Much Needed

Over the next couple of weeks I will be taking a much needed time of rest (it’s called vacation). The first five (5) months of this year has been challenging, a blessing, tiring, frustrating, prayerful, and fulfilling. I guess the best way to explain it is I’ve been a bag of mixed emotions since 2011 started. So, the church and I decided, I need to rest as I seek God for direction for the future of ministry.

However, as life would have it the challenges keep coming as my wife received the news Sunday morning that my brother-in-law, Ronald (Ronnie) Spears pasted away at age 47. Totally unexpected and it’s taking the entire family/friends for loop trying to understand what happened. We may never receive an answer but I do believe in the sovereignty of God. He and I had a wonderful relationship coupled with mutual respect for one another. And I will miss him dearly! RIP in peace my brother. And please keep the Tracy and the entire family in prayer. Tracy and Ronnie had a wonderful relationship that expressed love, joy, and respect. Literally, people seeing them would think they were husband and wife the way they spoke and laughed with each other. Needless to say, she’s taking it pretty hard and I request the prayers of the righteous to help her make it through this loss.

This week I started taking intentional steps in my devotional time by making sure I’m not reading my favorite topics but reading material and scripture on what will renew my spiritual strength and vitality. By doing this, I realized I made one of the best purchases of my life; Logos Bible Study Software. I’ve heard about the software but never purchased it because it was a little expensive in my opinion. However, in Dec of 2010 a representative came to our church to do a show-in-tell of the software and after that I was sold on the product. I’m so glad I got it!

The resources and accessibility available are priceless. My iPhone has become my best friend. I was able to download software app on my phone to access all resources for study, devotional reading, and pastoral assistance material. Wow! Before I purchased this product, each week after church I would copy, paste and print study material to read on the bus, at lunch, or wherever I could fit in study time with me being a bi-vocational pastor my study time is limited. My bat cave for study is wherever I make it at the time. But now I can study from my iPhone and no matter where I leave off on my iPhone or laptop computer I can pick up where I left off with my study. I love it!

Not only is study material limitless but resources for pastoral ministry, church administration, leadership development, sermon preparation, marriage counseling, singles ministry, and more are available as well. Books I’ve always wanted purchase is now on my iPhone thanks to Logos. Wonderful purchase, thank software developers.

Also, over the years I’ve developed my own sermon preparation worksheet. Here it is…


Monday:
BIBLE TRANSLATIONS



Tuesday and Wednesday:
VERSE BY VERSE OBSERVATION WORKSHEET

SCRIPTURE CROSS REFERENCE (S)


KEY TERMS (look for long words, big words, sophisticated words, repeated words, central words, emphasized words, words that catch your attention)


DETAILS – WHY (look for therefore, for, since, and, but, that, because) – why is this here? why is he saying this?

DETAILS – WHAT (look for verbs and actions taking place) – what’s going on?

DETAILS – WHEN (time chronology-appointment) – when did this happen?

DETAILS – WHERE (geographical location and spiritual location) – where did this happen?

DETAILS – WHO (look for people in the text) – who’s in the text?

DETAILS – HOW – how does it happen?

DETAILS – HOW – how does it apply?

ATMOSPHERE (sensing what you read – the Bible is about people let them live – 5 senses HEAR, SEE, SMELL, FEEL, LISTEN)

Thursday:
WORD STUDY AND SYNTAX WORKSHEET

COMPOUND WORD ‚ YES ‚ NO
VERSE
WORD
STRONG’S NUMBER
GREEK WORD
PRONUNCIATION
PREFIX
SUFFIX
BASE WORD

ORIGINAL GREEK DEFINITION


TYPE
MOOD
TENSE
VOICE
CASE
GEBDER
PERSON
NUMBER of TIMES USED in Script.

OCCURENCES IN THE BIBLE
# of times it occurs in Scripture:

Authors usage in the same book and other books he has written:

Authors first occurrence of the word:

First occurrence in the Bible:

Other writer’s usage of the word:

Ways it is translated:


CONCLUSION BASED ON CONTEXT AND COMPARISONS


DEFINITION (your definition is the final product)



Friday
STUDY TEXT OUTLINE:


Saturday:
COMMENTARY NOTES

Commentary By:

Notes



Saturday PM and Sunday AM:
Sermon Writing


This may like a lot to do but sermons don't grow on trees and this works for me and keeps me focused.