It doesn’t look like the tree caused damage to the house, but I guess I won’t know until I get it down.
My last blog post discussed what was happening with my book Documenting America: Making The Constitution. On Monday, after writing my blog post, I made major progress on publishing tasks. I won’t list what I did. Suffice to say by the end of the day I was further along on all three versions (Kindle, Smashwords, and print) than I expected to be.
The Monday evening happened. A short but intense thunderstorm hit, with winds of 70 mph. Power went out at 10:30 p.m. and was off for just short of 48 hours. A large tree blew over from the wooded lot next to us on the north and is resting on the house. a second, larger tree also blew over but rested against another tree that kept it from hitting the house. Neither one seems to have damaged the house, but I’m going to need a professional service to clear the trees away. So, I’m dealing with all of that and have not doing anything more on Documenting America.
It’s hard to see in this photo, but it shows the two leaning trees. Both are pretty big, at least 12 and maybe 16 inches diameter.
What I did instead was more intensive editing of my Bible study, Acts Of Faith. When the power went out, I was through Chapter 5 with the second round of edits and also with the Leader’s Guide. Reading and editing the printed manuscript was something I could do during the day, even without power. So I stretched out on the floor, the notebook between me and the glass doors to the deck, and read and marked with red pen. I set aside work on the Leader’s Guide as I need to have the Bible study published by September 15. The Leader’s Guide can follow it by a month or so.
My first view of it didn’t look so bad. This is looking up from below it. The main problem will be how to control it as you cut it out. That’s why I need a pro.
By the end of yesterday I had edited all but one chapter. I will finish it today and be ready to type. In fact, I may type those edits before I go back to Documenting America. Acts Of Faith is out with two beta readers, one of whom I’m sure will give me comments. I’m going to send one more chapter to my critique group for comments between meetings.
Then I’ll be enmeshed in dealing with trees and insurance and other aspects of Monday’s storm. I’m not sure yet what my new publishing schedule will be.
A Bible and some paper to take notes. What more could a person want?
I had planned for my blog post today to again be about Documenting America: Making The Constitution Edition. Today I made a few last edits to Chapter 5, based on comment last week by my critique group. This morning I did a run-through for typos, commas, formatting of references, etc. That done, I hereby declare the text finished. I’m now ready to begin the publishing process.
But I’m delaying that post. Yesterday in our adult Life Group at church we had an interesting discussion that I feel deserves a post. We are going through a video-based Bible study on Psalm 119. The video series is an original production of RightNow Media, to which our church has a subscription service. The presenter in this series is Matt Chandler, a pastor in the Dallas Texas area.
Yesterday we were on the 7th of 10 videos in the series, this one covering Psalm 119:121-136. In preparation for the class, I focused on vs. 121-128. I divided the statements in these verses into two categories: statement of existing conditions; and prayer to God. All verses fit well into those categories but one. Here are the statements of condition.
vs 121 I have done what is righteous and just.
vs 123 My eyes fail looking for your salvation, looking for your righteous promise.
vs 125 I am your servant.
vs 126 Your law is being broken.
vs 127 I love your commands more that gold, more than pure gold.
vs 128 I consider all your precepts right.
vs 128 I hate every wrong path.
And here are the prayers.
vs 121 Do not leave me to my oppressors.
vs 122 Ensure your servant’s well-being.
vs 122 Let not the arrogant oppress me.
vs 124 Deal with your servant according to your love.
vs 124 Teach me your decrees.
vs 125 Give me your discernment that I may understand your statutes.
And, that one verse that doesn’t fit in? It’s vs 126a:
Vs 126a: It is time for you to act, O Lord.
This is the verse I decided to spend more time on than the others. It’s sort of a prayer, but not exactly. It’s more of a command. A command the pray-er is making to God. The entire verse 126 is:
Vs 126: It is time for you to act, O Lord; your law is being broken.
As if God needed the pray-er to tell Him His law was being broken. As if God needed to be commanded. What audacity in David to make such a statement!
