This is live folks. When I conceived of the Bible Gems, the concept was to do it fresh and live. I have kept myself ahead of “you” by just a day or so. Deliberately so that I have a buffer if I have busy days and don’t get as much done as I would like to do, especially when the text goes deep and I have to give it enough time. Why am I telling you this? Because I want you to know that I am applying the same advice I give you just a few days before. Of course I have lots of years of studying the Word to fall back on but I am also working my way through the text of John a few days before you do. It is fresh, new and exciting. It is online live Bible study. I say that because a number of you have got the idea I am just giving what I have known for years. NO, I am doing the work and looking at passages I haven’t looked at before with the degree of intensity and depth of focus that I haven’t before now.
I got so excited yesterday as I realized just how deep and complex a piece of writing John 6:22-71 really is (his added piece to what Mark and Matthew have done). As I looked at the page after I had coloured-coded themes and repetition and other notable things I was amazed at how the page looked. It showed just what a complicated piece of writing John 6:22-71 really is. I have inserted it above so you can see. [Just so you can see? No, so you can replicate it; so you can do it for yourself]
Many of you are telling me you are using the Gems for your own Quiet Times. Wow that excites me. I am delighted you are doing that and even more keen to help you in the depth that you go in Scripture. Here then is a picture of what John 6 is like. I never imagined John’s themes went as deep as they do. Give me input to where I go next. I am thinking that because it is so complicated I will tease out each theme one by one. So we will be a while on this passage. For that reason I have given you the picture above to show you an example of where you are heading. Then I will pause for another day to give you time to collect your thoughts and so you can do the work before we start to pull it apart. Howzat? Talk to me.
I have been inspired by my pastors at JPCC to share the deep stuff but “to add water to the concentrate too”. So I will attempt to do just that. Help me in that by telling me when you don’t understand, when you want more, etc. Talk to me people in order to make it more useful. Some day this will be published for John’s gospel and we move on to the next one. I hope the comment sections of the Bible Gems website will be filled with your comments. I hope you will email me or tweet me back. Let’s make this interactive. I will take it where you, my reader, want it to go. And as deep as you want. We can go a whole lot deeper than this. Talk to me. Tomorrow we take some time out on the shores of the Sea of Galilee.
Don’t make friends who are comfortable to be with. Make friends who will force you to lever yourself up.
Thomas J. Watson
He was the son of a drunkard. His mother died and he was forced to look after the family. Mozart predicted Beethoven would “leave his mark on the world”. In 1798 the first symptoms of deafness appeared yet he continued to produce some of his best work. He wrote the 9th symphony completely deaf. He couldn’t hear the rapturous applause of the audience when he conducted the 9th.
Ludwig van Beethoven: