99. How to Fall in Love with the Bible Again — with Philip Nation, Publisher of Thomas Nelson Bibles

Have you ever felt spiritually dry… or unsure where to begin when it comes to reading the Bible again? In this powerful and grace-filled episode, I sit down with Philip Nation—pastor, author, teacher, and Bible publisher at Thomas Nelson—to talk about reigniting your hunger for Scripture, approaching God’s Word with fresh eyes, and letting the Bible read you.

We explore why spiritual hunger is a gift, how God meets us in our weakness, and why tools like The Open Bible can make reading Scripture more accessible and transformative than ever—whether you’re brand new to faith or have been walking with God for decades.

If your Bible’s been gathering dust or your soul has felt disconnected, this conversation is your invitation to come home.

 What We Talk About:

• Why spiritual dryness can actually be a holy invitation

• The difference between mastering the Bible and being mastered by it

• How handwriting verses and meditating on Scripture changes your heart

• Why The Open Bible was created—and how it helps people dive deeper into God’s Word

• How Philip’s own story—including the influence of his mother and his calling to ministry—shaped his passion for Scripture

• Two tender, healing verses you can hold onto today:

– Zephaniah 3:17: “He will rejoice over you with singing”

– Hosea 14:4: “I will heal their waywardness and love them freely”

 Guest Bio – Philip Nation

Philip Nation is Vice President and Publisher for Thomas Nelson Bibles. He is a pastor, teacher, and Bible lover whose work helps millions engage with Scripture more deeply.

Links to Philip Nation, Thomas Nelson Bibles & the Open Bible:

PURCHASE LINK (Amazon)

Philip Social LINK

Thomas Nelson SOCIAL LINKS:

Thomas Nelson Bibles on Facebook

Nelson Bibles on Instagram

FREE RESOURCE FOR YOU

As a special gift, I’ve created a free 1-page devotional PDF based on the verses we explored today—Zephaniah 3:17 and Hosea 14:4. Download it below or join our Curious for Christ Facebook community to grab your copy!

 Download the "He Sings Over You" Devotional PDF

If this episode encouraged you, would you consider leaving a review or sharing it with a friend? Your words help others find hope, truth, and the presence of God through this podcast.

Until next time, remember: His Word is alive—and it’s waiting to meet you right where you are.

Thanks for listening! Your support means the world. Join our Curious for Christ Facebook Group and become an Insider for weekly inspiration and encouragement on your faith journey.

Want to go deeper? Let's connect—set up a FREE Discovery Call today. See you next time!

