Category Archives: Christianity

book reviews, Christianity, Christmas

Book Review: Let Earth Receive Her King

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This is an Advent devotional book worth reading, but it won’t become a permanent part of my library.

Here I am a day late with my blog post. Sorry to all of you who came here yesterday looking for it. I knew what I was going to write and post, but just let the day get filled up with other things, other good things, and, well, I didn’t get it done. But here it is.

Every year, for several years at least, our denomination has published a book for the Advent season. Normally the pastor of our congregation preaches a four or five week sermon series that goes along with the book. This year, the book was Let Earth Receive Her King: An Advent Devotional. I’m one of those who reads all the front matter, and I was surprised to not see who the author was. It wasn’t on the cover, the spine, the title page, or the copyright page. I figured the church didn’t want us to know who the author was. The Introduction was written by T. Scott Daniels, but that didn’t say to me that he was the author of the entire book. I figured it was a book written by “staff” and quit worrying about who wrote it. But then, as I got further into it, the book became more personal, with a lot of first person illustrations. Obviously, “Staff” was a person, but who?

The book was good. Well written, clearly written, with stated themes and points well made. I would say it’s better than the Advent books from recent years. My wife and I read it aloud in the evenings, me doing the reading. We did it every day from Dec 1 to Dec 24, skipping only one day due to extreme tiredness but making that up the next and keeping going.

As to whether I recommend the book or not, I can say I do, with a couple of exceptions I’ll state in a minute. When we finished the book, I turned to the back cover, realizing I hadn’t read that before starting the book. There it clearly said that T. Scott Daniels was the author, giving a short bio of him. I guess the pub house figured everyone reads the back cover and having the author name there instead of the front cover and title page sufficed.

The book is organized around the Advent candles that have become a Christmas tradition. Each week in the Advent season you light a candle of a certain color. One stands for joy, one for peace, etc. This is a new tradition to me, one my family didn’t follow in my childhood, one I never established with my own family. In fact, I don’t remember ever seeing it done in church until maybe the last twenty years. When and how did this become a tradition? Was it one 60 years ago and somehow our Episcopal family missed it? Perhaps it is a long-standing evangelical tradition. Since it’s not my tradition, the organization around the candle themes is meaningless to me and did not enhance the book for me. C’est la vie. I’m sure others found that not only useful but enjoyable.

The other thing that prevents me from being able to enthusiastically recommend the book is the dual emphasis on mourning and exile. Perhaps emphasis is too strong a word. But several times Daniels talked about Advent as a season of mourning. For example, on page 78 Daniels writes:

“In Advent, the church grieves and awaits the return of the bodily absent Lord. Yet, in the meantime we pray and work….”

Sorry, but I don’t see it that way. Advent is, to me, a season of anticipation and joy. Mourning during Advent would be a new interpretation to me and, well, you probably can figure I don’t cozy up to new interpretations.

As to exile, I note from the bio on the back that Daniels is the author of the book Embracing Exile. This was popular a few years back. Our pastor preached a sermon series on the theme, using the book as an outline. Since our Life Group was already engaged in another study when that one started, we didn’t participate. But I see this theme of exile creeping in a number of places. In the recent study from the book Kings and Presidents, the authors kept emphasizing how the book of 2 Kings was written while the Israelites were in exile in Babylon. I haven’t studied that, but have trouble believing it. Much of 2 Kings reads like a contemporary history, not a history told decades or centuries after.

Should you buy and read this, and is it a keeper? Sure. It should help you prepare for the Christmas season. It is well written, also well designed and laid out. I especially liked the left-only justification, as that is much easier to read than full justification. But, it goes out to the sell/giveaway pile—after I skim it some more and try to find those mourning entries.

Christianity, Christmas, family

And So This Is Christmas

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The grandkids aren’t here to add toys to our Christmas displays, so Lynda did it, finding this stuffed sheep somewhere in the house and adding it to our nativity scene.

