Knowable Word

Helping ordinary people learn to study the Bible

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I Can Do All Things…Except Ignore the Context

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Pastor Yancey Arrington recently wrote a great post about everyone’s favorite inspirational verse: Philippians 4:13. “I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (ESV). We love quoting this verse to motivate ourselves to try harder, run faster, and work smarter.

However, Arrington reminds us that context drives interpretation. And in the context of Philippians 4, doing “all things” means “facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need” (Phil 4:12). In other words, “I can do all things” has more to do with resting and learning contentment than with pushing and triumphing.

Arrington makes a good case, and I encourage you to check it out!

Another Way to Look at Sexual Temptation

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We commit sexual immorality, not because we are victims to our desires, but because we are looking for trouble. We’re then tempted to believe either that we have to try harder or that we’ll never change. But there is a better way.

Those who walk with Christ will say to wisdom, “You are my sister.” They will call insight their intimate friend (Prov 7:4).

Your desires can change. You can train your heart by grace to love the truth. When you write God’s words upon your heart, you gain a new perspective on the things that once tripped you up. Instead of passing along the street near immorality’s corner, you can look out from your window and out through your lattice (Prov 7:6).

Artondra Hall (2012), Creative Commons

Artondra Hall (2012), Creative Commons

The scene in Proverbs 7:6-9 fascinates me because Solomon and the youth both see the same set of events. But what they truly see couldn’t be any different.

  • The simple youth sees a secret, life-giving delight at the end of his path.
  • The wise sage sees an obvious but lethal deceit down the very same road.

God’s grace will train you to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions (Titus 2:11-13), because God, in his grace, will show you in his word what ungodliness and worldly passions have to offer: death, death, and more death.

Ask the Lord to show you your path and turn you to his. Write his commandments on your heart and live (Prov 7:2).

And when you find yourself on the wrong path under cover of darkness, whip out those words which can be a lamp to your feet and a light to your path (Ps 119:105). If they’re not already on your heart, ready to go, they won’t be much help to you when it counts.

Do you still want to look for trouble? I can assure you: You’ll find it.

Are you ready to look out upon trouble and reject it? Christ your wisdom can help.

Another Way to Think About Bible Studies

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Hector Alejandro (2010), Creative Commons

Hector Alejandro (2010), Creative Commons

Sometimes I think of Bible studies not according to who will attend, but according to what I expect of those who attend.

  1. Low Commitment Bible studies work best for situations where we need to make it easy as possible for people to get into the word. The leader expects people simply to show up and take part in the discussion as they have thoughts. Such studies work well as a 5-minute introduction to a business meeting, a short investigative study, or as the very first introduction for people to the OIA method of Bible study. In many situations, low commitment is a good thing.
  2. Moderate Commitment Bible studies work best for situations where people want more out of the Scripture, but they still need a lot of guidance. In such studies, the leader expects people to commit to attending the study and at least to read the passage beforehand. At the meeting itself, the leader might not even read the text but can dive right in to the discussion.
  3. High Commitment Bible studies work best for situations where people need to be challenged beyond what they might find comfortable. In such studies, the leader expects people to spend 1-5 hours studying the passage personally before each meeting. The leader may expect group members to come to the meeting ready to share what they think is the author’s main point. At a meeting for one such study, I once prohibited participants from using their Bibles. I expected them to have spent enough time studying the text that they could discuss it from either their notes or their memory. (Note: I did that for only one meeting, and it was a wild ride, but my purpose was to stress the commitment required, not to direct anyone’s attention away from the text itself.)

The key to increasing commitment is to give homework. It’s really pretty simple. I know I’m talking about a Bible study, and such things are usually free and easy because we want more people to attend.

But people will get out of it as much as they put into it. And they’ll place higher value on things that cost them more. So why can’t we ask them to prepare for each Bible study meeting?

One significant danger here is that we may have different group members ready for differing degrees of commitment. In a single Bible study, we’re likely to ask too much of some people and too little of others. At such times, it may be helpful to split the group into different studies with different commitment levels. Or we may need to feed a ready-for-higher-commitment person with an opportunity to co-lead the study or receive more training outside the study.

