Update on my reading
I wanted to give an update and reflect on the reading list I mentioned earlier.
I’ve almost finished the first book on my list, Green & Jackman, When God’s Voice is Heard. It’s been great to read Chappo’s chapter on preparing and giving evangelistic talks. If you’ve never read Setting Hearts on Fire, can I encourage you to do so. This chapter is similar in a lot of what it covers. Not surprisingly however, he covers in more detail the reasons for and the how to of what he proposes in the fuller book. One particularly nice thing about reading it is every now and then hearing Chappo’s voice in your head because he writes like he speaks.
I’m still struggling to get out of bed to read in the morning, but it’s worth it. By really struggling, I think it only happened once last week. Yet, whether foolishly or not, I set my alarm again and was up at 6am yesterday and today. I’m reading through Proverbs, which is a very different experience to most other Bible reading I do. Also, I’m reading through Ephesians and then reading some of the corresponding parts of Peter O’Brien’s commentary. After a recent conversation with a mate from college days, I decided to give up reading through the introductory chapter and got stuck into the commentary on the text itself. Two days in and it’s going well, as in, I’m up to Eph 1.3.
One other thing I’m endeavouring to do is to keep up with Con Campbell’s blog posts about Galatians. These have been really helpful for me to learn more about Galatians and also to watch his method as he starts with the Greek and moves to how to preach. Thankfully they are in bite sized chunks.
Another five books to go and a 6am start tomorrow beckons.