In class, we focused on what to do if we ever found ourselves making such a statement, telling God He needed to act. One class member said instead we ought to be asking God how we can join in what He is doing. “It is time for you to act, O Lord. How can I help You?” Or even, “It is time for you to act, O Lord; your law is being broken. What can I do about it?”
Now that’s a way to address God. You aren’t then telling him what’s wrong and demanding He do something. You’re acknowledging to God that you recognize the present condition in your part of the world, that the condition is because of people disobeying God, and asking how I can effectively take part in correcting the problem. I like that.
It turned out to be a good class. Lots of interaction, people focused on the scripture, many positive statements. Everyone who spoke embraced the concept of asking God how we can participate in the places we believe He needs to act. We left the class energized and, I think, excited about serving him this week.
I finished writing Documenting America: Making The Constitution Edition in mid-June. I let it sit a little, then began the editing process. The editing took a while as I didn’t go overly fast. Plus, in late June I finally decided I should write and publish my Bible study, Acts Of Faith, and so pulled off DA for a while. I meant to have it published in August. Alas, with only nine days left in the month, I think that’s unlikely to happen.
But where do I stand with it? I have completed all passes of edits. On Wednesday I ran Chapter 5 through our critique group, and have a few comments to go over and perhaps make changes. I’ll do that today. The next step will be the cover, which I’ll do myself using G.I.M.P. I already have the series theme, so all I have to do is change the title and use a new center image, which I already have picked out. I may need to load G.I.M.P. onto this computer. Doing all that is a tomorrow task.
That cover work, of course, is for the e-book cover. Before I can do the print book cover I have to format the print book so I know the thickness. The interior formatting will be the next step. I might do the e-book formattings (one for Kindle, one for Smashwords) on Sunday, or it might slip to Monday. At that point I may upload the e-book to the platforms, thus getting it published in August. Then I’ll tackle the print book formatting. That always takes longer, and I’ll have to dedicate a day or two to that. I hope I get it done before the end of the month so that I can order a proof copy.
So, when will the next Documenting America be published, you ask? With any luck and sufficient diligence on my part, before the end of August for the e-book, and before September 15 for the print book. Stay tuned. I’ll announce it here. I’m working simultaneously on the leader’s guide to AOF, so we’ll have to see how the time goes.
It’s not too early to be thinking about a cover. I’m thinking simple, establishing a theme for what may be a series. Not sure what would go in the whit box.
I’ve talked about this several times before, but never fully. I’m talking about the Bible study I’ve been writing since finishing Documenting America: Making The Constitution Edition in mid-June. Back on June 28 I posted about my writing choices. That post indicated that I had written a couple of chapters of this study, that it felt good, and that I had decided that would be my next book to write.
The first writing of it was on June 25, 2019. This past Tuesday, July 30, I completed the first draft, coming in at 35,574 words in a little over a month. That’s pretty fast. I’m wondering if, considering how fast it came together, if it’s any good.
But it’s not as if I started from scratch on June 25th. No, I had thought about this for a long time. I’d say it was maybe two or three years ago that the idea first came to me. I re-read Hebrews Chapter 11, the faith heroes chapter, and, as always, was inspired by it. Then I read Hebrews 12:1, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses….” The idea came to me: a Bible study where a Bible example of faith and a Christian example of faith were together in each lesson.
I’m responsible for choosing the curriculum for study in our adult Life Group (a.k.a. Sunday school). I try to stay a few months ahead. I had curriculum planned out to near the end of September 2019 (this was back in late fall 2018, I think). What to do after a long, partial Easter study and a video-based Psalm 119 study? I had a couple of Bible studies in mind, things that had been brewing in the gray cells for some time, Acts Of Faith being one of them. I developed an outline, deciding it would be a viable study. So I penciled it in on our teaching schedule.
Then I thought, this would be a better study if it were in book form, not something my co-teacher and I had to develop our own notes for. So sometime early this year, maybe in January, I listed it as one of my possible writing works. As the year went on, I was more and more impressed that this was indeed what we should teach later this year, and that I should do my best to have it ready in book form if at all possible.
