Several years ago, 39 to be exact, my wife and I were at a staff training center for a Christian organization. I was required to work at a part time job 20 hours per week, study the Bible 20 hours a week, and then I could go to the dorm to which we were assigned to lead the ministry there that was usually more than 20 hours a week.
One of the Bible studies we did was on spiritual multiplication. The directions for the study were fairly broad. We were to look for generational chains in the text of the Bible and make observations about what we saw. Essentially it meant that we scanned the Bible for these, it was before personal computers and Bible programs…
Genesis 5 was one of the places that I spent some time. I was intrigued by the way the men’s lives were described, Genesis 5:6 – 7, for example. So having an engineering scale and being a bit of a geek, I drew out the chapter in time scale. I was floored to realize that a couple of these men died in the flood…
Not so fast…
This morning my reading brought me around to Genesis 5 again. I was curious so I opened up one of my graphics programs and redrew the illustration, this time using the computer to set the time scale. Apparently, I had miss measured the two men I thought died in the flood…
The point is, I make mistakes. There are things that I think I have figured out in the Word, that on a closer look I may have misread or missed something in the context or misapplied a cross reference, and honestly there have been times I have taken things out of context.
Doesn’t matter how careful I am, I still can make a mistake. That is one reason that when I take a position on a passage, I try to hold it tentatively. I find that interacting with others that have studied the same passage is a significant help. It both helps me because they will see things I did not, and sometimes they will point out errors I have made.
This Christian life thing is a journey. There are times that I can get off track. The great thing is that I do not have to be perfect throughout this cruise. Jesus has already been perfect for me. Frankly, it isn’t about getting everything right anyway is it? Really, it is about getting to know the one who was perfect for me better.
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| This one is right, I think... |
Genesis 5 was one of the places that I spent some time. I was intrigued by the way the men’s lives were described, Genesis 5:6 – 7, for example. So having an engineering scale and being a bit of a geek, I drew out the chapter in time scale. I was floored to realize that a couple of these men died in the flood…
Not so fast…
This morning my reading brought me around to Genesis 5 again. I was curious so I opened up one of my graphics programs and redrew the illustration, this time using the computer to set the time scale. Apparently, I had miss measured the two men I thought died in the flood…
The point is, I make mistakes. There are things that I think I have figured out in the Word, that on a closer look I may have misread or missed something in the context or misapplied a cross reference, and honestly there have been times I have taken things out of context.
Doesn’t matter how careful I am, I still can make a mistake. That is one reason that when I take a position on a passage, I try to hold it tentatively. I find that interacting with others that have studied the same passage is a significant help. It both helps me because they will see things I did not, and sometimes they will point out errors I have made.
This Christian life thing is a journey. There are times that I can get off track. The great thing is that I do not have to be perfect throughout this cruise. Jesus has already been perfect for me. Frankly, it isn’t about getting everything right anyway is it? Really, it is about getting to know the one who was perfect for me better.
Humility is a golden character quality. Do we ever do anything totally correct? Walking this journey of faith and service with one another is a great privilege that should not be under valued.
ReplyDeletePr. 27:17 Iron sharpens iron, So one man sharpens another.