What a different year this is. No one in for Thanksgiving, no one in for Christmas. We have toyed with going over to my cousin’s house in Bella Vista, setting up chairs in the driveway, staying 6 feet apart, drink coffee and talk. But right now Lynda is beset with headaches, possibly a lingering effect of the corona virus. She rightly said that we are, perhaps, both in a weakened condition and more vulnerable to other infections. Or, if we actually had a false positive covid test and really haven’t had it, we are vulnerable to get it. So, it will be just me and Lynda. I have a roast to cook, along with some nice vegetables. We have lots of treats: Christmas cookies, fruit cake, pumpkin pie, honey & mustard pretzels. And more. We will be all set.

And, of course, you read in your Advent devotional book every day.

Listening to Christmas music, I’ve been thinking a lot about John Lennon’s “So This Is Christmas”. Written as the Vietnam War had drug on and on, it’s a cute tune with simple lyrics. Partway through the song, background singers begin singing “War is over, if you want it.” The background gets louder and louder and, by the end of the song, you mostly hear the anti-war chant and not so much the main lyrics.

It’s a nice thought, war is over if you want it to be. Alas, few wars are carried on only by one side. Someone is the aggressor and someone is defending themselves. Back in the late 60s-early 70s, it did seem like the USA was fighting a war that didn’t need to be fought. Not all wars are like that. One wonders what kind of song Lennon would write today, if he would make the lyrics in Arabic so that those who most want war (a.k.a. jihad) could get the message.

The simple decorations in The Dungeon. When I took this photo, I didn’t realize the eagle appears to be swooping down to get Dogbert.

And so this is Christmas. I hope you have fun. The near and the dear ones, the old and the young. Very simple,  as are the rest of the lyrics in the song, the rhymes almost forced, , but very pleasing, with an enjoyable tune and excellent instrumentation. Just as Christmas is this year. Simple. Few Christmas decorations. Less work to set up and put away. A simpler meal. No presents to wrap and unwrap. No grandkids to put wooly mammoths in my Christmas village, or a toy rock, or a toy fire truck. No one to tuck in bed Christmas eve or watch and see their face light up Christmas morning. Stockings are hung by the chimney with care but are not filled. They hang limp, empty.

From early 2020: These bloomed all December through January, dropping their flowers during February and March. Here they are blooming again.

But Christmas isn’t empty. Yes, the world may be going mad with covid19, and we may be taking extreme precautions. The vaccines are being distributed. Will they really end this plague? Will it be Christmas as usual in 2021? I’m not worried. We will have a very pleasant Christmas in 2020, with the near and the dear one, without any fear. War is not over, but I think we are a little smarter about it, the 2003 disaster excepted.

Enjoy this rendition of “So This Is Christmas” by Celine Dion. It doesn’t include Lennon’s anti-war chant (well, maybe just a little in the middle, I think). Well worth listening to.

And so, happy Christmas for black and for white, for yellow and red ones. Let’s stop all the fights.

We will miss these cuties on both Thanksgiving and Christmas, but hope to see them soon in 2021!
Bible study, book reviews, Christianity, Politics

Book Review: Kings & Presidents

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A difficult read. I hope others had an easier time of it than I did.

In the last month leading up to the general election just concluded (but still being disputed) in the US, our church decided to do a study of the book Kings & Presidents by Tim and Shawna Gaines. Our pastor preached on it for four weeks. All adult Life Groups were encouraged to also study it, either the four weeks the pastor preached on it or the full eight week series envisioned by the book. Our group elected to do eight weeks. When I had coffee with our pastor during the series, he said there was no way he could preach eight sermons on this material.

Let me tell you, this was perhaps the hardest lesson series I ever taught. Five of the eight weeks were mine, three by my co-teacher. Looking back, I’m glad we studied it, because I feel that we learned something, but, man, it was difficult to teach.

Tim & Shawna (T&S henceforth) developed the book following the 2012 presidential election, when they were pastoring in California. Members of their congregation were apprehensive about what would happen. The book came from the sermon series.

The book takes stories from 2nd Kings 1-7, the days of Elisha the prophet, and contrasts the workings of God with the workings of kings. The kings were unable to see what God could do, whereas the prophet always could. Messages to the king weren’t understood. In the end God always prevailed. That’s fine. But how does that help us approach politics if we are devout Christians?

