A few months I asked God what he wanted me to study next? I praised him for many miracles, blessings, lessons among other things in my walk with Christ.
God made it clear through examples including prayer 🙏 and other people I interacted with on a regular basis to study Paul’s journey. I immediately identified with Paul’s passion to carry out his duties, with zeal.
I deliver food boxes each week and one of my regular guests is a mature Christian. Each week, we chat for awhile on various topics. He introduced me to John MacArthur. I was unfamiliar with John before this. My friend gave me a couple books. One was called The Gospel according to Paul. Click here. and “One Faithful Life”.
I read The Gospel according to Paul first. John’s writing style was definitely a step above. My initial thoughts his book seems a bit academic and theological. While not a typical writing style I prefer. I was attempting to be obedient to my perceived calling to study Paul.
After a couple weeks, I prayed and asked God. Am I supposed to finish this book? I was distracted by John’s frequent use of unfamiliar and “big” words I would need to lookup the meaning. This was distracting while reading and understanding what topic or concept being discussed.
Gods answer was with grace. “Steve” just keep reading and skim by words you are unfamiliar with. After this perceived answer to prayer. I was able to finish without issue.
After finishing “The Gospel according to Paul” written by John. I spent a few weeks studying a book by Louis Giglio called “not forsaken”. I will be teaching a class in the fall of 2020. If you follow my blog, there are 10 posts about my experiences in this book.
When I finished Louis’s book. I felt the call to return to another book my guest gave me. It is “the faithful one”. It was very clear I needed to read both books by John MacArthur regarding Paul.
Besides Jesus, Moses and probably King David. There isn’t another individual God uses in the Bible to bring his kingdom to the people.
I was surprised 😮 early on Paul was the perfect person Jesus could use to bring his ministry to Gentiles. The thought of a zealot, who knew the Old Testament and traditions of Jews was perfect. His passion was well documented to persecute Christ followers.
The format of the book is a chronological timeline of Paul. Part 1 reminded me how much deal Saul had to persecute Christians his day. The story of Stephen is well documented in Acts. Paul approved over the death.
From there is covers Sauls conversion, to Paul’s meeting of the original prophets. The style of the book is way different and mostly is like reading the Bible. There is some interjected statements unlike the other book I am reading. This is enjoyable and a refresher of covering The book of Acts.
One of the things on my mind as I read through Part 1. Life continues for the world after Jesus death. There was a certain disfunction yet workable society. Much like today, there is a lot of disfunction and the world continues. Depending on who is in power, is what agenda is pushed.
In part 1, it includes original apostles such as Paul, Phillip. In all, three is 32 small stories in Part 1 labeled from Pharisee to Pastor.
On to our Part 2…
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