Transcript

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Welcome to Cures for Christ, and welcome back. If you've been with me for a while, I'm so glad you're here today. I want to go back to the basics, the Bible. If you've ever felt dry in your faith or unsure where to even begin with reading scripture. Again, this episode is for you. I'm joined by Philip Nation, who serves as vice president and publisher for Thomas Nelson Bibles. He is. One of the leaders behind the 50th anniversary edition of the Open Bible, he's also a pastor, author, and former church planter whose passion is to help people hear God through his word. He leads one of the most trusted Bible publishing teams in the world and lives in Tennessee with his wife Angie. In this conversation, Philip shares some beautiful insights on how to engage scripture when you're hurting, overwhelmed, or just feeling far from God. Whether you've walked with God for years or just beginning to explore who he is, I believe this conversation will believe you encouraged, grounded, and maybe even surprised by just how close God really is. Let's dive in. Welcome to Curious for Christ. Do you ever find yourself lying, awake at night wondering about God's plan for your life? Maybe you wake up with big dreams, but feel unsure where to start or what your next step should be. If you're curious about exploring your faith and finding purpose, then you've come to the right place. Hi, I'm Alexandra. I too felt lost and sure of the direction my life was taking. I yearned to understand my purpose and have someone guide me, but I kept telling myself I was too busy. The timing wasn't right, and my lack of clarity prevented me from being consistent until I found Christ. He brought peace into my life and revealed the way to find purpose by anchoring myself. In him. In this podcast, we'll journey together exploring the Bible to gain a deeper understanding of him and cultivate your own personal relationship with Christ. So open up your Bible, put in those earbuds and listen up because God is speaking to you. He's making everything new and you don't wanna miss it. Let's get started. Philip, thank you so much and welcome to Curious for Cry. Thank you for joining me today. Oh, it's gonna be a fun conversation. I appreciate the invitation. Yes, it'll, it will. So I love to start with our personal stories, I find them so impactful. And so could you start by telling us a little bit about yourself, your role at Thomas Nelson Bibles and what drew you to this work that you're doing today? Oh I'm always happy not to talk about myself, but to talk about all the grace of God that has accompanied my journey through life. And so the most important thing about me right now is that I'm a grandfather and have two grandkids, but my wife Angie, and I have been. Married for 31 years and we've got two grown sons that are both married and we love their wives. Our two daughters-in-law have captured our hearts, but my own journey is that I have the blessing of that story of being raised in a home where both of my parents were Christians and so I was familiar with the church and the faith from a very early age. And felt that draw to Christ as a child. And so have a, have just a grace-filled testimony of coming to faith in Christ at an early age. And then in my teenage years, sensing a call to ministry, but not being able to quite put my finger on what that meant. And so it, it did mean going to college, going to seminary, eventually doing some doctoral studies as well. But I served as a pastor until my later thirties and began writing. And then God did a new direction in my life where I entered into the world of Christian publishing working at various levels of leadership and continuing to write and teach in universities. And so now for the last five and a half years, I've had this. Incredible opportunity to stand in the great heritage of Bible publishing and leading Thomas Nelson Bibles which has been around since 1798. And so now every day I get to wake up as a leader of publishing Bibles. Continuing a legacy it seems like right? For so long. Yeah. Yeah. It, we stand on the shoulders of faithful men and women who went before us and created this whole, ability to be able to expand this work of being able to introduce the word of God to people near and far. Fantastic. Thank you. Was there a moment in your life that you can recall when scripture became deeply personal or transformative and how did it shape your walk with God after that moment? Yeah. I, it's a tough question to pin down. One, having served in ministry. For so many years and studying and teaching. There are a lot of those moments along the way and a lot of those passages I'll say the earlier memories of I ha of having that as a teenage boy growing up in, as I said, a home where I had parents that modeled it. And in a church that equipped us I think that it was in my later teenage years as I was exploring what is it that God's doing in my heart? That it was just the regular reading of scripture that the Lord used to confirm, yes, I'm calling you to a specific work in life that will have to do with ministry and the word, but then it was a couple of years later. That a young man in our church who was a part-time associate minister, his family, they owned their own business that he worked in. He came alongside of me and discipled me for three years, where weekly I was in his home for several hours on Thursday nights, and his name was Matthew. He's no longer with us. He's with the Lord. But Matthew, I remember walking me through the books of First and second Timothy. And that season really helped solidify a lot in my life as to what God wanted me to do. And so that's what I would identify as probably the earliest and most impactful drawing that I felt of God into his word. And then if I fast forward a couple of decades, the other that I would point out is a number of years ago, the book