May’s Book Recommendation is Landa Cope’s An Introduction to The Old Testament Template: Rediscovering God’s Principles for Discipling Nations.

Last week I became a student again as I joined a modular school of Advanced Principles of Communication. (APC) One of our required reading books at the start is this book of Landa’s.

It was defiantly not what I thought when just looking at the book cover.

To quickly sum up this book—If you want to study the bible and what it says concerning the eight domains of society. I.e. Government, Economics, Family, Science & Technology, Communication, Arts & Entertainment, Education and Church. Then this book is essential reading for you.

Why? So many Christians watch the news or hear of some story but don’t stop to think deeper. To ask God what He thinks or what He’s written in the bible. To help us understand His thoughts and principles behind what is going on in our world today. When in fact, the Bible is FULL of wisdom and insight to help us navigate and live our lives today with biblical principles. 

Landa wrote this book in response to her own emotions and questions to help us apply God’s whole biblical revelation to every area of society. God has something to say about everything – are we listening, do we want to know how to respond as followers of Jesus and live our lives from Biblical principles? Do we want to change our thinking to be more Christ-like and not passive secular world-view? This book will help and challenge your thinking. 

An Invitation:

“We want to discover what has gone wrong, but more importantly, we want to rediscover the biblical basis that led generations of believers to influence their times.

We are searching, and I invite you to join the search.” (p19)

Landa also invites us to take our bibles and colour them to reflect these eight different domains to visibly see which God is talking about when and bring God’s word to life in a new way. She is bold and passionate but communicates clearly and lovingly to help us grasp new concepts and understanding that is refreshing. She shares so many stories from her life which help us understand how to see and think differently when applying God’s word to our lives from this perspective. We know God has a lot to say, but that includes hygiene, culture, ecology, agriculture and ethics.

There are three parts to this book. 

  1. The Journey. Reminding us of where we have come from to get to where we are today.
  2. How do we get started? Understanding a biblical perspective for each Domain of Society. Each chapter has excellent summaries, study guides, notes to all believers and specific groups to help us grapple with each area.
  3. If we are going to disciple all nations – when what do we need?

Lastly, there are two excellent appendixes on God’s Bible – the big picture. And Things I (Landa) am not saying.

As I continue in my APC school, I will be continually reflecting on this book to help me understand the concepts Landa (and my school staff) are encouraging me to see from a new perspective. So join me in being open to change your thinking – back to a biblical perspective and all that that means.

Thank you Landa for your hard work and dedication to Christ and your passion to help others understand God’s word in a more meaningful relevant way.

If you aren’t comfortable taking colouring pencils to your precious bible, I understand. Perhaps buy a new bible specifically for this type of study. Maybe even try a modern translation to help you see familiar passages in a new way. As a school, we are starting with Proverbs – using The Message Version. 

Landa Cope’s books are: Clearly Communicating Christ: Breaking down barriers to effective communication back in 1996. And more recently, God and Political Justice: A study of Civil Governance from Genesis to Revelation (2015). 

To buy a copy of The Old Testament Template, I suggest YWAM Publishing or your preference of bookseller 🙂

If you would like to study the bible in a different way – check out my blog on The Inductive Bible Study Method.