Category Archives: Bible study

Bible study, self-publishing, Writing

Something New—Again

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Last Friday I did some cleaning in my office. It is somewhat of a mess, and I figure I’d better get it organized before my retirement in a mere 4 months and 25 days. Every week I’ve been taking something home, reducing the amount I’ll have to bring home the last week or day.  It’s working. I see much less I’ll have to take care of in the months and weeks ahead.

So on Friday last, I was going through little piles of paper on my desk, mostly the back of sheets from my Dilbert desk calendar, which I use as note paper. One of those had some notes I’d made on some Bible passages, three to be precise. I looked at them, trying to remember why I’d made those so many months ago, and what I was trying to tell my future self, meaning me right now.

I soon understood. These were some biblical insights I had that I thought could be turned into a Bible study. Yes, I saw it clearly. Three passages, three insights, three lessons. The start of a Bible study for our Life Group at church; the start of a Bible study book.

Now, I’ve written about this before, how these ideas come to me of things to write about. Often they are book titles that I can’t leave, which, in my mind, I flesh out into plot (for a novel) or outline (for non-fiction). Since I’m so busy while still working, and since I can’t possibly fit anything into my writing schedule for the next decade or two, I usually document the idea by writing it, hopefully somewhere where I’ll find it again, and in a form I can understand, then try to put it out of my mind. If I didn’t do that I think I’d go crazy.

I found this one, and after a bit of thought understood what I had written and why. I pondered it a while. I’m always looking for something for Life Group curriculum, as I’m more or less in charge of that for the class. This looked like a good one. Three weeks isn’t really enough for a good lesson series, so I thought more about it, and easily came up with a half dozen more lessons on the theme. I felt like I then had something, stuck the paper, and a larger sheet newly generated, into my carry-home folder. That night I looked at it some more. I thought of how, if we did that series beginning in October or early November, I could tie some Christmas lessons into the them. I added those, making twelve lessons. Two more came to mind, making fourteen.

The experts these days say your lesson series should be a matter of about six weeks, or a little more. Fourteen lessons would work for Baby Boomers, but not for later generations. But, our class is a bunch of Baby Boomers. so the longer series should be okay.

Now, the questions to be asked are:

  1. When do we start this series?
  2. If Sept 9, which is the earliest day needed, can I get enough done to make that happen?
  3. If it runs through Dec 16 as we would need it to, what do I do with it then? Should I immediately turn it into a printed Bible study? Or should I “shelve” it for the moment, to returned to when I have a more opportune time?

Enquiring people, including the author of this post, want to know. If I do this, what do I do with my publishing schedule? I’m so far behind on my novel-in-progress, and I’ve laid aside my research into the next Documenting America book. Do I totally trash the schedule and move the Bible study into first place on the writing list?

I have a few days to decide. For sure it’s something I’ll develop (at least a short-ish version if not the long one)  and teach, along with my co-teacher. And, some day, I’ll expand into a published Bible study. But for now, what to do, what to do?

Adam Of Jerusalem, Bible study, Documenting America, non-fiction, The Gutter Chronicles, Writing

My Current Writing Activities

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So, with my suspected hacking dealt with (see my addition to my last post), I can get back to other things, such as telling you all about my writing.

I created and made the cover for this one; so, if it doesn’t work, I’ll gladly take the blame.

I published The Gutter Chronicles, Volume 2. It went live on Amazon last Monday, live on Smashwords last Tuesday, live on Barnes & Nobel (via Smashwords) on Wednesday, and will soon be available in print. I submitted it to CreateSpace yesterday. This morning I got the e-mail saying my cover needed to be tweaked. I was able to do that today, and I believe it will be approved. Next, I’ll review it on-line for formatting, while at the same time ordering a proof copy. I don’t want to publish it without going through a physical proof copy. This isn’t a real book release post. I’ll do that when I get the print copy out there.

So far it’s sold: 1 copy, from a faithful reader who liked the first volume. Next, I’m going to send an e-mail to our CEI people in Arkansas, finding out how many people want a print copy. I’ll send out a couple of FB posts with the same message. With those, I’ll also see if anyone wants a copy of Volume 1 at the same time. I’m hoping to get 50 to 60 sales that way, although that’s probably optimistic.