of second Corinthians, just. Became the center pole of all of the study of scripture I was doing. I'd been in ministry for a while, but I just felt there was not a drift away from God and not a drift away from holiness, but I just felt as if my own identity was so wrapped up in being Pastor Philip that it felt like Philip, just, Philip did not exist as much any longer. And I needed to find out, who I was in Christ again and studying through second Corinthians, chapters three through seven. Made this huge impact on my life because there, there are dozens of little tiny descriptors of who we are as believers within there that, we're clays of jar that carry a precious treasure in it, that we're walking in a triumphal procession with Christ. And one verse in particular, chapter five, verse 14, speaks about how we are compelled by the love of Christ. Just once again, finding all that Christ was doing in my life when I was in my late thirties, prepared me for all of the season that came next. That's beautiful how God prepares us for seasons. But I also see in this that he uses people in our lives to shape us, to bring us to scripture specific scriptures. And then also I wanted to share. One more thing that you that you shared and it just skips my mind right now. But it is very interesting how the spirit works to prepare us, that's for sure. Oh, yes. It's coming back when you mention that we define ourselves sometimes by the things that we do or the roles that we have and God always bring us back to who we are. We are his children and loved. Yes. And it's and that brings a sense of peace that transcends it all, and and then fills us to, to serve better in the capacities that he has us serve. So that's really inspiring. Thank you. Yeah. It, yes, go ahead. It also, that season, one of the things that happened to me during that season is that it reconnected me to the witness of my own mom who as we're recording this now, it's been a little over 20 years that she passed away, and so it was a few years after her passing and I, it took me a while to get all of, to get these points connected, but. My, my mom was avid of getting up very early in the day. She would awake before all the rest of us, but we always knew exactly where her Bible was and where her spiral bound notebook was that she kept all of her all of the things that she was gonna pray about and. My mom was never visually a leader in our church. She never held a position. She was never on a committee. She was never up at the front at the microphone. That was oftentimes my father. But mom was very much a. A, a very steady presence in our church for young families that were in need, especially young parents. And she had a ministry that was quiet but was impactful and it was just, it was a, that season was a great reminder to me. That here, my mom, Dolores Nation was a great leader and minister of the gospel in our church. Without ever holding a title or a position and how God just continuously gave her such confidence to minister just in the way that he asked her to minister. And it wa it became a comfort in my own life that he would make me who I'm supposed to be first. And then along the way I would minister as he had assignments for me, but it was just, it was a lesson after her passing that I finally picked up on that. I'm so grateful for having that legacy of such a godly mother who served Christ quietly, but so very faithfully. And we are truly who we are when no one sees us. It's not just a title and all of that. And then it's interesting that you shared about Timothy who himself also. Paul said that he learned, his love for Christ and his his faith from his mother and grandmother. Yeah, exactly. It's a nice legacy and thank you for sharing. So what inspired you, your passion for making scripture accessible to everyday people, no matter where they're starting from? For me, again, some of this is legacy. I had great models for that in bible study, teachers and pastors under whom I grew up, but then just walking out into the world as a, as an adult and as a leader in churches, I just saw that there was a growing biblical illiteracy. And it wasn't just that people were losing the thread on important doctrines. It was as if people were, we were losing just our understanding of the storyline of scripture, of the characters of scripture. And so I just took it on that I wanted to be involved with the discipleship of people. That was the focus of my pastoral ministries. Very often it's a focus of much of what I've written, and so I. I just know that the power of salvation is held within the word of God, Jesus, as he was praying in John 17, he says to the Father, father, sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth. And so I'm happy to just give the rest of my life to ensuring that people have access to the Bible and to good resources and tools that will help them to better study it. Thank you. That is great. So talking about tools and tips for Bible study what are your top Bible study tips for someone that would be new to the faith just starting to explore their Bible on their own. What would you recommend they read or. Anything you wanna share? Yeah. And so if you are new to Bible study, my first tip is is an unusual one. I think I, and that is, I just want to acknowledge along with you that studying the Bible looks on the front end to be incredibly complex, hard, and daunting. And that's okay. For you to think that on the front end. At Nelson Bibles, we primarily are one of the primary public translations we publish is the new King James version. So I, I know a lot of factoids about it, and that scripture translation is 771,569 words. So it's about three times the size of a novel that any of us would pick up and read. And so it's okay to come to it and go, okay. Hold on a second. This feels like a really big wall of words, and so just say okay to that and know that all the rest of us have had