The purpose for the book is stated thus in the Introduction:

Our purpose…is to offer a vision of political life that takes discipleship to Jesus Christ seriously and treats it as primary.

Okay, that’s all well and good, but how do you do that? They sort of answered that question in the Afterword:

If you’re wondering So what exactly are we supposed to do politically? our guidance would be something along the lines of: Gather with other believers, empty yourself, lovingly deliberate, humbly discern, and then go and be persistent. Engage the world according to the way of Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. Take that vision that the ancient stories of our father open to us and act according to the world of the kingdom.

All well and good again. Except this said “gather with other believers.” If I take that literally, does that mean I should not engage in politics with non-believers? T&S do say “engage the world”, which implies we should engage in political discussions with non-believers. I think what they mean is: engage in political discussions with whoever, but don’t lose your faith over it. Come at it from a disciple point of view, not a worldly point of view. To help me help the class to understand this, I developed this chart which summarizes my understanding of T&S’s message. Hopefully I’m right or close to right. Click on the chart to enlarge it.

The best I could come up with on what the book teaches. Christians should approach politics and governance from the right side of the continuum, and seek to move the world in that direction.

In the final lesson—or maybe it was in an earlier lesson—I suggested to the class that they engage in political discussions with non-believers in such a way that, immediately after the political discussion they could present the gospel to them with no loss of credibility. Maybe that’s what T&S are saying.

Here’s a quote from the last chapter of the book.

[A]t its fullest and deepest, politics has always been about being reconciled to God and to one another.

No, no, no, no, no. Unless I’m misunderstanding them, they are proposing dropping the separation of church and state. Politics (by which T&S mean both what I call politics and governance, but they don’t really define their meaning) has nothing to do, and should have nothing to do, with God. It is a secular thing. Governance is about governing, of doing what the people want as far as rules and laws that regulate human civic behavior. Politics is about getting into the position to govern. Politics and governance should be separate from religious practice. We should not be hoping for a theocracy—a blending of church and state.

T&S say some negative things about the concept of the individual. The state regulates individual behavior, they say, so that everyone has the space they need to conduct their life and exercise their rights without stepping on the rights of others. It results in tolerance of each other Yes, they seem to be a bit negative on this, although they also say,

Tolerance is not a bad thing, but we need to acknowledge that a Christian view of politics, a sanctified vision of what politics is mean for, is so much more than simply putting up with one another.

Maybe. Maybe in a world (or a subset of the world) that is 100% devout Christian that would happen. But not in the world we live in. Sorry, T&S, but I can’t grasp your vision in a secular world.

So, it comes down to two questions: do I recommend this book to you? And is it a keeper? No, I don’t recommend it. It was difficult to read and seemed a little long for the material covered. I had to read each chapter a minimum of three times before I could grasp it enough to teach it, and even then I went into each lesson feeling unprepared. As for keeping it, the jury is still out. I may keep it and re-read it before the next election, to see if seasoning by years will make the message of the book clearer and thus be more useful to me. But it is not a long-term keeper. Three stars on Amazon.

Oh, one last thought. T&S kept calling the Christian faith “subversive.” Sorry, but I just don’t see that. I thought a long time about it, but I don’t see it.

Christianity, creativity, stock market, The Teachings, Writing

Grinding Away

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Will I ever complete the 4th book in this series (3rd book chronologically)? I’m sure I will, but right now the way is not clear.

This week I got back to work on The Teachings , re-reading in the last three chapters and looking at comments on Chapter 7 by a member of my critique group. I made sure my manuscript notebook was correct and carried it with me wherever I was in the house. It went with me to The Dungeon, to the sun room, to the living room, even to the kitchen table. I barely looked at it, just two times I think.

Alas, all my good plans were only partially realized. I’ve spent a fair amount of time on stock trading this week. Monday through Wednesday I didn’t make any trades. I mainly did research. Actually, I think I made two small trades on Monday and one on Tuesday, testing a new strategy with a very small toe dipped in the trading pool.

