Friday, January 6, 2017

January 6 – “The New Book”

OK.  Somebody up North left the barn door open.  It is 44 degrees on the Island right now.  And the weather app on my phone says we are going to get down to 33 before all this is over with.  Now I have to get out in it and put one of those cover things on the front outside faucet (the one that faces north).  Feel free to take the cold back.  We really don’t need it here. 

It is now official.  I have completed another book.  No, really.  This one is called Visual Verses: A Weekly Devotional Guide to Encouragement and Scripture Memory.  Now I don’t have enough money to send it off to a self-publisher.  Besides, there are hundreds of illustrations – that’s the point of Visual Verses.  And with my last book each illustration had to be sent as a separate jpeg file.  That’s just a little bit crazy.  So for this one I will just print each copy out slowly and methodically on my printer here at the house.  It does take forever, but it gets the job done.  I printed up five in the first run.  Three went to my kids for Christmas presents.  Looks like the cost will be $15 per copy plus a $5 charge for mailing.  I’m hoping that will cover all the costs of toner and paper and postage. 

So what are Visual Verses, you may ask?  Or you may not.  Or you may have actually seen one and wish I hadn’t brought it up.  A Visual Verse is, in a nutshell, a rebus.  And what is a rebus?  Good question.  A rebus is dictionarily: a puzzle in which words are represented by combinations of pictures and individual letters.  In this case Scriptures verses comprise the words.  I learned back in college that if I could attribute a weird picture to a key phrase in each line of a list of things, and then make those weird pictures somehow interact with each other, then I could learn concepts much more easily that just by constant repetition - by rote.  Several years ago I started applying that method to learning, then teaching Scripture.  Since I have been at Seaside, the Visual Verses have become a fun way to start off the service with a key verse of Scripture while breaking the ice, so to speak, with the people as well.  And that breaking the ice is often needed in an area where every single Sunday we have numerous visitors who we likely will never see again.  They are in town for a quick weekend away from working in the big city of Houston.  Or they are here for their one week at the time share condo.  It really helps to have something light-hearted and fun to open a teaching conversation. The book is set up as 52 separate, short devotional thoughts with a visual verse tied to each.  That gives you a week to work on learning the verse before tackling another one. 

So there you have it.  That’s my commercial for the year on this book.  If you want one you have to let me know so I can get it printed for you.  Reply to this blog or email me or message me.  It won’t be a classy, high-sheen super-artist kind of work.  But it will be fun.  And if you are a visual learner … it might give you some insight on using your unique style to become a better disciple of Jesus.

Philippians 3:8-9 says, “What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ — the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.”


Father, use this book to help folks draw closer to you and your word.  Amen.

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