So, when Documenting America was done, as I posted a little more than a month ago, I shifted right to this. The writing wasn’t laborious at all. It came together easily, I’m sure in part because I had brainstormed it so much. Still, the relatively short time to write it surprised me. I wrote that I hoped to have it written by August 1, and I achieved that. I suspect maybe three or four weeks to edit, followed by two weeks to publish, and I’ll be done with it at least two weeks before we start the study, which right now is targeted for September 26th.
Preparing and teaching a Bible study is one thing. Publishing one is another. If you’re teaching in a class, discussion often takes over, and your notes go out the window. You prepared six hours for a 30 to 60 minute discussion, so you’re essentially over-prepared. At least that’s the plan. But publishing it means it has to all be out there. Make a mistake and the theologians or professional practitioners of the faith could be all over you. You have to get it right. Opinions are okay, but not mistakes.
Thus, I reached out to two ministers in our congregation about the viability of the study. Feeling like I needed more, I reached out to a retired pastor I know from an on-line writing group and got his input. The consensus was that I should proceed, that I wasn’t making any grave errors, and that possibly people would find themselves challenged by the study.
And now it’s written. It consists of seventeen chapters. If taught to a class, each would be a week’s study. If studied individually, I suspect it’s a two-week read. I originally programmed fourteen chapters. Then I thought, if this was taught around Christmastime, I needed some Christmas story chapters. So I added three of those, giving me seventeen chapters in the finished product. I know, I know, they say people nowadays don’t like studies that last that long. Six weeks, eight weeks is about all you should do. Well, I wrote what I wrote. If a teacher and class want a shorter study, they can pick and choose among the chapters.
Each chapter begins a Bible story that illustrates faith, saying how faith is shown by some act. Chapter 1 concerns Noah and the building of the ark, showing how he was acting out his faith all along. The second part of each chapter is a story of someone in the Christian era who also acted on faith. As best I could I tried to get the Bible example of faith and the Christian example of faith to make sense together. I’m not sure I always achieved that, but I think I’m close. Noah is paired with Martin Luther. Both of these men have sort of the same story. At least, I see many similarities.
I changed the Bible story in the second chapter when I heard a sermon on the radio and thought, oh, wow, what a great story of faith that is. I never saw that before. I didn’t want to lengthen the book, however, so one pair of stories was gone. I found another Christian example of faith and shuffled some around.
What’s next? As I said, I work on editing this into final form, and I see if I can write a leader’s guide for it, trying to have both ready by the end of August. Will I get it done? We shall see. And, of course, I’ll report back here on what progress I make.
In my last post, I told about the de cluttering effort my wife and I are in. I spoke specifically about the multiple stamp collections I’m dealing with, as well as a few other de-cluttering activities.
The stock book I worked on. I still have a few stragglers to add to it (which fell out before my work commenced), plus perhaps some re-distribution.
This weekend, while de-cluttering is still high on the priority list, so is what I call simply “getting things done.” It began on Friday, where I worked in The Dungeon for a good part of the day, doing my normal writing and stock trading tasks. In the evening I finally finished putting loose stamps into that stock book I mentioned in the last post, and on Saturday I gathered all the stamps in one place, while on Saturday and Sunday I put them all in a larger box and into their designated place in the storeroom. Check one item off the to-do list.
Our newer minivan was overdue for servicing. I finally called on that on Friday afternoon, learned they had appointments on Saturday, and took an early one. I learned of a sensor that’s gone bad; it will be replaced later this week under warranty. I also took that van to a nearby body shop for an estimate on fixing the rear tailgate after the fender-bender I caused in June. Ah, me. Much money to be spend fixing that small folly.
Friday and Saturday remained productive for the whole days. Let’s see what I checked off the list.
Elliptical and walking for Friday and Saturday.
Work on Acts of Faith each day.
Work on Documenting America: Making The Constitution Edition each day.
Clean up in the front yard, along with weekend weeding and deadfall pick up in the back yard on Saturday.
Seeing about accommodations for a trip we will soon be taking.
Making a haircut appointment. (I hate using the phone for things like that and always put off making such appointments, so when I do it it feels like a major accomplishment.)
