Sure, I Believe, but…

believe

Have you ever known you should believe something, but for some reason couldn’t seem to?  You KNEW that you should believe it. In fact, you WANTED to believe it.  But you could never FEEL that you believed it.

I’ve been there.  In fact I go there more times than I care to admit.  As an occupational hazard, I use a lot of “faith talk.”  I encourage others to trust God only to see my own faith fall short from time to time.

All too often I completely identify with the man in Mark 9 who had a demon possessed son.  You can read this incredible account in Mark 9:14-29. 

Jesus’ disciples tried to cast out the demon, but turned a bad situation worse.  Then calmly Jesus told the man, “all things are possible for one who believes.”  The man replied, “I believe; help my unbelief!”

The Contradiction of Believing

The man’s response may sound like a contradiction.  But essentially it is more an honest admission that he wants to believe even more.  There is another contradiction at work in his life, one we all experience from time to time.  That is the battle between what we KNOW and what we FEEL.  Therein lies the test of our faith.

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How to Do A Verse Analysis for Bible Study

In high school I was a grammar nerd; I REALLY enjoyed English class.  I even remember what an indirect object is!  Because I was (and still am) a visually oriented learner, I especially liked diagramming sentences because the diagram was a good analysis that helped me see and understand the relationships the words in a sentence had with each other.

sentence diagram and verse analysis

Verse analysis is not as involved as sentence diagramming

The same type of analysis can help us in our Bible study through what I call a verse analysis.  The verse analysis is not as in-depth as the sentence diagram, but useful nonetheless to help us see the relationship of the words in the verse to one another.

I believe that not only did God inspire EVERY word of the Bible, but He also inspired EACH word is.  Words matter and their relationship to one another in a given passage reveal the truth that God wants us to know about Him, His precepts, and His purposes for us.

At the end of this blog, I have included a video tutorial demonstrating how I do a verse analysis, and I invite you to watch it and let me know if it is helpful to you.

A Working Example

Let’s consider as an example Proverbs 3:5

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.  In all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths.

My first step is to isolate the main verbs in a passage.  Once I’ve isolated those verbs, I study their context and meanings.  I use many of the tools I mentioned in the “Tools Blog” to help with this task. 

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4 Habits to Help You Pray without Ceasing

pray without ceasing
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“Are you the man who prays?”  The question humbled me.

I had just finished leading a voluntary staff prayer meeting at nearby organization when she posed the question.  I’ve had the blessing of leading prayer times with the team there several times over the last two years.  I never realized the impact those prayer times were making beyond the special needs for which we prayed.  I answered her question in the affirmative, now I need to make sure I was telling the truth.

As disciples of Jesus, we are supposed to pray; we are commanded to pray; we are instructed how to pray.  However, if we are honest with ourselves we often talk more about praying than we actually pray.

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Thoughts on Life and Death

life and death
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The news of the death of Marlin’s pitcher Jose Fernandez shocked the sports world Sunday morning.  Fernandez, only 24 years old, was an incredibly talented pitcher with a larger than life personality.  His exuberance inspired his teammates and often infuriated his opponents.  His shocking death in the prime of his life gives reason for us all to reflect on our lives.  What are your thoughts on life and death?

Life is fragile, and one inescapable statistic is that 1 out of every 1 people die.  For some, like Fernandez, that death seems to come much to early. For others, death comes as a welcomed release from a long struggle for survival.  Regardless of it’s timing, however, death eventually visits everyone, and we must prepare while we can.

[Tweet “One inescapable statistic is that 1 out of every 1 people die.”]

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New is Not a 4 Letter Word

Nineteenth Century French writer Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr famously wrote (as popularly translated), “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”  Without a doubt, life is changing all around us, and many people fear the new realities change brings and fail to make adjustments and embrace the wonderful opportunities those changes offer.

Change or Stay the Same

An amazing truth about God, is that although HE never changes, everything He touches changes for the better. God is all about bringing newness into the lives of His people.  His Word says much about things that being fresh: Read More