Ministry Resources - Life's Ups and Downs

In my last post, I noted that I had recently uploaded all of my Christian resources to our website. Here's the link: http://www.cincyanglican.org/library.html

The first resource listed is a Bible Study I wrote during the summer of 2010, called "Life's Ups and Downs: Charting God's Truth for Your Life."

Here's the link to just that document: http://www.cincyanglican.org/Lifes_Ups_and_Downs.pdf

The study uses a number of charts and graphs to help understand the Christian faith and a Christian's "life in Christ". The content comes from thoughts and reflections from some seminary classes I was taking at the time.

Here's a chapter outline:

Part One
Ch. 1 - Life's Circumstances
Ch. 2 - Life as we want it to be

Part Two
Ch. 3 - The Lord of Life
Ch. 4 - Our Authority in Life
Ch. 5 - An Eternally Living God
Ch. 6 - A Living God in Three Persons
Ch. 7 - Life as it deserves to be
Ch. 8 - The Life and Work of Christ

Part Three
Ch. 9 - Life in Christ
Ch. 10 - Life in the Kingdom
Ch. 11 - A Life of Rest
Ch. 12 - A Life of Becoming

You may notice that all of the chapters have the word "life" in the title....that wasn't by mistake. Jesus' favorite word to describe salvation was "life." (Read John 10:10, 14:6 and 17:3 to see some examples).

Whether you are new to Christianity or a seasoned believer, I hope you find some encouragement in this resource.

-d.

Ministry Resources

This week I uploaded the Christian resources that I've written to our website.

I'll plan on doing a few additional blog posts on each of the resources to explain them in more detail, but in general there are materials on:

- the essentials of the Christian faith
- Christian leadership
- prayer

...and a few other topics.


Here's the link: http://www.cincyanglican.org/library.html

Hope you find something helpful!

-d.

Latest Bible Study - Dealing with Life's Ups and Downs

I recently finished writing a new Bible Study this summer called "Dealing with Life's Ups and Downs".

Here's the link (the .pdf version is available for free):

http://www.cincyanglican.org/Lifes_Ups_and_Downs.pdf

The study uses many charts and graphs to explain the concepts - and has a number of questions to help the reader/participant reflect on their views.

I'm hoping it's a helpful resource for people who are either new to the Christian faith or seasoned Christians -- to help in understanding more about the fundamentals of Christianity and our incredible Lord of life.

The content comes from thoughts and reflections from my recent seminary classes.

Here are the chapter titles:

Part One
Ch. 1 - Life's Circumstances
Ch. 2 - Life as we want it to be

Part Two
Ch. 3 - The Lord of Life
Ch. 4 - Our Authority in Life
Ch. 5 - An Eternally Living God
Ch. 6 - A Living God in Three Persons
Ch. 7 - Life as it deserves to be
Ch. 8 - The Life and Work of Christ

Part Three
Ch. 9 - Life in Christ
Ch. 10 - Life in the Kingdom
Ch. 11 - A Life of Rest
Ch. 12 - A Life of Becoming


Blessings,
-D.

A Detective Story

Ever since I was a teenager, I've enjoyed detective stories, especially those written by Raymond Chandler. His fast moving thrillers are enjoyable to read. I'm also a big fan of the old black and white film noir movies that are based on his stories.

As I was chatting this week with a friend about Aimee Semple McPherson (a very popular minister in the 1920s and 30s who founded the Foursquare Gospel Church), I remembered that I had written a short story a few years ago inspired by her famous disappearance of 1926.

One day "Sister Aimee" (as she was known) went to the beach for a swim and disappeared (many at the time assumed she had drowned). Thirty-five days after her disappearance she stumbled out of the Mexican desert and into a border town. She reported that she was abducted, but many had doubts and different theories about her disappearance.

In 2005, after reading a brief account of her disappearance, I thought it would be interesting to write a detective story in the style of Raymond Chandler inspired by 1926 event. (As they say in "Law & Order", my story is completely fictional and doesn't attempt to portray any actual events or people).

Here's a link to my detective story.

A word of caution to sensitive eyes...there are a few accounts of violence in the story.

Enjoy,
-Dave

Writing Project - to page 200

I'm still editing: "Go Eat Popcorn: A personal journey through Paul's letters".

I'm now up to page 200. In the latest section, I look at the "Big Picture" ideas of Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians.

Here's the link for pages 1 through 200:

http://www.dstiles.com/GoEatPopcorn.pdf

Blessings,
-D.

Writing Project - first 150 pages

I'm continuing to edit: "Go Eat Popcorn: A personal journey through Paul's letters".

I'm now up to page 150...in the latest chapter, I explore some differences in the translations of Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians.

Here's the link for pages 1 through 150: http://www.dstiles.com/GoEatPopcorn.pdf

-D.

Writing Project - first one hundred pages

...still more on edits to my writing project called "Go Eat Popcorn: A personal journey through Paul's letters".

Here's a link to the first 100 pages: http://www.dstiles.com/GoEatPopcorn.pdf

Grace and Peace,

-D.

Latest Writing Project - the first 50 pages

I've been able to spend some time editing a writing project that I started last year...

It's called "Go Eat Popcorn: A personal journey through Paul's letters". It is somewhat difficult to categorize...it's somewhat of a blog and somewhat of a Bible commentary.

My hope is that it will be an engaging look at four letters in the New Testament and help Christians discover new life in Christ.

Here's a link to the first 50 pages: www.dstiles.com/GoEatPopcorn.pdf

As Paul would say...

Grace and Peace,
-D.