Besides that, I have two main works-in-progress: Adam of Jerusalem, a prequel in my Church History Novels series; and Documenting America: Making the Constitution Edition. Both are begun.

With AoJ, I started writing it. This was back at least three months ago. I completed three chapters, and set it aside to simmer a while. The simmering time is up, and I anticipate getting back into the writing before long, certainly within a week.

With DA–MCE, I’ve been reading for research for the last two weeks, or a little longer. I’m reading in The Annals of America, getting an idea of what source documents are available, and refreshing and expanding my knowledge of the events of those times, 1783 to 1789. I’m learning quite a lot, and enjoying it.

From here on, I’ll work on the two simultaneously. When I feel like writing, it will be AoJ. When I feel like researching and reading, it will be DA–MCE. I think, in a month or two, one of them will prove to be the more enjoyable and will start to get more of my time. Although, my plan is to finish and publish AoJ first.

I have a couple of other things I’m doing as well. I’ve been brainstorming my Bible study Sacred Moments, and may try to expand that for publishing—not right away, but the brainstorming will continue. Then, I’ve been reading for research in one of my Thomas Carlyle projects, the Chronological Composition Bibliography. I have no plans for this except to read a little here and there, just to keep my mind sharp and not lose sight of the project, which I estimate is 60-70 percent complete.

So, there you have it. Hopefully in a week I’ll be able to report the print version of Norman Gutter’s activities is available. In a month or two I’ll let you know how other projects are going.

Adam Of Jerusalem, Bible study, Church History Novels, The Gutter Chronicles, Writing

2nd Quarter 2018 Plans

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As I’ve tried to make a habit, after reporting sales for a quarter, I then look at my writing plan for the year and see how I’m doing, and if I plan to make any changes. First, here is my writing to-do list as posted on January 5, 2018, in the order I planned to do them.

  • Finish The Gutter Chronicles, Vol. 2. Finish by the end of February; publish by the end of April.
  • Finish Adam Of Jerusalem by the end of the year; publish in 2019.
  • Begin work on Documenting America: Constitution Edition. I hope to be working on this by October.
  • Write “Tango Delta Foxtrot”. At present I’m not going to put a publishing target date on the list.
  • And, one other item, which is really planning for 2019: Decide on which of my Bible studies to publish in 2019.The other things on the list don’t have any deadlines in the second quarter. I plan to move next to Adam of Jerusalem. I’m a few chapters in to it, and I know the story I want to tell (i.e., it’s somewhat planned-out in my brain). If I can get enough time to put to this, I could actually finish it by summer. Time, however, is in short supply these days. Time to write, that is.

So, this is my 2nd quarter to-do list.

As you can see, it wasn’t an ambitious to-do list. But it considered where my circumstances in life stood, and what I thought I could realistically get done. Only one item was listed for the first quarter: Finish The Gutter Chronicles, Vol. 2 by the end of February. I actually completed it around mid-March, so missed it by two or three weeks. That wasn’t bad. It’s now in the editing phase, and I should have that done in just a few days. So, publishing by the end of April, as in my to-do list, is entirely possible.

  • Publish The Gutter Chronicles, Vol. 2 by the end of April.
  • Finish Adam Of Jerusalem by the end of the year; publish in 2019.
  • Begin work on Documenting America: Constitution Edition. I hope to be working on this by October. And, I will add to this, begin reading for research within the quarter.
  • I believe the first Bible study I’ll publish is Sacred Moments. I just finished reading a book for research, a book which, unfortunately, didn’t help all that month.

I’ll check back in against this list in early July.

Bible study

Romans Study

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I may or may not have mentioned this before. Our pastor is preaching a sermon series from the book of Romans this summer. Ten sermons, I think. Our Life Group decided we would also study Romans along with the sermon. But since a schedule of sermons wasn’t posted, we’re just going through it from beginning to end. That means we’ll probably take 25 to 30 weeks on it. This was our fourth week on it (having lost a couple of weeks when we didn’t meet), and we just got through Chapter 2.

It’s been an interesting study. In Chapter 1, Paul said, “I am not ashamed of the gospel.” Why did he have to say this? What about the gospel would cause anyone to think you should be ashamed of it? Our pastor got into that this week, but he was preaching from Chapter 6. So I’ll leave the answer to that question for another post.

