Just a thoughts/pictures for YOU!: September 2006

1. INTRODUCTION.

Every Sunday services we will be listening to a sermon given by a pastor that can be local or outstation evangelists. Each of them have something to share from their life experience as well as the word of God has assisted them in their ministry. Some of their preaching or sermon might be fascinating as well those monotonous ones but we all have to listen because it is part of our Sunday or evening services. Many Christians do not read their Bible during their personal time because liturgy preaching or sermon is good enough since reading or studying the Bible is not something easy and it is up to the full time ministers of God to do. This is the wrong concept most of the Christians have in mind. They do not know the importance of Bible study for a man's spiritual life as Christians because the most essential tests of discipleship as Christian is that if you abide in His word then you are truly His disciples which is quoted in the Bible. If we really hunger to know the needs and possibilities of our own spiritual life than Bible study is essential. If we want to live more than ordinary spiritual lives as Christian, it is important that we be great feeders upon the Word of God, which is not only instant but powerful as well. I am not going to write this term paper about science and skill of exegeting our Bible although it does touches a little about it but argue on why having a proper personal time to study our Bible really an important thing to do as Christian. The importance of Christian to have a proper personal time to study their Bible is the intent of the Bible is to change lives because what we may have learned from the Bible has somehow make a difference in our attitude and actions in our lives. The Holy Spirit has no interest in imparting knowledge but His goal is to prepare all men of God spiritual and intellectual for His good works as well to apply it in our or your life like what is quoted in the scripture of 2 Timothy 3:16-17.

2. WHY SHOULD WE STUDY THE BIBLE?

We ask ourselves what the point of God is inspiring the authors to write the Bible if He did not have a good intention of doing so. We read and study the Bible because it is the prerequisite foundation for life. God has commanded us to study His word as the priority before we do anything else in our live. To be growing and effective Christian, we need to get what is in the Bible. Knowing the will of God found in the Bible will enable us to yield ourselves to Him as well knowing what is real and counterfeit found around us. It helps us not to be prideful and arrogance of what the world but bring our mindsets in line with His truth.

Now let me go through briefly into the Bible and get some thoughts on why it is importance to have a proper personal time to study our Bible. As I have mentioned it is the foundation for life. God has commanded us as the priority before doing anything else as found in the book of Deuteronomy 6:6-9. As Christian, we need to live a life different from the people of the world. We are His special people from beginning of time and this is why our Lord Jesus Christ laid His life for us. The only way to receive or link to Him is the knowledge of that distinction is to get into the word. We need to seek the truth and the answers found in His final authority in His word and not the ways of the world. Not studying the Bible is to set ourselves to the societal corruption and personal loss of freedom and hope-all leading us down to the road of hell which is made from the paving of false truths and distractions. The Bible that once defined by someone which I cannot remember who is that the Bible is GOD’S LOVE LETTER TO US - because we are to love him back (Deuteronomy 6:4-5), we are demanded to teach others of His love letters (2 Timothy. 3:14-17) and as well to fear, trust, understand, and respect Him (Proverb 1:7; 3:5: 9:10) since He is a serious and a jealous God.

Christianity is to be a transformed person and to be like His likeness that is holy through His word and prayer. It is the response of grace and we need to get into the Bible ourselves. It is only source from Him. One of the problems of Christianity today is that we are conditioned to be taught from the Bible but not to do it for ourselves. We are spoon feed every Sunday and not knowing how to do it ourselves. What is taught on Sunday is accepted as truth without validating it through the Bible. We do not know what is truth or counterfeit. The wrong teachings or cults place their authority with the coverage of wolf’s skin of the lamb and our failure of not knowing His word. When problem comes we place our answer and hope on science which may have explanations. Science can never explain the real love, justice, peace, goodness, purity, or sin because you cannot be scrutinized in a microscope or scientific instrument. No way can we be scientifically measured and hypothesized by so many theories in science and psychology. The truths of the Bible transcend all of these subjects of science or psychology. Let us have comfort in the Bible and we need to be reminded that we need to study our Bible much and not read little of it. Be the person who reads and studies and apply the precepts to all aspects of our life.

