Schedule Changes

I had scheduled for last Thursday to write on a question I am asked in my seminars, “What is the best Bible for me to use.”  It is a great question, for which I have a detailed answer.  However, some things changed Thursday…

That last Monday (4/20) I had a PET scan.  It was supposed to be done in Houston but because of the virus, the trip to MD Anderson was canceled and I was instructed to get it here.  Wednesday, I met with the MD Anderson oncologist by video conference, we had sent her the disc overnight, but she did not have it yet.  That afternoon I met with the oncologist here and we went over the scan.  There were some changes, there is one lymph node that she had been watching.  It seemed to have grown.

The one thing that was weird, there were some liver numbers that were weird.  So, she asked me to check with the infectious disease doctor… So, Thursday morning, we met on video.  He wondered if the numbers were messed up due to exercise.  I was planning to ride 23 miles later that day, the doctor told me to get blood redrawn on Friday.

Did not make the 23-mile ride.  Back tire blew at 13.  Could not get the pump to work, that is another story… My son had to come get me.  He got me back to the car and just as I was moving my bike from his bike rack to mine, MD Anderson called.

They had looked at the PET scan and had determined the lymph node they had been watching had grown to the point that we needed to start treatment.  The oncologists and the infectious disease doc spoke on Friday morning and I got a long message outline what was going to happen.

I got a port yesterday, an echo cardiogram today, and met with the oncologist here to get the details of the treatment late this afternoon.  Next Monday I get a bone marrow biopsy, and the week of the 11th I will start treatment.

I have a lot more to share about this, some things that the Lord has already taught me.  But our schedule has been radically changed.  I was going to Togo the first week of June, and Jenny and I were going to South Africa in July.  Not now.

One thing of note.  On Wednesday, tomorrow night.  I will be speaking at our church online (full disclosure, I recorded this at our home on Saturday).  The session starts at 6:30 PM CDT, and you can watch it either at the church website or on the church Facebook page.  I am talking about the need to personally engage in the scripture.  The outline is:

• What are the ways we can engage?
• Why it is critical for each of us to engage.
• Some ideas on how to start or keep going.

I will answer questions by text, email, or Facebook comment afterwards.  If that is of help or interest, let people know.

The Use of Secondary Sources

Over the years the Lord has provided me with several opportunities to share with people why they need to be in the Word of God for themselves.  What that means is that they are not using secondary sources but directly reading and studying the Bible.

Secondary sources include but are not limited to:

• Notes in a study Bible
• Commentaries
• Devotionals
• Books about the Bible or Topics in the Bible
• Messages live or recorded
• Fill in the blank or other types of Bible Study guides.

Now before I explain why I encourage people not to use these, full disclosure, I have every one of those resources in my office and on my computer, in addition to some technical resources that I have not named.  Further, I have at various times derived benefit from all those types of resources.

Why then, do I encourage people not to use them?

The answer is priority or sequence.  These are appropriate after we have studied or attempted to study a passage on our own.  If we pick up one of these at the beginning of our study or interaction with the Word of God, what is said in the resource will become a filter for what we see in the text.  On the other hand, if we engage in the Word ourselves first, then when we utilize the resource, we are comparing what is said there with what we have seen.  So instead of it becoming a filter, it then becomes a supplement, another set of eyes on the passage.  Then we are in a dialog with the one who created the resource.

According to Jesus, and I will take Him at His word on this, one of the purposes of the Holy Spirit other than inspiring the Word of God, is to help us understand it, John 16:13 (here @ Bible Gateway).  If when we are working through a passage we bail out of the text and go to secondary sources as soon as we hit something that challenges us, we are not leaving room for the Spirit to lead us into truth.

We need to let Him do what He was sent to do.

With Ordinary Means

Yesterday I shared a friend of mine says how we needed to engage successfully with the Bible:

• With the help of the Holy Spirit 
• With humble effort 
• With ordinary means 

I want to focus on the last. “With ordinary means”, today.  We talked briefly about this the other night.  Essentially, my friend was saying that we do not need secondary sources to engage with the Bible successfully.  All we need is a blank sheet of paper and a pencil and a pen.  His suggestion was to write down questions that one has as they are reading.  That is a great idea.

Earlier in the week one of our friends was sharing online in this series and he suggested that one write down their observations about the text as well as note any signposts that they saw as they read.  The signposts to which he referred are much like the structural markers that have been discussed in this blog.

Either practice is good for at least two reasons.  First, writing down your reaction to what you are reading in the text slows you down.  The simple act of writing down what you think will help you clarify your understanding of what you have been reading.  Second, and this is closely related to the first, writing down what you are seeing or what questions you have engages you at a different level of thinking than simply reading.  Try it, you will be convinced quickly.

You will note that neither of my friends mentioned using study Bibles or commentaries.  They were focused on being in the text of the Bible.  After all that is what is inspired.  The notes in the study Bible and the commentaries are not.  I have written on the use of commentaries a lot, you can skim that content by typing “commentaries” in the “search this blog” field on the top of the column on the right or by clicking here.

Barriers to Knowledge

A few days ago, in my quiet time the Lord took me to 2 Corinthians 10:5 – 6 (here @ Bible Gateway).  Note that I do not hear God’s voice, but there are times that He will bring a passage to mind.  I have learned that it is best to follow that lead.

