Note From Author
WELCOME TO A WORK OF BIBLE STUDY FICTION
This is the first description you’ll see when you open my blog. It’s at the very top of the page:
“Bible Study Fiction = Christian or Inspirational Historical Fiction + Bible Study = A different kind of fiction reading experience and a different kind of Bible study experience * By Stacy Duplease”
Then, there’s a section to the right, near the top of the blog, that has this header and text:
“MORE OF A BLOG DESCRIPTION: A Christian Historical Fiction series, plus a Bible study, about the life of Jesus and the lives of those who knew Him or knew of Him * The Bible study is at the beginning and end of each chapter, along with at the end of the book. * Also a writing Christian or inspirational fiction blog” - See more at: http://biblestudyfiction.blogspot.com/#sthash.LhmsU8tb.dpuf
OKAY... SO WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR THIS BOOK?
You might wonder: “Okay... What does this mean for this book?” I know I would if I were you. Therefore, let me try to explain in the rest of this note.
IF YOU WANT TO READ THIS BOOK ONLY AS A WORK OF FICTION
If you only want to read this book as a work of fiction, then read only the fiction parts. I will make sure to give a header to let you know what is a Bible study and what is the fiction. So, skip the sections that are the Bible study if you want.
However, you’ll get a great deal more out of this book if you read both the Bible study and the fiction sections. Might I suggest if you want, read it all the way through as a work of fiction, then go back and read it as both and take part in the Bible study? This would be the best way for you to get as much out of this as possible.
WHAT IS THE FICTION BOOK ABOUT ANYWAY?
It’s about the life of Joseph of Arimathea during the Holy Week, with flashbacks of the life of Jesus. This story is told through his eyes, from his perspective, and is in first person.
WHY AM I WRITING THIS BOOK? I WANT TO KNOW JESUS AND THE FOUR GOSPELS
I’ve decided to commit to the next six years of reading the Four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John monthly. I started this on March 26, 2014 and will do this at least through March 26, 2020, if not longer. I’m calling it: “6+ Year Four Gospel Project.”
Why have I made this commitment? I want to get to know Jesus as much as possible.
WHY AM I WRITING THIS BOOK? PART 2: MY DIRECT ANCESTOR
Last month, I discovered something that was rather astounding. I have been working on my family tree and discovered Joseph of Arimathea is my direct ancestor. He is my 75th??? great-grandfather. Consequently, I started to work on the “6+ Year Four Gospel Project” as I found a passion to even more get to know everything I can about Jesus.
It also made me want to get to know who Joseph of Arimathea is exactly and I keep wanting to get to know his story. I cannot imagine getting to know it more than through imagining it and asking a lot of “what-if” questions. Hence, that’s what I’m compiling here in this volume and series of books about the lives of those who knew Jesus Christ the Messiah and knew of Him.
BIBLE STUDY INSTRUCTIONS: WHAT YOU NEED
At a bare minimum is:
1 PRAYER JOURNAL: Please get a prayer journal or set one up on your computer to use as you go through this book. After all, there is not a workbook that comes with this book. You’ll be expected to use your prayer journal as a workbook, as well as a prayer journal.
2 At least three versions[1]of the Bible (so, 3 Bibles), but preferably nine or more (I’m not kidding.), with at least one of them being a Study Bible so you can look up cross-references.
Ideally:
3 Access to the internet.
BIBLE STUDY INSTRUCTIONS: PRAYER JOURNALING
Prayer journal as whenever I instruct, but also whenever something jumps out at you as you read. Take notes. Jot down questions, things you want to remember, and any thoughts that come to mind. Interact with the material, the fiction as well as the Bible study material.
END OF DAY AND VERSE OR PASSAGE PRAYER JOURNALING QUESTIONS
These are the questions to answer in your prayer journal each day at the end of the day. But, also as you read one verse and when you read a passage of the Bible.
