It was September 1st, 2022 when I met my Maker. My name is Jean Paul Joseph and one early morning — I had what can only be described as a coffee with Jesus.

It started about as unassuming as you can get: coffee in hand, watching a video called The Father's Blessing.

Until something began bubbling up from deep within me.

Within seconds, I was absolutely hit by the presence of God. Not just filling the room, but me! Literally filling the very fibres of my being. It was electric. An all-consuming fire I could feel coursing through my veins. And it simply could not be contained — it overflowed into an abundance of tears, because I was so glad to finally be meeting the real Him for myself.

The King of glory — and my God!

The One I had heard and known about in theory for so long, but now He wasn't just a theory to me!

And the most tangible thing that happened — aside from falling flat on my face in worship — was an insatiable appetite for His Word, the Bible.

I had hardly touched my Bible for years. But suddenly I couldn't read just one anymore. I was reading 7+ translations for hours on end. I just couldn't get enough of the almost "too good to be true" Good News — a.k.a. the Gospel — which I thought I already knew.

But man was I wrong! We have been selling it far too short.

Let me paint a picture of context for you.

I have been a Christian since age seven. I have grown up and known church my whole life. But looking back now, I can see that it was mostly religious "do's and don't do's" — and not the personal, I know you kind of relationship that King Jesus deserves.

That all changed over that cup of coffee.

Now I could read the King James Bible and be touched — then pick up another translation and be touched all over again. Each time, the Holy Spirit revealing new layers as His Word grew stronger in me daily.

To this day, my appetite and hunger for more of His Word grows. It's not uncommon for me to spend up to 18 hours a day reading, thinking about, or translating Scripture. And what makes this remarkable is: before my encounter, I had hardly touched my dust-ridden Bible for 18 years. But now — after a coffee with Jesus — the 18-year famine had become regular 18-hour feasts.

So much so my Bible started looking like this:

But all of this is made more interesting by the dream I had before my coffee with Jesus.

Nine months before that incredible morning coffee, He came to me in a dream and made it unmistakably clear:

Now I know — every generation of Christians has said that. But maybe we're the generation that says it last.

Just maybe.

But I wasn't ready for Him when I had that dream. Even as a child, salvational doubts lingered all the way to my adult years — so much so that I had been praying the Sinner's Prayer on an almost weekly basis, because I knew, deep down, that something was not right in my relationship with Him.

But that all changed over coffee.
He truly is Love Personified.

In His mercy, He chose to touch me anyway — to welcome me back into His fold. I believe He saw how man's empty religious traditions had stained my heart, and in His compassion He seemed to declare:

And this is where the Fear of God that makes you a friend of God — or the F.O.G. — became real to me over a morning coffee. It's a holy fire of God that purges all that is unholy. And when it happened, I fell face down in worship, and through my grateful sobbing, it became crystal clear:

I was now back on His side. The best place in the world you could ever hope to be.

The contrast between knowing Him and knowing about Him is staggering.

Standing with Him now, I realized that everything I knew before were mere rumors of His shekinah-glory — the glory that fills His Temple (you and I). A glory so overwhelming you cannot stand in it with a mere mortal body (2 Chronicles 5:14). This is why He promises us those new glorified bodies.

After meeting my Maker — feeling both His love and earth-shaking power — I was filled with one desire: for everyone to taste and see that Yahweh truly is this good (Psalm 34:8). To have their own coffee with Jesus moments where life is never the same again.

That has become my mission.

With that visitation from King Jesus came a commission. And for me, it was tied to my naturally academic mind that loves to learn and make connections. To give you a sense of this: I was the kid who read encyclopedias, and topped his class.

And now after meeting Him He was giving me a hunger to study His Word relentlessly. It truly is the most wonderful gift He could have given me — studying His Word like never before — and the deeper I went, the more I saw.

Because here's the thing: when you study the Bible for any length of time, you will notice the strengths — and the gaps — of every Bible translation.

And if you talk to any Bible scholar they will tell you: there is no such thing as a perfect, word-for-word translation. Hebrew and Greek are just too layered, too rich. There's far more hiding in the ancient texts than our English Bibles can convey without becoming three times thicker than what they currently are.

Here's an example: In Greek, there are five words for love. In English, we have one.

In John 21:15, after Jesus cooked breakfast for His disciples on the beach — Peter included, after his infamous denial — this exchange happens:

That tension in the Greek is clear — Jesus calling Peter to a higher agape love, but Peter only able to offer phileo at that moment before Pentecost — and it is invisible in most English Bibles. And there are thousands of examples of this in the Bible, of what I call Word Nuggets. Once you start seeing them, they cannot be unseen.

