Taking the Epistle

Welcome to Taking the Epistle

Welcome to “Taking the Epistle” and I pray that God richly blesses you today!

Greetings

Greetings to you all, I thank the LORD that you found your way to our little spot on the internet. You are most welcome and I hope that you stick around and stay a while. Please check out our introduction to what we do here and I hope you will read our blog articles.

Why the name “taking the epistle?”

I have spent the majority of my life in Scotland in the United Kingdom of Great Britain & Northern Ireland. The phrase “taking the epistle” is a play on a Scottish phrase which is used as a question when you are questioning the validity of something that someone had said. I have always loved the Epistles and plan to use my personal Bible study and devotions time studying these in depth.

What is the point of this?

This is a personal journey through the Epistles of the New Testament; the Epistles start with the book of Romans and culminate with the book of Jude. As stated above (and this is strictly just my view) I have a great love for the Epistles. They are so rich in theology and I love learning from where correction and exhortation has been written previously.

What is an Epistle?

An Epistle is a letter written by a few authors who were the early church leaders; although in the modern church we will call these letters “books” when we talk about this part of our modern day Bible. What you have to realize is that the chapter numbers and verse breaks were not added until much later by Bible translators. Sometimes these gaps between chapters and verses are great, sometimes not so much.

The timeline of the Epistles covers a tremendously important time in the Christian history, these books having been written within 100 years of when Christ was crucified. This was actual letters written to actual people who were the first generation of Christians. Some came from a Jewish background, some came from a Gentile background and they all were together in one common Christian faith.

The Epistles are many things, they correct doctrine that has gone awry, they highlight practices to avoid, they offer a vital communication between the church planter and the church (and later the greater audience of whoever reads the Bible) they offer encouragement and have many great theological points that help show Biblical history and helps strengthen ones Christian faith.

My desire is through my love for these glorious and holy letters of scripture, to try to unpack a foundational Bible study type article as often as possible. The studies are done at a very basic level to encourage maximum participation. I would encourage you, even if you don’t speak “Christian-ese” to please have a look at the articles and I pray there is something for everyone.

Who are you anyway?

That really is not important, I am really nobody, and I am not a minister of religion, a pastor or a qualified teacher. My name is William; I was born in the late 70’s to Scottish parents and lived most of the first 30 years of my life in West Central Scotland. I have a beautiful daughter who really is the love of my life.

I am just someone with a deep love for Gods word and a hope that something I type will help someone become closer to God. If one person commits their life to Jesus, begins a relationship with him and enters discipleship to become a believer that goes out and reaches others, then this is all worthwhile. Likewise, if someone strengthens their faith through Gods words speaking to them, then it is all to the Glory of God! I take no credit for any good that comes of these articles, it is all for the furtherance of the Kingdom of God.

The church I attend teaches the Bible as a line upon line Bible study and I feel the LORD leading me to do likewise. As stated previously, my desire is not to teach you, but to show you the word of God and a basic explanation of how it could possibly apply to your life. My style is a critical questioning style and is done in the style of a Bible devotion. (Rather than a sermon style) Lastly the writing and spelling style is UK English. (Apologies to my US based readers)

Introduction to TTE

At Taking the Epistle we have the following sections in a drop down menu format. For your convenience and just in case you cannot get the above menu to work, I have supplied the pages below. We have split the pages into the following categories. (Parent pages are in bold, subpages or “child pages” are in regular text)

Homepage (this page)

#BIAY – Bible in a year
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December

About TTE
Agape Bible Study
Bible Copyright
Christianese
Contact
Social Media
Testimony of main author
TTE Graphics

Blog (Where most of the articles are)

Christianity 101
Advent
Baptism
Bible reading (part 1)
Bible reading (part 2)
Bible versions
Church attendance
Communion
Fasting
Israel
Prayer (part 1)
Prayer (part 2)
Tithing/Giving

Creation
Creation Day One – In the beginning
Creation Day Two – God separates the waters
Creation Day Three – Earth, vegetation and trees
Creation Day Four – The Sun, Moon and Stars
Creation Day Five – Living creatures
Creation Day Six – Man made
Creation Day Seven – The first Sabbath

Decalogue
1st Commandment – No other God’s
2nd Commandment – No carved images
3rd Commandment – Name of the LORD
4th Commandment – Remember the Sabbath
5th Commandment – Honor your father and mother
6th Commandment – Do not murder
7th Commandment – Do not commit adultery
8th Commandment – Do not steal
9th Commandment – Do not bear false witness
10th Commandment – Do not covet

Gospel 101
01 – God’s perfect world
02 – Man’s fall
03 – God provides a temporary solution
04 – God sends his son
05 – Jesus completes his mission
06 – Where will you go when you die?

Media page (where we review media that is relevant to a Christian audience)
Movies

Studies – The Bible study pages
01 – Pentateuch/Law of Moses (Genesis-Deuteronomy)
02 – Historical Books (Joshua-Esther)
03 – Poetry/Wisdom (Psalms-Song of Solomon)
04 – Major Prophets (Isaiah-Daniel)
05 – Minor Prophets (Hosea-Malachi)
06 – Gospels (Matthew-John)
07 – Church History (Acts of the Apostles)
08 – Epistles (First Corinthians-Jude)
01-Romans
02-1st Corinthians
03-2nd Corinthians
04-Galatians
05-Ephesians
06-Philippians
07-Colossians
08-1st Thessalonians
09-2nd Thessalonians
10-1st Timothy
11-2nd Timothy
12-Titus
13-Philemon
14-Hebrews
15-James
16-1st Peter
17-2nd Peter
18-1st John
19-2nd John
20-3rd John
21-Jude
09 – Prophecy (Revelation)

We hope these pages are a blessing and if you wish to see other pages then please let us know.

The site also has a “search function” if there is a particular book of the bible or scripture you are looking for.

How do we keep in touch or participate?

I would love you to keep in touch. The easiest way to do this is to follow the blog, there is a way to do so in the WordPress links, another way to do so is to supply your email address for our “weekly digest” an email that goes out should there be a blog that week.

Participation is also easy. You can comment, like, rate articles and get involved. I do moderate comments, but that is due to bots, spam, automated replies and an effort to keep profanities off the website. I encourage a family friendly website at all times.

If you participate in social media, we have a Facebook page to help you stay in contact with recent articles. Please click on link to connect and like us.

Again I wish to thank you for reading this and God willing I pray that I am able to be a vessel that God uses for his glory.

God bless and I pray this was a blessing and please feel free to like, share or comment on here or whatever social media platforms you use as the Lord leads you to, as always I love questions about this or any other article so please feel free to fill in the form below, all comments are moderated to avoid profanity.
TGBTG (To God be the Glory)
Soli Deo Gloria – to God alone be glory
Taking The Epistle