Shifting Perspectives - Biblical Conversations about Topics that matter - Episode 16.

Welcome to Shifting Perspectives,

biblical conversations about topics that

matter. Let's get to

it. All right. So, we have been talking

about the Bible and, you know,

translations and last week we kind of

covered the what's your number one

priority or or your your first step.

We'll call them first steps, your first

step for Bible study. And, you know, I I

think we both kind of landed on the same

thing. It was that we read it and that

we read it with intentionality and that

we um that we do so with a with a

purpose.

Yeah. And I think that's, you know, you

you've got to start there. If you don't

have a purpose, if you're not committed

to it, if there's not uh, you know, a

sense of accountability to to yourself

or to someone else, then, you know,

you're really setting yourself up kind

of for a for a bigger struggle than than

that. So, you got to do it diligently.

It can't be you can't read something

today and then again tomorrow or then

again next month, right? You got to be

on a regular basis with it. It's just

like eating food. You got to take it in

regularly and and digest that through

and let it soak in and bring it back up

to light. Yeah, absolutely. Um what was

it that you said last week about how

long it takes to make a habit? Yeah,

it's usually 6 to 8 weeks is will it

take to make a habit. Okay. So, so the

reality is if we will commit to for 6 to

8 weeks, what will end up happening is

we will notice that we miss it and we

will notice the importance to it and it

won't necessarily be as much work in the

schedule. Yeah. And then you can move to

the next step because you kind of got to

get that first, right? Because if you

don't get that first and you hit a

hurdle during that time when you're

building the habit, what ends up

happening? You're you're done. You're

done. the habit falls off and you know

the consistency goes away. And so you

got to have that first step and you

really got to have it as a habit.

Exactly. So you really got to say I'm

going to commit to this for a timeline

for sure and then build from there.

Yeah. And that's why that's why most

exercise equipment works great for

hanging your clothes on is because

they're used for a week or you know the

first week they use them every day, the

second week's two days and the third

week well I'll think about it and the

fourth week they're they're hanging

clothes on. So, you know, you don't want

your Bible to be there. It's not a

centerpiece. I mean, a Bible, especially

very nice ones like you've got there,

um, you know, they look good, but the

best Bibles are the ones that are wore

out. The covers are falling off of them.

They're covered with notes, and that's

what you want to see. That's when you

know you're growing spiritually.

Absolutely. And so, if we talk about

those as first as those as first steps,

what would be a second step? So, now

we've gotten through, we've created a

habit, we're reading with

intentionality.

How do we begin to digest some of what

we're reading? Well, the first thing uh

I guess the first second thing if I can

say it that way with what we're talking

about um is the big thing that we that

we talk about here a lot. And I think

it's one of the challenges that face

Bible study and with all the teachings

and and summaries and all the stuff

that's out there, so much is made by

taking God's word out of context. We've

talked about that a lot in in some of

our previous in some of our pre previous

engagements with you guys. But you know,

the Bible is written in a context. U

yes, it's got chapters and scriptures

and books, but the original text wasn't

written that way. It was written all

together. And you have to understand all

that context together. What was going

on? What was happening? What was the

environment like? um those type of

things of of not uh not looking at it

with with you know these this was

written these were Middle Eastern people

in Middle Eastern times with with Jewish

culture and you know not we have to

understand that they weren't it wasn't

written in America it was written over

in the Middle East and the Bible gives

us such clarity whenever we can

understand some of these things but it's

not always easy um but that's the magic

of study is you get to go on that

journey that never ends. It's the

treasure hunt that you just keep walking

down the map and you find the nugget and

you find another nugget. It's, you know,

it's not like you're you're looking for

one big chest at the end. You've got

little pieces of gold nuggets to pick up

all along the way. And that's what makes

Bible study fun. Yeah. Absolutely. And

so there's two ways that you can look at

that word context. The the first word is

the first way that you can look at that

is the verses before and verses after a

particular verse that you're reading.

