Tara-Leigh Cobble, creator and host of the Christian podcast “The Bible Recap,” is on a mission to help others develop a personal relationship with God—something she once struggled with early on in her Bible studies.
“The first time I read through scripture—my pastor’s answering my questions along the way—I finished, and you would think I would feel elated, like, ‘I did it, I finished reading the whole Bible,’ and I didn’t,” she explained.
Falling in Love With God
Upon reflection, Ms. Cobble—who was raised in a Christian home and attended a private Christian school—realized that her emotions were rooted in her tendency to read the Bible through a self-centered lens. She recognized that she had been striving to live in accordance with God’s Word but acknowledged that her motives were misguided.“I was nailing it in the morality area,” she offered. “But it was all about how I can be a good person so that God will give me what I want.”
“Things don’t quite go perfectly, even for God’s gold stars,” she added. “Living a good, moral, upright life doesn’t always end as beautifully as we, we want it to on this side of eternity.”
To help shift Ms. Cobble’s me-centric perspective, her pastor encouraged her to read through the Bible again. However, the second time around, he challenged her to seek God and not herself.
“My pastor said ... my new challenge for you is: Read it again and stop looking for yourself; start looking for God. What does he love? What does he hate? What motivates him to do what he does?'” she recalled, noting that it was during her second trip through scripture that her outlook on God changed.
‘The Bible Recap’
The Dallas, Texas native told podcast host Ms. Stuckey that getting to know God’s true character brought her immense joy. Her faith journey also inspired her to help others foster a deep and meaningful relationship with God.In 2019, Ms. Cobble launched “The Bible Recap,” a platform comprised of a podcast, videos, and an accompanying book that guides users through a different assigned Bible reading each day, helping them to read through the entire Bible chronologically in just one year.
Ms. Cobble told Ms. Stuckey that her initial prayer when starting the podcast was that 300 people would read the Bible with her. However, since launching “The Bible Recap,” the podcast has been downloaded more than 300 million times, even reaching the No. 1 spot on the Apple Podcast charts.
Speaking with Fox Business Network’s “Varney & Co.” in January, Ms. Cobble told the talk show’s host, Stuart Varney, that she has loved seeing the sheer amount of people interested in engaging with scripture.
“I want to help them not just read [the Bible], I want to help them understand it, and I want to help them love it. Those are my goals,” she explained.
“To me, reading scripture is not the end game here; it’s falling in love with scripture and the God who gifted us with it,” she continued. “And the fact that we’re seeing so many people want to do that, I certainly hope that’s a sign of people whose hearts are turning toward God.”
“One of the things I hope happens as a result of this is we hope this will encourage people to jump back into the local church,” Ms. Cobble said.
“We love the local church, and I think the more people [who] read and understand and love God’s Word, the more they’re going to want to gather with His people and be drawn back into something that maybe we’ve gotten kind of away from over the past few years,” she continued.
In addition to managing “The Bible Recap,” Ms. Cobble also leads D-Group International, a global network of more than 300 Bible study groups she helped co-found in 2009. The author also hosts “The God Shot,” a daily radio show broadcast around the world.