Helping the wife make an omelet Saturday noon.
Household budgeting on Friday; balancing the checkbook on Saturday; catch up on trading accounting on Saturday.
Dusting the high corners near the ceilings.
Preparing to teach Life Group on Sunday.
Working on organizing the stamp collections, in place for better storage or, perhaps, selling within a couple of years.
I found time each day to just sit and read in the sunroom, and nap there one day.
I could probably add a few more things to the list, but I’d be getting into minutia if I did. Suffice to say the weekend was full, productive, enjoyable, and, if you can believe it, restful. Yes, I had time to watch TV (while working on the stamps and crossword puzzles), to sit in the sunroom and read, to get full nights’ sleep, and to gather with God’s people in worship and study on Sunday.
Whether every weekend will be so enjoyable and productive remains to be seen. This one was, and I thank God for it.
This post marks the 1,200th post on this blog. I guess that’s somewhat of a mini-milestone. That’s not actually how many blog posts I’ve written, however.
I hope someday The Dungeon will be a neater place than this. The best I can say it was messier on Saturday before I cleaned up a bit.
I started blogging in December 2007 on the Blogger [a.k.a. blogspot] platform, naming that blog “An Arrow Through the Air”, a phrase used by John Wesley that I really liked. I posted there until June 2011 when, with the help of my son, I set up this website with a blog. I ported over from AATTA all the posts there, however many it was at the time.
I kept blogging at both places for a while. This one was to be about my writing life, the other more general or personal in subject. It wasn’t terribly long that I discovered keeping up two blogs and writing and working full time didn’t make sense and wasn’t really achievable for me. So I stopped posting at AATTA and focused on this blog. I never did port over here the posts I added at AATTA after the original porting. So, I have some number of posts there that are, technically speaking, in addition to the 1,200 here. How many? I ought to go over there and count, but will do that at another time.
Eventually I realized I could use that name here too, and renamed this blog “An Arrow Through the Air”. That was sometime last year, or maybe it was the year before.
That gets us down to today. As I look through the blinds on The Dungeon windows, I see a cloudy day outside. We are right on the edge of the remnants of Hurricane Barry, with a 50 percent chance of showers this morning. It’s 7:46 a.m. and my first cup of coffee is almost finished. I’ve been at the computer since 6:50 a.m., right after I finished scripture reading (currently in Proverbs) and prayer. After checking book sales (none) and a writing website I follow, I typed edits in three chapters in Documenting America: Making The Constitution Edition. I’ll now shift to writing the eleventh chapter (out of seventeen) in the Bible study I’m writing, Acts of Faith—after I tend to my stock trading duties, that is. I guess breakfast will be in there somewhere.
The amount of wild blueberries in the woods across from our house is massive. It’s no where near being fully picked, no where near all being ripe. And, blackberry season is about to begin.
The blackberry bushes in the area still have both ripe and ripening berries on them, but I’m all picked out for this year. I got enough to make several cobblers, and freeze close to two quarts. I’ve done my free food gathering for this year. Time to think about some inside projects, some decluttering tasks and some home repairs to hire done.
This morning I woke about 6:15 a.m. and was able to say the prayer I’ve recently tried to make a morning theme, “I will awaken the dawn.” [Psalm 57:8] Looking forward to a full and rewarding day.
I love a library, be it large or small, new or old, plain or fancy. Little in life is better than finding stacks of books. Any time I can I go to a library. Any more I don’t check out a lot of books, but I still enjoy browsing, pulling them from the shelf, sitting and reading for a while until my allotted time is up. Or, sometimes I just pull out a magazine I enjoy and read that.
An online library is just as good—almost. The selection is typically better, if of books that are older. Reading is still possible, though perhaps not quite as enjoyable as getting out and reading from paper in my hands.
While I’m pleased to have a number of C.S. Lewis books, I don’t have enough. May more purchases be in my future?