that same thought as well. But then I want to encourage people, if you're new to the faith and new to the Bible, I. Start with the story of Jesus. That's the culmination of the entire Bible. And my suggestion is go to the Gospel of John. And so in the New Testament, that's the fourth book of the New Testament. And read the Gospel of John and read it slowly. You don't have to feel like you have to blaze through it. It's 21 chapters, and so you can very easily read it. One chapter a day in a month, obviously, or you can read it in even smaller pieces. But if you're new to scripture, we do want to encourage you that at some point, read the entirety of the Bible, read it comprehensively from start to finish, but as you're new, it's okay for you to go slowly. And then the third and final tip that I would just give here is. Learn the tools that can help you understand the context of the passage. Every time we find ourselves amiss an out of step with with the faith and with the doctrine that the church has held historically, it's when we take things out of context. And so make sure that you've got. Friends that you can trust, a church family that you're a part of, and then all of the Bible study tools that'll help you to understand the context of how does this passage fit into this book? How does it fit into the overall entirety of the Bible? What's going on historically, when Jesus does this, when another character does that, when they say this, learn how to understand the context, and it'll be such a wondrous journey through the Bible. Yes. And who who wrote that particular book. And who was it intended to, I guess also would be, yeah, absolutely. Great. Yes. And for those who've been walking with God for years, like maybe even feel well-versed with their Bible, what are some tips for staying engaged or perhaps also. Spiritually curious or connected to God in any ways. Yeah. It's hard to, in a, it's a long, it's not just a quick fix, it's a lifelong journey. So how do we keep it fresh? Yeah. That lifelong journey. I and I speak from experience on this one, having been someone who's been reading the Bible now for 40 years. I, the thing that has helped me I'll share three quick tips. One is. That you should go and read portions of scripture that you've not visited in a while. We all build up a favorite genre of scripture. We really love the gospels, or we really love the letters by Paul in the New Testament, or we really love the historical books of the Old Testament. But wherever it is that you don't find yourself regularly. Go and revisit those books of the Bible and commit yourself that you want to understand the whole council of God. Secondly, I would encourage people, no matter how long you've been in the Bible, to spend more time than you have previously in the Book of Psalms. Psalms, this is the portion of what we refer to as the Old Testament that was most often committed to memory by the Christians, by all of those that are in first century Jerusalem and Israel. When Jesus is walking around doing his. His ministry on the earth before he is crucified and resurrected, and they would have had very ready access to the Psalms in their memories. And so I would spend more time in the Psalms because it just puts the whole of life on display and it gives to you wonderful insights into the hearts of God, into the hearts of God, and into the lives of humans. And so spend more time with with the Psalms. And then third, I encourage people who've been in the Bible for a long time and need to freshen it up is take up pen and paper and start transcribing. The Bible, pick a book of the Bible that you're really familiar with. And start wr handwriting it out. I did this a few years ago with the book of Ephesians and. And it disciplines you to slow down and to see details that you knew. You knew that detail was there, but you'd never really mauled over it. You never really meditated on it. And that discipline of slowly writing out one verse at a time whether you do it over the course of a week or two weeks, or a month, I found, I have found that to be a really helpful discipline just to hand write out long passages of scripture. Just to help me to meditate and to learn better what's there. And it causes me and makes me slow down so that I will listen better to the Holy Spirit's teachings. I. Yes. I love that it's a lost art to write. Who writes nowadays? I love to write. I have journals all the time, but it's definitely, I've never written an entire book. And that could be especially with the Nelson Bible being from the 17 hundreds. That could be an ancient practice that could help us slow down being God's presence, meditate. And slow down our thought process as well. And I love your the reading the Psalms, that, that is incredible. David was called The Man After God's Own Heart. And so a way to go back to our first love, to our. When we first fell in love with God, what prompted us to follow him, and so remembering that by breathing just soms and being real and honest, sometimes we know the right things to say or to do, and we get stuck in that and we forgot to be honest and to be free with God, that he can handle our, whatever is going through our minds and what's happening in our lives. And I love the way you say that that, God can handle these things. The Psalms absolutely prove that there is nothing that we can say to God that is gonna shock him or scare him off from us. Just the bearing of. There of the soul in the Book of Psalms by David primarily, and by a few other authors there. But when you read those psalms that are written by David, and again, going back to context, then knowing the context reading, okay, when was this written? And why, why did David. Why did he say this then? Or There's certain psalms that are the Psalms of ascent that the Israelites would sing as they were ascending up to the Mount of Jerusalem, to the temple on their way to worship. Or you