After that statement, Paul said that no one has an excuse for rejecting God, as what is known about him is obvious from creation. God made himself evident in creation.  That’s from Romans 1: 18-32, which also describes the progression into sin.

Romans 2:1-16 was about how sin is universal, so we should not pass judgment on those who sin, being guilty of the same things as them. These verses also showed that the sin isn’t a violation of the Jewish law. Those who never had the Jewish law still sin. And those who do right, even though they don’t have the Jewish law, are considered righteous.

So that comes to the lesson from today, Romans 2:17-29. The passage heading in my study Bible is “The Jews and the Law”. This wasn’t my week to teach, but still, since my co-teacher can be called out for veterinarian duties almost any Sunday, even when he’s not on call, I got up early Sunday morning to prepare. As I went through the scripture, I noted how, if you changed “Jew” to “Christian” and “the law” to “the Bible” in it, the passage was very applicable to the church today. You couldn’t say, “Well, I’m not a Jew, so this doesn’t apply to me.”

Normally, when I prepare a lesson but then don’t have to teach, I find my co-teacher will teach a different lesson than I would, even though it’s from the same exact scripture. This time, however, Marion had the same points as I had. He turned “Jewish” to “Christian”, and we discussed how this applied to the church. I guess great minds run together, or whatever the exact saying is.

It was a good lesson. We picked the scripture apart, first when discussing it at our individual tables, then as a full class. I should write more about it, and perhaps I’ll edit more discussion in, but for right now, suffice to say it was a great time. These few verses are packed full of wisdom and guidance. I’ll be reading them again soon.

Bible study

Slogging Through Romans 2

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Our pastor is preaching from Romans for the summer, so our Life Group decided we would study it along with the sermons. I suspect Pastor Mark will have about eight to ten sermons from Romans. But, studying it as a Bible study will require many more weeks than that, perhaps as many as 25 to 30 weeks. This was the third week for the series, and pastor is in Romans 6, whereas in Life Group we are just through Chapter 2 verse 16.

I found many lessons to teach yesterday from Romans 2:1-16. I chose to focus on the statements along the lines of “you have no excuse.” The main two are 1:19-20 and 2:14-15. Here’s what those four verses say, presented herein as if they are consecutive in the book.

What may be known about God is plain to them  [mankind], because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.

So, in these verses, God is saying, through Paul, that mankind is without excuse as to following Him or not. You can’t get to the gates of heaven and say, “No one presented the gospel to me in a clear way, a way I could understand it.” Nor can you say, “I’m a Gentile, and didn’t have the benefits the Jews had.” Nor can you say, “I’m a Jew. We were God’s chosen people.” In each case, God says, “You have no excuse. I made Myself plain to you. All who sin apart from the law, all who sine under the law, and you now have your eternal punishment.”

Ouch. That’s something no one wants to hear. Everyone wants to think that everyone they know who dies makes it heaven. Not so, says God through Paul.

I think I need to spend a lot more time in these few verses. Of course, in twenty or so weeks I might think that about all of Romans.

Bible study, Christianity, Politics

Friendships, Faith, and Politics

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Henry Higgins said it well in My Fair Lady, when advising Eliza Doolittle on how to conduct herself in public. Concerning conversation, he said, “Stick to the weather and your health.” Others have said this in the negative: “Don’t talk about politics and religion.”

Wise words, perhaps. Yet, here in the U.S.A. we have just been through the most divisive presidential election I can remember. From lewd on-tape, off-camera remarks to chants of “lock her up” to questionable F.B.I. actions to baskets of deplorables, we have been at each other’s throats for the last twelve months, or actually longer than that.

Not everyone has been saying rancorous things, but many have. It hasn’t been confined to one side. Both have gone into the mud-slinging business, despite some promising to wage a high-road campaign. Such is the nature of politics when a people govern themselves. I’d rather have it that way as a consequence of choosing who will lead us than have leaders forced upon us by an outside power, or even by an inside power who doesn’t take our views into account. Self-determination, flawed as it is, is better than the opposite.