This week I had need of a library. I’m writing a Bible study. That’s my latest work-in-progress. Have I talked about that on the blog before? I’ll have to check to see if I did and, if not, schedule a post to describe the project. Briefly, it’s titled Acts Of Faith, and each chapter has a biblical story about someone who did something on faith and the difference that made in a life or in the world. The second part of each chapter talks about a Christian from after the Bible period who also did an act of faith that made a difference.
The chapter I was to write was about the conversions of Zacchaeus and C.S. Lewis. Zacchaeus’ was fairly easy. I knew Lewis’ would be easy because I had read about it years ago in his book Surprised By Joy. How long ago? Maybe forty years? Long enough ago to know exactly what I was looking for but not so long that I had the book wrong. So, I go to my shelf where I keep my C.S. Lewis books and…no copy of Surprised By Joy is present.
No problem. It must be in the storeroom where I have a bookcase of literary books. Nope, not there either. No problem. It must be upstairs in one of two places where we keep shorter, inspirational books. Nope, not there either. No problem. We have a built-in bookcase in the living room. I wouldn’t expect this book to be there, but it must be. Nope, not there either. That meant it had to be in a box in the storeroom. Finding it there would be an impossibly time-consuming task.
But then I thought, that was so long ago, perhaps I borrowed the book from someone or from a library. Yes, that must be it. That would mean I could check it out from a library here. I wasn’t planning on being close to one anytime soon, but I could go if needed. I checked on line card catalogs of my closest two libraries. Nope, they didn’t have it. The book is new enough to be in copyright so I knew I wouldn’t find it in an on-line library. Nothing to do but buy a copy. Through the miracle of e-books I could have a copy in hand in only minutes.
I went to two different online retail locations and found Surprised By Joy. Both had it as an e-book, but at a ridiculously high price. A book by a famous author can command a good price. I wasn’t willing to pay that, not right away at least. Let me look one more time in my library.
Yes, my library. You see, we have way too many books in our house, maybe as many as 3,000. I need to get rid of some, but find that hard to do. For years I figured I’d read them in retirement. But retirement is here and I’m too busy writing to make a dent in the number of too-be-read books in the house. Yes, if I read two or three a month and then get rid of them, at some point I’ll see that dent being made. Until then, we have our own library.
I did have a copy of “Surprised By Joy” after all. I just needed to do a better job of looking.
I went back to the shelf that I checked first, the one where I thought the book should be. There were a number of C.S. Lewis books, which I saw earlier when I looked. Two of them I haven’t read, have barely opened. One, titled The Timeless Writings of C.S. Lewis, is a collection of his theological works pulled together by his estate. The other, The Beloved Works of C.S. Lewis, had four of his books, again collected and published by his estate. I looked closer at it, and the first book in this book was…Surprised By Joy.
Wow, I didn’t realize I had it! Pulled it from the shelf, spent about an hour reading in the places I remembered, and I had my information and quotes for the chapter. Another hour and I had the rest of the chapter written. An exorbitant price for an e-book avoided, progress made on my book.
So, I did find it in a library. It just turned out it was my own library.
I don’t know how others feel, but I’m new enough to baking that it still seems creative to me.
After writing last week about what to write next, I made my decision and did it. I worked on Acts Of Faith Bible study on both Saturday and Sunday. I didn’t spend a lot of time on them, but found the words flowed quickly and easily. Research went well. By the time Sunday was over I was about halfway through Chapter 5. This morning, before getting to other activities, I came close to completing Chapter 5. Not really, because I plan on re-reading and editing it later today. But, as it sits right now, completing Chapter 5 today should be an easy thing.
What else? I began reading Documenting America: Making The Constitution Edition aloud to my wife, scratching edits as I go. I read four chapters (out of 32) last night, seeing a fair number of places where it will benefit from editing. I hope to type some of those edits today. The Introduction especially needs both tightening and expansion.
The cooking prep for my experiment. I actually haven’t had one yet. Reports are that they were good. I’ll have one tomorrow.
What else? I wrote a letter to one of my grand-nephews. That may not seem like a creative thing, but it is/was. I also baked, a blackberry cobbler—from blackberries I picked—and some banana bread. They turned out well. Then, Sunday morning, I fixed English muffin omelet sandwiches to take to Life Group for our fellowship breakfast. I don’t know that they turned out so well and may not fix them again. It was an experiment, trying something my own mind conceived, so I count that and the baking as creative endeavors.
