The Shechinah

This is a project that I've been working on for close to half my life. At least the very first chapter - or module - is based on a set of notes that I came up with about 1993, to teach to a small group of co-workers, the staff of a slum day care centre in an obscure corner of Bangkok. The inspiration for it came a few years earlier than that, during my time of founding a couple of churches in Southern Thailand (Prachuab province), as something that would both help new believers to be grounded in the faith, as well as go onward to be leaders, teaching others what they've been taught. 

As I was slowly working away at it, it grew, first, to a set of three or four study outlines that I used to teach a class at a Bible Training centre where I was at the time (CFTI). Later, after I had added more modules to it - still in the form of study outlines - I published it as Tishbyte Foundational Bible Study Series. 

More recently, I have rewritten it in long form, but adding discussion questions, and using a lighter outline format at the start, that doubles as a table of contents. Thus, the TOC doubles as an outline for reviewing, or simply using for teaching notes.

The blurb probably describes it best:

“How can I be a better Christian?”

By getting your focus off yourself, and falling in love with God’s plan to dwell among humanity. That, indeed, is what the whole Bible is all about: GOD DWELLING AMONG HUMANITY.

In this book we explore and observe how the whole of the Bible is saturated with that desire of God’s heart. That, by itself, should change your life and motivate you to become a part of what God is accomplishing in the world today.

My hope is, once you’ve done a thorough study, aided by this book, you will not only have the motivation, but also the tools to move forward and assist in establishing God’s Kingdom wherever you are, as the Breath of God energises you.

This is not about getting you to join any particular movement or church group. The idea is to to enable you further - where you are right now - by sharpening your understanding of what the Old and New Testaments are really about, and motivate you to fall in love with the Kingdom of Jesus, the Messiah, who is the Shechinah - the dwelling of God.

This study series in one volume can change your life, and give a new direction. If you’re already going in the right direction, it’ll give you all the more “oomph” you need.

Further to that, while I do feel that Seminary and Bible School education is valuable, I also honestly believe that if one were serious enough, stuck to it, and went through this - preferably as a part of a group - one would come away with the tools to lead, mentor, pastor, or engage in whatever aspect of the five-fold ministry God has called one to. That's not to say that it replaces any need for human input - it doesn't. We're called to build one another up and to be accountable to one another; but at least this should serve as a vital tool. 

For the purpose of expressing where I am coming from, and where I got all this, I've also written a very long bio, which you can find on my website, titled, My Journey So Far. In the front page of my website, It's introduces as My Very Long Bio (warning: very long). Indeed, as of my last update, it's reached the length of a novella.