Then, in the drive to continue to declutter and reduce our possessions, I took yet another box of old correspondence out a couple of days ago and began ordering and inventorying it—letters, postcards, and greeting cards from my juvenile days through the first five years of marriage; to my dad and a few to my grandparents, I finished that box yesterday, sort of. The main batch of correspondence is done, but I pulled from the box all the things that don’t fit. These include letters to Dad from his uncles in England, a few letters and cards to him from his siblings, a few to my grandmother from her friends, and some of ours from other years. I found six pieces of correspondence that are part of our Saudi years, so I’ll have to put them in another place. Having more or less finished with this box (a box of keepers for now), I think I’m down to two or three boxes of things to go through and inventory.

Other downsizing tasks included getting rid of four old bicycles, and preparing to mail books and magazines that have sold on Facebook Marketplace. Then, of course, there were two dentist appointments for me. One was supposed to be for Lynda, but as she’s slightly under the weather I went ahead and took it, cancelling a second one I had for later in the month.

Yet another box of old correspondence pulls me away from other tasks I’d like to do, the unnecessary but enjoyable interrupting the important.

Now, having gotten all those tasks out of the way, I should be ready to work continuously on my book, right? Not quite. I’m reading in five different books right now, and try to do some in each every day. I won’t list them here, as they may be the subject for my next blog post. Suffice to say that I’m making a little progress in all five.

Saturday will find me blowing leaves and hauling them into the woods, picking up recently fallen brush, and maybe finishing the border of wallpaper in the downstairs bathroom. I think I have about 6 feet to go, a twenty minute task. I want to get that done before our next visitors come, which will be a week from Saturday. And, of course, there’s always preparation needed to teach Life Group, even when I’m just a substitute. Oh, wait, Saturday is the Rhode Island Author Expo. Since it’s a virtual event this year I signed up to attend it—as a participant, not as an author. That pulls me away from other things from 9 to 4, if I decide to attend all sessions. I’m not really a Rhode Island author, having lived away from my home state for 46 years, but I still want to keep a little of Little Rhody in me.

So, while I can be thankful that the desire to work on the book has finally happened, I can also rue that other tasks continue to get in the way. I’ll somehow get the book done, but it’s sure taking much, much longer than planned.

book reviews, Christianity

Book Review: “Then Sings My Soul”

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A great singer, a hard worker, and a wonderful man of God.

As part of our clean-up and dis-accumulation efforts, my wife and I have been going through boxes and bags we haven’t looked in in years. Part of the curse of having much storage space in the house is the ability to shove something against the wall or on a shelf and put off dealing with it. Maybe ten years ago a cousin brought us books that had belonged to her father-in-law, a retired preacher. I graciously accepted them and pushed them against a wall in the garage. In the last two months I finally looked in them. Well, I had looked in them previously and pulled a few old books out, but not looked fully in them. Now, I did.

A few of those books caught my eye as being good for the wife and I to read aloud in our evenings. This is one of them. Then Sings My Soul is an autobiography of George Beverly Shea. I suppose many who read this post will not have heard of Shea. He was a singer of gospel hymns and other songs, most famous for his solos at the Billy Graham crusades of the 1950s-60s-70s-and maybe 80s. A deep bass, Shea had a voice that would sooth you and at the same time challenge and encourage you. I know, that sounds strange, but that’s how I saw it.

I saw Shea a number of times on televised crusades in the 1970s and once in person in a crusade in Kansas City, either 1976 or 77. His voice was powerful, and he worked well with the choir. However, I didn’t know much about him. This book gave me that background. A Canadian by birth, Shea was the son of a minister who had churches in both Canada and the US. It was in the latter, in New Jersey just across the river from New York City, that the family was when Shea was old enough to begin his career.

The book goes through much about his upbringing, his encouragement in music by his mother, his meeting and courting the girl who would become his wife, his early work with a life insurance company, his rise in radio singing ministries, and his notice by those who formed the Billy Graham organization.

