TDW | Newsletter | April 11
Hello!
Today is not a great communication day, so I just wanted to send you out a short encouragement to see the hope in Scripture rather than a lack.
I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard something like, “I wish God had explained…”, “I would like more answers to my questions so I can be sure of what the message is here”, or something similar.
These things are usually said in the context of someone teaching material they couldn’t get to fit into a narrative they brought with them to the text they were studying. For example, assuming every text in scripture is meant to give a direct applicable lesson to our lives today. Sometimes that is true, but not always. Paul leaving his cloak behind and asking Timothy to bring it really has no bearing on our walk with the Lord. It shows us real people living real lives amongst all the teaching. I also do not believe God had to tell us in every single instance whether or not someone prayed to Him first about something. When they failed to do so and it mattered, He points out. We’re talking about wide sweeping periods of time being covered in a comparatively few number of words. God’s purposeful. When He wants you to get a negative out of a story, He makes that clear. When He wants to emphasize a positive, He also makes that clear. When He’s just giving general context of lives being lived, that’s all it is.
Anyway, the resulting doubt that is reflected in those comments shows that someone doesn’t believe the scriptures are really complete enough. Would it be nice if God had given us reams and reams of material so it would make things easier? Sure! But He didn’t, languishing over it when we hit a roadblock focuses on a supposed failure rather than leaning into what He tells us to do about those types of things - build our faith by studying what we have and praying with an open heart for wisdom (James 1:5; Eph. 4:11-16; 2 Peter 1:5-11).
So, how DO we build our faith and our knowledge when we keep feeling ourselves lacking in the ability to understand what we are reading in the Bible?
Well, we do like the apostles did. We keep walking in His word.
Do you remember how many times Jesus expressed frustration with the disciples for their blindness when it came to kingdom? They were so focused on a physical, worldy kingdom they couldn’t fully see the power of what Jesus was building. They were walking right alongside of Him for three years! They couldn’t have had a better teacher, and yet, their ability to understand was not fully developed. This is precisely why Jesus promised them the Holy Spirit! He sent the Spirit to help them to cononect the dots and to continue to show to live the message Jesus gave them to teach to the world. Then over the next few decades, along with congregations that grew up all around them, they asked questions and found answers by looking to what the Spirit revealed and by looking back at the examples of the Old Testament.
I don’t want to keep rambling - so here is my suggestion for how to break out of the doubts that come when we get stuck.
Use God’s Outlines.
One such outline is the deeds of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit from Galatians 5:16-26. The full context goes back into the previous chapter, but focusing on the definition of the problem and the solution given by Paul are a great place to begin.
If you want to better learn how to walk with the Lord like Enoch, then learn what the deeds of the flesh are, “and things like these”.
Immorality
Impurity
Sensuality
Idolatry
Sorcery
Enmities
Strife
Jealousy
Outbursts of Anger
Disputes
Dissensions
Factions
Envying
Drunkenness
Carousing
“and things like these”. So it isn’t a complete list, it is meant to give you an idea of what types of behaviors to be watching out for in order to avoid them.
Start with the ones you absolutely understand. Maybe idolatry, jealousy, drunkenness.
But how does idolatry work when we live in a world where most religions don’t build physical idols in the same way ancient belief systems did?
Use your Bible to define what God means by idolatry.
The slow way is to skim page by page, starting in Genesis, and noting every verse you encounter that deals with idols in some way.
The faster way is to make use of a concordance. I like physical printings better because they usually have more complete lists, but apps work too. (I don’t know why, but some apps seem to choose which instances of a word to include in a search instead of just giving you every instance in the results.) But it doesn’t matter - because even with a partial list, you will very quickly begin to see a pattern and gain understanding of what God means about “idolatry” and His attitude about it.
This study method takes time.
You making a working list of scriptures to then go into and read the context of each and make notes about what is said on that given topic takes more than just a few minutes.
This study method requires meditation.
You will mull over what you’ve read and the connections each new verse makes to the last one you read.
By the time you are done you will no longer think God failed to tell you enough about idolatry for you to be able to discern when it is in front of you! You will not think God was very generic about the topic. You will not think that Old World examples do not apply to Modern day circumstances. This effort of putting your trust in God’s word to teach you rather than the pressure upon yourself to be able to figure it out for yourself will quiet Satan’s whisperings in your ear to cause you doubts.
Now apply that same strategy to any of the fruit of the Spirit.
Love
Joy
Peace
Patience
Kindness
Goodness
Faithfulnesss
Gentleness
Self-control
and “such things”. Again - not a complete list, but a list that helps you discern types of behaviors that are a natural fruit of the Spirit - aka, the result of walking in God’s word.
Love is such a broad term in English. Yes, there are different words in Greek that are all translated the one word “Love” in English. But you do NOT need to know those Greek words. Again, search your Bible for “Love”. The list will be VERY long.
Take the time to walk through every context to see how God used that word in that situation. To whom was love shown? How was it shown? Are we told when something is called “love” but then are shown actions proved it wasn’t truly “love”? What picture and understanding can we learn about how to love God with all our heart by what God talks about around that phrase?
There is SO MUCh God has shared about what we NEED to know.
Only Satan wants us to focus on what wasn’t given to us. Only Satan wants us to think God made it too hard.
Jesus said,
Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest in your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Matthew 11:29-30
How about reading God’s word assuming Jesus meant what He said? That it is meant to be a burden, yes, but a burden that is easy and light.
“Focus on the positive” is a Biblical concept (Phil. 4:8)!
Ask God to help you see the positive and give you wisdom then dive into His word and expect that He will do as He promised.
Enjoy!
Here are some other places where we talked about using God’s Outlines to study
What do you think? I’d love to hear from you!