Assimilating Books by Groups

I have been taking a different approach to assimilation - assimilating books by groups.  This really isn't anything new.  Gary Carpenter has talked about assimilating the Gospels together to get a good image of Jesus, and to get a good image of the Father because Jesus is the express image of the Father.

I started with the books of John: the Gospel of John, the 3 letters of John, and Revelation.  I admit I had a purpose in mind for reading these books together.  Many modern scholars believe that John did not write all of them.  They say that he wrote the Gospel and the 1st letter, but not the other letters and Revelation.  They say another John, called John the Elder wrote 2nd and 3rd John because that is how he identified himself.  They say a third man called John the Revelator wrote Revelation.  I believe John wrote all 5 books credited to him.

One of the reasons they give for believing that different men wrote these books is a difference in writing style that is evident in usage of the Greek language.  Now I am a writer, and have been for several decades.  I'm sure my writing style and usage of words has changed over the years, so I say John's writing style could have changed as he aged.  Also, consider one of the major rules of writing: consider your audience.  You don't write a children's book with the same style and vocabulary that you would use in a doctoral thesis!  John could have adapted his writing style according to the purpose of each book.

Also, I was looking for themes common to all of John's writings.  Ever notice how some ministers have a theme or themes to their ministry?  Smith Wigglesworth and Kenneth Hagin are known for their faith teaching.  R. W. Schambach was known for power.  Dave Roberson is known for tongues.  If the writings ascribed to John had common themes, that would go a long way towards supporting his authorship.

I expected to find themes of Truth, Light, Life and, of course, Love.  I found them, and more.

Then I did the writings of Luke together: the Gospel of Luke and The Acts of the Apostles, as a prelude to the letters of Paul.  Of course, Luke was not only Paul's companion for a good portion of his ministry, he provides us with the most information about Paul.

Now before going on, I need to remind some of you, and inform the rest of you of what I have done with the books of the New Testament to make them easier to read:

http://lightseekerok.blogspot.com/2011/08/using-technology-to-assimilate-word.html

Because I have prepared these books this way, I usually do one book a month, reading it once everyday if it is not too long.  The longer books I might take a portion at a time, such as half of the chapters or pages one day and then the other half the next.

When I went through the books of John, I followed a different schedule.  I have the 3 letters in a single document, so I always read them together.  I put all three documents (the Gospel, the Letters, and Revelation) in my smaller binder for the group reading.  I counted the total number of pages, which came to a number divisible by 3.  The number of pages for Revelation was close to equal to one third of the total.  So, for the first month, I would read a portion of the Gospel of John one day, the rest of the Gospel and the Letters the next day, then Revelation on the third day.  I repeated that cycle for the month, then spent a month reading just the Gospel, one month readings the Letters, and one month reading Revelation.  The spent another month reading all the books on the same schedule that I used the first month.

Right now I am working my way through the letters of Paul, but not as a group.  That would take too long.  But within the letters of Paul, I plan to do some groups.

Now, I do have the letters to the Corinthians in one document, and have done the same for the letters to the Thessalonians and Timothy.  I have also created a document for the letters of Peter.

I have already gone through Romans and the Corinthian letters and I am currently reading Galatians.  I probably will not reread Corinthians again for a while, but I realized very recently that I need to go through Romans and Galatians again as a group, with Hebrews included.


If you wish to try this approach yourself, here's my recommended list of book groupings:

Books of John - the Gospel of John, the 3 letters of John, and Revelation

Books of Luke - the Gospel of Luke, the Acts of the Apostles

Letters of Paul-
              Romans, Galatians, and Hebrews  (even if you don't believe that Paul wrote Hebrews, it does cover related subjects)
              1st & 2nd Cornithians
              Prison letters: Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon
              1st & 2nd Thessalonians
              Pastoral letters: 1st & 2nd Timothy, Titus

Gospel of Matthew, James, Jude  (Jewish perspective common to these books)

Gospel of Mark, 1st & 2nd Peter  (Mark was Peter's relative and ministry companion)

Zandstra-isms

I have had the privilege of listening to my friend Doug Zandstra speak at the Family Prayer Center in Tulsa several times.  Now Doug is an evangelist, so he mostly exhorts, edifies and encourages people when he speaks.  However, once in a while he drops a nugget of wisdom that amazes me.  So, I believe we can benefit from some "Zandstra-isms."

"caSINo"   Need I say more?

When talking about God speaking to him, he said, "I know it was God talking to me because the devil never calls you 'Son' - he calls you SCUM!"

Then from this morning, while talking about praying for a man who had cancer, "Get MAD at the devil!  MAD means Miracles and Deliverance!"

Can't wait to hear what else will come out of his mouth!  I hope to have more Zandsta-isms to post soon.

And Now, A Word About Words

In the modern church in America, we do see problems.  I won't go into details, but if you've seen any news lately, on your own, you can think of reports about famous preachers caught in sexual scandals, financial shenanigans, or engaging in abusive, controlling behavior towards their staff, followers, or church members.

All these problems have one source - the flesh.  Now some would ask, "What about the Devil?  Doesn't he create problems for believers?"  Yes, he does, but only by appealing to the unmortified flesh of believers.

Through my recent Bible reading, and comparing what I see there with what I see in the church today, I believe I have discovered a problem that might contribute to some of the other problems in the church.  This problem is very subtle in the way it affects the church.

So, what is the problem?

We have substituted man-made religious meanings for New Testament words.  In other words, we use NT words with different meanings than what was given them in the NT.

How bad a problem is this?

In some cases, not too bad.  With some words, we haven't really changed the meaning too much, but just enough that we have lost some aspect of their original meaning, so that we have a gap in our understanding that hampers us from walking in the full truth of God's Word.

In other cases, the discrepancy between modern church usage and NT usage puts us in a position of nearly contradicting God's Word.  Sometimes, the modern meaning isn't contradictory, but foreign to what the word means.

Consider the incident recorded in Matthew 15: 1 -9:

Then some Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, "Why do Your disciples break the tradition of the elders?  For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread."  And He answered and said to them, "Why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?  For God said, 'HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER,' and, 'HE WHO SPEAKS EVIL OF FATHER OR MOTHER IS TO BE PUT TO DEATH.'  But you say, 'Whoever says to his father or mother, "Whatever I have that would help you has been given to God," he is not to honor his father or his mother.'  And by this you invalidated the word of God for the sake of your tradition.  You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you: 'THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME.  BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN.' "
(Matt. 15:1-9 NASB)


In this passage, the religious people got onto Jesus because His followers weren't performing the religious, traditional, ritualistic method of hand washing before meals.  Jesus responded by telling them what He thought of their religious traditions!

Now, you might wonder what traditions have to do with words.  How are traditions passed down?  By words!

The religious people invalidated God's Word through their words!

If you still don't see the danger of changing the meaning of words in God's Word, consider what Satan first said to Eve: "Indeed, has God said...."  (Gen. 3: 1)

The reason why this problem could contribute to other problem is that we could be operating in the flesh, but we think we're okay because we're using words taken from the Bible.  We think that we are saying the same thing the New Testament is saying, but we're really not.  On the flip side of this danger, we have become so accustomed to the religious meanings, when we read the NT, we think it's saying the same thing we are.

Now, you might think I'm just trying to get picky about words.  I hope I'm not.  I don't want you to stop using scriptural words; I want you to use them with understanding.

Which words am I talking about?  Stay tuned...