Cruel acts of terror.  Local crime.  Political corruption. People are hurting.  I have friends who are battling terminal diseases.  I know newborn babies who are only a few days old and dealing with serious health issues.  Through it all, God is reminding us to live in faith not fear.  

The night before I wrote this article, a mass shooter killed 18 people and injured dozens more in a shooting rampage in Lewiston, Maine.  I thought about those 18 poor souls who lost their lives, and I thought about their families.  They all woke up that morning without any idea how their day would end.

I also thought about several in our church family who are battling cancer and other terminal illnesses.  One day, you are feeling OK; the next, you receive shocking news.  Many in our church family have faced the loss of loved ones over this past year.  All this serves as a stark reminder that life is fragile. 

We cannot let the uncertainties of life paralyze us with fear, dread, and doubt.  What we can do is follow the advice of Corrie ten Boom and trust an unknown future to a known God.

Keeping a Faith Focus

Here are a few suggestions to keep your mind faithfully focused on our faithful God.

In the Bible, manna was an amazing provision of God for His people as they wandered in the wilderness.  On their way to the Promised Land, He fulfilled a daily promise to provide for them along the way.  His Promise was not just a future destination.  He also promised His daily presence, guidance, and protection.

You can read about the manna experience in Exodus 16 and Numbers 11.  Each day, God would miraculously provide a day’s worth of manna on the ground.  All anyone had to do was pick it up and use it.  But only enough for that day.  Any leftovers would get worms.  God wanted them to have fresh manna each day.  

After a while, the people grew weary of eating the same thing every day.  So God gave them quail to eat instead. Very soon the birds made them sick (Numbers 11:31-34), and they realized God’s manna was better.  I can’t imagine why they grew weary of the manna.  According to the description in Numbers 11:8, manna tasted like a doughnut!  Imagine that!  Quail is tasty, but doughnuts from God every morning!  Who gets tired of that?

“Love my music
Ain’t no one gonna change my tune
Don’t ya know that I love my music
Ain’t never gonna change my tune.

“My Music” by Jim Messina and Kenny Loggins

I grew up singing and as a child I learned to play the guitar.  Sadly, I have let my skills lapse into near oblivion.  For a brief time in my late teens and early twenties, I served as a music minister.  I still remember one dear saint’s comment when I told her I was leaving to pursue preaching instead of music.  “That’s a good idea,” she said.  I think I got her point.

Music touches most of us in the deepest places of our hearts.  If you want to start a war in church, propose a change in music.  That’s like kicking an ant bed or knocking down a hornets’ nest.  Unfortunately, I have observed that many people are more particular about their “church music” than their “out of church” music.  I’ll just leave that statement right there.

The older I get, the more sleep I need.  Conversely, the older I get the less sleep I seem to get.  I experience the usual middle of the morning awakenings that accompany most men my age.  Those older than me assure me it will only get worse.  Don’t you just love people who speak encouragement into your life!  But once I am awakened, there a certain Bible verse often pops into my shattered unconsciousness. While the usual “natural causes” may awaken me, this verse keeps me awake many nights.

Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.

Hebrews 13:17

Responsibility Keeps Me Awake at Night

The gravity of the mission is spelled out in the phrase “keeping watch over your souls.” The phrase refers to the act of staying awake and vigilant to one’s surroundings so others could peacefully rest.  In the Bible, shepherds are great examples of those who would “keep watch.”

 The New Testament translates word “pastor” from the same word it translates “shepherd.” While Jesus is the Good Shepherd (John 10:11-18), He has given men the responsibility to be under-shepherds of His flock.

A shepherd’s responsibility may be summed up in three words: feeding, leading, protecting.  Often in New Testament times, a shepherd did not own the flock he kept.  Usually a rich herdsman owned the flocks, and they hired shepherds to take care of them.  But the shepherd was ultimately responsible to the owner for what happened to his sheep.

I believe the world is in such a mess because the Church is in such a mess.  And the church is such a mess because we have abandoned teaching theology.  A 2022 study by LifeWay and Ligonier Ministries revealed some shocking misbelief among those who identify themselves as Christians.  A recent article from LifeWay Research written by Jen Wilkin and J.T. English highlights four very troubling findings concerning some dangerous misbeliefs. (You can read the entire article by clicking here.)

• God learns and adapts to different circumstances: 48% of evangelicals agree.
• Everyone is born innocent in the eyes of God: 65%of evangelicals agree.
• God accepts the worship of all religions, including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam: 56% of evangelicals agree.
• Jesus was a great teacher, but He was not God: 43% of evangelicals agree (up from 30% in 2020).

The high agreement cited in the above statements are from evangelicals.  One of the major tenets of evangelicalism is the belief that the Bible is God’s Word and authoritative.  Yet, high percentages believe truth contradictory to the teaching of the Bible.

The Why of Theology

I hope that you are finding these posts on personal Bible study helpful. Today, we are going to look more practically at the first step of personal Bible study.  I call this observation.  In this step we look at WHAT a passage is actually saying to the people addressed in their context.  Remember, context is king.  Many people mistakenly apply what they think the Bible is saying rather than determining its original meaning.  The Bible can never mean what it never meant.

Observation Begins with a Good Background

In last week’s post (click here), I left you with three questions about the book of Colossians.  IF you did your homework, here is a summary of what you discovered.

Paul wrote Colossians around AD62 while he was in prison in Rome.  Colossae was town in Asia Minor that shared a lot in common with two neighboring towns Hierapolis and Laodicea. The church in Colossae was established during Paul’s 3-year ministry in Ephesus.  It was established by a man from there named Epaphras.  Epaphras heard Paul preach in Ephesus and became a follower of Jesus.  He then went home and started a church in Colossae.

The book of Colossians is an epistle, or letter.  So, we can expect the usual opening greeting followed by theological teaching and practical application.  And we can expect the letter to end with some personal remarks to and about mutual friends.

Marking the Text

I am visually oriented.  Marking up a Bible text can help me see the relationships the words and phrases have with each other.  You may or may not like to write on your main Bible.  Here are four suggestions for providing you with a great canvas for your Bible study mark-up.

My previous post addressed the importance of a template to help us stay on track with personal Bible study.  Today, I’ll share some considerations and tools that help us get the most out of our study.

To gain insight into Biblical truth, we want to ask three basic questions of the passage we are studying. The first question is “WHAT?” and we discover the answer through the process we will call observation.  Observation allows us to gather information about what the passage is saying. 

Basic Considerations

The Bible is a composite of 66 different books written over a period of about 1500 years.  40 authors from three different continents wrote those books in three different languages.  The Holy Spirit supernaturally inspired each writer and each word to give God’s revelation.  While the Bible displays an amazing unity of theme, it nonetheless reflects many different contexts.

To properly get at the “what” of a Bible passage, we start with the various contexts.  These would include historical, literary, and cultural contexts.  We also must consider where that part of the Bible which we are studying fits into the book that contains it.  Then we look at where it fits in the overarching narrative of the Bible and its place in redemptive history.  For a look at how contexts shapes understanding, click here to read my document Context Is King.