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SAMPLE LESSON
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Background

The earliest and most reliable information we have about the origin of the Gospel of Mark comes from Papias ca. A.D. 125. According to Papias, this gospel was written by John Mark a companion of Paul and later Peter. It was written around A.D. 65 shortly following the deaths of Paul and Peter. According to Papias it was intended to be read by the church in Rome. So as you are reading it keep in mind that this Gospel was most likely written for a Gentile, that is to say, a non-Jewish audience. Also, it would have been an extremely persecuted audience.
 

Themes and Features:

• Mark moves quickly. You are going to see the word “immediately” over and over again.
• This Gospel relates Jesus ministry from his Baptism up through his resurrection a full one-quarter of the book is spent on the details of the last week of his life. There is a strong sense of Jesus as a servant willing to suffer if necessary. A message that would have been inspiring for Mark’s roman audience who was being harshly persecuted.
• Lots of Stories in Mark reveal Jesus authority.  Watch for what Jesus has authority over.
• Secrecy.  Jesus frequently tells people not to spread the word about him after he performs a miracle.  There is a lot of speculation as to why Jesus did this.  Watch for this recurring theme.  Why do you think Jesus wants people to not talk about him?
• Mark begins his Gospel by announcing Jesus coming as the fulfillment of a prophecy from Isaiah.  As you read Mark consider how Jesus is the fulfillment of what God sought to do in the life of Israel through the law.

 
I hope you enjoy the video and have a great read of the Gospel of Mark.
 
Blessings,
 
John Arnold
The Practical Disciple
 

I try to enter every day with what I call my ‘Big Five’ list.  I use to sit down and write out a bottomless list of meetings, commitments, tasks, and sundry chores that needed attention.  The list was never realistic.  So, it was demoralizing when I never finished.  Far too many items got carried over than I care to admit.  One day, I realized that what I was doing was idiotic.  I decided to limit my list to five things.  I called it, ‘My Big Five.’  I would only work on those five things until they were done and then I would move onto a new big five list.  It was very liberating and helped me focus and kept first things first.
 
Some days I would write on my big five list, ‘Bible reading and TRAF.’  TRAF stands for toss, refer, act and file.  It’s something I picked up out of a productivity newsletter years ago.  The idea was that I would get my Bible reading done near the front of the day when I was fresh and I would take ten minutes to purge miscellaneous crud out of my office.  It’s a great practice.  One day though as I finished my Bible reading, I closed my bible, set it to the side and leaned over to check it off of my list.  As I checked it off, I realized  I had not taken any time to reflect on what I read.  I hadn’t really paid attention as I was reading either.  I had just crammed through reading four chapters so it could get checked off my list.  My Bible reading had just been relegated to nothing more than a chore to be done like feeding the dog or watering the plants.  What was I thinking?  I wasn’t.
 
I turned back to my Bible and re-opened it.  I skimmed back over the passage.  I gravitated to a few verses and allowed my attention to tarry there.  I thought about what God might be saying to me as I went into the day.  I wrote some thoughts in my journal.  The Word wove its way into my thoughts and actions.  It influenced a devotional I offered the next morning.  This is the way it ought to be.
 
If you are trying to get in a habit of daily bible reading, putting it on your list or in your day timer can be a great strategy.  Just make sure that you are giving God the attention God deserves when you do it.  I find I don’t  have that attention when I get so busy that I become a human doing and stop being a human being.  Slow down and tarry with the Word.  Try not to treat your reading as a chore that you are getting out of the way.  Bible reading is an opportunity to: commune with God, bathe in His mercy and His presence, encounter His Son, be guided by his Holy Spirit, be fed and nurtured, encounter the truth and a host of other grand holy adventures.  I hope you never loose sight as I did.  May God bless your reading.
 
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Identifying a principle, task or change is just the beginning. Once identified you need to set concrete measurable goals for how you will pursue the calling. Some callings can be accomplished via a goal and some callings require an ongoing discipline. Particularly, I find that life changes requiring repentance often times necessitate the adoption of some form of ongoing spiritual discipline.
 
