A Christmas Journey You May Not Have Considered

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The Christmas season is notorious for traffic and travel. Over the course of the next couple of weeks, many people will travel great distances to celebrate with loved ones. The highways will be clogged with travellers, any of which will NOT be exhibiting the joy of the season. Hopefully for you, all of the going will be worthwhile as it results in great times with your loved ones. I know that will be the case for us.

The first Christmas was noted for its travellers as well. Mary and Joseph travelled about 80 miles in a journey that probably took them anywhere from a week to 10 days; a journey made even more complicated when traversed with and by a pregnant young woman. Magi travelled from the East – probably somewhere in the Persian Empire – to pay homage to a newborn King. Even shepherds temporarily went AWOL and travelled into nearby Bethlehem to confirm the news delivered to them by angels who had travelled from heaven.

Your Christmas Journey

The advent of the Giver of Life set many to travelling literally, but metaphorically, once He gives us life, the travelling has just begun. This life He gives us is quite a journey! We should all be travelling spiritually – moving closer to Him each day. God has called us to Himself so He can transform us into the image of Jesus (Romans 8:29), and that transformation can be understood in terms of a journey. Once God begins a work in our life, He promises to FINISH it (Philippians 1:6)

Where are you in your spiritual journey? Have you begun to walk with Jesus? If not, the reason He came was to die for your sins so you could be forgiven and have a relationship with God. You can learn more about that by following this link to The Story.

Are you learning more and growing closer to the Lord each day or have you stalled along the way in your spiritual journey? Have you detoured or even taken a few steps backwards? Just as every trip needs a route plan, so also we need an intentional plan to grow.

This Christmas begin or resume your spiritual journey by intentionally and regularly studying God’s Word and praying.   Make an intentional effort EACH DAY to move a little closer to the Lord. You can find some helpful hints by clicking here. Next year, may Christmas of 2023 find you so much closer to the Lord than you are this year.

Spilled Milk and the Christian Life

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The old saying goes, “There’s no need crying over spilled milk.”

People use the saying to comfort someone grieving over a circumstance now done and over.  The idea is once the milk is out of the container, there is no need to worry about.  Clean it up. Move on.  Pour a fresh glass.

But I want to take the saying in a different direction.  Why did the milk spill in the first place?

Several factors could result in spilled milk.  Maybe the pourer was negligent and didn’t pay attention to what they were doing.  Perhaps they continued pouring milk even after the container was full.  Or many they were looking in another direction and missed the container all together.

Another possibility is that the container was a fault. Could the vessel have been weak and broke under the weight of the milk?  Or maybe there was a small leak that allowed milk to slowly ooze out onto the table.

Spilling Spiritual Milk

So what in the world does spilled milk have to do with anything in my life?  

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Discern What Is and Isn’t a Word from God

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I received an email today from someone I do not know and of whom I have never heard.  To put it nicely, the email was hard to follow and almost unintelligible.  To be more precise, it rambled, made little sense, and in some cases was untrue. I had to discern if it was indeed a word from God.

The subject of the email is what troubles me most.  This individual proceeded to throw misinterpreted and misapplied scripture at me trying to make his case. The author claimed to have had a recent “Esperance” [sic] that “brought God” to Him.  Supposedly, God showed him some passages of Scripture and he felt the need to share it with churches. He was probably sincere, but in his application of Scripture, he was sincerely wrong.

Yet, so many people receive emails like that full of misapplied Bible verses and assume they are reading truth. Not only emails, but TV airwaves, radio frequencies, and the internet provide anybody an opportunity to purvey their religious thoughts.  And immature believers give credence to anyone claiming to be speaking on God’s behalf.

How are we to know the difference?  What are we to do when we encounter such teaching?

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When Bible Teaching Is Like Folgers Crystals

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Many years ago, Folgers coffee ran commercials in which someone secretly exchanged a gourmet coffee with their brand.  Of course, in the commercials, the unsuspecting coffee drinkers could not tell the difference.  Additionally, many even claimed Folgers was better than the original brand.

