Back in high school, I stood head and shoulders below the academic elite. I sat comfortably in that scholastic range of 
mediocrity. B’s and C’s dominated on all my report cards. Unfortunately – for me – my parents didn’t buy into my defense that B’s stood for “Banner” grades while C’s for “Commendable” ones.
One of the principal reasons that accounted for my exceedingly average educational prowess zeroed in on my refined study habits. I could streamline both time and comprehension of great literary works by skimming through the Cliff Notes version of texts. I considered homework a double, four-letter word. Besides, God created baseball (some would argue here, this too, is a double, four-letter word – which I choose to ignore) for after school activity.
I suspect you are now wondering, “What does you pathetic scholarship, Bob, have to do with your current sermon series on being “Made Right in God’s Sight?” It doesn’t, but Cliff Notes do; for the passage we will be probing this coming Sunday morning is the Cliff Notes version of the entire Bible. I will go so far as to say this: If all we had of the 31,100+ verses of the Bible, I would want these four over all the rest.
Do you wish to know why I believe this? Then please come on Sunday as I unveil my conviction regarding what I call “The Nutshell Bible.”