Reading this book was easy and fast, at only 103 pages, but it gave much information. We finished the book feeling like we had what we needed to understand Shea’s life, and appreciate his ministry. Afterwards we spent much time on YouTube listening to his songs.

I’ve always been fascinated at the stories behind the songs. This book was thus fulfilling for me.

But, the book actually had a bonus, because it is two books in one. Turn the book over and you have Songs That Life The Heart, also by Shea (both books coauthored by Fred Bauer). This is a two-in-one crusade edition. In this second book, Shea talks about various hymns and gospel songs that have touched him and the world, and about the composers of those songs. In these 75 pages are many anecdotes of how the songs came to be and how Shea interacted with the composers. This also was a very good book that we are glad to have read.

If you can pick up one of these, the reading will be well worth it. I don’t know how widely available they are.

Is this a keeper? Alas, no. Too many books being kept on our shelves, too few years left in the world, to assign permanent space to this. So into the sale/donation pile it goes, having graced our lives much, and now ready to grace others.

Bible study, book reviews, Christianity

Book Review: “More”

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Two—or at most three—stars is the most I can give this.

Some time ago, in early in 2020, our church did an all-church study of the book More: Find Your Personal Calling and Live Life to the Fullest Measure (2016, Zondervan) by Todd Wilson. The pastor preached on it and adult Life Groups were to study it. We were in the midst of the study of my book, Acts Of Faith, but decided to interrupt that and do the all-church study instead. I can’t be specific on the dates, as I can’t find all my teaching notes nor the little sheet I recorded my reading dates on. Maybe I saved all I had.

The book stemmed from conversations Wilson (who was a nuclear engineer who entered the pastorate and currently is an author of Christian ministry books, and a speaker) had with with a successful business man who didn’t feel fulfilled. That man wondered “Is this all there is? What is my purpose? What should I be doing to have the biggest impact?’

I found the book to be tedious. Wilson presents a formula, complete with diagrams. Those diagrams concern our “Be-Do-Go”. “Be” is our identity/design. “Do” is our mission/purpose. “Go” is our mission field/position. For each of these we primary or general calling and a secondary or unique personal calling. The general calling is something common to all Christians, and the unique calling is what God as specifically called each of us to do on earth in His kingdom.

Each week we were to do certain exercises and fill in a chart as we gained understanding on the general calling and tried to figure out our unique calling. I found those charts almost juvenile and had trouble asking our Life Group to fill them out. Consequently, I told them what the book wanted them to do and suggested the see if it worked for them. It didn’t work for me, though I’m not sure why.

With Wilson being an engineer I can understand why he reduces his teaching to diagrams. I kind of do the same. And you would think I would embrace his approach and love the book. But I don’t and didn’t. I won’t say I hated it, but for some reason it came up short with me. It was nicely organized and well written. You knew where he was going and he got there in a reasonable amount of time. It’s a fairly easy read. It’s just not my kind of book, that’s all I can say. I haven’t reviewed it on Amazon, and may or may not. If I do, I’ll give it only two stars, or maybe three.

Yet, it will stay on my shelf, for the possibility exists that I’ll read it again in a few years. Perhaps in a second reading it will seem better to me.

Christianity, Racism

Ending Racism

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A racist act in progress. Sorry that I couldn’t find the photographer’s name to give proper credit, but hope they would find this use acceptable.

And, after a fair number of posts about racism, talking about the difference between racism and racist acts, about the existence of latent racism, I’m finally at the point of discussing racism itself. If you remember, in prior posts I have differentiated between racist acts—things done or said in the open—and racism—the condition of the heart that gives rise to racist acts.

This may be splitting hairs. Others may not see the difference. I do, however, because I think the way to combat them, to eradicate them, is different. Racist acts can be legislated against. When implementation of laws fails, steps can be taken to improve things. That’s not necessarily easy, but a path forward exists.

But racism, the condition of a person’s heart that may be held inside for long periods and only infrequently give rise to racist acts. How do you combat that? How do you change a person from the inside out? How do you convince them 1) that those with a different skin color are human; 2) they have equal natural rights endowed on them by God; 3) that your inner condition of racism will someday come out with a (or many) racist act(s); and 4) they can change if only they want to.

