As we scan the pages of Scripture, two things become abundantly clear: We are sinful people who break God’s law, but we are loved and saved by a grace-giving and righteous God. The law exposes the wicked corners of our hearts, but by God’s grace, those same hearts can be clothed in the righteousness of Christ. God’s law and God’s grace are spelled out clearly in the words He has breathed out in the Bible. As Romans 5:8-9 says, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.” God’s grace in Christ rescues us from God’s wrath against our sin. That is what is so “good” in the “good news” of the gospel.
Imagine for a second that you could hold that “good news” in the palm of your hand in the form of the Bible. You can turn the pages of this “good news.” Yet as you hold it in your own hands, you cannot read a single word. You never had the chance to learn to read. You are as close as one can be to the hope of God’s grace, but you can’t actually read those words of hope. What can you do to absorb God’s Word without actually reading it?
That was the question Esteban Shedd asked nearly 10 years ago as he was leading a small group of high school guys. He noticed that the guys became frustrated when it came time to read and talk through a given passage of Scripture. “Come to find out that the majority of them could not read. So one night at my home studio, I recorded next week’s passage of Scripture and placed a hip-hop instrumental under the recording as an experiment to try and bridge the illiteracy gap,” Shedd says. “The result was night and day! Not only did they enjoy listening to the Scriptures in a medium that is familiar to them, they were able to understand and comprehend the Scriptures just as much as they would reading it.”
Out of this stroke of creativity was birthed the Streetlights Multimedia Bible. Esteban is the project director of Streetlights and has seen the project grow from an audio Bible to include video and curriculum tools that enable people to teach God’s Word. Streetlights exists to come alongside those who struggle with literacy so they can interact with and absorb the Word of God. Yet even for the literate, Streetlights is a powerful tool that anyone can and should utilize. “At the end of the day,” Shedd says, “our whole Streetlights team wants everyone to be able to interact with Scripture, know the Gospel and grow in His transforming Word.”
To date, two volumes of Streetlights have been released. The first volume, titled Divine DNA, contains Genesis 1 through 6 as well as the Gospel of John, expounding on the biblical themes of creation, the fall and redemption in Christ. Volume 2 is titled The Blueprint, and it expresses the themes of law and grace that are clearly communicated in Exodus 1-20 and Romans. It is no accident that each volume contains both Old and New Testament passages. In fact, that setup is by design. Esteban says, “One reason we hold to this formula is that this also helps combat Biblical Illiteracy. Often times many skip the Old Testament thinking that it’s not relevant or applicable to us today but miss the vital background to Jesus’ Gospel in the New Testament. We hope that interacting with both the Old and New Testaments in one sitting can help reveal the full width of scripture that God has given us.”
The beauty of Streetlights is that anyone can interact with God’s Word, regardless of educational background or literacy ability. Anywhere you go, on any media platform, God’s Word is available at the push of a button. In an age of biblical illiteracy, Streetlights enables anyone to grab hold of Scripture and digest it in large chunks as God’s Word is shared clearly, chapter by chapter, with no filler. We can all get behind making God’s Word accessible to everyone. Beyond the packaging, the album cover and the CD, Streetlights is all about God’s Word. This is sola scriptura, just set to a beat.