So where to we go from here? Approximately 121 million people voted (or maybe that number will be a little higher once all absentee votes are counted). Many eligible voters didn’t vote, either at all or for president, instead voting only for other offices and issues. That’s down something like 5 million voters from our 2012 presidential vote. Most commentators think that’s because the two major party candidates were unlovable people. I concur with that. I also note another difference. In 2012 every state and D.C. the winning candidate won a majority of the votes in that state. In 2016, the highest vote getter in each state got only a plurality. Third party candidates siphoned off a significant number of votes.

This lack of enthusiasm for the candidates is understandable, but is not reflected in what we see in the aftermath of the election. Racists and others with unhealthy beliefs are sending out messages of hate. Many are fearful that social changes from the last ten to thirty (or even fifty) years are going to be rolled back under the new administration. As a consequence, they are protesting the result of the election. Some really bad people are piggybacking on them, and are rioting, looting and destroying the businesses in their neighborhoods, in many cases the business of people who agree with the protesters.

One side says “Suck it up; you lost.” Another side says, “We’re terrified of what new era may be ushered in.” Still others say “Let’s all just chill out for a while.” A few people are saying wise words. I’m hoping to add to those wise words here.

I have heard two things recently that sum up very well what I believe should happen now. One was from “Dirty Jobs” star Mike Rowe. I never watched that show, and became familiar with Rowe mainly from his TV commercials and guest appearances. Embedded in a much longer commentary of this this last week was this statement: “Who tosses away a friendship over an election?” Wise words. They echo what Thomas Jefferson said some two centuries ago: “I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause of withdrawing from a friend.” Again, these are wise words. And, they were echos from John Wesley from a few decades before Jefferson: “I met those of our society who had votes in the ensuing election, and advised them, 1. To vote, without fee or reward, for the person they judged most worthy: 2. To speak no evil of the person they voted against: And 3. To take care their spirits were not sharpened against those who voted on the other side.” Also wise words.

In worship service yesterday morning, our pastor, Mark Snodgrass, continued in his sermon series “Restored”. This series concerns dealing with the news. He has pulled items from the news over the weeks as representative of where our society is. He could not, of course, ignore the election. He had spoken about it in an earlier message of the series, but felt compelled to say something more. After talking some of the things I did earlier in this post, he gave us a wise, wise statement: “Jesus did not call the church to reflect the lesser evil; he called us to reflect the greatest amount of love.” [loose quote]

What a great statement. It picks up from where Rowe, Jefferson, and Wesley ended, and takes us much, much further. It’s up to the church to: understand what caused people to vote the way they did, regardless of whether we agree with them or not; understand how people are feeling now; to treat all with love.

I would take this a step further. Our Life Group is currently in a study of 1st and 2nd Timothy, a study I developed titled “Entrusted To My Care”,  This comes from 1st Timothy 6:20. In the first lesson I asked, “Who is entrusted to your care?” The answer I got back from the class was “everyone”. “Everyone?” I asked. They reaffirmed their answer. I explored this further with them, and they were adamant: 7 billion people are entrusted to our care, to my care.

That means that those who are protesting in the streets are entrusted to my care. Those who are sending vile messages either through graffiti or online are entrusted to my care.

Of course, I haven’t met all those 7 billion people, and am unlikely to do so in the time I have left on earth. I’m also unlikely to meet the protesters or the hate spewers. Yet, they are entrusted to my care. Taking my pastor’s words to heart, I know I need to reflect the greatest amount of love, and in so doing show them what care I can.

God help me as I try to do so.

Bible study, Carlyle, home improvements, miscellaneous, Preserve The Revelation, reading

Bread and Boxes

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My time is very limited these days, almost all of my own making. I’m working hot and heavy on my novel, Preserve The Revelation. Over the weekend I added slightly more than 5,500 words to it. That exceeded my three-day goal of 5,000 words, so that was good. I was writing a difficult part, where a character dies, and another, closely associated character must carry on. But I’m through the worst of that. The worst going forward is I really haven’t planned out this next section very well, so I may find writing it quite laborious.

Two other writing tasks I’m working on is my chronological composition bibliography of Thomas Carlyle, and further study with writing intentions into my harmony of the gospels, specifically the Resurrection account. When I finished up my latest round of revisions, intended to be my last, in June, I did a little search for references I might add to the resurrection account. I found a couple, which led me to doing some writing on an auxiliary document last week and on the weekend. And some reading on it. This is perhaps totally unnecessary, but it’s something I want to do, something that gives me satisfaction.

