New Testament Prep - 2026

Tara-Leigh Cobble (0:01)

Hey, Bible readers, I'm Tara-Leigh Cobble and I'm your host for The Bible Recap.

If you're brand new here, we want to welcome you to The Bible Recap. We're glad you're joining us as we read through the New Testament. We'll be starting on October 1st and there are just a few things we want you to know in advance. In this episode, I'll give you six things you'll want to do to prepare. Number one, we want to make sure you're on the same reading plan we're on. There are lots of reading plans out there, so to avoid confusion, we've linked directly to the one we're using on our website, thebiblerecap.com. Just click the start link. On that page, you'll find digital options for our reading plan plus one you can download and print out. We've also put a direct link in the show notes of today's episode. If you're new to podcasts, you may not know what show notes are or how to find them, so we'll explain more about that in a second. Number two, we want to set you up for success by helping you prep well. If you're brand new here and you're just joining us for the New Testament, we encourage you to listen to all six prep episodes. I know that sounds like a lot, but it'll only take a little more than an hour to listen to all of them. And just to make things easy for you, we've gone ahead and linked to all six prep episodes in the show notes of this episode.

Number three, before our reading plan starts, it's really helpful for you to get the lay of the land on where we are in the overall timeline of scripture. We've posted an Old Testament Summary Episode, an Old Testament Recap, if you will. You can find it listed with this New Testament Prep Episode on our Start page. Look for Prep Episodes under Step 2 It's actually the same as the September RNC Episode or the Reflections and Corrections Episode that posts on September 30th, but we've also added it here for your convenience.

And even if you've already read the Old Testament before, getting a quick summary will probably be helpful regardless. On the other hand, if you're new to all of this and you don't recognize any of the names or the stories I referenced in that episode, don't worry, the details aren't as important at this point as getting the general idea of what's happening, especially as it pertains to who God is. That's the most important thing we're looking for. So be sure to listen to that episode when it loads. If you go ahead and subscribe today, it should load automatically when we post it.

Number four, we not only have a plan for you to use, but we also have a weekly discussion guide to help you move through the plan in community. This guide has roughly 10 questions per week. The discussions are designed to help foster a good group conversation around what we've learned that week, even if that group is just you and one other person. In addition to the weekly discussion guide, we also recommend two unique daily guides for you to use at home. We have the daily study guide and the daily journal. The daily study guide is just for you to do at home by yourself, and there are roughly five questions a day to help you dig into the text and learn more on your own while you're reading. The daily journal has three repeated prompts and space to write down what you're learning. They both work hand in hand to help you get the most out of your study and reflection time each day.

If you've been with us for a while, you're most likely already familiar with the journal and the daily study guide, and you may even have one or both. We think you're going to want fresh copies of both of these things for next year, and here's why. Every year that you read the Bible, you're going to learn more about God and His character. That means your answers and your thoughts are going to evolve as well. So having upgraded versions of the study guide or the journal gives you the space to record these new ideas and your new God shots. You can find all three books, the daily journal, the daily study guide, and the weekly discussion guide in our TBR store at thebiblerecap.com/store.

Number five, I want to say a bit about show notes, especially for those of you who are new to podcast or just new to show notes. The Bible is dense and there is so much to cover, so our podcast doesn't always have the time to dig in deep. So we occasionally want to point you to other resources in case you want more details. The easiest way for us to do that is to link you directly to them in a part of each episode called the show notes. On most podcast platforms, you can find the show notes by tapping on that day's episode cover or swiping up. But there are so many different podcast apps and they each have different processes. So if you're not sure how to find the show notes on the specific platform you're using, try doing a web search using the name of your platform plus the phrase how to find show notes. If you're listening on a desktop, you can also do a search for how to find the show notes. And if you're listening on YouTube, each post has a direct link to the show notes under the video player. And if all else fails, you can go to thebiblerecap.com/shownotes.