I spent a good amount of time outside, listening to the birds as I worked. Didn’t see this little guy around however.
While being creative, I didn’t neglect other things. As the first activities on Saturday I updated the checkbook and budget. On Sunday I took care of some miscellaneous receipts, the type that seem to defy even a comprehensive filing system. I weeded in our back yard and did other light yard work. I cleaned a matt of bugs off the front of our newer van, bugs that had decided to join us on our last two road trips. Both vans need washing, but that will be a task for another day. Sunday, Lynda and I went for a walk after the heat of the day passed. Not a long walk, but enough to get the juices and sweat flowing.
I kept up with my reading in three books, now having one more to review. Reading I see as sort of a creative activity. As I read my mind is usually thinking about writing, either the writing I’m reading or the writing I could do from the subject I’m reading about.
So, all in all I’m pleased at how the weekend went. If I can be that creative for the full week ahead of me, I will be on Cloud 9.
My most recent publication. Sales are trickling in. Literally.
For my Friday June 28 post I had planned to do my book review of Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life In Letters. But based on the weekend just past, I’m pushing that post into the future. Instead, I want to document the process I’m going through.
What should I write next? I just finished the first draft of Documenting America: Making The Constitution Edition. I’m letting it sit for a week or two before I hit the editing process. The first two chapters have gone to my critique group, with good reviews. What to do next? Here are the most obvious choices, based on my recent thoughts, research, and publications.
The next volume in my church history novels series. This is to be sandwiched in between #2 and #3. Tentatively titled The Sayings, it will cover the writing of the Didiche, which many scholars believe was written before many of the New Testament books. A loose plot line was in my head even as I wrote Preserve The Revelation, #4 in the series. With Adam Of Jerusalem, #1 in the series, now published, completing the foursome makes sense.
The next volume in The Gutter Chronicles: The Continuing Saga of Norman D. Gutter, Engineer. I ought to write this before I get too far into retirement and forget the stories of working as an engineer. I’ve begun the outline, and know where the first couple of chapters are going.
The next volume in Documenting America. This has turned out to be a good series, with three published already and the fourth a month or two away from publication. Once I know the topic these come together quickly. Another volume or two might result in critical mass and an increase in their popularity.
The next short story in the Sharon Williams Fonseca, CIA Agent series. I have four written and know what the fifth one will be about and it’s probable title: “Tango Delta Foxtrot”. This has been on my radar for some time, always with “as soon as I finish the book I’m on” schedule. But then another book bubbles up and this one gets shunted aside. Maybe it’s time. I have a basic outline of the plot.
A Bible study titled “Acts Of Faith”. I programmed this about four months ago (I think, maybe a little longer), one evening when I was brainstorming curriculum for future Life Group studies. I spent some time recently outlining this, and even creating the first computer files. This for sure would be next except, while I’ve taught Bible studies and prepared them from scratch, I’ve never written one for publication. That may be what happens here. Or, perhaps this will be the first to be developed, published, and taught.
A genealogy book, tentatively titled Samuel Cross and Elizabeth Cheney of Ipswich Massachusetts. This book is 80 percent written, maybe more. It’s meant to form a part of a larger work about Elizabeth Cheney’s father, John Cheney of Newbury. But the research is done and it is long enough to stand alone as a small genealogy book. It lacks only a little text, then the formatting for publication. I could have this ready for publication in less than a month if I re-started my work on it.
I’ll soon be creating a cover for “Documenting America: Making the Constitution Edition”. It will be a simple re-creation of this one.
There you have it. Six potential writing projects, all good, all desired (by me), all fulfilling the writing urge and maybe meeting a need. What will be next? I’m writing this on Monday, June 24, but scheduled to post on Friday June 28. My intent is to add something to it before it posts, to let everyone know either what I’ve decided, or at least what progress I’ve made in deciding. I’ll see if there’s a new ending to this post.
