Immerse: The Bible Reading Experience
Institute for Bible Reading
Imagine if your group was regularly immersed in the Bible—reading at length without distractions and discovering God’s Story together. Immerse: The Bible Reading Experience uses a new reading format supported by fresh “book club” conversations. It’s not a Bible study. It’s an invitation to a vibrant, transformative relationship with God and with each other through his Word.
Immerse: The Reading Bible is a six-volume Bible created with one goal in mind: to provide the best reading experience possible. The text is single-column with chapters, verses, section headings, and footnotes removed—less like a reference book and closer to the way early readers of Scripture experienced the texts.
Each volume of Immerse is an 8-session study.
Volume 1: Messiah
Immerse: Messiah is the first of six volumes in Immerse: The Bible Reading Experience. Messiah takes the reader on a unique journey through every book of the New Testament. Each section of Messiah begins with one of the Gospels, and together they combine to provide a life-changing reading experience centered on Jesus. This fresh arrangement of the books highlights the depth of the New Testament’s fourfold witness to Jesus..
Volume 2: Beginnings
Immerse: Beginnings is the second of six volumes for use in Immerse: The Bible Reading Experience. Beginnings takes the reader on a new and unique journey through the first five books of the Bible: the Pentateuch. In Beginnings readers follow the ancient nation of Israel from its earliest ancestors to the moment it is poised to enter the land God promised them. As God’s covenant community follows the instructions laid out in the Pentateuch, they not only receive God’s blessings but are uniquely positioned to bring renewal and healing to the world.
Volume 3: Kingdoms
Immerse: Kingdoms is the third of six volumes in Immerse: The Bible Reading Experience. Kingdoms presents a new and unique journey through the story of Israel from the time of its conquest of Canaan (Joshua) through its struggle to settle the land (Judges, Ruth) and the establishment of Israel’s kingdom, which ends in a forced exile (Samuel–Kings). The nation of Israel, commissioned to be God’s light to the nations, falls to division and then foreign conquest for rejecting God’s rule.
Volume 4: Prophets
Immerse: Prophets is the fourth of six volumes in Immerse: The Bible Reading Experience. Prophets presents the First Testament prophets in groupings that generally represent four historical periods: the prophets who spoke before the fall of Israel’s northern kingdom (Amos, Hosea, Micah, Isaiah), before the fall of the southern kingdom (Zephaniah, Nahum, Habakkuk), around the time of Jerusalem’s destruction (Jeremiah, Obadiah, Ezekiel), and after the return from exile (Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, Joel, Jonah).
Volume 5: Poets
Immerse: Poets is the fifth of six volumes in Immerse: The Bible Reading Experience. Poets presents the poetical books of the First Testament in two groupings, dividing the books between songbooks (Psalms, Lamentations, Song of Songs) and wisdom writings (Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Job). These writings all reflect the daily, down-to-earth faith of God’s people as they live out their covenant relationship with him in worship and wise living.
Volume 6: Chronicles
Immerse: Chronicles is the sixth and final installment in Immerse: The Bible Reading Experience. Chronicles contains the remaining First Testament Books: Chronicles–Ezra–Nehemiah, Esther, and Daniel. These works were all written after the Jewish people fell under the control of foreign empires and were scattered among the nations. They remind God’s chastened people of their identity and calling to faithfully represent God to the nations and that there is still hope for the struggling dynasty of David.