As we preach from the Bible, especially the Old Testament, we need to uses bridges to reach the hearts of the congregation:

*The bridge from the original language to English (translation)
*The bridge from ancient culture to modern culture (contextualization)
*The bridge from old covenant to new covenant (interpretation)
*The bridge from from doctrine to practice (application)

A book that helps sensitize us to the need to orient all biblical preaching and studies to be presented in a Christ-centered way is this volume published by Cru:

One Story, by Tim Henderson and Tom Sperlich

“All of Scripture is telling one story. It’s a story about Jesus and our need for Him. The great story is comprised of many little stories found throughout the Old and New Testament narratives, and it is reinforced in the law, poetry, prophecy, and epistles. Every passage in some way draws our attention to our fallenness and Christ’s solution to our fallenness. St. Augustine said, “The New Testament lies hidden in the Old Testament and the Old Testament is unveiled in the New Testament.”

“In the One Story Guidebook you’ll learn how to study various genres of Scripture “Christocentrically.” A genre is a category of composition that has its own style or form and therefore its own rules of interpretation…

For details and ordering information visit Cru here.
-JBW