Um, you know, I I might step in it just

a little bit here and say, you know,

it's one of the things that has actually

been a negative of the verse of the day,

um, Bible apps things where, you know,

it gives you a verse of the day and and

it's just one verse. And when you just

have one verse, I mean, it's great to I

mean, I memorize scripture by just one

verse, but if I'm studying the Bible and

and specifically if I don't have a

context, that one verse could tell me

something that's not actually there in

the text. And so by context, we say um

and and that's part of the reason why

you say you you could took as an

example, you know, your lunch break over

20 minutes. And if that 20 minutes was,

you know, a paragraph or a whole chapter

or two chapters, but you took 20 minutes

to make sure that you could read uh

enough so that you could see the context

of that. And that's and that's important

in that process. But there's another way

that we that we understand the word

context. Um in theological circles as

we're studying this we talk about um

what we call the historical grammatical

interpretation of the Bible which means

the context in which it was written and

the audience to whom it was written. So

because because there was going to be a

particular aspect that that is a part of

that that you might nec not necessarily

understand in our modern translation.

You know, for example, oftentimes we

talk about and we're studying Ezekiel in

Sunday school and that's been a lot of

fun. But but when you think

about, for

example, Ezekiel in the very beginning,

he says, you know, that I saw these

creatures and that there was a wheel

within a wheel. And you know, we try to

draw that and try to figure out what

that what that might have looked like.

But our understanding from a historical

grammatical perspective is he's he's

trying to verbally express a picture of

something that no one could possibly

imagine having ever be being seen. It'd

be like trying to say, "Hey, Ezekiel,

describe for me a Boeing 747 flying

across the sky in your historical and

grammatical context." Exactly. Right.

And so, so that's really what was

transpiring there in that particular

instance. We live in a culture where we

know what a Boeing 747 is. We we have

cars. We have, you know, black top

roads. We have buildings with air

conditioning. There there wasn't any of

that in that context. And like you said,

there was a Middle East people group

that had idioms and had understandings

that we don't necessarily have today,

just like we have idioms that they

wouldn't understand. If we sat down to

have a conversation with them, it would

sound completely foreign in that regard.

And so, so two aspects of context is

don't stick your your American or your

2025 culture and context into the Bible

in the way that you read the Bible,

speaking to that culture in that

context. There is application to 2025.

You know, Hebrews chapter 4 says that

Hebrews 4 · chapter mention

the word of God is living and powerful

and um alive and active. some of the

translations put there. The word of God

is alive and active. And if it was alive

when it was written, when it was

inspired by God, um then it's alive

today and does speak to our culture and

our world today. But it speaks to that

through application and through the

voice of the of the Lord speaking to us,

not through changing the picture that's

in it to look like the picture today. If

And I'm hoping that that makes a little

bit of sense. Yeah. I mean, I think you

just got to draw you got to draw it into

the realization is we have a completed

product. Whenever whenever the Bible was

being written, it was not the completed

product yet. They were writing it. We

have that completed product now and

we're accountable to that completed

product. So, we get to the point that we

take uh the Bible and we use it to guide

our lives with. I mean, all the

scripture, whether Old Testament News,

there's so much we can we can learn. I

mean, you know, you mentioned Ezekiel

and we talked about that and as we walk

through the book of John and you know,

John his experience as as he got back

from from getting the revelation um uh

the revelation vision from God, he

understood what was going to happen. He

understood more than what we understand

today. And as we go into that context

piece of how am I going to live my life?

Um it's a pretty deep it's a pretty deep

well to understand that, but it's always

a journey worth taking. And then you

find those threads of those little

things that um happen in the Old

Testament, that happen in the New

Testament, happen at the end of the New

Testament, and you find all this stuff

is interwoven and intertwined like we

talked about before. And that's whenever

the treasure hunt really gets exciting

because now I've got a new clue, right?

Now I've got something else to search

out. And that's whenever it goes beyond

just reading the Bible to understanding

the Bible to studying the Bible to to

applying the Bible to your life. Because

it's not just about finding answers.

It's about how the answers once I find

them apply to me and make my life, my

walk closer to that that Christ had when

he was here. Yeah. Absolutely. Um and so

in that in that context piece and

understand that historical context, you

can take a passage of scripture as an

example and you take um one section in a

particular Bible or in a particular

book. And you know what's interesting is

most of our mo most of our modern

translations if you were to just you

know just open one up to a passage of

scripture you will find these sections

that are kind of already broken out and

they kind of got a little summary

statement above them. You know,

theologically we call that a paricopy.