Update Tuesday June 25: Yesterday and today I wrote the first chapter in Acts Of Faith. The first draft came in at about 2,150 words, shorter than I thought it would, but perhaps about right for a Bible study book. I picked up a reviewer, a pastor/counselor, and have sent the first chapter to him. I’ll be anxious to see what he thinks.
The writing of this felt good. Since this is the most urgent need, should I indeed publish it and teach it beginning around mid-September. If so, I need to get on the stick.
Update Wednesday June 26: This morning I did another half-chapter of Acts Of Faith. It flowed easily. Yesterday afternoon I wrote the outline—more of a synopsis actually—for the next novel in my Church History Novels series. My evening reading unintentionally dovetailed with this, and the plot flowed easily. Makes me wonder if this book needs to be next. I’ll think on it.
Update Friday June 28: I have now completed two chapters (out of 17) in Acts Of Faith. The words have flowed fairly easy. The pastor/counselor I sent the first chapter to said he believes it to be a viable study and offered to help write discussion questions.
So, this is my next project. I’m hoping to finish the first draft by August 1, though that may be too ambitious. For sure I’m going to spend a lot of time with the writing.
Our adult Life Group (a.k.a. Sunday School) is still in the midst of our Easter study. This is because my co-teacher, a couple of years ago, mused about whether we could do a beginning-to-end Easter study one year, beginning with the Triumphal Entry through Easter day.
The main problem with that is the volume of material. I worked it out, and determined that you had more than 60 lessons to do if you didn’t skip anything. I don’t like to skip things, so that was a dilemma. I worked out a program where we did that in five parts, meaning you do one part each year. My co-teacher agreed with that.
Year one covers Sunday-Monday-Tuesday of Holy Week. Yesterday we had lesson #10 in that, covering when the Sadducees questioned Jesus about the resurrection. It was a bogus, exaggerated question, not for illumination rather than to support their ill-informed beliefs. Jesus, of course, destroyed those beliefs quite easily.
Do you remember the story? Using the Levirate marriage, as defined in Deuteronomy 25:5-10, the Sadducees said a man married, had no children, and left his widow for his brother to marry. He did so, and died in the same status. This went on for seven brothers, all who died, then the woman died childless. Their question was: At the resurrection whose wife will she be, since she was married to the seven brothers?
Jesus’ answer was: You err because 1) you don’t know the scriptures, and 2) you don’t know the power of God. The Sadducees considered only the five books of Moses as authoritative. Naturally their question came from that source. So, naturally, Jesus’ answer came from that source as well.
First, he said they didn’t understand what the resurrection would be like. In it would be no marriages, births, death. It won’t be like life on earth, extended to another realm. Those thought worthy of the resurrection would become like angels, who have no need for such earthly activities. So Jesus answered their question: Yes, silly Sadducees, there is a resurrection but she won’t be anyone’s wife in it.
But Jesus went on to prove there would indeed be a resurrection. In the account of the burning bush, Jesus said that God said to Moses, “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” Since they had all died centuries before Moses lived, if both their bodies and souls had died, God couldn’t have said that. He would have had to say, “I was the God of…”, of something similar. Instead, He said “I am the God of….” Thus, He is the God of the dead.
The Sadducees rejected the concept of an afterlife and resurrection because it isn’t explicitly stated in scripture. Jesus showed them sometimes you have to dig deeper. See what the words imply but may not state as clearly as you’d like them to say something. The truth is there, if you just know the scripture through deep study.
Concerning the power of God, it is also seen in the account of the burning bush. The bush in the desert burned, but wasn’t burned up to embers and ashes. It remained an intact bush. A miracle? It was certainly something that defied the laws of nature, so, yes, it was a miracle. It was a demonstration of the power of God. The God who could make a bush burn but remain a bush could make a resurrection happen.
My final words in class were: Don’t be like the Sadducees. Know the scripture, and know the power of God. We discussed how we can do this.
It was a good class. Sixteen of us had the chance to see what the scripture was really telling us, and what the power of God was like. I hope we all take Jesus’ words to heart and really, really get to know the scriptures and his power.