Hence, we study the Bible to learn more how to live because there are so many experiences of great and normal people of God in the Bible so that we can learn or have life. The Bible contains the word of God, which is our spiritual food to quench hunger and upon eating and digesting God’s word, we become more capable of dealing with life situations. Upon acquainting ourselves with God’s word, we become more equipped to stand up to all types of temptations and situations and we are more able to help others who need life as well. Therefore, I have gathered nine reasons from the Bible why we should study our Bible:

*To gain spiritual food (1 Peter 2:2, Hebrews 5:12-14)
*To gain cleansing (Ephesians 5:25-26)
*To gain wisdom (2 Timothy 3:14-16, Titus 1:9-11)
*To gain guidance (Psalms 119:99,105)
*To gain blessing (Genesis 1:22; 24:35, Job 42:12, 1 Corinthians 10:16)
*To increase faith (Romans 10:17, John 4:39-42, Acts 17:10-12)
*To be transformed into Christ's image (2 Corinthians 3:18, Acts 4:13)
*To gain a knowledge of God (Genesis 4:1, Matthew 1:24-25, Hosea 4:1,6:6, Jeremiah 9:23-24)
*To impart to others the blessing of the Word (1 Peter 3:5, 2 Timothy 4:2, 2 Corinthians 5:20, Deuteronomy 17:18-20, 2 Timothy 4:13).

3. WHY PEOPLE CLAIM THE BIBLE CANNOT BE UNDERSTOOD.

Some of us (or we especially Christians) may pick up a Bible whatever translations, start reading it and at the end we declare that it does not make any sense. Some may read a passage haphazardly and some how make a personal application that has no resemblance to the meaning of the passage just to suit their situational problem which we human beings are prompted in doing. John Stott was right when he wrote to preachers, “Sporadic and haphazard dipping into the Scriptures is not enough.”[1] Still many are shunned away by some of the books in the Bible because they seem to be boring or fail to offer some relevancy to their problem they are seeking. The purpose of studying is our seriousness and zealousness to sit down or seek the illumination of the Holy Spirit to help us to understand the Bible so we may be saved eternally. We cannot claim that the Bible can be understood easily or that we can get any personal answer to every question anyone seeking. It is how we look upon the Bible and God for the answer we might be seeking. God sees our heart and how serious is our desire to know Him and work towards a path that He wants us to know. But I know three way in which the Bible does change our attitudes and actions when we take the time to study His word.

First, it gives LIFE. Only the Bible has the answer to our questions of life. Man does not know how to live either how to die. We are always filled with behavior of selfishness, greed and most of all bitterness and despair. God's rules for living that leads to peace, joy, and satisfaction. We can see this lesson when we read the second and third chapters of Titus on Christian living. We all are foolish and disobedient people. We like to be enslaved by passions and pleasures of life. When we do not get it, we live in malice and envy. We hate others because we blame everything on God while it is our own problem. We find in Titus 3:3-5 when kindness and love of God is revealed in our life, the Holy Spirit gives us new birth and new life. If we read the life of Abraham or Isaac we know that they moved around one place to another’s. Each places that dug well but been covered up or chased away by the enemies but end of the day, God still blessed them with many things beside well for their daily drinking. To me this well represents that we Christian should have broader heart and mind. No matter how many times our enemy covered our dug well; still somehow we will dig one that last forever. No matter how many failures but at the end of the day we still find blessing of God for us all. The word of God is LIFE! God never want us to be losers as Christian because Christ pledges His love and blessing on us. It is how we look at things and how serious we want to listen or fellowship with Him.

Second, the study the Bible is to have FAITH. Without the Bible to lead or guide us, we put our faith in wrong places such as idols, forces of nature or material possessions. Studying the Bible, aid us with the help of the Holy Spirit to have faith in God to develop and mature within our heart that is "to have faith is to be sure of the things we hope for, to be certain of the things we cannot see. It was by their faith that people of ancient times won God's approval" (Hebrews 11:1-2). Faith has to understand God's plan in this world and not because of our own personal reasons. Faith gives us the reality of eternal life in Christ Jesus and all the word that comes from the words of the Bible like what Jesus said in John 6:63 "The words I have spoken to you bring God's life-giving Spirit."

And lastly, the knowledge of God in a way brings us to the responsibility of sharing the knowledge to others. It is SERVICES to others. We need to show love and care for others and not ourselves and those close to us. It is God's plan that His kingdom grows because everything of God is based on the principle of sharing. Jesus shared everything and gave up this life so that we can have a link directly (reconcile) to God. This goes out as well in studying our Bible because we Christian are supposed to well-versed in our Bible so that we can help others. It is an obligation to all Christian to share this way. We need to read and study our Bible not merely to be approvable to God but before man.