As I lead Bible studies, I ask myself if I’m calling people to a commitment level proportional to their maturity and to Christ’s expectations for them (Matt 11:28-30, Luke 9:57-62). And I make frequent changes based on what will be most helpful at the time. Bible studies that never change year after year may just be a recipe for complacency.

Question: In what contexts do you think differing degrees of commitment are warranted?

How Many Long-Time Christians Can’t Study the Bible?

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Gospel CoalitionLast week, the Gospel Coalition posted this terrific article by Jen Wilkin. She writes of the frequent confession she hears that maddens but no longer surprises her:

I’ve been in church for years, but no one has taught me to study my Bible until now.

She goes on to reflect:

We continue to tell people this is what you should believe about marriage and this is what you need to know about doctrine and this is what your idolatry looks like. But because we never train them in the Scriptures, they have no framework to attach these exhortations to beyond their church membership or their pastor’s personality or their group leader’s opinion. More importantly, they have no plumb line to measure these exhortations against. It never occurs to them to disagree with what they are being taught because they cannot distinguish between our interpretation of Scripture and Scripture itself, having little to no firsthand knowledge of what it says.

And they’ve been in church for years.

Yes! And then:

We must teach the Bible. Please hear me. We must teach the Bible, and we must do so in such a way that those sitting under our teaching learn to feed themselves rather than rely solely on us to feed them. We cannot assume that our people know the first thing about where to start or how to proceed. It is not sufficient to send them a link to a reading plan or a study method. It is our job to give them good tools and to model how to use them. There is a reason many love Jesus Calling more than they love the Gospel of John. If we equip them with the greater thing, they will lose their desire for the lesser thing.

Wilkin writes of women’s Bible studies, but her points are equally valid for either gender. I wish I could quote the entire article for you, but the best I can do is to send you over to TGC’s site.

Check it out!

Those Who Look for Trouble Always Find it

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In Proverbs 7, Solomon unmasks immorality’s deception to help us stand against it. The problem, however, is that you and I usually don’t want to stand against it.

Now we’ll give plenty of lip service to “accountability” and “boundaries.” We love to wallow in guilt and misery. We whine about the springtime and about how it resurfaces hordes of scantily clad North American tribeswomen.

But when the sun goes down, and we think we’re alone, and we believe we’ll get away with it—we once again pass right down the street near her corner, taking the way to her house. We know exactly where Immorality keeps her residence, and we frequent her establishment and browse her seductive wares.

Looking for Trouble

6 For at the window of my house
I have looked out through my lattice,
7 and I have seen among the simple,
I have perceived among the youths,
a young man lacking sense,
8 passing along the street near her corner,
taking the road to her house
9 in the twilight, in the evening,
at the time of night and darkness. (Prov 7:6-9, ESV)

The Victim

Observe who is the “victim” here. He is the “simple,” one of “the youths” (Prov 7:7). He is the one who loves being simple (Prov 1:22). He could become wise, but he doesn’t yet want to. He refuses to receive prudence, knowledge, and discretion (Prov 1:4). He won’t turn at reproof (Prov 1:23-27).

This young man knows the right thing to do, but he won’t do it. All hope is not lost; there’s still time for him to change his mind and turn. He doesn’t need more information or education. He needs to fear the Lord (Prov 1:7).

Notice, though, how else he is described: “a young man lacking sense” (Prov 7:7). Though I believe, generally, that you don’t need to know Hebrew in order to study the Bible, there are times when wordplay doesn’t translate well. This is one of those cases.

The Hebrew word for “sense” is the same Hebrew word used in verse 3 for “heart.” Solomon says: My son, you must bind the commandments on your heart (v.3); but here is a young man lacking “sense/heart” (v.7). Dear reader, you must get this, lest you die: if you don’t write God’s words on your heart, you will lack anything of substance in your heart, and you will continue seeking trouble for yourself.

What does this mean?

Those who take the time to learn and study God’s words, memorizing them and delighting in them—these are the ones who find something more desirable than immorality. Because in loving God’s words, they love God himself. By drowning themselves in God’s words, they find saturation in God’s favor. With wisdom close at hand and intimate (Prov 7:4), they won’t feel the need for another (counterfeit) companion.

