rebelling against low expectations
When I was a teenager I made a choice that changed my life. At only thirteen years old, I sat down at my computer and read about a program called the National Bible Bee (kind of like a spelling bee, but for Bible memory). That can’t be too hard, I thought to myself as I convinced my mom that I wanted to sign up. I thought it would be something fun for the summer. Something to keep me busy. And...
Before firearms were invented, a sword was the most deadly and powerful weapon someone could own. It was the weapon of choice in battle and in self-defense. He who was skilled at wielding it was a dangerous man to mess with. In addition to knowing how to use a sword, it was also important to keep it sharp. A dull sword was a bad defense in protecting life and property from harm. In this world of...
Mining can be hard work. It can also be immensely rewarding. And unlike physical mining, where a vein can be depleted or not have much in it, Scripture will always have more gems to unearth. We never have to wonder whether we dig in vain, especially if we know where and how to look. Over the past three posts, I’ve provided tools specific to the three steps of mining. But before we conclude this...
Uncut gems, when newly unearthed, are precious, valuable, and desirable—but aren’t particularly beautiful or useful. Rather, those gems need to be polished, cut, and set, such as into a ring or necklace. That is how they reach their full potential. That’s what wisdom does with God’s word. It takes the gems of understanding that we unearthed from the dirt of knowledge, polishes them up and cuts...
Knowledge is a great place to start in uncovering the gems of Scripture, but knowledge alone isn’t particularly helpful. Alone, it tends to cause us to feel smart, which can lead to arrogance or pride. Rather, we need to sift through the dirt to find the gems of understanding. So here we move from knowing the facts of the passage to comprehending what those facts actually mean. You may know that...
The Bible can be a little daunting to study. First, there’s all those pages, well into the hundreds in many versions. Then you have those unpronounceable names that seem to come from the latest fantasy novel. And have you read some of the stuff this book contains? Wheels covered in eyes (Ezekiel 10:12). Belly fat oozing over sword hilts (Judges 3:22). Prophets walking around naked (Isaiah 20:2-4)...
In the past, my Bible reading has been largely unplanned and unscheduled. I would randomly pick a book of the Bible to study because it’s what struck my fancy in the moment, and I wouldn’t set any kind of time frame to complete it. Whenever I finished that book, I’d pick the next one in the same manner, and so on. But this year, I decided to try something different; something...
For as long as I can remember, spending time alone with God has been part of my day. After my family gathered for our prayer and Bible study in the morning, we would each go off and have our personal time with God. When I was younger, I loved this time. I thoroughly enjoyed reading my devotional and working on memory scriptures. Then, I got older… and busier. School intensified. I joined a...
I have a confession: I don’t think I’d ever studied the book of Revelation in its entirety. That’s why I was so excited when my Sunday school teacher announced we’d be studying it this past Summer. To be clear, I had read Revelation in bits and pieces as I studied other books of the Bible. There are passages I can nearly quote verbatim (Revelation 19:11 has always appealed to my equestrian heart)...
I love studying the Bible. I enjoy taking my time, pulling out multiple translations, and examining every word of every verse. I get excited about looking up the original Greek and Hebrew root words of a passage to gain better understanding of its meaning. I love concordances and commentaries. I love journaling my observations, realizations, and questions. But not all the time. There have been...
rebelling against low expectations
