Embarking
Preparing to study HisKingdom.Us
HisKingdom.Us has already become a large website that covers an extensive amount of material. I’ve tried to make the presentation consistently appealing, engaging, intriguing, informative, and thought-provoking, but there’s a lot to cover. Overall, by the time it’s completed the site will have well over 100 web pages, many of which have references to supportive articles and other websites.
How to approach the material in a supportive context
This is the amazing story of God’s everlasting Kingdom and how it relates to Us, not only all of mankind but each one of us individually. God reveals Himself and His purposes to those whose hearts have learned how to seek intimacy and communication with Him on a consistent basis. And since the story is one that’s put forward in great detail in the Bible, learning to read the Bible with an open heart is a gift and skill that will greatly enhance appreciating what has been gathered together in this work. With these thoughts in mind, I am proposing that you seriously consider setting aside some dedicated time on a daily basis to seek God’s enlightenment in meditation, prayer, and Bible study.
Four suggestions for getting the most out of your experience
1. A time and place – Choose a daily time in a dedicated place for quiet prayer and guided meditation. An excellent resource for getting started in this activity, especially if you’ve never done it before or have gotten out of the habit, is Bob Sorge’s small book Reset, which is available here in printed form as well as in electronic versions. I’ve prepared a brief Reset Prayer Outline of the essentials of Bob’s approach to daily devotions and can also recommend an excellent and classic devotional book to accompany your meditations composed entirely of Scripture verses compiled over a century ago by the Samuel Bagster family.
2. Bible study – How do you go about adding a study of the Bible to your daily devotions? First, it’s helpful to have an easily readable, annotated Bible like the ESV Study Bible. Then it’s good to have a regular plan. One Daily Bible Reading Plan, which works well for many people and takes a modest amount of time will allow you to read the entire 66 books of the Bible at least once in a little over 2 years’ time, is set up like this. Divide the Bible into 3 sections: the New Testament, the Old Testament, and the Book of Psalms. Read one chapter a day in each section, starting on Day 1 with Matthew 1, Genesis 1, and Psalm 1. Allow what you’ve just read to settle in your mind as part of your regular devotional time, then advance one chapter in each section every day. When you reach the end of a section, go back to the beginning of it again. You’ll cover the Old Testament in 26 months, during which time you will have read through the New Testament three times and the Book of Psalms five times! Feel free to take detours from your regular routine to read Books and Chapters of the Bible that are specifically pertinent to the material you’re studying in our website at the time.
3. HisKingdom.Us study – You can navigate through our entire website in sequential order by using the buttons at the bottom of each page, much the way you would read a book from beginning to end starting with the introductory material and then going through the chapters in order. If you approach it as you would an illustrated book of some complexity, you would do well to set aside about the same amount of time and focus that you would to read one of Charles Dickens’ longer books like Little Dorrit. Feel free to stop and start as you go along, covering several web pages at a sitting if you like and then noting where you are in the Menu when you stop so that you can pick back up where you left off.
4. Studying with others – It’s always helpful to study and grow together with others who have similar convictions and interests. That’s one of the primary functions of a living church fellowship. If you haven’t already found a place to study with others, consider keeping your eyes open for an opportunity and then check it out! One option you could consider is available for review here.