The Victim’s Tactics

Now, observe the victim’s tactics. He passes along the street near her corner. He takes the road to her house. He does it under cover of darkness. If you didn’t catch it, Solomon repeats this last point 4 times: twilight, evening, time of night, darkness (Prov 7:9).

Dennis Wong (2009), Creative Commons

Dennis Wong (2009), Creative Commons

The victim is actually the perpetrator. He knows exactly what he’s doing. He knows what road he’s on. He knows who lives on that corner. He could take a million different routes, but he chooses this one at this time because it will get him where he wants to go.

Here is the point: You are not a victim to your desires. You are not a slave to your sexual sin.

You and I are willing, intentional, conscious, premeditated, first-degree, voluntary, calculated, and deliberate partners with immorality. And what can we do about that?

Some people say, “I had better try harder. I’m not being good enough.” But this approach leads only to more death.

Others say, “I’ll never change.” The gospel-loving, spiritually sanctified version of this sentiment uses comforting terms like “besetting sin” and “deeply-rooted patterns.” But this approach often flies in the face of God’s call to repentance and drastic life change.

There is another way. I’ll write more of it next week.

What Kind of Bible Study Should You Lead?

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Not all Bible studies are created equal. Some are more effective than others with particular groups of people. So how do you decide what sort of study to lead?

Georgia National Guard (Creative Commons), 2013

Georgia National Guard (2013), Creative Commons

One common approach is to define your Bible study group based on what sort of people you expect to attend. The strength of this approach lies in the process of putting yourself in other people’s shoes and designing your Bible study in a way that best serves the group. Expert marksmen will choose the best model to fit the people God has given them.

So you might think in categories like this:

  1. Investigative (or Evangelistic) Bible Studies introduce unbelievers to the claims of Jesus in the Gospels. We might even call these groups “Bible discussions” to make them sound more approachable to unchurched people.
  2. Growth Bible Studies help professing believers to deepen their walks with Christ.
  3. Training Bible Studies teach people how to study the Bible for themselves and thus equip mature believers to use careful OIA skills in their personal Bible study.
  4. Leadership Bible Studies encourage church or small group leaders with biblical principles for shepherding others with the word.
  5. Devotional Bible Studies help committee members or retreat participants to ground their meetings in truth from God’s word.

Thinking in such categories help us to lay down our lives for others and tailor our approach to their needs. We think proactively about who will attend, and we work to create a positive user experience for group members.

However, there are also a few dangers to this approach.

  • We might tend to think of some Bible studies as “OIA studies” and other studies as “not OIA studies.” But no matter who attends our studies—believer or unbeliever, mature or immature—we should always do thoughtful OIA study. OIA is the best method we can use whenever we approach the Scriptures.
  • We might be led to believe that some Bible study groups need to focus on the gospel, while others need to focus on the Christian life or discipline or growth. But we should see the gospel of Jesus Christ in every passage of Scripture, regardless of who attends the study.
  • We might expect some Bible studies to focus on application and other studies to focus on education. But God wrote the Scripture to produce change in all who read it. No Bible studies should be mere intellectual exercises.

As you figure out what sort of Bible study to lead, another set of categories may help you avoid these dangers. Next week I’ll offer another proposal.

Question: What other kinds of Bible studies could we add to our list?

Three Kinds of Shame

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Sin is muddy. When it splashes, we rightly want to clean it up. But sometimes our zeal to clean causes us to oversimplify sin’s muddiness by seeking trite answers for complex situations. Wise counselors and teachers recognize shame’s complexity, and they seek to understand the mud before laboring to clean it.

A few days ago, The Gospel Coalition posted an article I wrote about Three Kinds of Shame. I examine Jesus’ healing of the man born blind in John 9 to show the process of dealing with great shame. These three categories help us to sort through such shame:

  1. My sin against God
  2. Others’ sin against me
  3. The work of God in me

These reflections came out of a talk I gave in October at the DiscipleMakers Fall Conference.

At the end of the clip is a link to the complete talk recording.