Why than man still claims the Bible cannot be understood? The first good reason I can give is that they may have tried to study and found it difficult so they gave up very easily and quickly. They do not long to study the word of God because they do not hunger for Him. Some point to the confusion and division among those who claim to follow the Bible so they conclude just by saying no one really understands it. Some believe truth is subjective so whatever you believe does not really mean it is truth to them. There can be no such thing as a single proper understanding of scripture. There are some religious leaders that said that layman or common people cannot understand the Bible. It is only for the trained leader to understand so other people must accept the word of the "official" interpreters which is very wrong. This is why so many people claim the Bible is so difficult to understand without ever trying to spend a little of their time to study the Bible and waited upon someone else to do the hard work for them. This has never been God instruction for man because He wants us all - each and everyone of us to read and study the Bible personally.

4. PROPER ATTITUDES IN STUDY

I always feel that the proper attitudes of a person that really help in order to study the Bible. The importance of Bible study is for our own spiritual well being so let us pause a moment on some of the HINDRANCES in our proper attitudes in studying the Bible. One of the biggest excuses that most Christian has is LACK OF TIME. Lack of time because of our personal chores of life. Brevity of life does not give me time to study our Bible so let it up to the elder of the church to preach or teach us on Sunday. That is a very wrong attitude or concept of thinking about it. We will not be spiritual fits to be kept alive sooner or later. One interesting hindrance I can think of is that many Christian people-substituting devotional books in state of studying their Bible. They consider studying devotional books is a substitute of the voice of the Bible. I do not think it is proper at all. The word of God contained in the Bible is the source from which true believers derive their strength. The Bible commends itself by directing all Christians hope, peace and understanding to Christians who are spiritually enlightened and apply its precepts in their daily lives. The Bible also contained doctrine which refers to teaching because devotional books do not like John 7:16-18 said "My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it is of God, or whether I speak of myself."

The right methods of any Bible study must begin with the right attitudes and the "prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord" (Ezra 7:10). It is important that we must be motivated before we begin to study the Bible. We need to appreciate the importance of the word of God. We need to have the proper reasons to the need of studying the Bible and to consider four of my reasons why we need to do so with proper attitudes:

*Study to be obedient in God's sight and grow in His service. In Joshua 1:8 it mentioned that to be successful in pleasing God requires obedience so to meditate on God's word day and night is a regular requirement. No baby can grow without nourishment so likewise Christian cannot grow without the proper foods of God.

*Study the word of God to avoid error and false teaching of the world. Hosea 4:6 told of the people of God were destroyed because of the lack of knowledge of God. Many Christians depend on the teaching, preaching and sermon of others that may lead them astray by error and false teaching. To avoid all these it is wise for all Christians to be built on the stronghold of the word of God.

*Study so that we can teach others. As I have mentioned above. It is a duty of Christian to teach or share the word of God to others. As parent we should teach our children diligently through the day so that they have God's word in their heart and abide in the path of the Lord. It is crucial as Christian and parent as well to train others in the knowledge of the Lord. Therefore, we all have an obligation to read and study our Bible diligently (e.g. Hebrews 5:12).

*Study so that we can express our love for God and His word. In Psalm 1:2; 119:47,48,97-99, it talks about one who delights in God's word that he or she has not time to complain about having to meditate, study the Bible and worship God. If we love God with all our body, soul and mind than keeping His commands by loving His word is nothing so difficult to carry out. It is an indication of how much we love Him.

These are just four reasons I can give although there are many more to think about it. I like to remind that of all these points, we need to remember that we need to study with an open mind and a heart full of love for the truth. We must try or even strive to learn truth and obey it regardless of the consequences because nothing is cheap or simple in the sight of God. Seek it even if it disagrees with what we have already believed in the past and change according to what is required and best. Let us be noble in receiving the word of God with readiness of mind like Acts 17:11 and Matthew 5:6- hunger and thirst after the righteousness of God and remember if we do not have a burning desire for truth - our God never compel us to accept and we will lose what is rightfully ours. Let us seek God's word with a right attitude and be blessed out of it.

5. MY PERSONAL BASIC WAYS TO STUDY THE BIBLE.

The basic rules of understanding the Bible are an art of interpretation of the Bible. The goal of the interpretative process has two aims that are:

*to find the meaning of the text (exegesis) and

*to make appropriate application (hermeneutics).

