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| We were at the Tigers game last night. |
I have over 100 Redeemer adults (and some from other churches - thank you!) doing Deeper Bible study with me. They receive the text I'm going to preach on for the coming Sunday. Plus notes on what I am doing, how I am doing it, and so on as I prepare to preach the text. I want to point them in a direction and not do the research for them.
If you want to join me in Deeper Bible Study email me at: johnpiippo@msn.com.
My Revelation sermons can be accessed here. You can see how I have integrated my studies into my sermons. And occasionally someone else in our church preaches. We mentor people to preach, and to do it this way.
PLUS: I will be studying the biblical books of Daniel and Ezekiel this summer, since they are key texts to help understand Revelation. I will be sending DBS participants notes and thoughts and resources, and we'll have three group meetings to discuss these books. And in the fall we will do an entire class on the book of Isaiah.
HOW I AM PREPARING
Here’s how I am preparing, today, for next Sunday.
1. I’ll print these verses out (Revelation 3:14-22) and carry them with me. I’ll pull them out and read and re-read. If I have a thought or a question, I’ll write it down.
2. Occasionally, I read – again – the entire book of Revelation. This is good to do to give me the broader context. In interpreting the Bible (or anything for that matter) context is necessary.
3. I turn to biblical commentaries on Revelation. As in anything, some commentaries are better than others. The Revelation commentaries I am especially looking at are by Ben Witherington, N.T. Wright , Robert Mounce, Grant Osborne, George Beale, Craig Keener, Gordon Fee, George Ladd, and Eugene Peterson. You can see all these at amazon.com. You can access major sections of each at Google books.
JOIN ME
Here are my suggestions for you, this week:
1. Read the verses. If possible, over and over. Perhaps carry them with you on a 3X5 card.
2. If there is something you do not understand, this is where you will want to do some study.
3. This week, at least once, read the entire book of Revelation.
4. Try pulling up one of the Revelation commentaries using Google Books.
RESOURCES
I use biblegateway.com to pull up the text. It’s easy to look at other translations on this website.
I mostly use the NIV translation. I really like what Eugene Peterson has given us in The Message.
One excellent study tool I use is Google Books. It’s free!
When I use Google Books to look up biblical commentaries, I do this, for example:
1. Pull up Google.
2. Type in, e.g., “Revelation Laodicea" (because these are two of the key words).
3. Click on “More”
4. Click on “Books”
5. Then, a number of commentaries appear. Some are definitely better than others!
