Bible study
My pastor and I had a talk about some of the things going on in my life and I made a comment to him using this verse from the Bible to make my point. It's from Luke 9:23 (NIV) Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.
My pastor being the wise man he is asked me what my interpretation of the verse was and suggested we talk about it sometime. I kind of took from his question that I might want to gain a better understanding of what the verse meant versus what I thought it meant. It wasn't maybe a week or two later, I received an e-mail which explained the verse and made me have a different understanding of it than I had. You can look at the explanation of the verse here.
The thing I realized is that I don't have the understanding of scripture that I want to have so I started doing a little research on the matter. I came across an article online the other day (can't remember where, I gotta start bookmarking these things) that talked about taking scripture out of context. The author of the article suggested it's possible to take a verse out of a passage and by using it out of the passage it was written in, could cause the verse to be open to misinterpretation. Not wanting to be guilty of that today, it's important for the reader to note that Luke 9:23 is such a passage; there is more to the scripture than this verse and it's important to consider the full passage, which is why I didn't close the quotation marks on the verse.
There are plenty of examples where people take scripture out of context to justify their behavior. I could cite this or that example, but to tell you the honest truth, it just saddened me that people that proclaim their belief in the Risen Lord would then bend and distort God's Holy Word to meet their own personal desires. I mean that, I was honestly saddened by this and just can't justify including this or that reference to articles and question and answers I read on these topics because I don't want to give credence to any of what I read.
I don't want to be one of these people I felt sorrow for and I don't have to be. I have resources available to me to better understand God's word and here are just a few of them I'd like to share with you.
My church has an adult Sunday School class. I gotta start attending this. I also found an on-line Bible study that is pretty good and free to use (donations highly encouraged, though!). The lessons are in audio format followed by a test. It's a good way to learn about Christianity and the Bible. I'm on my 4th lesson in the second set of Bible studies. These are two ways I can learn more about scripture. I have a little devotional book that helps, too. It's called "Our Daily Bread" and I've linked to their website before. It's a pretty good little way to incorporate God's Word into daily life and apply it.
Reading the Bible and understanding its meaning is important to me. That way I can incorporate its teachings into my daily life. The more opportunities I have to do this, the more fulfilling life gets to be. Living the Word is the most fulfilling thing I've ever done in life. I just can't explain it better than that.
My pastor being the wise man he is asked me what my interpretation of the verse was and suggested we talk about it sometime. I kind of took from his question that I might want to gain a better understanding of what the verse meant versus what I thought it meant. It wasn't maybe a week or two later, I received an e-mail which explained the verse and made me have a different understanding of it than I had. You can look at the explanation of the verse here.
The thing I realized is that I don't have the understanding of scripture that I want to have so I started doing a little research on the matter. I came across an article online the other day (can't remember where, I gotta start bookmarking these things) that talked about taking scripture out of context. The author of the article suggested it's possible to take a verse out of a passage and by using it out of the passage it was written in, could cause the verse to be open to misinterpretation. Not wanting to be guilty of that today, it's important for the reader to note that Luke 9:23 is such a passage; there is more to the scripture than this verse and it's important to consider the full passage, which is why I didn't close the quotation marks on the verse.
There are plenty of examples where people take scripture out of context to justify their behavior. I could cite this or that example, but to tell you the honest truth, it just saddened me that people that proclaim their belief in the Risen Lord would then bend and distort God's Holy Word to meet their own personal desires. I mean that, I was honestly saddened by this and just can't justify including this or that reference to articles and question and answers I read on these topics because I don't want to give credence to any of what I read.
I don't want to be one of these people I felt sorrow for and I don't have to be. I have resources available to me to better understand God's word and here are just a few of them I'd like to share with you.
My church has an adult Sunday School class. I gotta start attending this. I also found an on-line Bible study that is pretty good and free to use (donations highly encouraged, though!). The lessons are in audio format followed by a test. It's a good way to learn about Christianity and the Bible. I'm on my 4th lesson in the second set of Bible studies. These are two ways I can learn more about scripture. I have a little devotional book that helps, too. It's called "Our Daily Bread" and I've linked to their website before. It's a pretty good little way to incorporate God's Word into daily life and apply it.
Reading the Bible and understanding its meaning is important to me. That way I can incorporate its teachings into my daily life. The more opportunities I have to do this, the more fulfilling life gets to be. Living the Word is the most fulfilling thing I've ever done in life. I just can't explain it better than that.
I recommend a "Life Application Study Bible"
ReplyDeleteIt helps you focus on Gods Word and apply the message to your own life.
christianbook.com
Thanks for the tip.
ReplyDelete