It's a it's a break in the text that

helps you. And it's great to take and

say, I want to I want to read this this

paricopy. And so I'm going to read from

this summary line to the next summary

line. Um, and that allows me to see a

couple of things. One is it's usually a

there's usually a theme there. And so so

I want to find the theme in in that

text. I want to look for and identify

and and and find the theme that's there.

And then I then I might say um well,

who's speaking in that particular text?

You know, um you can like read through

the Gospels as an example and you'll

find Pharisees are speaking and there's

Sadducees are speaking and there's

disciples speaking and Jesus is speaking

and the Jews are speaking and well,

who's who's speaking? Um and then you

want to find out who they're speaking

to. Well, who who are they talking to?

you know, is is Jesus talking to the

Jews? Is Jesus talking to his disciples?

Is Jesus talking to the Pharisees? Is

Jesus talking to, you know, a Greek? Is

he is he talking to the sick person? And

so the theme, who's speaking, who's

being spoken to, and then you want to

find the setting. Yes. Right. So, so as

we go into to Holy Week, as an example,

the uh uh this coming

Sunday is Easter. There's a setting for

that, right? And so if you're reading

the Easter uh if you're reading the

Easter

narrative, there's a tomb, there's a

stone, there is the women who were

coming to anoint Jesus's feet or to

anoint Jesus's body. Um there's the

angels, there's the guards, there's

there's a setting that's there. You want

to find that in there. So you get the

theme, you get who's speaking, you get

who they're speaking to, and you get the

setting. And all of a sudden, you begin

to see kind of a whole picture of that

context. Both the context of verses

before and after and both the historical

setting in which you you find that. And

th those are ways that you can um really

engage in studying the Bible um without

going to um something that I think we'll

talk about next week, which is what are

some external sources that will will

help us because I think first things

first, you want to be reading it. You

want to be consistent in your commitment

to read it and you want to be able to

dig for some

things yourself

before you always just go get the answer

from somewhere else. And there are tons

of commentaries and Bible handbooks and

you know this person's got a blog and

that person's got a website and and you

know there's tons of information out

there. But before we got to modern

today, there wasn't. And the and the

disciples, the early disciples, man,

they knew the word of God. When you get

to Acts chapter 4, you got two

Acts 4 · chapter mention

fishermen, Peter and J uh Peter and

John, who are essentially told by the

the the Pharisees. They're completely in

awe what they knew because they were

uneducated men. In other words, they

didn't go to the rabbi schools. They

didn't go anywhere else. Well, where did

they get that from? Well, they got that

from studying the word of God and

sitting at the feet of Jesus. And that's

that's that next key, right? Is if

you're going to read it, if you're going

to study it, you need to begin that

journey in prayer and you need to have

prayer throughout that. What do I mean

by that? Ask the Lord, what is the theme

that you're trying to say in this

passage? Ask the Lord, what was it you

were trying to accomplish in this? Ask

the Lord, "What are you trying to say to

me today out of this passage of

scripture?" And those things are going

to help you really begin to dig for

yourself and let the spirit of God lead

you rather than someone else. Yeah. And

the only thing I will add to that is,

you know, if this is if you're at the

point of just starting your your your

reading of the Bible, um I would

encourage you, you know, uh maybe start

with the New Testament and and read that

first. Absolutely. it that the reading

the language is a little easier. Uh the

Bible is not written in chronological

order. So um you know, yes, we start

with the with creation in Genesis, but

there's a lot of stuff that's not in

chronological order. So it's okay to

read the New Testament first and you

kind of get a feel for the language and

what's going on there. So definitely

would encourage uh that to as a

springboard to to an easier first six

weeks of as you're building your habit.

Yeah, absolutely. And so with that, next

week we're going to talk about some

external sources that are of value to

your Bible study. And so hopefully as we

begin to go through that, you'll be

thinking about the commitment, the

habit, and starting to dig for yourself.

And then what if you hit a roadblock

while you're digging and what's an

external source then that can help me

find the right answer? Absolutely. So

we'll see you all next week. Thanks for

sticking in and watching. Share this

with those that are a part of your uh

community and uh let this bless them

too. Have a great week.