Category Archives: Bible Study

Posts dealing with Biblical studies.

June 25, 2006 · 12:47 pm

Do not quench…

I was brought up in churches where the Spirit of God, and the workings of the Spirit were held in high intellectual regard. Passages like 1 Thessalonians 5:18-22: “Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise the words of prophets, but test everything; hold fast to what is good; abstain from every form of evil.” were read with a kind of wonder and awe, while thinking “if He ever chooses to use me, I definitely won’t quench it!”.

However, rarely, if ever, were the fruits manifest. Once in a while, at revivals or summer camps, He might show up and be allowed to move, but those cases were few and far between. Services were always pre-scripted and setup in such a way that God rarely had the opportunity to move, and if He tried, someone would usually interrupted with “Oh, look at the time!”, or something with an equivalent effect.

I’ve had a problem with this for quite a while, and scriptures like this mean a lot more to me now than they once did. It occurs to me that Paul did not write this to a congregation who would be looking at their watches to make sure the letter didn’t take more than the allotted 15 minutes to read. He didn’t write it to a group of people who thought the Spirit sounded pretty cool, but who weren’t quite sure if the Spirit still bothered to move anymore. He was writing to a group of people who had all spoken in tongues. He was writing to people who saw the Spirit move in mighty ways on a daily basis. He was writing to a group of people who were under constant persecution.

If he needed to remind THESE people not to quench the Spirit, how much more do we need to hear that message today? If you have been sitting on the fence, thinking that it would be great to be used but not really giving the Lord opportunity to move, I would like to challenge you…

Take some time to read through 1 Thessalonians and 1 Corinthians 14, but read them with the intention of seeing what Paul was taking for granted… and after you’ve read those, seek after the gifts — Paul encouraged the Corinthians to seek after the greater gifts, but perhaps we need to start by seeking after the lesser…

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June 24, 2006 · 4:45 am

Whatever is True…

I’m too tired today to say anything coherent, so I’ll just quote some food for thought…

Philippians 4:4-9 (NRSV):

4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.

4:5 Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near.

4:6 Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

4:7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

4:8 Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

4:9 Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.

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June 22, 2006 · 2:35 pm

Only what is useful for building up…

I’ve been contemplating what to write about today… yesterday I had the notion that today I was going to just pickup where I left off and write about Ephesians 4, which was the next chapter in line. I’m reading through the Bible right now, I started with the New Testament this time and am currently in Ephesians. I try to read through the Bible every once in a while, and it’s been quite a while since I have.

I’ve found though, that blogging about it makes me want to stop and do a more in depth study of what I read. That would slow me down considerably right now, but I really want to get through the New Testament, so that I can read through the Old Testament again, and THEN go back and do more in depth studies. So… I think I’m just going to do my reading, and write about whatever happens to strike me each day until I’m done reading through. Then after that I’ll start doing some actual studies.

I haven’t actually decided whether to do chapter by chapter studies, or topical. I’m more inclined to do topical studies left to my own, but if I did chapter by chapter I’d have a commentary by the time I was done, and that could be kind of cool to have…

I’ll have to think about it more while I’m reading through.

In any case, I read Ephesians 4 today. The passage that struck me the most is
Ephesians 4:29-32 (NRSV):

4:29 Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear.
4:30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption.
4:31 Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice,
4:32 and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.

That’s the chunk that struck me the most (I’m sure I say a lot that’s not “useful for building up”).  I really need to remember that on a daily basis :)

Okay that’s all I have time for today, I need to get to VBS (it’s the last night). I think I’ve decided that if I do a topical study when I’m done reading through the Old Testament, I’ll start with Ephesians 4… lots of good stuff here that too often gets missed on the way to chapters 5 and 6 (which cover things like the relations between husbands and wife/masters ans slaves, and putting on the armor of God).

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June 21, 2006 · 1:21 pm

A root with which to tap…

I’m reading ephesians today, and since I’m too lazy to go get my regular Bible out of the car, I’m reading from my old King James Version bible. It’s funny how nostalgic it is for me to read the KJV… it always brings up memories of sunday school lol.

In any case, here’s some encouraging scripture for those of you who are saved:

Ephesians 3:16-19 (KJV)

16 That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;
17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
18 May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.

We too often forget that love has to be our root… that without a grounding in love, we miss out on the greater things. It’s too easy to get caught up in our day to day lives and forget that our goal as Christians should be to stand out from the crowd “And they will know we are Christians by our love”, as the song goes.

1 Corinthians 13:4-6 (NRSV) says of love: Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth.

I honestly can’t think of a single person I’ve met that’s ever come close to meeting all of those requirements on a regular basis, but that’s the goal…  If love is to be the root and the grounding of our faith, then we all need to strive to become more loving every day — and not the sappy “can’t we all just get along” or “happy happy joy joy” kind of love, but the real thing.

Paul defines love not as a feeling, not as an emotion, but as a state of being, as a pattern for living that we must aspire to — not as an afterthought, but as a foundation.  This is one of those things we can spend our entire life working on, and never perfect, but the effort will not be in vain.

Chapter 4 is so full I’m going to save it for tomorrow’s post…

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