Or, if you prefer the bite-sized article version, check it out here!

Prepare Yourself to Resist Sexual Immorality

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According to Proverbs 7:1-5, your battle with sexual immorality begins by writing God’s words of wisdom on your heart. You can’t wait until your hormones kick in before deciding how to honor God with your body.

This week I’d like to take that main point and run it through the Application Matrix to generate a variety of potential applications.

Inward Application

The battle approaches. Time to lock and load.

Head

Do you believe this battle is worth fighting? Do you believe it’s possible to fight and win, or have you given up, thinking that immorality will simply characterize the rest of your days? What passages of Scripture most motivate you in this realm? Do you believe God’s Spirit working through the word is powerful enough to defeat the sin in your heart? Or do you expect to keep doing the same thing and get a different result?

Heart

Generation Bass, Creative Commons

Generation Bass, Creative Commons

What rules your heart? What have you written there? Can you quote the Hunger Games movies more readily than Scripture? Do you want things to be any different? I don’t just mean the guilt. I mean the holiness of life and denial of self that will produce true and lasting joy in knowing God.

Hands

Take time this week to memorize Proverbs 7:1-5. Write these words on the tablet of your heart. Cut a bit of time on social media to work on the memorization. Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,” and call understanding your intimate friend. Jesus is your best friend and counselor; get to know him better this week.

Outward Application

One of the best ways to get your focus off yourself is to consider others. As you build your influence for Christ and help others to write the word on their hearts, you can’t help but draw closer to the Lord yourself.

Head

Whom has God put in your life, whom you can serve and lead in godly wisdom? What Scripture passages would be good to help them write on their hearts?

Heart

How can you help others to value what the Lord values? How can you avoid merely giving people a list of rules and behaviors, and instead help them identify the desires of their hearts that lead them to commit immorality (pleasure, escape, control)?

Hands

Perhaps you can spend time this week practicing memory verses with those you lead. You can ask what they’re learning from the word. You can ask what will be their plan when they face temptation (how they can choose intimacy with Christ their wisdom over the false intimacy of pornography or immoral relationships).

Conclusion

God wants to change specific people in specific ways and so conform them to the image of Christ. Reading, writing, and speaking about immorality won’t guarantee change. Only repentance and obedience show our faith to be true. Will you work out your salvation this week, even as God works his perfect will in you?

The Best and Worst Part of T4G

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T4GI’m on my way home from Together for the Gospel (T4G), a biennial conference for pastors and church leaders. This was my first time attending, and I find myself refreshed and re-energized for the next season of ministry.

T4G is big. It’s held in a big arena (KFC Yum! Center, home of the University of Louisville basketball team). It draws a big crowd (over 7,000 this year). It sends every attendee home with a big stack of books (I have 44). There’s a big screen, big singing, and big lines for the restrooms.

The biggest thing about it, however, is the lineup of speakers. Perhaps you’ve heard of some of these men:

  • Mark Dever
  • Thabiti Anyabwile
  • Al Mohler
  • Kevin DeYoung
  • David Platt
  • Matt Chandler
  • Ligon Duncan
  • John MacArthur
  • John Piper

These men have big ministries and big personalities. I imagine most attendees are drawn to T4G for the opportunity to sit under such colossal preachers of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Therein lies what I found to be both the best and worst thing about T4G: our time in the word of God.

Some of the speakers delivered the word with such clarity and power that I’ll feel the effects for years to come.