I’m sure someone will respond that I’m crazy. People can’t change, and they sure can’t change on their own. I would reply that’s true. My own belief is that only God can change the heart. Many people don’t believe in God, or don’t think of Him as a personal God who interacts with people. Would those people say that a racist can’t change? I don’t think so, at least not all people who live without a belief in a personal God believe that.

That brings us to a question of what our role is in combating racism.  If God is the one who actually changes the heart, does that leave me out of the equation, or do I have a role to play? If so, what is that role?

I’ve thought a lot about this, and believe my role is to move people to a place where God can change them. How do I do this? As I said briefly in a prior post, by example, education, and persuasion. I may not be qualified in each of those. I may have one out of those I can do well. Maybe I can educate someone as to equality and the lack of difference in the person simply because of skin color. Maybe, after that education, I can persuade them that they can and should change. Their heart won’t change because of my words, but maybe they will think about it, move a little closer to God, and be in a place where he can change their heart.

What about change by example? I hope, hope, hope I was a good example to my children of a person who is not a racist. I hope that is continuing with my grandchildren. But, I have many more people I can persuade than just those. With the corona virus self-quarantine/reduced activities, chances for in-person interaction are greatly reduced, but they are still there. Included in those might be a few opportunities to model acceptance of people of all races.

Social media gives a chance for interaction, however. In fact, right now that’s perhaps the main chance. I have lots of chances to model full acceptance of all races as equal, as endowed by God with the same rights I am endowed with.  To my way of thinking, the main contribution I can make to any discussion is calm reasoning. Someone on either side of the racial divide commits a racist act on social media (which, of course, is limited to speech). I can pour water or gasoline on the situation. I can also ignore it, which I often do. But when I sense someone’s posts which seem benign enough are actually a mild racist act, I try to counter them with calm reasoning.

I’ve done that a couple of times in the last three or four days. It’s a first attempt with each of the individuals. I don’t know that my words did any good. But it’s a first attempt. I’ll make another attempt and then another. At some point I’ll make my calm reasoning a little stronger. Maybe they will be nudged a little closer to the One who can work a change in them. That’s my goal. I think that I’m happy with my efforts, though thus far they are too few. We’ll see how this works going forward.

Bible study, Christianity

My Next Bible Study Will Be…

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Yes, I’ve made up my mind. After much consideration, and looking at the easiest items, as discussed in my last blog post, I’ve decided my next Bible study to write will be:

Entrusted To My Care: A Study of 1 and 2 Timothy.

My reasoning behind it is:

  • I have the best notes from past teaching
  • It’s been taught twice, to two different groups in our church
  • The subject still interests me
  • I think it will make the right length book for a Bible study

I just found the sheet I made back in January that laid out writing goals for 2020, divided into months. They might not truly be called goals but more properly my 2020 writing program. On that I show selecting my next Bible study in February and beginning to write it in May. I was a little behind (ten days only) making the selection, but beginning the writing per that sheet is still doable.

Why make the decision now if I’m not going to work on it for a couple of months? I’ll pull my notes together and get them into a place where I can work on them at any time. I’ll take some time to read the two Timothy books again. I might do a little more research. Just knowing what I’ll be working on and when will help me focus my mind in preparation for the task.

Of course, there’s no magic in what’s on that sheet. As the months roll on, what I’m accomplishing should inform later months, and my interests should come into better focus. I can make any changes I want to: accelerate some things, delay others, decide not to work on something because my interests now lie somewhere else.

I’m pretty sure ETMC isn’t going to go away. And I’m pretty sure I should write a Bible study in 2020. The months might change, but I’ll be working on this later in the year.

Bible study, Christianity, Writing

My Next Bible Study

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I found too many errors in this book to let it go. So I corrected the text and re-published.

One of my March goals is to make a decision on what Bible study I will write next. Last year I published Acts Of Faith: Examples From The Great Cloud Of Witnesses. So far the feedback on it is good, even though the first print run had two embarrassing typos in the running heads and more than a few typos throughout the text. I also published a Leader’s Guide for this, which turned out to be an entirely new book.