And this website began as a way of documenting them so you could see it for yourself.

But as I began this process, I realised I needed a Study Bible with proper Ancient Near East context. And during one of those early morning coffees, He surprised me with the unthinkable:

My immediate reaction was disbelief. Then a tentative: "The whole Bible? How about just Your red-letter words first?"

He knew I'd be hooked. And I was.

The F.O.G. Bible project is more editorial than brand-new translation. It is being built word by word using Logos Bible software — comparing numerous translations and commentaries to create three new versions of the Bible.

Here's the same passage across all three, so you can feel the difference:

Genesis 1:1–2 — The F.O.G.: ¹ When Elohim began creating (את) the skies and (את) the land, ² the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Ruach Elohim was hovering over the face of the waters.

F.O.G.M.: ¹ In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. ² The earth was formless and empty — nothing but a vast ocean covered in darkness. And God's Spirit was moving over the surface of the waters, ready to breathe forth life.

F.O.G.F.: This is how everything started: God made the sky above and the ground below! But the earth was all dark and empty at first — just water everywhere with nothing in it. God's Spirit was flying over the water like a big, beautiful bird, getting ready to make something amazing!

These Bibles are a lifelong passion project of mine to continually improve as the Holy Spirit leads. Right now I'm updating red-letter words not only for Jesus, but also when God the Father or Holy Spirit directly speaks in the entire Bible.

And I'm also wanting to tag every English word to its original Hebrew or Greek for every translation — and not just the KJV. These Bible study side-quests are just the beginning of what I have planned for the F.O.G. Bibles and your Bible study experience on this website.

Now let's talk about something I'm really excited about for you:

Most Christians have never read the Bible cover-to-cover.

Not because they don't want to. But because life happens. January starts strong — Genesis is exciting, the floods, the drama, the patriarchs — and then somewhere around Leviticus 13 (the one about mildew on walls — yes, that's in there), the reading plan quietly dies. The bookmark never moves again. And years later you're still not entirely sure if you finished Numbers.

We've all been there.

That's exactly what the Paul's Handkerchief Bible Challenge is designed for.

It's a complete, cover-to-cover reading track across all 66 books and 1,189 chapters — with every chapter marked, tracked, and accounted for through interactive activities and enjoyable study guides. No more vague spiritual guilt about whether you skimmed that bit in Ezekiel. You either did it or you didn't, and now you know.

As you read, you earn points, advance through ranks, and build streaks that actually make you want to come back tomorrow. And your community can read alongside you if you like — which, it turns out, makes Leviticus significantly more enjoyable.

And when you finish? You get a certificate. A real one. Something you can frame, print, or quietly slide across the table the next time someone at church claims they've "read through the Bible a few times."

Now let's talk grand vision.

The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, as Solomon wrote. From my own experience, it is also the greatest thing you'll ever feel. This fear that leads to friendship with God — the F.O.G. — is nothing to be afraid of.

It is greatly to be desired.

Why? Because when you meet Him yourself, you will know — without a shadow of doubt — how powerful He is to protect and guide you.

It cannot be fully taught from a pulpit. It is all Holy Spirit, felt in the core of your being through His personal touch. It will look different for you than it did for me. But I guarantee it will be tailor-made just for you.

Everything on this website is designed for you to experience the F.O.G. yourself — just like I did over that early morning coffee.

The study guides. The Coffee with Jesus experience. The Bible Challenge. The updated Strong's Lexicon. The three new Bibles. The commentary. The videos. All of it — every piece — forms part of this grand vision to even just begin to articulate the inexpressible magnitude of God's plan for you, and for us as His children.

This all becomes possible with the right team and resources.

Right now I am focused on the translation work and study guides — the foundation of everything. But critical features are waiting to be built: a theology algorithm that connects Scripture in ways you've never experienced, visual learning tools that make the Bible come alive, and the mobile app I know many of you want.

It requires immense time, talent, and resources to make this real. I am grateful you've read this far — and now I'd like to ask for your partnership.

This project is 100% donor-funded.

But less than 0.2% of readers have given. If this has stirred something in you, would you consider a gift today?

We are especially in need of monthly partners to begin budgeting for larger scale projects like editing and distribution of printed F.O.G. Bibles, the mobile app experience and regular video studies.

So I encourage you to invest in this Kingdom work to store up treasures where moth and rust do not destroy.

God bless you,
Jean Paul Joseph