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
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
of Scripture
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.
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.
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?
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