. See, I'm an intellectual. I had a Bachelor of Philosophy in Interdisciplinary studies, and I'd always been a thinker, and I learned in college to check my sources, read the footnotes, look deeper. That's what the NIV study Bible allows you to do.
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Plus, the NIV study bible has cool tables, charts, and drawings. The 3D architectural perspective floor plan rendering of King Solomon's temple is one that stands out. Another is the "harmony of the gospels" chart that lists all of the scenes or vignettes, and in which of the 4 gospels they appear. You can see that only a few are not corroborated by several writers.
I also love the content of the NIV study bible's footnotes- for example, when reading the Psalms, I learned that in Hebrew, the heart to which David referred is actually "the center of your being". Later I took this kind of study deeper with a Hebrew/Greek keyword bible. Coincidentally, both the NIV study Bible and the Keyword bible came from my parents.
They gave one of the most loving gifts you can- I wasn't saved, but they sent me the NIV study bible, complete with a personalized inscription, and of course it has space for marriages, births, and deaths, and you begin to grasp that the Bible can be the center of your life, and that it's about relationships- your relationship with God, your relationship with your family, your relationship with the entire human family.
When I got saved, it was because of the prayer of those who cared about me, a good friend who invited me to a small bible study, a thoughtful and patient pastor, and the detail and credibility of the NIV Study Bible.
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