Lastly, I need to add that not every sermon or bible lesson is going to necessarily leave you with something to do. Sometimes you simply get exposed to a truth that you need to know or understand. For example, a sermon may teach you about the divinity of Christ. That is a truth you need to understand but there may not be a particular calling in it. So, don’t beat yourself up if you don’t walk away from every scripture passage with a mission. Similarly, I found that sometimes God gives me comfort or assurance. In those instances, where I do not sense any immediate calling I simply  thank God for the truth revealed or the comfort given.
 
Next time you read try looking for one of these specific ways God speaks to us through his living word.
 
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Now I’d like to make a rather practical observation. A general desire to know and to study the Bible does not necessarily mean that we will always be overflowing with enthusiasm to do so. When we say that we desire to study the Bible we can mean two things. We can mean that we spring out of bed in the morning eager to rush to a comfortable chair and spend some time drinking in the Word of God. Though I think all Christians long to be like this, the sad fact is that very few are. The reason I am writing these words today is that I have felt little of this enthusiasm lately. I’ve found myself dreading times in the Word far more than I’ve eager anticipated them. And I hate this, I hate my lack of interest, my lack of passion and desire. And yet it seems to be where I am right now.

In my 25 years of reading daily, I have had more days than I care to admit where I just pushed through my Bible reading and I don’t regret it. When I was first compelled to read the Bible the motivating feeling was a sense of “should.” That’s not entirely a bad thing. It took a while for that to turn into desire. At first, I couldn’t find time to read and then as my interest and knowledge grew I felt at times as if I could not find enough time to read. I met a guitarist recently for a Christian Band named Last Hour. His name is Cliff Pennington. He sent me an email about reading the word of God that expresses that same shift. With his permission I am quoting his email.
 

You know we were talking about God’s Word and trying to get kids to read it. If we can just get them to read it! I was going to say that for me personally, the thing that helped me the most, was the day that God helped me to realize that His word is not a burdon. His instruction is not restrictive. Basically, The Bible is not a “RULE” book. It’s the key to life, the abundant life, that Jesus promised us. Living by it’s teachings and focusing on it’s truths and principles is really what sets us free and helps us to begin living… Truely living. I’m one of those people who always used to use the excuse that I just “hate” to read but once I gave in to the Master’s will and did it anyway, He spoke to me through it. Now I can’t read the Bible enough or even books by other people about the Bible or what they’ve learned from it. Now all of the sudden I’ve read books by C.S. Lewis, John McArthur, Ravi Zacharias, Less Strobel, J.I. Paker, Bro. Andrew, Alex McFarland, and many more. I just can’t explain in words the joy I’ve received from God through His word and I want to convey that to everyone just like you do. The world teaches us that by constricting ourselves in our lives to God’s word that we are limiting the joys we can have in life. I say that God created us; knows us better than we know ourselves… He should therefore understand how to make us happy. Why shouldn’t He? He’s our father… He’s tied His happiness to our hapiness. The limits presented in His word simply guide us down a path that leads us to ulimate “true” happiness. The world only presents to us “false” happiness that never lasts. True happiness, in God’s love through His perfect guidance, will never end.

Mindset has a lot to do with how hard or easy it is to get into the Word. We have a lot of choice around mindset. It’s good to be reminded by Cliff about the pure joy it should be that we get to read God’s Word, not that we “have” to read it. It’s good to read things like Chris’s quote and it’s good to be in fellowship with other believers reading because it can help inspire us when we are going through one of those low periods, such as the one that Tim Challies is in right now.
 
So, I just want you to realize that if you are struggling right now with reading, what a lot of people don’t tell you is that this is not unusual. Seasoned Christians with an amazing love of the Lord go through times where reading is just inglorious tough work. Those times pass though and I would urge you to persevere. Do your reading and pursue study diligently.
 
Lastly, I would encourage you to also not judge the value of your Bible reading based upon your experience of your actual reading time. In our culture, immediate gratification has come to drive many of our expectations. Yet, you are not going to necessarily have some epiphany or visionary insight every time you read the Word. I first learned this from a wise old monk. The trappist monk, Basil Pennington, who has written and taught extensively on centering prayer, once said to a group of students I was retreating with that we shouldn’t judge our prayer based upon the experience of the prayer time. We should instead judge the value of our prayer based on how our lives were transformed over a season of prayer. He said that we should wait and see if we are treating our family with more kindness. Are we slow to react angrily? Are we more loving? The wisdom of his words are equally true for other spiritual disciplines, such as, bible reading. The really value is not in the immediate experience but rather instead, in the transformation God affects in you over time.
 
