A single read through will "start the wheels" turning in our mind regarding Revelation as a book given to us by God, through Christ, to John. I'm not promising to write comments on each verse, or each chapter. But today, as we get started reading Revelation, here are some comments to share with you that I'll share with my family as we read Revelation 1 today. 

There is something about singing hymns that is intimidating. Learning multiple verses to different hymns can be time consuming and difficult. How can we as parents lead family worship and teach our children hymns when we do not know them ourselves? One of the great things we get to do as parents is to grow closer to God through the discipling of our children. Lets check out some ways that we can learn hymns ourselves, and then teach them to our children.

The trademark ploy of the serpent was to twist God's word. A failure to faithfully represent God's Word as God intended has led to all of the evil that we presently now know, experience, and do. Had Adam and Eve faithfully recounted and proclaimed God's Word there would be no curse, no death, no broken relationships, no war, no famine, no disease, no evil or any of evil's byproducts. 

This view sees Revelation as a preview of the entirety of history after the Incarnation of Christ. According to this approach events that occur throughout history have been previewed in Revelation. In this way there are parts of Revelation that are viewed by Historicist interpreters as having already taken place, and other parts that have not yet taken place. Steve Gregg provides some examples of the historicist approach:

The Idealist approach avoids any particular ties to specific events in the past, present, or future. If I was to suggest a meme to summarize the Idealist approach to Revelation, it would have to be from Pirates of the Caribbean since the Idealist interpretive framework looks for the grand lessons of Revelation rather than getting caught up in all the details. In this way the Idealist interpreter sees historical events (and future events) more like guidelines for interpretation rather than rules for interpreting Revelation.

Today we are taking a look at the interpretive opposite of the futurist view called the "Preterist" view. The word for this view comes from Latin word "praeter" which means "past". While the futurist view sees Revelation as mostly in the future, the preterist view sees Revelation as mostly in the past. While the futurist sees John's testimony as referring to signs and events that are in our future, preterist interpreters view John's prophecy as either symbolic retelling of events in John's past or prophetic forecasts of things which were in John's future, but our past.

One of the problems I find with teaching hymns to young children is that the words are not repetitive. This is great for adults and older kids who can read but becomes more difficult with younger children. Below ,you can find hymns that are simple to learn and fun for your children.

The most popular view of Revelation in contemporary western Christianity is called the "Futurist view". For many of you reading this series the futurist view will be the only view you've ever heard of or considered. In which case much of this may sound familiar to you.

Because of the multiple approaches to interpreting Revelation that have been held by Christians throughout the centuries I've decided to give a bit of background on Revelation here for anyone interested in "going deeper". This week the next few posts will be detailing a few quotes describing different approaches to interpreting Revelation. 

Beyond simply being a book with much interest, Revelation gives the Bible reader a chance to reflect on their own interpretive methods and habits. There is no book in the Bible which requires more self-awareness of what baggage, assumptions, and frameworks we bring to the text. Since we all have baggage, assumptions, and frameworks through which we view the Bible today I'm going to poke a bit (like a doctor or a parent, asking "where does it hurt?") at 3 mistakes which injure our ability to read a prophetic passage in scripture.

Here are 52 hymns for your family to sing during family worship. Our family sings one hymn a week, and then we listen to hymns while we are driving and working around the house to help us and our children learn even more. Chose to sing one or more a week to learn all 52 hymns in one year.

We cannot obey something that we have no knowledge about. We cannot grow in something if we have no devotion to it. First, a person must come to know. Second, a person then lives a life that is in accordance with that knowledge. Third, the more a person lives life in accordance with what they know, the more they grow in that new life. These three steps then become a cyclical pattern:

In general, we need to remember that the Bible should inform our thinking about God's plan more than the news. When we read about tragedies in the world, we need to search the scriptures and seriously consider what the emphasis and messages written in the Bible convey.

This week in preparing to preach on 1 John 3:21-24 I've been led to consider two phrases in the Lord's Prayer: "your kingdom come" and "your will be done". Below are some of the resources and quotes that I've found helpful in considering these two phrases: 

Today I'm sharing some notes about Paul's letter to the Colossian church. You can read a little bit about the Colossian church and how they first came to hear the gospel of Jesus in Colossians 1:7-12. Colossae was a city in what today is Turkey. In writing to this church, the Apostle Paul along with his ministry team, had a great many instructions, and encouragements. Below are some of my notes in studying Colossians for a Bible Overview class I'm honored to teach. 

The first passage details a moment of great cowardice. A moment in time when one of the followers of Jesus refused to be connected in any way to the recently arrested Christ. The second passage details a few months later when the same person who earlier refused any affiliation with Jesus, would not stop proclaiming Jesus even in the face of overwhelming pressure. In these two passages we see an experience of great cowardice and then an experience of great courage.

Homemaking is a term with a lot of weight attached. Depending on who you ask you will receive different answers as to what homemaking is, and whose job it is to do the homemaking. Homemaking is simply taking care of one's home through cooking, cleaning, teaching, etc. There is an uprising of memes in social media embracing the image of a frantic, stressed, mother. These memes embrace moms that are constantly making excuses for a dirty house, being unorganized, stressed, and being a "hot mess mom." 

In Luke 23 and 24 we read of the crucifixion of Jesus. Over the last few weeks since before Christmas we've been reading through the gospel of Luke. Luke's gospel ends with the death of Jesus, and then his resurrection and ascension. Within a few hundred words, Luke reports on the lowest, most dark moments of Jesus, and then the most triumphant, glorious, and overwhelmingly tremendous experiences of Jesus. These passages are like a valley below overshadowing mountains.