Finding Jesus in the Bible…So We Can Follow Him in Life
Bible Reading Plans
- Plan One: New Testament Only
- Plan Two: New Testament + Psalms
- Plan Three: New Testament + History
- Plan Four: The Entire Bible – Year 1 of 3, Year 2 of 3, Year 3 of 3
Don’t know which plan? Go to A Christ-Centered Bible Reading Plan: Quick Start.
Extras
Verse of the Day, Audio Capsule, and Video Minute
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(Today’s Book Installment)
Taking a Breath Between Books
There’s no book installment for today. Instead, let’s take a day to take stock of what we’ve been reading – and what we’re going to read next.
The One True Church turned out to be roughly the same length as The One True God. That is, each book is about 50 chapters, 150 pages, and 35,000 words.
This is the size I was shooting for. Most non-fiction books are 50,000 to 80,000 words, with the subset of self-help, how-to, and business books coming in at 30,000 to 60,000 words. So both of these books are within that range.
I’m sure glad that I adjusted my plan a few months ago to produce a trilogy of three books instead of the one gigantic book that what I was writing was turning out to be.
Recall the three books:
- The One True God
- The One True Church
- Living in the Kingdom of God
I expect it will take me all of November and December to write the third book, just as it took me all of September and October to write the second one. The first book took three months because I was away from the keyboard for about three weeks due to a medical issue.
You may recall that the original book that quickly became too big was to have been titled The Implications of the Second Coming as Accomplished Fact. It was to have followed The Biblical Case for the Second Coming as Accomplished Fact in the same way that The Implications of Everyone Going to Heaven followed The Biblical Case for Everyone Going to Heaven. This pattern was, of course, that the “biblical case” book justifies the issue, and the “implications” book describes the consequences of the issue. If everyone was going to heaven, there had to be implications.
My goal was to write about the implications of a fulfilled Second Coming just as I had many years ago written about the implications of everyone going to heaven.
While I could have written the three books of this trilogy to be independent of each other, I thought there was more merit to calling them a trilogy so that they would be read in order. That way, there could be less repetition in each book because each would build on the foundation laid by the book before it in the same way that the “implications” books could build on the foundation laid by the “biblical case” books.
All this is to explain why I’m using a highfalutin’ word like “trilogy” for stuff I’m writing. Understanding that there is only one true God and that there was only one true church really does clear the way for better understanding how to live in the kingdom of God. And it’s also the case the each of the three ideas is individually big enough to justify the time and thought that a book requires. I still believe a book is the best way to absorb any big idea that is new to us.
As for grading my writing, I think I’m still improving – but far too slowly for it to be something to brag about. I’ll keep trying.
Tomorrow will be the first chapter of Living in the Kingdom of God.
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