Getting the most out of this Blog.

I have found these studies particularly powerful in establishing young Christians in the faith. I have taught them several times and each time the results are the same:
* Those that go through these studies tend to not fall away later on in their Christian walk when they face trials.
* Those that have been Christians for years and have never before done these studies find lots in them that challenges them and gets them going again.
I don't know what it is but there is something about the content in these studies that God uses in a powerful way. I repeatedly find myself challenged by them each time I teach them. I hope you find them as helpful.

Just a few tips to help you get the most out of them:

1. Take only one study a week.

2. Read it 2-3 times during the week. Make sure you look up all the Bible verses. You can clip and paste it into a Word document if you find this helps.

3. Sometime during the week (make it a regular time every week) spend about an hour thinking about the homework questions and applying them to your own life.

4. Use the "Transformer Verses" every day. It is these that will be used by God to really change you.
Read the verses out loud every day and pray the prayer. Reading them out loud will help you memorise them. I find it takes me about 10 days to really learn the verses so I use each set of verses for 2 weeks. This means that I am using two lots of Transformer verses at a time - but it doesn't take long. I also find that it is usually after 10 days that God begins to work through the verses to change me. If I only use them for a week I miss out on the change - and I don't actually learn the verses off by heart. If you can, use the Transformer Verses and prayers morning and evening.

Some of the questions being discussed here are considered to be controversial by many. I don't see it that way. In God there is nothing controversial. Controversy comes when we get an opinion of our own and insist on it when it doesn't really agree with the Bible.

Often I approach such questions from a different stance and come up with different answers to the entrenched positions. In other words, I think outside the box. If you are looking for a different way of seeing things to help you resolve conflicts in your mind you may find my approach a helpful resolution. It is for me. For me, I like the positions I have come to - they answer the questions - honestly, I believe, from the scriptures.

Surprisingly, however, even though I am often "outside of the box of current opinions" you will not find me to be Liberal, or Modernistic. In fact you will find that to resolve issues I revert to the Bible, the teaching of the Early Church, Hebrew ways of thought, or to the methodology of the Reformers. I am really very traditional, but also not so if the traditional teaching really doesn't hold together. So if you want a conservative approach that will stretch your thinking with new ways of seeing things you may find it here. I hope you like it.

I try to be honest with what the Bible says. Sometimes that hurts. Sometimes people get offended when I do that. People got offended with Jesus too for the same reason. But, as a teacher of the Bible, I have to say what is there, not what I would like it to say. It is no easy task.

One thing is for sure: No matter how long you have been a Christian, no matter how much study you have done, no matter how much you know - there will be things in this series of studies that will be new to you and will open your mind to other possibilities in God. I say this, not because I thank I am a great student of the Bible, I am not! But God has led me on a somewhat strange path in my pursuit of truth and sometimes that has led me down roads not often travelled. You will find things here that will make you think about things in a new way. I guarantee it! And I am confident that if you do work through these studies you will end up agreeing with most, if not all, that I have written - even the things that are totally new to you.

My greatest joy, however, is not having people agree with me - though I do like people agreeing with me, who doesn't? Rather I like to see people pick up their Bibles and get into them for themselves. When this happens God speaks to them. So when you read something here you haven't heard before, or that you find difficult to agree with, that's fine by me. But it's even better if you, like the Bereans "search the scriptures to see if these things are so" (Acts 17:11). They were called "noble" because they took this approach. If my ideas spark off a desire to seek the truth yourself and new ideas are sparked off in you by God then I have succeeded in what I set out to do.

Of course the contents of this blog are copyright. This is not because I want to restrict the content, I do not. I am more than happy for you to use anything on this blog. If you are a preacher, Pastor or Bible teacher and want to use things from this site, or all of it go ahead. If you want to photocopy the studies off and distribute them to a group Bible study go ahead - so long as you don't charge any more than the photocopying charge. Preach them if you want to, teach them if you want to. Much of the content I read in someone else's book anyway. My contribution to originality is not that I have anything new to say but that I have put it together in a new way.
What I am concerned about is the fact that some people (including some Christians) are unethical and will reproduce the work of another person at a profit for themselves. It has taken me hundreds of hours to get this blog to this point. I would not be happy if someone else profited from my labours.
I have made this freely available to the body of Christ - let's hope anyone who uses it respects that.

Along the way I have referred you to some books by other authors. These are all books that have been seminal in my walk. Of course I haven't listed everything I have read but the ones that I think are excellent (and that I have remembered where I got ideas from) I have listed.

I acknowledge inspiration at this point from Derek Prince's "Foundations" series - primarily for the idea of preparing these studies. At times I have used bits of his material, but not often. You will notice traces of his material in the studies on Baptism, Laying on of Hands and Eternal Judgment. However, in general, I wanted to take a different approach to his so there is not much dependence. I recommend his book - not because I agree with him (I don't often) but he gives another way of seeing things that many will, find helpful.

Blessings on you.

John