have the Psalms that are just about the heart crying out to God in the dark shadows of life. It really is a beautiful place to be able to settle in and find comfort from God. Yeah. Thank you. It's very true. So the Open Bible has been the Bible of choice for over 2 million readers of over 2 million readers. Why do you think it's had such a lasting impact? So the Open Bible is an addition that we're celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. There are not very many study Bibles that exist for that long. There are a few, but it's just a small handful, and I think that the impact of the Open Bible. Has been within all of the study notes and materials that are held within it, that on one side they are, there's enough there to help you to see the connections of scripture from one part to the other, but they're not overwhelming where it draws you out of the scripture. We're happy to publish study Bibles that have got hundreds and hundreds of thousands of words of. Theological commentary at the bottom of the page running throughout the Bible, but the Open Bible takes a different tactic that instead it has one of the largest. Topical indices that it, that is published in a Bible. So you can find any topic that you're looking for in a list of verses to go and research it to the New Christians Guide to Life, which is a topical study index from everything about key doctrines of who is the Holy Spirit to very practical ideas about what is marriage or how do I forgive someone. And it's just the simplicity of the notes that I think more and more people have turned to, to say, I'm looking for a Bible that will just help me study the Bible according to the Bible rather than infusing other notes sets into it. And as you said over these 50 years, 2 million people have gotten additions and we're happy to continue to steward it into the future. That's nice. And so what's the story behind the Open Bible? Who was it created for? What makes it different from a typical study Bible? I, you've touched a little bit on that, but Yeah. And a little more than 50 years ago, at that time the gentleman who was leading Thomas Nelson Bibles looked around and he saw that there were several different bibles that had been produced that had. One had this big topical index way back 50 years ago. It was called the Cycl Pedic Index, which is not a word that we use any longer. So we just call it a topical index. And in the Bible it's about 300 pages in length. So it's just massive. And then there were other. Reference sets where cross references for your listeners who might be new. When you read through a Bible, oftentimes you'll see a little super script letter in the middle of a verse that is then tied to a reference set there on the page that gives you other verses to look at, and it cross references you. To another verse where that word or that idea shows up and it helps you to magnify what does this mean? And so he took these different tools, like this very beefy cross-reference set, this topical index. They had a really lengthy article written about the top archeological finds that helped support that. Yes, the Bible is true about. The people and the places and the practices that are in the Bible and then tied in this very practical guide to the new Christian life. And so they saw we've got all of these tools, but they're all in different places. So let's put them, let's assemble them all together into one Bible. Call it the Open Bible, because that's what we want. We want people to have their Bible open and they want, and we want people to know that there's an open pathway to studying and understanding the Bible. That's great. Thank you. That's incredible. Before we close, it's already the the end of our of this amazing conversation. I wish it could last much longer and I love to talk about anything Bible related topics and dive into each book would be incredible. But before we close, what final words of encouragement would you like to give our listeners? Or perhaps someone in particular who wants to grow closer to God through his word feels unsure where to start or feels disconnected right now. Anything. Yeah. And I'll encourage your listeners in just a second. I'm gonna give you two different verses that I want you to jot down and go look up later. I'll try to quote them accurately, but our memories sometimes fail us. But if. If you're feeling disconnected I want you to recognize that. That your desire to reconnect with God is minuscule in comparison to the desire that God has to connect with you. He is passionate about you and his passion for you to be in a, in an intimate relationship with him is an overwhelming thought to us. To the, to this great extent that Christ has died and is resurrected for our good. And so two places in the tail end of the Old Testament that I would encourage you to go to, which are places that I've been to, I. One is in the little, it feels like a very little obscure book of Zephaniah. So just you can put the the, I put it in the show notes for sure. Yeah. Zephaniah chapter three, verse 17. And within that verse, there's the phrase about how God sings over us. And as a father and a grandfather, I can only root this in my experience of the times that my child or my grandchild has been in bed at night and I sing a lullaby over them. That verse talks about how he quiets us with his love and he sings joyfully over us. We think about singing to God in worship and in praise, and we should. But the Lord loves us so dearly as a father that he joyfully sings a song of love and happiness over us. That's how he feels about you. But if you feel as if you really have strayed, I. The other verse that I would encourage you to look at is also in the Old Testament prophet Hosea. Hosea has 14 chapters, and so this verse is found in the last chapter, Hosea 14 verse four, where God says to Israel, I will heal your rebellion. And I will love you freely because my