Study the Passage: The vital step in preparing powerful sermons...Continued from page 5
Donald R. Sunukjian
To really stay on the cutting edge of New Testament and Old Testament studies, subscribe to Old Testament Abstracts and New Testament Abstracts. Modestly priced, these abstracts summarize almost every recent article pertaining to biblical studies that have appeared in hundreds of journals around the world and are an excellent way to stay current with emerging scholarship.
Your first and most essential step is to thoroughly study the passage. Spend the hours reading, taking notes, and learning all you can, so that you can say substantively, accurately, and confidently, “Look at what God is saying.”
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Donald R. Sunukjuian is Professor of Christian Ministry and Leadership at Talbot Theological Seminary in La Mirada, Ohio.
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Taken from Invitation to Biblical Preaching. © Copyright 2007 by Donald R. Sunukjian. Published by Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids, MI. Used by permission of the publisher. All rights reserved.
Notes.
1. That may be why God commanded the king “to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law” (Deut. 17:18). The king wasn’t just to read someone else’s copy; he had to personally and slowly write one out in longhand for himself?a process that would deeply embed the content in his soul.
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Finding the resources the author recommends:
Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, 200 Russell Woods Drive, Lynchburg, VA 24502-3574.
Bibliotheca Sacra, 3909 Swiss Avenue, Dallas, TX 75204.
For helpful guidance see John Glynn, Commentary and Reference Survey: A Comprehensive
Guide to Biblical and Theological Resources (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2007). Glynn also wrote the Survey of Bibles and Bible Reference for Preaching in the November-December 2006 issue of Preaching magazine. (available to subscribers at http://www.preaching.com/preaching/online/06/November/feature4.htm)
Old Testament Abstracts and New Testament Abstracts, published three times a year by The Catholic University of America, 433 Caldwell Hall, Washington, DC 20064