"Exegesis" comes from the Greek language which means "to draw out" or "unfold", it suggests a careful investigation of a text of scripture for the purpose of uncovering the meaning intended by the author. This task requires us to investigate account of the physical environment as well as the literary form used in the passage of the Bible. It is concerned with the text in its original setting. "Hermeneutics" here is more concerned with contemporary application and is derived from a Greek word that means "to interpret." It is the science of interpretation which signifies literary texts. I would not like to go into this discussion because it is a comprehensive study while all I am arguing about in this term paper is the importance of Christian having a personal time to study the Bible. But I like to quickly go through the ten main hermeneutical rules which we need to know:

*The common meaning of a word must be assumed unless the context, subject matter, the general rules of language, common sense, or proof from the world around us compels us to a different meaning of word.

*Scripture interprets scripture. The interpretation must be in harmony with passages that can only be taken in one way. If one unclear passages are to be interpreted in light of the clearer passages.

*No interpretation of Scripture should go against other establish Biblical truth.

*We may not add or take away from what the scripture says to form an interpretation.

*Every interpretation must be in agreement with its context.

*No interpretation of scripture is correct unless it is grammatically correct.

*No interpretation of scripture is correct unless it is historically correct.

*The writer writes with one intended sense in the literal parts of scripture. In other words, one person cannot say his interpretation means the same to everybody because scripture meant many things at the same time.

*The interpretation of figures of speech and poetic expressions must not deny other clear passages of scripture.

*The adding up of facts and deductions from scripture is necessary and form valid scriptural doctrines. Example the Bible does not mention "trinity" but the facts and deductions from the teaching are scripturally verifiable.

I feel out of this entire technicality I have learned through the years there are two simple basic ways of looking or studying the Bible. First, deductive and inductive methods of looking at the Bible passages. Deductive Bible study involves the validation of a preconceived idea (belief) or presupposition - whereby a biblical truth is assumed and scripture is located to prove the truth (usually a dogma). Deductive Bible study is very subjective because it centers on the person’s preconceived ideas and beliefs, and not the truth emanating from the facts of the scriptures. The deductive student will tend to read his/her ideas and beliefs into the scriptures instead of extracting the truths from the scriptures. We should be very careful on this type of study while inductive Bible study involves the gathering of facts from scripture and then drawing conclusions that are revealed by the facts. Inductive Bible study is an objective bible study i.e. any conclusions that are made can be easily tested against the scriptures themselves since the conclusion came from the scriptures.

Second, the uses of the interrogative pronoun like "what, when, where, who, what and how" when studying the passages in the Bible. Before this we need to have the fact questions in:

*identifying,
*modal,
*temporal and
*locale.

How can we use this fact questions with the uses of the interrogative pronoun. Let us go through one by one. Identifying question we should ask WHO and WHAT. These questions are observation to get the facts. For examples, "who is speaking in the Bible?”,” Who is listening?", "What is being spoken about?", "What will be affected on what is said?”,” What is accomplished from here?”,” What have we learned from here?" WHO and WHAT questions in the scripture are not always identical. There are tools for getting at the facts of the passages.

Modal questions ask HOW? - "How can we apply what we learned from the incident?", "How can we apply this scripture in our life or in today's era?"

Temporal questions ask WHEN? - "When did this incident take place?", "When was this accomplished?" We need to remember WHEN does not necessary be answered by a specific date. It is sometimes helpful to know whether it is past, recent past, future, near future or if this event takes place before or after another events.

Locale questions ask WHERE? This type of questioning is all about places like country, community, geographical locations and someone's home. It is useful to know in the passage we are reading or studying is happening in what places.

The two basic ways or methods of studying the Bible is just a brief or easy way of looking into the passage of the Bible and getting an quick ideas or understanding of the passage. With these two simple methods, it indicates us that it is not really difficult to study our Bible if we really want to. It just need a little of our time to think seriously of what we are reading. Ask the right questions in our mind and heart and we will at least get some basic understanding of the Bible. There are huge tools in the market like several translations in CDROM, commentaries, bible dictionaries, concordances and many more just to name a few that will aid us in studying our Bible not only meaningful but seriously. I am suggesting the easier and the simplest method of studying the Bible without any aids and have not taken any serious study in the art or science of interpretation of the scripture but also bear in the general approach to scripture is the four foundational principles that we need to remember always, there are:

Jesus Christ is the focal point of all scripture. The Old Testament is about preparation of His coming and prediction of His character and resurrection while the New Testament is the unifying theme of scripture is Jesus is crucified and resurrected. The Gospel indicates His life, character and death He underwent to redeem all men. The book of Acts is the proclamation about discipleship spreading His work as well the word and how it affected the life of the people in ancient times. The epistles expound His redemptive work and letters of encouragement between interchurches during that time. Finally, the book of Revelation reveals His consummation of all His plan and of His coming.