My wife thinks I should write and publish more Bible studies. One woman in our Life Group at church wants me to submit Acts Of Faith to our denominational publishing house. Others have said I should write more like that.

In fact, I would like to write more Bible studies, and have made it a goal for 2020 to write and publish one more. Over the years, as an adult Life Group teacher, I’ve developed a number of Bible studies that I’ve then taught to our Life Group. I had my teaching notes for most of them (can’t find one, and another has rather thin notes). Any of those for which I have notes I could most likely expand into a book.

In addition, ideas for more Bible studies have come to mind. Several times over the last year I’ve listed these, even planning some of them to gauge how difficult their preparation would be. It’s one thing to say, “Hey, that would be a good Bible study,” and another to actually put it together and teach it.

Yesterday I took time to list them, the ones taught and the ones in the planning/brainstorming stage. Here they are. The ones taught are in the order I taught them in. The dates are approximate. I didn’t keep a running record of what I was teaching when, and the only way I can pin the dates down is by reviewing my teaching notes and see what dates I wrote on them (which I usually do and hope I did in the beginning).

Here are the ones taught.

  • A Study in Isaiah. This was a 20-lesson series, developed and taught around 2008. So far I haven’t found my teaching notes for this.
  • The Prophetic Duo: Lessons from the Lives of Elijah and Elisha. This was originally around 14 lessons, but the class wanted to look at some events in the prophets’ lives that I skipped, and it grew to 18 lessons. I believe I taught this around 2009 or 2010.
  • Life on a Yo Yo: Learning from Peter’s Ups and Downs. I put this together probably in 2009 and taught it in 2010. I think it was 14-15 lessons.
  • What One Thing Is Strongest? This is not, strictly speaking, a Bible study as it is from the apocryphal book of 1 Esdras. This was just a five lesson series, and the class loved it. There are some challenges in publishing it. The writing, I think, would go fairly easy.
  • Malachi, the Answer Man. This study in the book of Malachi was around six or seven lessons. I didn’t seem to make a lot of notes as I taught this, though I have a couple of more places to look.
  • Good King, Bad King. I did this one summer, maybe in 2013. It was to be a study of the kings of Israel and Judah. I only did two lessons, but have programmed out around 12 to 14. This one should probably be in the not-yet-developed category.
  • Sacred Moments: Special Times in the Lives of Believers. This was a study of the sacraments, the seven of the liturgical churches with special emphasis on the two of the evangelical churches. I believe I taught this around 2014 in ten lessons. In addition to the sacraments, two other special times could be added to make a twelve lesson series.
  • Know My Story. This was a summer fill in series of a few lessons, maybe six or seven, on lesser-known biblical people. It was well received by the class. This could be extended to almost any number of lessons. I think 14 to 18 is most likely. I’m not sure where my notes are, though I think I do. I just haven’t pulled them off the shelf since I taught it. I could almost put this in the not-yet-developed category.
  • Entrusted To My Care. A study in 1 and 2 Timothy, this looked how much of Paul’s instruction to his protege pastor applies to laymen. I taught this in 2016-17, and it was taught again last fall at a Wednesday evening class, mostly by another teacher from my notes, but I took a couple of weeks of it. This is the Bible study for which I have the most notes.
  • A Christmas Study. This took a look at all the biblical events of Advent and Christmas, put them in a chronological order, and studied them. I forget how many lessons this was, but I think ten or so, maybe a couple more. We did this over Christmas 2018 and into 2019. One lady in our class has encouraged me to publish this.
  • Acts Of Faith. Developed, written, and published in 2019, we started

And here are the ones in the planning stage.

  • From Slavery to Nationhood. A study of the people of Israel from Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and maybe a little into Joshua. Somewhere I have programming notes on this, which I hope I can find.
  • To Exile and Back. This is to be a study of Israel from their exile to Babylon to their return. I did fairly extensive research into this a few years ago and found it harder to develop than I expected. Hence it’s on the shelf for now.
  • Lazarus, Come Forth! This is a study of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. It includes many interesting interactions with people. I programmed this some time ago, and think it would make six lessons, maybe seven. I haven’t taken this much more than brainstorming and preliminary programming.