Stick with it. Enjoy it. Revel in it. Blessings on your reading
 

• Investigation–Detect, study, explore, gather
• Incubation–The longest stage, quantity over quality, can involve blending, traveling, polarizing, walking, meditating, praying and sharing
• Illumination–The editing of stage two, illuminate the big idea, the “Aha!” moment
• Illustration–Portray and personify the big idea, design, create

 
I read this process and immediately thought, this sounds very much like the process I try to follow when writing a sermon.  It is a fitting general prescription for Bible reading as well.  I had never really thought about my general Bible reading as a creative process, but really it is. Each time we read we should strive to manifest the word as a living reality in our lives. That is truly a creative process.
 

FIRE THE VOICE IN YOUR HEAD SAYING,

“YOU’RE NOT CREATIVE”

IT’S A LIE.

You might be thinking, “But I am not creative.”  Kick that crud out of your head.  You are created in God’s image.  God declares that immediately on the heels of creating everything, including people. Do you think God forgot to include creativity?  Also, when you look at all of creation people are the one thing that God created with the ability to create just for the beauty of creating.  That includes you.  Have you ever seen a child with no imagination?  You where once a child.
 
Let me ask you this, do you worry about things that never come to pass?  Just think about that for a moment.  Those worries are fantasies of fear created in your head by…guess who….YOU!  Where else did those fantasies come from accept your imagination?  I bet you never thought about that as being creative.  It is creative, just in an unhealthy manner.
 
So, when you pick up that bible…

• Investigate–have the curiosity of a child. Go at scripture like you are on a treasure hunt.
• Incubate–Go ponder. Take a hike. Sit around doing some handy work. Mull it over while doing something slightly physical but pretty much mindless.
• Illuminate–Once you have had some mull time, try to formulate a response out of the ideas that arise.
• Illustrate–Find a metaphor or picture. Can you find an analogy that captures your insight. This will really cement your discernment in your long term memory. Often times a metaphor or picture will be a catalyst for deeper insight. Also, put your words to work. Live them out. Living out the Word of God is how you truly come to understand it deeply. When you do that you are creating at the finest level. You living into the image of God.

Summer months for many people include travel. I find that travel can present some challenges to maintaining my normal routines for prayer and Bible reading, but they are not insurmountable. Yesterday, I drove to our church camp to serve as a chaplain for a couple of days with our camp staff who are going through training. When I got to my room, the first thing I did was set up my devotional space. You can see it in the picture above. Something that is sacred or holy is something set apart for God. That little space is my sacred space for the next few days. It’s where I will take time set apart from the rest of my day to encounter God.

In my devotional space there are several items I brought from home and my office. These things serve as mental anchors to my home routines and are visual triggers to keep me faithful to my spiritual disciplines. Here is what is in my space.

1) My devotional bible. I use a Kay Arthur Inductive Study Bible for my devotional reading. It has no headings, footnotes or commentary. It’s basically raw text with wide margins for keeping notes. I do most of my reading from it because I like to first look at text and pray about it without being led by any other commentary. I use an ESV (English Standard Version) Study Bible, when I start moving into more research.

2) A candle. In the picture, a red glass candle holder with a cross on it sits behind the bible. That candle holder is from my office and was a gift to me. I often begin my devotional time by lighting a candle and saying the words, “I light this candle as a reminder of Christ’s presence with me.”

3) A blue mug full of colored pencils. I brought the mug and pencils from my office, as well. I annotate my devotional bible using colored pencils. I use colored pencils intentionally because they won’t bleed through the pages like highlighters or pens. To learn more about this practice read the post, What to write in your bible.

4) My journal. The black book in the picture is my journal. I journal in lots of ways. When I wrote my Novena, I intentionally wrote it on loose leaf paper, because I wanted to file it for easy reference next year. I find a bound journal more convenient when I am on the road. It’s smaller and I can readily pull it out when I am killing time in an airport or want to lie in bed and journal at the end of the day.