Saturday saw me doing the typical chores around our house. I moved a large bookcase from the garage to the basement, to help close-in the temporary bedroom we’ve set up there. I loaded the shelves with Christmas decorations and who knows what all was in the boxes I placed. I now know I need to put a light back there, and will do so next weekend, or I might hire an electrician to do it, as I have a couple of other things I need for one to do.

Sunday was fairly restful. I wasn’t scheduled to teach Life Group, though I always prepare to since my co-teacher (on alternating weeks) is a veterinarian and can be called out at any time), but late on Saturday I received a text from him, saying his on-call weekends had switched and he would be on call Sunday. That meant I did have to prepare to teach. I did that by getting up early Sunday morning (thought in fact I had been preparing during the week). He didn’t get called in, and so he taught; I participated as a student. I napped in the sunroom after church, though not for long before I headed to The Dungeon for my writing.

In the evening we felt the 5.0 earthquake that hit Cushing Oklahoma, about 200 miles from us. That was minor excitement. We got pizza instead of having to prepare food, which was good. I pulled out a writing book to read, since I’ve finished all other books and was ready for something new and since I hadn’t read a writing book in a couple of years at least. But for some reason a wave of tiredness washed over me. I’ve learned not to fight it, so I set my book aside, slouched a little in my easy chair, laid my head against the back, and dozed. Maybe for an hour all together. I woke up about 10:15 p.m. to find a different tv program on.

At that point I tried reading a little more, discovered I couldn’t, so went to the kitchen to prepare for the week. I washed a few dished that needed washing, then packed my breakfasts for the week and my lunch for Monday. Yes, I eat breakfast at work. I leave the house at 6:30 a.m. so as to miss traffic, and have a quiet time at work to read the Bible, pray, and do miscellaneous things (such as write this blog post). I did all of that, finishing right around 11:00 p.m.

At that point I headed to bed. I no sooner laid my head down when I realized I had forgot to put bread for my breakfasts in my food bag. I had done the same thing last week, and got to work and had a boiled egg, slice of ham, slice of cheese, and no bread. I debated getting up to add that, but decided instead to say, “Add bread to my food bag” over and over till I fell asleep, hoping I’d remember it in the morning.

Another unfinished task that crossed my mind as I was trying to lock in remembering the bread was that, during the yard sale last weekend, I moved many empty boxes out of the garage and strewed them on the side of the house or under trees nearby. Lynda reminded me on Sunday that those needed to be brought in. I figured I’d better do them in the morning before going to work, so I started to lock that task in by saying to myself, “Remember the boxes, remember the bread.”

I’m happy to say that this morning I remembered both. I put five slices of bread in two baggies and put them in my food bag. As I left the house through the garage I brought in the boxes and put them where they needed to be, at least temporarily. The need to do that was emphasized to me when I hear on the radio that rain is probable today. These  tasks, and one other within the house, made me about eight minutes late, caused me to be behind two slow moving truck, and then in a long, long line of vehicles heading in to Bentonville. So I was at work late. Alas.

However, so long as I crowd writing into my life, so long as I have so many other obligations that can’t be shunted aside, I will have to compromise somewhere. Driving in heavier traffic was this morning’s compromise. Who knows what it will be for the rest of the day, or tomorrow, or the next day?

Oh, and sorry for missing to post something here last Friday. Too many tasks, something had to give.

Bible study, books, Fifty Thousand Screaming People, poetry, Preserve The Revelation, self-publishing, Writing

It rains! It rains!

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Today, Friday, we are having band after band of thunderstorms pass over us here in Bentonville. As I’ve mentioned before, I like the rain; it does my heart good. So, on a Friday afternoon, I’m upbeat. I have completed a number of miscellaneous tasks this week, including today, and am ready for the weekend. If the storms continue (as, I believe, they are forecast to do), I shall read and write, file and discard, clean and organize to my heart’s content. If the rain holds off, I have plenty of outside work to occupy my time.

My writing work has been slowly progressing of late. I add a little every now and then to Preserve The Revelation. I do the same to Thomas Carlyle: A Chronological Bibliography of Compositions. Almost every day I review and add to my Bible study titled “Entrusted to My Care”, which we are scheduled to study in our adult Life Group beginning in four weeks or so. Of poetry, I add nothing. The villanelle I wrote last month I hope to get back to in a week or so, tweak it, then submit it to the anthology; the deadline for submittals is Oct 31.