Scripture must be interpreted by faith with the aids of the Holy Spirit illumination. Only the Holy Spirit of God can make the word of God’s real and it is verified in 1 Corinthians 2:14.

Scripture is sufficient as the touch point and foundation for all life, practice and belief. We need nothing else than what scripture tells us to know how to live spiritually, how to practice our ministry or what our doctrinal beliefs ought to be. Everything is in agreement in what is in the scripture, for scripture is the word of God Himself.

No not prove doctrinal points by any others extra-Biblical means. Outside resources should be handle with cautious or care. Other “holy writings” should never be accepted as definition of the word of God.

6. RESULTS OF A PERSONAL BIBLE STUDY.

Christian who makes time to study their Bible will result of having the source of strength within themselves as well as having a strong bond with our Father in heaven. Why the Bible is the resource for our spiritual growth. Three words that use to describe those things that needs to know about the Bible. The very first word is INSPIRATION. The source of the Bible is that it is inspired. PRESERVATION is the second word which describes the survival of the word of God. The last or third word describes the way we have success in His word is UTILIZATION. All these mean that God has given us the scriptures that we may grow everyday while we are living in this world.

The word of God of having a Bible study method is to have a personal experience that central part in our spiritual lives. It is a signs of equality of all believers that in the process of study we removed the centralities of an authority figure as leader, thereby affirming that the Spirit work through anyone who seeks His work. It is the availability of continuing revelation of God in our spiritual lives. Our brevity of life will be meaningful because we live everyday in the Lord. It affirms our connection of the Biblical witness to our lives in our present world.

Its primarily concerned to endow the "man of God," who has received its teachings and import to the intent that we can yield to His will to that of seeking the heavenly Father’s will in all of His affairs, and through that “..the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." (1 Corinthians 2:14).

Christians who really appreciate the importance of studying God’s word are engaged in the process of being changed from earthly-mindedness to spiritual-mindedness so that their lives in this world can nearly reflect the Christ-like character. Such person, who have accepted the invitation to seek His work indirectly become disciples of Christ through self-denial and sacrifice, find their acceptance to God manifested by having an ability to "be not conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God" (Romans 12:2).

The importance of knowing His word is so all-encompassing, it is the Christian’s work of a lifetime because it is in every aspects related to our subject as well as it relates to doctrine, prophecy, service, and imbibing divine principles. It opens us to so wide range of things to know what our Heavenly Father has installed for us when we give a little of our personal time just to study the word of God the best we could.

7. CONCLUSION.

In our life, we need to service our vehicles after reaching certain mileage. We need to change our car black oil or go for car services. Without servicing the mechanical machine, it will break down. This goes the same in our life where we need the word of God in our heart. We all know that praying to God is to talk to God and that prayer cannot be substituted by reading or studying the word of God. We need to remember that when we read and study God's word, He talks to us. That is the different and of the two, it is more important that God speak to us. As our Lord Jesus Christ has said in Revelation 3:20 " "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in." The very first moment we open the door of our heart, He will come in but until we yield in His wills through loving Him by continuous fellowship and listening to His word like Romans 15:4 mentioned ""For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope" (Romans 15:4).If a man is to have fruits in his work, it is crucial that in his thought and plan of study he put his spiritual life first. It is by our fruits we are known. The condition of the fruitfulness is abiding in Christ, and one of the fundamental conditions is abiding in His word. Therefore, as Christian we must not forget that it is fundament and prerequisite to have a proper personal time to study their Bible. It the only way God speaks to us and it is how we keep pace in His steps knowing which route we are heading, knowing well enough that He is leading us a life that is righteous and everything He wants us to be or to do. Let us be zealous not only in His ministry but as well hearing His words and instruction through His word.

[1] Between Two Worlds: The Art of Preaching in the Twentieth Century, Grand Rapids: Eerdmanns, 1982, p. 182

*Some bibliographies not included.

Just a thoughts/pictures for YOU!

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

WHY ME?

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

How to Be Miserable in 20 Easy Steps!

Thursday, September 14, 2006

THE IMPORTANCE OF CHRISTIAN TO HAVE A PROPER PERSONAL TIME TO STUDY THEIR BIBLE.