Why? It’s because interacting with the text (my words and fare more importantly of the Word of God) means you’ll take ownership of it and will be more likely to apply it to your life and remember what you learn.
Here are the prayer journaling questions:
1 What jumped out at you and grabbed your attention?
2 Why did it jump out at you?
3 What does this mean for your life?
4 What did you learn about Jesus, whether you already knew it or not?
5 How can you apply this to your life as something to do or something not to do? Make a plan to do this immediately.
6 Is this a verse or passage[2]of Scripture[3]you want to ponder some more throughout the day? Why? Would you want to ponder it after today as well? Why?
7 Is there something in the reading today you would like to ponder some more today? Why? Would you want to ponder it after today as well? Why?
8 What did God say to you?
9 What did you say to God?
10 Write a summary prayer about #1-9.
They are mainly:
INTERACTION WITH ONE ANOTHER: LET’S BUILD A COMMUNITY
Interaction between you and me and you and others is something I hope to foster here. Let’s build a community to support one another and be there for one another. Moreover, let’s pray for one another and hold one another accountable to what we read and learn. Let’s have some discussion as well.
So, how will we do this? I hope you’ll check out my blog at: http://BibleStudyFiction.blogspot.com
Attach a comment at the end of any blog post. If you do, your comments will be shared with the world and will not be kept private—unless you mark it as PRIVATE. How you mark it as private is in your text, type something like this out. “I want to keep this private, please. Do not publish online.”
You can also add a comment in the comment section The contact form) on the right hand side of the blog, toward the top.
Or, you can send me an email to: agodlyvision@gmail.com.
If you have any thoughts, suggestions, comments, concerns, questions on upcoming books, I would most certainly welcome them.
But, far more importantly, it doesn’t matter when you start to read this book. Meet on my blog and join the community found there. We can be there for one another. Again, let’s pray for one another, dialogue, and hold one another accountable.
LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS UNIQUE JOURNEY
The combination of a Bible study and fiction makes this not like any other Bible study done before in the Christian Book Market. Sure, some novels have questions in their fiction for Bible study, but I will add a great deal more. For instance, I will include: commentary, Bible study material, questions, thoughts, cross-references, life application, etc. In other words, I will incorporate far more of a Bible study than any other fiction written to date, with additional Bible study material.
The other books were written to be novels—with added bible study material. They are wonderful! I love them far more than anything that doesn’t have bible study material. In fact, I think all Christian novels should have Bible study material. Otherwise, is it really Christian? (But, that’s just me. I’m biased.) I am not saying not to read them. No. Not at all. I just think that in today’s worked. With how busy we are, we can save a lot of time and hassle, never mind money, if we combine novel reading and bible study.
What set my books apart from the rest is I will have just as much Bible study as I do fiction. This is what matters to me and I think it will help us be able to figure out how to apply to our lives today—once we fully understand, grasp, picture what happened in the Bible and what it meant in that day. This makes it easier to grasp it and figure out what it means to us today.
However, this half and half proposition means work on your part as you go through this journey.
30-MINUTE+ COMMITMENT: Needless to say, I will expect more of you than these other delightful novels with Bible study material in them. This will require a commitment of at least half an hour each day.
This is an unique journey because we’ll explore the Bible for ourselves in a fresh way where we try to imagine what it was like back then. We will learn what the Bible says about what happened, then we will imagine from there what we might have thought as someone looking in, as well as the character whose eyes we will look through, and in this case it’s Joseph of Arimathea.
Are you as excited as I am to begin? It will be an unique reading experience of the best of both worlds, fiction + Bible study, rolled into one. Now… Shall we get started?
[1] Version of the Bible: A version of the Bible is the same as a translation of the Bible. The two words version and translation are synonyms and are one in the same.
[2] Passage of Scripture: It’s more than one verse.
[3] Scripture: These are synonyms of one another and mean the same thing: Scripture, Bible, Word of God, Commands, Truth, God’s Love Letter to Us, etc.
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