5) A little plastic turtle. You may not have noticed him in the picture. But in front of the blue mug is a little turtle. When I use to travel, I would get something from my kids to take with me as a tangible reminder of them and I would put it in my devotional space. For my son, I regularly brought a small plastic turtle I had bought for him while on vacation. For my daughter I carried a tiny clay vase with a dragon fly on it that I had bought her. This little turtle happened to be on my beside table when I was packing; so, I tossed him in as a reminder of my whole family. When I see him I remember my family in prayer while I am away from them.
 
Your travel set-up can be very simple. May be it’s picking a certain chair in your room to be your prayer spot and leaving your bible or a devotional guide in it as a visual reminder. Even if you don’t pick a space, carrying an object with you that spiritually reminds you of God and home can be very helpful. I began this practice when I was a missionary in Alaska by simply carrying a pocket cross. You can read more about that in the post, Surround yourself with objects that teach. I suspect that experience was the root of my practice now of creating a sacred space while traveling.
 
This practice has served me well and kept me true to my spiritual disciplines when traveling. I hope you will try it next time you travel. I am confident that you will find it is a blessing.
 

“For this reason I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.” (2 Timothy 1:6, NASB)

Meditation:

Today’s verse reminds us of simple yet often ignored truth, the gift of the Spirit requires responsible continued attention. The greek word translated “kindle afresh” in the New American Standard Bible, is a difficult word to translate cleanly. An examination of five versions yielded four different translations.

• The English Standard Version and New International Version-”fan a flame”
• New Revised Standard Version-”rekindle”
• King James-”Stir up”
• New American Standard Bible-”kindle afresh”

 
The translation challenge that results in so many different version is that the greek word is a compounding of several things. Perhaps, a more literal and accurate translation would be something to the effect of “to fire to life again.” Regardless of the translation the image given is a of having been given a fire that needs continued tending to burn and burn well. I teach fire making skills to camp counselors and children every Summer. I can’t tell you how many times I have started a fire for a struggling group only to leave for a little bit and find it nearly extinguished for a lack of care.
 
Caretaking a fire requires feeding and stoking. You must continually feed a fire so that it has fuel to keep burning. Often times you also have to interact with the fire to keep it going. You may have to rearrange some logs so they get better air flow or you may need to shuffle the coals around to expose them. I am learning through scripture and through this novena that the gift of the Holy Spirit needs to be also feed and interacted with. Through studying the Word we can feed the gift of the Holy Spirit. By exercising our spiritual gifts we can feed the gift of the Holy Spirit. Through prayer, particularly asking the Spirit to teach us and/or leaning on the Spirit for strength, comfort and discernment we can interact with the Spirit. What will you do today to actively feed or stoke the fire that has been placed in you?
 

Prayer:

Holy Spirit, Paul told Timothy in an earlier letter “do not to neglect the spiritual gift within you.” (1 Timothy 1:14)  His language in this letter is even more proactive. This word reveals to me a history of being passive in attention to you. I prayer that I will continue when this novena is complete to seek to learn more about you. I would like to come away with a plan from this nine day period of reflection for knowing specifically, how I should continue to “rekindle” or “kindle afresh” this gift.  I give you thanks for this word today.  Amen.

 
If you missed the beginning of this “Dose of the Ghost” series, just read this post, A Protestant Novena, A Dose of the Ghost.
 
 

My Bible Table of Contents with All Books Checked. Yeah!!! Click for a Closer Look.

Yesterday, I completed reading the Bible again using the simplest plan ever.  Please Note—This is the simplest plan not necessarily the best or most effective plan.  I simply made a check mark every day next to whatever chapters I read and resisted reading anything that was already checked.  That was it.  It’s nothing fancy or complex.  I just checked off chapters and when I completed a book I went and put a check next to it in the table of contents.  I new that eventually I would finish.  Eventually, was yesterday.

I wasn’t legalistic about it.  There were a number of days where I reread certain chapters.  Sometimes I did this because I was studying it.  Or other times I just felt lead to read a particular section.  Also, truth be told, some days I was really tired and I simply read 4 short Psalms and called it a day.  But, by and large, I resisted rereading and just kept chunking my way through chapters I hadn’t read yet.  I read the New Testament first and then doubled back and read the Old Testament mostly straight through with the exception of the Psalms and a few of the minor prophets.  Psalms I picked up here and there.  The minor prophets I used as a break away from the New Testament periodically.  I read four chapters a day.  How many isn’t necessarily important as long as you just keep at it.

