My Devotional Book–Where Did THAT Come From? You’ve known me as Andy Zach, a comic scifi and fantasy author. Where did this Bible devotional come from? Written by Jeffry Smith? Who’s he?
It came from thirty plus years ago. ‘Jeffry Smith’ is my nom de plume for non-fiction.
The book began as a Bible study on the book of Revelation. I was tired of reading all the interpretations and arguments over what it meant. I was just focused on on thing: what did it say?
Going through the book verse by verse, writing every statement down, I got what the book was actually saying.
The first two verses took me like a half an hour or more.
Why?
Look at the verses:
This is the Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things which must happen soon, which he sent and made known by his angel to his servant, John, 2 who testified to God’s word and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, about everything that he saw.
I broke these verses up into these statements:
- This (entire book) is the Revelation of Jesus Christ.
- Which God gave Him. (Jesus got the book from God the Father).
- To show to His servants (Christians are the servants of Jesus Christ.)
- The things which must happen soon. (Future events, from the point of view of John, the writer.)
- Which He sent and made known by His angel. (Jesus used His angel or messenger to send this message.)
- To His servant, John. (John is called Jesus’s servant. He received this book.)
- Who testified to God’s word and of the testimony of Jesus Christ. (This is what John wrote)
- About everything that he saw. (This testimony is about his visions from God.)
Whew!
TLDR Version – My Devotional Book
This kind of analysis is too complicated for most people. So I made it simpler. Here are the first two verses in the devotional:
January 1 – Revelation 1:1-2
This is the Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things which must happen soon, which he sent and made known by his angel to his servant, John, 2 who testified to God’s word and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, about everything that he saw.
What is the origin of the book of Revelation?
How did John get the book of Revelation? Through which Persons did the Revelation pass?
What is the purpose of the Revelation?
Who is the intended audience of Revelation?
What is in the Book of Revelation?
Prayer: Thank You, Almighty God, for giving us the book of Revelation, directly from You through Jesus Christ our Lord. Thank You for using Your created angels and sons of men to spread Your truth through all the world. Amen.
God gives us the name of the book: the Revelation of Jesus Christ. He gives us the topic, things which must happen soon, and shows the provenance of the book as the knowledge flows from His throne through Jesus, to His angel, to John, and then to the whole church.
My Devotional Book – What You Need to Know
The first and key point is, if you’re interested, it’s on sale at 70% off. Click here to get yours.
I also have autographed copies. Click here to grab your autographed copy!
What is this site? It’s my Square site. What’s that? It’s my OFFICIAL SALES website. I sell you my autographed books at LESS than Amazon AND include free shipping.
How can I do that? I cut out Amazon.
Amazon takes a 30% commission on each sale. It then deducts the printing cost of each book. That leaves me with 30% of your money.
But Square takes a 1% commission. I get most of your money even though you are paying less. That lets me:
- Pay for shipping for you
- And then pay for taxes for you
- Finally I pay for printing the book for you
My Devotional Book – Part 2
So how did this study go from a personal Bible study to a published devotional?
After I completed the study, it lay in its handwritten version for years. Then I typed it up on my computer, where it resided for more years. Then I decided to make it into a class about Revelation.
I decided I would skip any interpretation and just teach what the book said. That became an eight week class of hour and a half sessions, going through all twenty two chapters.
Teaching the class at my church and then at Bradley University helped me refine it.
My students demanded another book of Revelation class covering the interpretation of its symbols.
So I created a class covering all the symbols in the book, showing how they were used elsewhere in the Bible
Get My Latest Book Autographed – The Story Behind the Book Part 3
By this time I was pretty familiar with the book of Revelation, forty years after I started studying it. How’d it become a book?
Publishing my first Bible help, The Gospel Medley, encouraged me to try writing a The Revelation Devotional. Reading Timothy Keller’s The Songs of Jesus devotional about the book of Psalms inspired me. Also, one of my friends, Leslie McKee, also wrote a devotional, Hope Amid the Pain. She also edited my book.
Note that I use a different name for my two Bible help books, Jeffry Smith. That’s my non-fiction name. Andy Zach is my fiction name.
We look a lot alike.