How Readest Thou? Part 3
Line Upon Line
By: Mary Danielsen
The article below is part three of a series exploring both practical and purposeful approaches in studying God’s Word. Recently, Once Lost Ministries reached out to several seasoned born again 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)
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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.
Interestingly enough, once the Jesus Movement hit the mainstream via TIME Magazine sometime in the 1970s, the US Catholic church figured it was time to catch up so they trotted out a more contemporary style of guitar music to enhance the Mass “experience”. During that time, a simplified version of the New Testament called “Good News for Modern Man” came out. For some reason we were told we could read THAT. Around that time, we went to see Jesus Christ Superstar with our class. That was the blessing on cultural churchianity.
Regardless of everything going on around me, I had always had a form of faith though. I was thoughtful in prayer and seeking God through the tough times. I sensed He loved me unconditionally; but I knew little of Him outside a childlike faith. Then, life got harder as I got older, and I started seeking more and more. Interestingly, a little church in town had been praying for me to surrender, to become “born again” and really walk by faith through the power of the cross. I thought believed all that, but the “born again” stuff escaped me for the most part.
God began to deal with me in 1980, and after a year of spiritual confusion I surrendered what I thought was my innate goodness for His forgiveness and His righteousness in Jesus. It was epic! It was earthshaking, and I was a new creature virtually overnight! I really putting up a fight over my early years. In my mind, Catholicism was IT. After all, a few billion people AND my parents couldn’t all be wrong, could they?
Yes, they could. Once I was born again, realizing that fact shocked me to my core.
Then I joined a Bible teaching church and the journey with Jesus began. I started reading and trying to keep up with all the new changes in my life, but everyone seemed to know more than I did. Even my future husband knew so much compared to me! Tim seemed to understand a lot more than I did, probably because his father was a Lutheran preacher, and he had absorbed some doctrine in spite of his season of rebellion.
Question: What beneficial Bible-reading habits did you learn early on as a born again believer?
Answer: I was told by a wise brother in my new church to read nothing but Scripture for the first three years, no books outside of the Bible no matter how deep or instructional. So that’s what I did, and in year 3, I picked up a book by Dave Hunt entitled, “The Seduction of Christianity”. What an eye opener that was! Here I was, a new believer lapping up truth and then, out of the blue, I learned that there are enemies of the gospel who want to dilute God’s Word and disconnect from the Holy Spirit in favor of mysticism and man’s wisdom – psychology. I was horrified!
Something lit a fire in me. A deep desire bubbled up to contend for THE faith I loved so much and keep those wolves out of the church. So, I studied the truth in my Bible. Alongside of that, I began comparing the false to the true. So began, in 1985, my lifetime of heartfelt study of apologetics and cult watching. Not much later, I was exposed to Bible prophecy, which I was adamantly rejected as a teen. That became another passion, one that has never abated. At that time, I had no idea what God was preparing for me. Much farther down the road, He would allow me to use all that I had learned to serve Him through radio/podcast work. Had someone told that to me back then, I probably would have thought he was crazy.
Question: Over the years, what resources have helped you grow the most in your study and understanding of God’s Word?
Answer: Sometime in the very early 1990s, I was exposed to an extremely helpful method called inductive Bible study. Learning to read the Bible inductively helped tremendously in teaching me to carefully and actively read God’s Word, letting the text speak for itself.
“Whom will [the Lord] teach knowledge? And whom will He make to understand the message? For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line.”
Isaiah 28:9-10
Learning to read the Bible through and through in an inductive way was such an effective and life-changing habit! Studying God’s Word this way helped me dig deep by doing word studies and learning to reading the text in the proper context. I quickly became an active reader, studying God’s Word by making observations, asking who, what, where, when, why questions. I also began to compare Bible verses with one another through cross referencing Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. Because I was now learning to dig deep into God’s Word, I could begin to make biblical applications that were truly transforming. It was such a blessing!
There was one woman in my church who had mentored me the most in life. She was the one to bring inductive study methods to our fellowship. I took every class and eventually became an instructor with a clear desire to bring that level of God’s light to anyone who wanted to take the time.
It utterly changed my life, in every way. How blessed I am that God brought inductive study into my “universe”. I wish every believer would take the courses that teach the proper methods of exegesis.
Learning to read the Bible in such a way as to dig out from the text instead of reading into it all my opinions, beliefs, and feelings will only and always bring deeper understanding of God, His nature, and His truth. What a revelation it has been!
Question: What has the Lord been doing during this current chapter of your lives in Jesus? Also, is God’s Word still as precious now as it was early on?
Answer: Absolutely! The Bible only becomes deeper and richer as time goes on!
As Tim and I have become “senior citizens” in life and in the faith, God has recently raised him up to pastor. And for myself, He has graciously allowed me to utilize all my foundational research over the years to host a radio/interview podcast called Stand Up for the Truth which airs live four days a week on Green Bay’s very own Q90 fm.
Oh, what a journey! What incredible stability can be had when we stand on that Rock that is God’s Word, that Lamp that lights our way! God’s Word always shines bright so we never fall and continue growing in our understanding and love for Jesus!
“Wisdom and knowledge will be the stability of your times, and the strength of salvation; the fear of the Lord is His treasure.” Isaiah 33:6
A helpful resource for learning to read God’s Word inductively- Precept Ministries, www.precept.org
Mary Danielson can be seen on Stand Up for the Truth at- www.standupforthetruth.com.
The radio program is also available on YouTube at- https://www.youtube.com/@q90fmradioTV/podcasts
Bio: Mary Danielsen is an author, researcher, and dedicated ‘watchman on the wall.’ She joined the Stand Up for the Truth team in November 2023, where her headline-driven shows have quickly become a listener favorite. With a passion for biblical discernment, she has presented over 150 prophecy updates, equipping believers with scriptural insights on current events. Her radio segments, Two Minute Warnings, have aired on Christian stations nationwide, and she also produces the Contenders’ Series, a collection of thought-provoking tracts.
Mary is the author of S is for Social Justice: The Language of Today’s Cultural “Revolution” and Home Before Dark, and she contributed to the 2022 Lighthouse Trails Research book, A Christian Perspective of the Social Justice Movement.
Her husband, Tim Danielsen, has served in pastoral ministry.