So now what?

I am not certain yet.  I started reading the Gospel of Mark this morning and went through and marked any keywords.  I then listed my observations, questions, and how I needed to responded.  I wrote about 2 pages of journaling.  I do know that I am hungering to do more than just read and get through chapters.  Whatever I do next will be a fairly orderly approach in terms of the content.  More importantly, I think I want to slow down and study what I am reading more closely.  I suspect that I will always read 4 chapters.  After 25 years of doing this, that much has just become a part of who I am.  However, now I have hit a time where I will continue to read 4 chapters but back up and do some real focused work around passages.  I guess the bottom line is I am yearning for a bit more depth.

If you are not reading regularly I highly encourage you to adopt one of the one year bible reading plans on The Practical Disciple Resource Page or do what I did and just start reading chapters every day.  Check the chapters off as you finish and check off the books as you finish them as well.  Blessings upon your reading from The Practical Disciple.

• Weekly emailed learning modules
• Process-oriented content i.e. provide tools for equipping rather than just information
• A password protected website of resources, links, modules, etc.
• A conference call system for coaching
• Multimedia content, i.e. video, audio, and text
• Both embedded and downloadable media for easy access.
• Action-the oriented content

 
So how did it go?

Putting together the initial structure was a huge undertaking that I had to pull off in under a week and by-and-large came together  as I envisioned it.  The three college students I recruited were awesomely receptive to the possibilities.   Everyone came out of the gate very enthusiastically, but we all struggled with busyness and how to integrate daily time in the Word.  Busyness was perhaps the single largest obstacle in the whole endeavor and I will say more about that under ‘lessons learned’ below.
 
While I want to revamp a significant portion of the content I feel like the content is solid, helpful and significant.  I did not teach any content about the Bible.  In other words, I didn’t teach any facts, information or lessons about the actual text.  My focus was equipping participants with tools for reading, learning, applying and experiencing the Word so that they would then experience transformation.  I am anxious to receive their feedback on the effectiveness of those tools and/or how much they applied.  Conversationally, I am aware that the participant’s activity level was very diverse.
 
Challenges

I found the biggest challenge in this process is not in creating the content but mentoring students toward application.  I know from my own experience that the tools I shared will prompt significant spiritual growth when consistently applied, but you have to help people apply them first.  As mentioned above, ‘busyness’ was the biggest obstacle for everyone along with the fatigue it produces.  When I revise the program and run a second test group  I am going to make the program longer with more incremental steps.  This will help people move into a more solid baseline of daily reading.  Also, I need to include some exercises for developing greater self-awareness around time management, priorities and self-discipline.
 
I am reminded of a friend of mine who created a fantastic independent study on animal tracking. He quickly discovered people couldn’t really do the program because they lacked basic naturalist skills necessary to understanding animal behavior. He had to create a naturalist study to get people the foundation necessary for the tracking study.   We live in a culture driven by immediate gratification and multi-tasking.   I have to help people tame those time beasts if they are effectively going to study and apply the Word of God in their lives.
 
Where do I go from here?

I have one last module to write to complete the study I started.  I will finish that, then get feedback.  Revise the program.  Then some time in the very near future, I will be relaunching another test group with preferable 15-20 people.   I will be adding a forum to the bible coaching website that will allow for peer mentoring and a place for people to post questions prior to the group conference calls.  I also am working on a series of “mindset” recordings.  There are certain mindsets necessary to being successful at any spiritual discipline.  I am hoping that the audios will inform, motivate and direct the participants toward greater success in the spiritual goals that they set.
 
Your prayers for this important process are much appreciated.  I hope you have taken time to evaluate your Lenten experience and worked on a “where to go from here” plan.  If not, then I encourage you to read my earlier post of questions to help you evaluate.
 
Lastly, I would love to hear from other readers what they did for Lent and any important lessons they learned.
  

Also, I added links on the resource page to the downloadable handouts for the inductive bible study method that I shared in yesterday’s post.  If you haven’t been to the resource page before, check it out.  There is a growing variety of helpful links and handouts available via that page.

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Visit the resource page by clicking here

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Have a blessed day everyone and hope you can see God moving through your spiritual commitments during Lent.