a bible study – Page 8 – 300 words a day

Notes on teaching

Guest teaching is hard to do. Recently, I was scheduled to teach an unfamilar group. The subject matter, apart from “something that can help them grow spiritually,” was up to me. I had prayed off and on for weeks. Now, it was the night before and I still had no idea what I was going […]

by Jon Swanson

Starting to read James

I teach about the Bible in lots of settings. Sometimes I have a hard time knowing where to start. For example, a group of us are starting a study of James. It’s a short letter in the New Testament. It’s a great letter to read if you want to defend poor people against rich people. […]

by Jon Swanson

How can I recognize the voice of Jesus?

I put a sign on a room at church. Hope saw it months later. She said, “You wrote that sign, didn’t you.” She knows my voice. It is, admittedly, a Jon Swanson sign. It ends with “Thanks”. It has a somewhat amusing parenthetical comment. It explains the reason for the prohibition being made. As a […]

by Jon Swanson

Prelude to reading Colossians.

In 52 AD, Paul arrived in the city of Ephesus. It was on the Mediterranean’s northeast coast. It was a large city for that time, about a third of a million. It was his second visit. On the first, a year before, he had stayed only a few days, left his friends Priscilla and Aquila, […]

by Jon Swanson

Reading a letter out loud.

“Timothy unfolded the papyrus letter, and began to read. ‘Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus.’ ‘So he’s alive,’ Timothy thought. He read the letter. ” I stopped reading. I wanted to hear other people’s voices in the study. “We always study Paul’s letters a phrase at a time, but they were letters, read out loud, […]