Hi, You bible study is so uplifting to my life, and i thank God for this. I base
most of my sermons around your teachings and i am always so inspired when i go
through any of the subjects you treat. I realise that if i go through all the
teachings, i will be able to read most part of the bible. My goal is to read
through every subject. In due time i am going to partner with your ministry.
Please explain to me what plagiarism is because i have this guilty feeling that i
am using someone else's ideas in my preaching. Pray for me and our tiny
church that is so hungry for Gods will.
Yours in Christ,
Andrew
Hey Andrew,
thanks for the email and I'm pleased that you've
enjoyed the studies and are using them to help others. The Google definition of
plagiarism is 'the practice of taking someone else's work or ideas and
passing them off as one's own.' From where I stand, I don't really
care how you are using my studies in terms of whether you are giving credit back
to the JPN website or not. I just see that we are one body and if you have seen
something that has spoken to you and want to pass it on to your church... great.
The fact is, probably all preachers use illustrations or insights that they have
received/heard somewhere else. You would have seen many quotes in my studies from
authors that I glean from and enjoy like J Vernon McGee, William MacDonald, A.C
Gaebelin etc... But I do understand if you are doing it excessively and are
starting to feel guilty as I feel the same if I'm taking someone's
ideas and not saying where I got it. So I do try to state where I have got things
from if it is a direct type of thought/quote. But there are other times when I
will read something that I like, and I'll ponder and meditate upon it and it
will open up more thoughts and suddenly it becomes your own, even if it was
someones else's initial thought that put you on that track. It is likely you
do that with my studies - you think about them, see where God is leading you with
them and add to them.
Anyway, I'll leave all that up to you and
God. But just to restate, I'm just pleased that you like the studies and
want to use them to help others. I'll also say that God looks at your heart,
and mine. He knows if we are seeking our own glory and want to be seen as some
spiritual hot shot, or whether we are passing on the points we have enjoyed not
to claim credit for them ourselves but simply to encourage, challenge or bless
others.
God bless the work you are doing with your little church. The
church I go to is small as well. Zech 4:10. Whether it is small or large is of
little consequence. All that is important is that God's approval is upon it.
All the best