Sadly, I see a similar trend prevalent in Christian circles – not with coffee, but with preaching and teaching.  Many preachers today stand a passionately deliver messages to people who stand in great need to hear from God.  But some deliver what amounts to a coach’s locker room speech rather than a clear, anointed message from God’s Word.  They exchange the gourmet truth of God’s Word with the Folgers crystals of human insight and perspective.

If the message is not based on, rooted in, and filled through with God’s Word, it is merely a speech.

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Things to Consider Before Drinking the Folgers

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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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Context – The Missing Link to Understanding the Bible

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One of the biggest mistakes I see people make when studying the Bible is the failure to consider context.  The inspired words of God did not drop down in book form in a vacuum.  The Holy Spirit moved men to write eternal truth in their times, cultures, languages, and personalities.

Types of Context

By context, I mean the unique place, time, and style of each part of God’s Word. We may consider several different contexts in a passage of Scripture.

The Bible cannot mean something it never meant.

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Literary Context

God used several different types of context to communicate His truth to us.  Likewise, we should understand different types of literature in different ways.  Poetry reads differently that narrative. We understand letters differently than historical writing.  The book of Revelation and several parts of Old Testament prophecy include cryptic apocryphal language.  We have to interpret them in that light.

Historical Context

The authors of the Bible lived and wrote in times different than ours.  When we understand the cultural norms and practices of Bible times, we gain deeper insight into its message. Good Bible interpretation considers what the Bible meant to its original readers and hearers.  Then we can find application for our current lives.  The Bible cannot mean something it never meant.

Grammatical Context

The Bible is a written document.  (I know, duh!)  It was written primarily in two languages, Hebrew for the Old Testament and Greek for the New Testament.  Additionally, there is a little of the ancient Aramaic in the Old Testament as well. Translators work diligently to bridge the gap between those languages in the Biblical period and our contemporary language.

Likewise, we must consider a word in its relationship to the sentence.  We look at the sentence in relation to the chapter, chapter to book, and book to the entire Biblical narrative.  Never forget that the Bible, Genesis to Revelation, is a unified story.  Grammatically, how does a particular passage fit into the whole narrative?

The Bible, Genesis to Revelation, is a unified story.

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A Case in Context Point

Just the other day a Facebook post described a “new” meaning to Psalm 23:5, “You anoint my head with oil.” According to the article, shepherds rubbed the heads of sheep with oil to protect them from flies who would lay maggots in their ears.  The sheep in turn might injure themselves by beating their heads against rocks in an attempt to alleviate the torment.  The article’s author drew the conclusion that God helps us when we are mentally tormented.

I do not claim to be an expert on shepherding – today or in David’s time.  Shepherds may very well anoint their sheep for such a purpose; however, that is not the meaning of Psalm 23:5.

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You Are Already Equipped For Bible Study

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In Bible study as in life, there is always “more than meets the eye.”  Many people make poor judgements by following their first impressions and instincts without taking the necessary time and effort to fully observe what is happening around them.  Likewise, lack of careful Biblical observation has led to much false teaching and poor understanding of Biblical truth.

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“Never trust general impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details.” – Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

 

Biblical observation is not difficult, it just takes a little time and attention. The average Christian may feel under-prepared for the task, but the simple truth is you already possess the two most important tools in Biblical observation and other helps are not difficult to obtain and use.

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How to Begin Investigating the Bible for Yourself

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The Bible is a literary masterpiece, written in fine literary fashion, and worthy to be studied by students of literature.  It serves a much higher purpose, however, in the life of a believer.  When a believer reads the Bible, he or she reads an message from God applicable to that particular believer in his or her current life circumstances.  The Bible is God’s living specific truth that speaks into people’s lives today as much as ever.

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I cannot tell you the number of times a specific passage of Scripture has come to life when I read it and that God used it to instruct, challenge, encourage, inform, or convict me as I read it.  Sometimes I feel “ambushed” by God because I read a passage of Scripture only to have the Holy Spirit speak – silently yet loudly – right to a current situation in my life.  That can happen to you as well if you approach the Bible to hear what God wants to say to you!