Alas, my post is long already. On Friday I’ll reveal which one I’m going to write next.

Christianity, Church History Novels, History, The Teachings

The Teachings: a.k.a. The Didache

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The twelve apostles’ importance to the growing church cannot be over emphasized.

In my last post, I began a series of posts about my novel-in-progress, The Teachings,  saying I would make several posts to explain what my intentions are for the series and for this particular book.

Today I’ll discuss the underlying Christian document. In Greek its title is The Didache. This translates to The Teachings. That’s the short title. The longer title is The Lord’s Teaching Through the Twelve Apostles to the Nations. It is relatively short, shorter than the Gospel of Mark, the shortest of the four canonical gospels.

What are the contents? You would think from the long title that it was a list of things the apostles said as the church formed in the years are Jesus died. The gospels told of Jesus’ life and teachings. Acts told about the formation and initial growth of the church. The Didache then gathered the teachings of the apostles. Peter said this, John said that, Matthew said this, Bartholomew said that.

Here’s what the full title looks like in Greek.

But no, The Didache doesn’t quote from the apostles. Rather, it is a type of church manual. One book I read calls it the earliest church manual. It begins with a section called The Two Ways, speaking of the way a Christian should live. The two ways are called the way of life and the way of death.

After this it talks about false teachers, food offered to idols, baptism, fasting, the Lord’s prayer, and communion. A section deals with teachers, apostles, and prophets who travel among the churches and how they should behave and how the churches should greet and provide for them. Additional topics are meeting on the Lord’s day, the offices of bishops and deacons, and being watchful for the second coming of Christ.

When was it written? The relative simplicity of church government suggest it was written at an early time. The ecclesiastical hierarchy developed slowly and became burdensome sometime in the 2nd Century. The Didache seems unaware of that system. I read quite a bit about this. Scholars have suggested  any time from 60 A.D. to 180 A.D. Those that favor the later date suggests that the simple church structure was the writer’s attempt to show how it was at the time of the apostles. Those who favor the earlier date point to the absence of government structure as evidence that the date of writing has to be early.

For The Teachings, I chose the earlier date. The book is set from 66 A.D to about 74 A.D. (I won’t be sure of when the book ends until I finish writing it; it may end closer to 71 A.D.

Who wrote it? No one knows, and I’ve seen no speculation about that. The two ways section is very close to a part of the Epistle of Barnabas, a non-canonical writing thought to be from the first century. Other parts of The Didiche echo other writings from outside the Bible, but nothing seems to suggest who wrote it. Most likely that will remain a mystery.

Bryennios found The Didache while rummaging in a Turkish library.

How has history treated it? That this book was once an important part of the church is evidenced by mentions of it by church fathers in the late 2nd Century up into the 4th Century. However, many years later and it was lost. No one read it; no one copied it; no one mentioned it any more. Why would it fall out of favor? Perhaps because it wasn’t considered authoritative enough to be included in the New Testament (though some early lists of Christian scriptures do include it). Possibly the primitiveness of church government made it passe once the structured church had a complicated government. Why go to the trouble of copying a book that no one used any more?

The Didache was thus known to have existed, but we had no copies of it (save for a fragment or two) until 1873. A Greek Orthodox official was looking around in a library in Turkey and found a scroll that bore a date of 1056 A.D. Several books were written on this scroll, including the complete text of The Didache. The finder published the text 1883, and within three years the collective scholars of the church, in the Middle East, Germany, Great Britain, and the USA were in an uproar, arguing about it, trying to figure out its place in the church and composition time.

For this book of mine, assuming it was put together around 66 to 71 A.D., who wrote it? Scholars see it as a composite document, not written at one time, maybe not even by one person, and perhaps not at the same place. That is the premise I’m going with. One man will primarily responsible for its assembly, but the contents will come from many places. I may even write in a delay in issuing it.

In my next blog post I’ll write about what was going on in the world at the time my man is working on The Didiche.