How Readest Thou? (Series)
How Readest Thou? Part 6 Growing and Going: Knowing & Sharing God’s Word
As we wrap up our series on studying God’s Word, let us carefully consider several crucial points:
1. God’s Word: When considering God’s Word, an amazing chapter to read, reread, study, and study again is Psalm 119. It’s known as the “Word” Psalm for a reason. There are 22 Hebrew letters, and Psalm 119 is divided into 22 sections, each representing one letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Each section contains eight verses. Psalm 119 an incredible chapter to study! It’s the largest chapter in the entire Bible. Almost every verse examines God’s Word directly, declaring the sufficiency…
Read MoreHow Readest Thou- Part 5: Loving God’s Word from Cover to Cover
Question 1: Upon being born again, how did your view of God’s Word change?
I grew up in a very dysfunctional home where my mother suffered from mental illness. My home life was filled with fighting and violence. My father, a Swiss immigrant, came from a Methodist background so we attended the Methodist Church. He was on the local church board. I can remember get togethers my parents would have with other Board members at our home where there was drinking, dancing, cigar smoking and well, stuff going on that even as a young kid I knew was not in line with “church.” I could hear them from my bedroom.
In the Methodist church they change the pastors every three years or so. I remember getting close to one pastor. He played softball with us in the church parking lot. A great guy. I remember him helping me through the confirmation process. Our two families got together, and he and his wife helped my dad with my mom. But then they were relocated, and the replacement was an old guy with no personality and a handshake like a dead fish. This led to my departure from the church due to disinterest.
I always believed in “God.” When my mother would
Read MoreHow Readest Thou? Part 4- Line Upon Line – Trusting in Jesus
Question: How did the Lord lead you to Him?
Answer: I was raised in a Lutheran minister’s home. My dad was a conservative Missouri Synod Lutheran pastor already for 20 plus years when I came along in 1959. He continued to preach into his eighties.
Though I was told otherwise, (in keeping with their Lutheran tradition of infant baptism), I do not count myself born again until I was 22. But being surrounded by God’s Word and sometimes listening on Sunday’s growing up, I was certainly familiar with Scripture, and I’m confident that it did not return void. Because of this, as I got older, I never doubted Jesus was the only begotten Son of God Who died for our sins and rose from the dead, ascending to the right hand of the Father. I never wrestled with the truth of the Triune God. I never doubted that Jesus is God with the Father and the Holy Spirit from all eternity. Even though I didn’t doubt, I definitely did not fully understand it either.
Read MoreHow Readest Thou? Part 3 – Line Upon Line
Question: How would you say the Lord led you to Him?
Answer: The answer has varied in my lifetime considerably. I was raised Catholic. And not marginally so, but total immersion in the context of 12 years of Catholic school. Of course, part of our instruction was the constant reminders that there is only one true church, and it’s Roman Catholicism.
Armed with that at a young age, I presumed I was in the right room, and those who were not Catholic were hopelessly lost, or at least unaware of their lack. I lived the life of Holy Obligation – good works, Mary worship, sacraments, and good attendance at all the right times. But was I told to turn to the Bible, with its power, to show me where I went wrong? No. We were told not to read it because we wouldn’t “understand it”. While the understanding part was not necessarily wrong, being told not to read it was certainly the most memorable part.
Read MoreHow Readest Thou? Part 2 God’s Word: Our Final Authority
The article below is part two of a series exploring both practical and purposeful approaches in studying God’s Word. Recently, Once Lost Ministries reached out to several seasoned believers, asking questions concerning their view and sincere study of Scripture in an effort to further equip and encourage believers from falling for any of the abundant pitfalls plaguing today’s “Christianity”.
“Every word of God is pure: He is a shield unto them that put their trust in Him” Proverbs 30:5
When the lawyer asked Jesus what he had to do to inherit eternal life, Jesus didn’t simply send him back to the Old Testament. Jesus took him deeper. He asked a very serious question with the purpose of exposing the lawyer’s heart. (Luke 10:26)
Jesus not only challenged the lawyer’s direction but also his intention in reading the Bible.
This is often a missing piece when going to Scripture. The Bible isn’t a self-help book! It’s not some sort of mystical methodology! Let us all humbly consider why are we really reading God’s Word.
~Flynn Huseby (Once Lost Ministries)
Read MoreHow Readest Thou? Part 1 How Do We Approach God’s Word? ~Interview with James Fire
This article is part one of a series exploring both practical and purposeful approaches in studying God’s Word. Recently, Once Lost Ministries reached out to several seasoned believers, asking questions concerning their view and studious study of Scripture in an effort to further equip and encourage believers from falling for any of the abundant pitfalls plaguing today’s “Christianity”.
“Every word of God is pure: He is a shield unto them that put their trust in Him” Proverbs 30:5
When the lawyer asked Jesus what he had to do to inherit eternal life, Jesus didn’t simply send him back to the Old Testament. Jesus took him deeper. He asked a very serious question with the purpose of exposing the lawyer’s heart. (Luke 10:26)
Jesus not only challenged the lawyer’s direction but also his intention in reading the Bible.
This is often a missing piece when going to Scripture. The Bible isn’t a self-help book! It’s not some sort of mystical methodology! Let us all humbly consider why are we really reading God’s Word.
Read MoreHow Readest Thou?
If simply going to the Bible is the answer, then why is it that so many different groups, denominations, and even cults make such a strong claim of going to God’s Word and yet, so often, come to such different and often unbiblical interpretations? Perhaps they only claim to go to the Bible? Perhaps that’s true for some. And yet, many can quote Bible verses up one side and down the other… inside and out.
How can so many who actually read and quote the Bible travel in so many different directions? And how do we keep ourselves from doing the same thing? This article will attempt to tackle this dilemma, providing several beneficial landmarks that can hopefully keep us on track. It’s our sincere hope that readers will be both challenged and encouraged in the Lord.
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