  • David Platt spoke of Moses’ intercession for the people of God in Exodus 32 and 33.  Moses knows the perfections, purposes, and promises of God are unchanging, but the plans of God are unfolding. Therefore, he pleads for God’s mercy on sinners. He pleads for God’s presence and power among his people. He pleads for God’s glory in the earth. Now, every time I read Exodus 32-33, these points will stick with me.
  • Ligon Duncan spoke of Numbers 5:1-4 and God’s purpose for expelling from the camp people with skin diseases, discharges, and contact with dead bodies. But Luke shows Jesus touching lepers, bleeders, and the dead. He does what the Old Testament code could not do: He makes them clean. How does he make the unclean clean? By going outside the camp himself to suffer their reproach (Heb 13:10-13). Thanks to Dr. Duncan, I’ll never read Leviticus and Numbers the same way again.
  • John MacArthur spoke of the mass defection of Jesus’ disciples in John 6, and he drew out piercing implications for our ministries in our churches. He showed me how to read and understand this long and difficult chapter.
  • John Piper explained why Romans 9 comes after Romans 8, and how the incredible promises of Romans 8 would mean nothing without the truths of Romans 9. So many Jews in Paul’s day didn’t believe Christ. Did this mean God was being unfaithful to his promises to them? And if so, how could we ever be certain of his promises to us (no condemnation, no separation from his love)? Piper gave me a broad context in which to read Romans 8-11, and that context will help me to study these chapters in greater detail on my own.

These were the highlights for me.

What was the common thread? These best parts of T4G all came when speakers gave me confidence that I could do what they were doing. They showed me how to see what they were seeing in the Scripture. I learned how to read and study and apply and teach these texts. I won’t need to listen to the recordings of these talks over and over to be filled with the truth. These men launched me into deeper study of God’s word, increased hope in Christ, and more fervent desire for the salvation of unbelievers.

What was the worst part of T4G?

It came at those times when I found myself sitting there thinking:

  • “I could never do what this guy is doing.”
  • “This speaker is way smarter than anyone else in the room, especially me.”
  • “Wow, praise God for raising him up to have such influence for Christ, but no-one else listening to him will ever be able to replicate his teaching when they leave this conference.”

Now there is much sin in my heart, and sometimes my inability to get moving simply results from my own dullness.

But I wonder, too, if there’s a downside to the “bigness” of such a lineup. While some teachers are more skilled at “showing their work”—thus inspiring their hearers to continue what they have begun—others do a better job of wowing and impressing. And what can I say? I usually love to be wowed and impressed.

T4G had its fair share of wowing and impressing. But the wowing and impressing will be forgotten as soon as I get home and have to help with the backlog of dishes and yard work and play time with my kids. I’ll also have to get right to work on a pile of projects at work.

The moments of real training, however, will bear fruit long into the future.

Announcing My First Book!

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How’s your time in the Word?

Pre-order now from Cruciform Press. Coming soon to Amazon.

I’ve blogged long enough that most of my ideas now lie buried deep within this site’s bowels. I’ve done my best to make the most important posts accessible in the main menu, but there’s only so much I can do without exhausting new visitors. And some of those ideas deserve to stay buried. After all, didn’t the Sage of Israel once say something about the making of many blogs (Eccl 12:12)? It’s in the Hebrew, I assure you.

Well, I’ve done my best to assemble all the really important stuff in one place for you. And the nice people at Cruciform Press offered to blow off the dust, spiff it up, and publish this baby. I must say it’s made my life much more interesting of late.

Be honored, dear reader, for you are privy to this special, humorous announcement—bowels and all [1]—with Scripture liberally removed from its context. I need to keep you on your toes (which look great in sandals this time of year, by the way—Song 7:1), and my About page practically promises I’ll do it from time to time. Those whom I love, I discipline (Heb 12:7-8). The rest of the world must hold themselves content with the respectable—not to be confused with boring—Public Service Announcement.

You may like to know that my friend and former pastor Tedd Tripp wrote the book’s Foreword. And Wheaton College English Professor Leland Ryken has praised the book for “the accuracy of the proposed methodology for interacting with the Bible, and the practical approach to the subject.” Jerry Bridges, author of The Pursuit of Holiness [2], wrote, “I look forward to using it to improve my own Bible study.”

If you’ve benefitted from this wonderful OIA approach to the Bible (observe, interpret, apply), this book could be your opportunity to help train others. And if you get to read the book, I’d be tickled to hear what you think; so please feel free to drop me a line.

Pre-order now from Cruciform Press. Coming soon to Amazon.
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[1] Though for the record, my wife and exactly 50% of my children simply do not appreciate my sense of humor. I wonder what is the proportion among the blog’s readership…?

[2] This is one of those affiliate links that help you to support this site at no extra cost to yourself.