Last evening, I was speaking to a friend about some sessions our church is doing online during this “interesting time”.  During our conversation we began discussing how to help those who may have been in the faith for a long time but do not have the confidence nor have they been equipped to engage in the Word of God for themselves.  We were thinking through how a believer would get into this state.

One of the ways seems to be addressed by Paul in this verse.  I have heard, and I would expect that you have as well, speakers suggest things in addressing a passage that are not in the text.  In many cases they may be inferences that they have thought about that they think may apply to the text.  Or, they may be something that they have read somewhere that they think may clear up the text.  In some cases what I have heard was essentially made up and had no relation at all to the text being presented.  In the case of historical information that sets a context, I will admit that at times that can be interesting and somewhat helpful.

However, in this passage Paul says that he is destroying everything that is raised up against the knowledge of God.  Think about that for a minute.  If I am a young believer listening to a speaker and he shares a theory, an example, or a “fact” that is not evident in the text, what does that communicate to me?  Wouldn’t it communicate that I need to know those theories, examples, or “facts” in order to understand the Word of God?  In a real sense when a speaker adds to the text, he is communicating that without his help, those who are listening cannot really understand the Bible.  In a sense he is taking the Bible out of their hands.

Speakers who do that are raising up barriers against the knowledge of God.  In that they are creating a dependency on themselves or other secondary sources as a necessary means to rightly understand the Word of God.

My friend had shared in a presentation that he made a week or so ago, that the Word affirms that we are able to understand the Word of God:

• With the help of the Holy Spirit – John 16:13 (here @ Bible Gateway), and 2 Timothy 3:16 – 17 (here @ Bible Gateway) (all references added to support his points)
• With humble effort – Psalm 119:18 (here @ Bible Gateway), 2 Timothy 3:14 – 4:4 (here @ Bible Gateway)
• With (he had “using” but I changed it to match) ordinary means – Ezra 7:10 (here @ Bible Gateway)

We had a short discussion about what he meant by ordinary means.  I will expand on that next post.

The Old is Not

If you are like us, you may be doing some projects at home that you have been putting off.  My wife and I are cleaning out the attic.  We have brought down about 25 years’ worth of old bank records and tax forms.  We have two huge totes on our front porch from the shredding company, one is completely full, the other nearly…

I have been sorting through files of old conferences and training programs in which we were participants or leaders.  I have found some materials that I am going to keep.  I have been scanning all of that into the computer.  The garage is next…  My oldest son said that if any of us exit this time with a cluttered attic or garage we haven’t used the time well.

I have been asked to teach a session at our church online in three weeks.  Its up in the air whether I go to the church or do it from my home office.  I’m one of those who are most at risk.  I have been preparing by reviewing some of the work I have done on the topic in the past.

This afternoon I pulled that file and went through all the studies that I have done on the topic, which is, the necessity of each of us being in the Word ourselves.  It seems I have been hammering that for a while.

I found a message I shared on a Wednesday night at one of the churches we attended in Kentucky.  It was on the same subject dealing with the identical issues that we seem to be facing in many if not all the churches we have attended since then.

Many of us as believers seem to gravitate to those who are excellent teachers or preachers and rather than engaging personally in the Word ourselves, we are satisfied with what we are told by those teachers or preachers.

I have had at least two men, who attended excellent churches, with excellent pastors and teachers admit that they didn’t want to do the work, they would rather have someone tell them what to believe.  In talking to pastors this seems to be a continual and abiding challenge.

So, in three weeks, I will take up this subject again – truth be told, I have never put it down.  I would appreciate prayer should you think of it.  As we get closer, I will give you information on how you can watch it live or on replay.  We are trying  to figure out how to do a live Q&A if I do it from my office and not the church…  Stay tuned…

Confused

There are lot of things in life that confuse me.  Things that I don’t understand.  As one who has had seven sinus operations, I don’t understand piercing noses, for example.

For most of my adult life, I have been involved in some sort of Christian ministry either as a lay member of a church or group or else as staff or leader of those types of groups.  The Lord has allowed me to engage in this either in person or online on five continents and 14 different countries.  In nearly every instance at some point in the process one of the participants asks why they haven’t been shown how to study the Bible in their church.  Or one of the pastors will confess to either downloading and presenting another pastors sermon or else not speaking on the Bible but his own thoughts.

Consistently one thing emerges in all my seminars and workshops.  There are many who have been in churches all their lives who have not been equipped to study the Word of God on their own.  They are dependent then on secondary sources or the teaching of others, which amounts to the same thing.  They are engaged in the Word of God by proxy.

In John 8:31 – 32 (here @ Bible Gateway), Jesus states that in order to be His disciple one must abide in His Word.  If one does not know how to abide, if they have never been shown how, can they be a disciple?  Yet there are many churches of which I am aware who are struggling with the idea of how to more effectively make disciples.

Shouldn’t that start with equipping those in these communities of faith to personally engage in the Word of God?  Rather than giving a member a book about, say, Philippians, why not show them how to study the book on their own?

Rather than giving them a devotional book, why not show them how to engage in a quiet time on their own?

Rather than… well I’s repeating myself…

Thoughts?