Then, the other major task I have at hand is the cover for the print version of In Front of Fifty Thousand Screaming People. I’ve been waiting for two talented cover artists/creators to get to it. For a variety of reasons, some legitimate, some not, they haven’t gotten to it in over a month’s time. So, my top priority is to get it done this weekend, uploaded to CreateSpace, a proof copy ordered ASAP, and the book published ASAP. It won’t be as good as if a pro did it, but it will be done, and the book will be available before the Cubs win the World Series—if they do.

My cell phone just gave me a severe weather alert, the first one I’ve received on this. Yet, the thunder has about quit. I may not go by Home Depot on the way home. We’ll see.

Bible study

A Programmed Bible Reading

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The first Sunday in August we were in Dodge City, planning to drive home that evening/night. In church service that Sunday our pastor announced a church-wide Bible reading plan: 40 days of us all reading the same thing. It would start the next day, and follow a certain program on a certain website. Our pastor would also be blogging about it at another site.

Now, we’ve done this sort of thing before; not recently, but we’ve had times when everyone in the church was supposed to be reading the same thing, either something in the Bible or a book for a study. When the reading was a programmed Bible reading, I generally have had trouble keeping up with it. My normal Bible reading is to take a book and read it on my own schedule. Maybe some much per day; maybe till I’m ready to stop. Right now I’m reading the major epistles, currently reading a chapter a day as a devotional reading.

But, when I get a programmed Bible reading, for some reason, I can’t do it. I fall asleep while reading. I let my mind drift. I get nothing from the reading. I seldom finish the program.

This time, when we got home from our trip, and by the time I looked at e-mails and newsletters and found myself already behind in the reading, I almost didn’t start it. However, wanting to participate with the others, I started a few days late and determined to catch up. I did so within a week, and am on schedule, slightly more than 1/2 way through.

The surprising thing is I’ve been able to read and enjoy it. When reading, my powers of concentration seem good. My mind doesn’t wander, and I get through it all. This is a strange thing for me. But I hope it continues, through this program and in the future.

Bible study, Christianity, Life Group lessons

Deeper than an MRI

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At our adult Life Group this morning I was faced with a dilemma. Our pastor is gone on Spring Break, and the youth pastor was preaching. In the first service his sermon was shorter than our pastor’s normally is, and we were out of service in just 50 minutes instead of the usual 65 or so. That meant during the second service, when I would be substitute teaching the Life Group, the time would be shorter than normal.

The man who organizes our card ministry (At the beginning of each class we prepare greeting cards for various people in the church), so that took some time to get going. Finally we got to prayer requests. The first one was by a woman (early 50s, I think) who was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. Two recent tests, a biopsy and an MRI, confirmed the problem, but she doesn’t yet know what the treatment will be.

One of the men in the class suggested we gather around her and her husband and pray for them right then, before we heard other requests. We did so. I was glad for it, and the whole time thing kind of melted away in my mind. This is what the class is for. The lesson is important, but prayer like this should be primary. I asked another woman in the class to lead us in the prayer. She did so with a heartfelt prayer, making one statement in it that was incredible. “Lord, you see deeper than any MRI.”

What a great statement, I thought! Indeed, God does see deeper than any MRI, any test on a biopsy, and Catscan (however that’s supposed to be spelled). He sees our deepest needs. He knows what the problem is, no matter what the problem is. That doesn’t mean that he miraculously solves all problems, instead leaving it to be worked out by human effort and ingenuity, sometimes with a good result, sometimes with a so-so or negative result. But always, always He does not leave the one with the problem alone.

Well, my problem of the amount of time I had to teach a lesson was much less of a problem than what we prayed over. But the lesson went well. We studied 2 John (first time I’ve ever seen it used in a Sunday School lesson). I had been able to pull three critical points out of it, and we found time enough to discuss each one. I think, by the end of the class, all attendees felt blessed and spiritually fed.

And we got out a little late. By the time I hit the church lobby most people had gone, so pastor Aaron must have been short-winded in the second service as well.

Now, I need to decide if this lesson was good enough to save and expand and possibly work into a Life Group lesson series. Stay tuned.