Last week I encouraged you to develop an intentional plan for reading both larger and smaller portions of Scripture on a regular basis, and for probing a smaller passage on a daily basis.  I believe that best way to study the Bible is through what is called the Inductive Study Method, which consists of three parts: Read More

New Features Roll Out This Week

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Normally in the Monday slot you see the video from my sermon on the previous day, but today I want to use the space to tell you about some changes coming on the blog and why those changes are afoot.

God has used Colossians 1:28-29 to cement in my heart what He wants to do through me.

Him [Jesus] we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.

In my heart I am and always have been a coach, and that heart for coaching translates into ministry as a discipler. As the heading to the blog indicates, I desire to help YOU grow in faith, knowledge, and life. I want to have some part in presenting you before the Lord at the last judgment as a mature follower of Jesus. THAT is why I blog – to provide you with tools, resources, inspiration, and information to help you in your walk with the Lord.

I established the survey last week because I want to know what would be most helpful to my readers so I can streamline my effort and output to be more effective in that goal. With that in mind, here is how the blog will look for the time being.

Mondays will still for the most part be the sermon video from the day before, at least for the time being. The Monday post provides an opportunity for members of the church I pastor as well as others who might be interested, to hear a sermon they may have missed. I understand not everyone has the time to listen, the bandwidth to download, nor the vested interest in my messages, but for now they will remain for the benefit of those it serves.

The overwhelming majority of respondents indicated the Tuesday and Thursday written blogs were their favorite feature. I am flattered by that, and honored. Those two days will remain the same.

I will replace the Wednesday Vlog for the next several weeks with a series on how to do a personal Bible study. Respondents indicated the Vlog as their least favorite feature and most indicated a desire for me to provide more resources on Bible study.

Many respondents also indicated that the Flashback Friday feature was one of their least favorite as well. That feature titled “Four Things Everybody Needs to Know About…” This will be an overview of some of the most important theological themes all believers need to understand. I will continue to share quotes and articles that are meaningful to me through my Twitter. If you are on Twitter, you can follow me @JimDuggan.

I do consider the blog to be a static production and more changes and tweaks will take place as the opportunity arises. As always, I welcome your feedback either through comments on the blog or through email contact. Thanks again for reading and I pray something I share will move you closer to Jesus.

 

Does the Devil Know Who You Are?

whoareyouAfter a 25-year sojourn, about a year ago I moved back to the town where I grew up. I’ve had a great time renewing old friendships and making new friends. Every day, I have conversations with people in my church in which we discover mutual friends and/or memories.

Occasionally, I encounter a face that I recognize, but I can neither remember the name nor the context of how we are acquainted. Usually, the person remembers me and knows exactly who I am, but I am left to stall for time and fake familiarity while trying to recall this person’s name and place in my life.

In the Bible, the book of Acts recounts a story of anonymous identity. While at Ephesus, Paul performs some incredible miracles through Jesus’ name, included casting demons out of afflicted individuals. A group of seven brothers, all sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva, tried their had at invoking the name of Jesus and casting out demons. These guys were not followers of Jesus, they merely attempted to copy-cat Paul’s method while hoping to achieve the same results.

When they attempted to cast out a demon in the name of Jesus, in whom they did not believe, the demon responded to them verbally by saying, “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?” The demon did not feel threatened by the sons, and he jumped on them and beat them so badly they ran out of the house beaten and naked. (Acts 19:11-16)

I’m not sure if that was more frightening, embarrassing, or humorous. They thought they had authority over the demon, but that demon had no clue who they were.

That begs the question… does the devil know who you are? Have you caused him enough grief that he has a file on you? Does the devil keep up with your coming and going out of fear you will threaten his work?

Let me suggest a few people the devil knows and tracks.

  1. The believer who is consistent and fervent in prayer.
  2. The believer who dares to share the Gospel even in the face of fear and threat.
  3. The believer who regularly and systematically reads, studies, and obeys God’s Word.
  4. The believer willing to daringly show the unconditional love of God to those who need it most.

If you do not from time to time experience opposition from the devil then more than likely one of two things is true in your life – either he already has you in his grasp, or you are not doing anything to threaten what he is doing around you.

See what you can do to get yourself on the devil’s watch list.

In the comment section below, feel free to share other ways you believe we can get in the devil’s watch list.