March & April: Not Really a Reading Report

    My studies the last month have been focused on preaching. Having transitioned to a different sermon series requires a shift in emphasis. The long month’s studying Matthew’s Gospel were fruitful. I was able to give attention to other reading because I was pretty well “read up” on Matthew when I started preaching from it in December. 

Now I am preaching a short series entitle Heroic Hope in Hard Times. I am using Hebrews 11 to frame messages about Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Moses and others. So my weekly reading has required biographical and commentary reading on these individuals—both with respect to Hebrews 11 and the portions of the OT where their stories are mostly told. 

This is a relatively (for me) short series of only 8 messages. My next series is from Nehemiah. It begins the first week of June. This leaves barely a month for background reading. I started backgrounds last week and with several rather large monographs to go through it will take most of the next four weeks. Then there is Hebrew work, preliminary outlining, mining some illustrations. Boring stuff, unless you like the craft of preaching. So, not much of a reading report. I can’t really recommend to you what I’ve been reading for the last month unless you intend to follow the same course of preaching I am undertaking. 

And we are resuming Sunday School starting May 2!! Of course, that means preparing to teach. Another project with its associated reading. This has required me to go through the material I had written in March 2020 to figure out how far I had gotten, where I need to begin, and what I should just go ahead and repeat. 

I have also completed a large writing project in April. I am now going through the manuscript correcting it. So, a lot of what I have been reading has been stuff which I have written. When planning this regular installment for each month I had envisioned that I would be able to provide better summaries of materials you might find helpful in your lives, discipleship, and ministry. At this point I simply have a longer reading list myself. 

    I am reading an interesting book on the 30 years war which is an interesting corollary for our own time and place. One emphasis in this book is the difficulty one has in disentangling the political, from the religious, from the cultural issues which created the 30 year war in the first place. This seems to speak eloquently to an age, which,  emerging from crisis is having some difficulty defining and aligning itself. 

Always be reading. Study the Scripture. Correlate other articles, books, and media with what the Bible teaches you. Keep focused on how God can use your mind to touch the lives of others.