anger has turned away from you. And if you read the whole story of Hosea you'll understand that Hosea was a prophet. That God called to go and marry a woman of the evening in order to give a picture of all of the redemptive work that God was doing with Israel, that he was redeeming them from selling themselves to the world. At a cheap price. And by the end of the story, God is telling them, I'm gonna heal all of your rebellious ways, and I'm gonna love you completely, freely because my anger has turned away from you. And if you're feeling as if you're far away, just know that God is willing to heal all that waywardness because he loves you so dearly. And that's the power of his word, is that he teaches us this time and time again. That's so beautiful. Thank you. I really love these two scriptures and I'll definitely put them in the show notes and. Comment on that, on, on that. And yes, Hosea it's a beautiful it's a beautiful analogy of his relationship with US marriage and how he calls Hosea to stay married to pursue this woman. And we are all that woman and we do need healing. And the only place to do, to go to is God. Sometimes we wait to be in a better place. To go to God, but the truth is only God can bring us to a better place. That's right. Than just as we are. Thank you so much Philip, this was a very insightful conversation. Where could we find the Bibles? And I I will put a link. I'm assuming Amazon anywhere. Is there also any way that we could connect with you in particular? And so to find our Bibles obviously yeah. You can find our bibles on all of the shopping sites. But if you want to try to nail down, like what kind of Bible are you looking for, just go to our website, Thomas Nelson bibles.com. And there you can. You can search by translation, whichever English translation you like, but then also the type of Bible are you looking for a study bible or for a simpler just text Bible or one that is for your kids? All those kind of categories are there, or are you looking for the open Bible? And then if you want to connect with me, which I love interacting with people online I'm on Facebook and Instagram and, x, formerly known as Twitter. Just look for my name, Philip with one l Philip Nation and you will find me. Would love to connect with you. Yes, I'll be sure to include all the links in the show notes so it's easy for everyone to find you and explore the open Bible, learn more about your work and take that next step in their own walk with God. Philip, thank you so much for your time Thank you so much and. To you friends, my prayer is this, that if you don't own a Bible, you'll feel inspired to get one, that you'll open it, read it, and discover just how personally God wants to speak to you. Whether you begin in the Psalms or the gospels, may the word come alive in your heart, just as it has in Philip's story and in so many lives, change through scripture. Thank you again for joining us today. Thank you. What a rich conversation with Philip Nation today. I hope it lifted your spirit and reminded you that God's word is not just ancient, it's alive and meant for you. Here are a few key takeaways that stood out to me. Number one. Spiritual hunger is a clue, not a condemnation. Feeling dry or disconnected doesn't mean something's wrong with you. It's a sign that your soul is craving what it was created for connection with God through his word. Number two, you don't have to master the Bible. Let it master you. Philip shared how slowing down writing out verses meditating helps us absorb scripture not as a task, but as transformation. The goal isn't to conquer the Bible but to let it shape us from the inside out. As Romans 12 verse two says, number three, God is more eager to be with you than you are with him. Two beautiful verses to doubt. Zephaniah three, verse 17. He will rejoice over you with singing and Hosea 14 verse four. I will heal their waywardness and love them freely. God isn't waiting for perfection. He's already pursuing you with grace and healing. Number four, the Open Bible was made for people just like you. Whether you are new to scripture or have been walking with God for decades, the Open Bible offers tools to help you study deeply, cross-reference passages, and rediscover the story of God with fresh perspective. And lastly, number five, your story doesn't disqualify you from ministry. It prepares you. Philip shared his own journey, how his faith was shaped by hardship, the influence of his mother's devotion to the word, and how his years of pastoring deepened his understanding of grace. God uses every part of our story. Friend, if you've been struggling to feel close to God, I pray today, reminded you of this, you are not too far. He's singing over you. He longs to heal the places you've wandered and speak to your heart through his living word. So open your Bible. Let him meet you there to comfort you, to teach you to love you. As Hebrews four, verse 12 says, the word of God is living and active. It's not a textbook. It's a conversation with the one who created you. If you'd like to explore the Open Bible or connect with Philip, check the show notes for links. And as a special gift, I've created a free downloadable devotional based on Zephaniah three verse 17, and Hosea 14 verse four. You'll find it in a Cure for Christ, Facebook community, or through the link below. Thanks for spending time with me again today. If this episode encouraged you, would you share it with a friend? And remember, his word is alive and it's waiting to meet you. Write where you are. I will see you next week. Hi, I hope you enjoy today's episode. If so, would you like to take 30 seconds and share it with a friend who may also struggle with knowing God and his purpose for their life? Also, leave a review on Apple Podcast and let me know what topics you'd like to hear about in the future. Your voice matters. I'll meet you back next Friday. For another episode.