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God’s Tender Love     Feel yourself carried by the most comforting and protective arms in the universe:   Deuteronomy 1:31   . . . the LORD your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place.   Deuteronomy 33:27   The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. He will drive out your enemy before you . . .   Isaiah 46:3  Listen to me, O house of Jacob, . . . you whom I have upheld since you were conceived, and have carried since your birth. (4) Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you. Isaiah 63:9  In all their distress he too was distressed, and the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and mercy he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.   As a little child is frequently lifted by its parent, so God lifts you up into his arms:   Psalms 40:2  He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.   Psalms 145:14  The LORD upholds all those who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down.   Picture yourself as a little, trusting child holding the strongest, yet gentlest hand in the world:   Psalms 37:24  though he stumble, he will not fall, for the LORD upholds him with his hand.   Psalms 63:8  My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.   Psalms 73:23  Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand.   Psalms 139:10   even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.   Isaiah 41:10  So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.   Isaiah 41:13  For I am the LORD, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you.   Isaiah 42:6  I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. . . .   Scripture shows the Lord not as a father who only becomes involved with his children when they get older, but someone who tends to a baby’s needs from the moment of birth, even teaching the baby to walk:   Psalms 22:9  Yet you brought me out of the womb; you made me trust in you even at my mother’s breast. (10) From birth I was cast upon you; from my mother’s womb you have been my God.   Psalms 71:6  From my birth I have relied on you; you brought me forth from my mother’s womb. I will ever praise you.   Isaiah 1:2  Hear, O heavens! Listen, O earth! For the LORD has spoken: “I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me.”   Hosea 11:3  It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by the arms; but they did not realize it was I who healed them. (4) I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love; I lifted the yoke from their neck and bent down to feed them.   Here’s yet another beautiful picture of God’s tender love:   Isaiah 40:11   He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young.   Footnote: Not until several weeks after compiling the above did I realize that every verse is from the Old Testament. That might shatter some people’s view of the Old Testament. The God of the New Testament is truly the God of the Old.

God's Gender As much as I would like to avoid an issue that raises many people’s blood pressure, I am obligated to explore the matter of God’s gender. Why? Because it affects some people’s feelings toward God. That renders it too important to sidestep. Before hurtling into this, we should acknowledge that it is disturbingly easy to be sincerely convinced that we are being spiritual, biblical, rational and objective when we are actually more swayed by other factors than we suppose. Let’s for a moment try to be honest with each other while I reveal my own biases and prejudices. There are women (and some men) who have suffered so atrociously at the hands of key men in their lives that the very thought of God being male chills them with terror or revulsion, or at least leaves them cold and wanting to keep God at arm’s length. Large numbers of such people have felt drawn to me because of my writings and I confess that they have a special place in my heart. On the other extreme, are certain men who want God to be male in order to justify them feeling and/or acting superior to women. I admit to feeling uncomfortable about such men, despite being a man myself. Humbling ourselves and exalting others seems far more in line with biblical teaching. In between these extremes are those who squirm at the thought of God being female, simply because it is a concept so foreign to their upbringing (always calling God ‘he’) that to them it ‘feels’ (i.e. an emotive, rather than spiritual, reaction) pagan. I confess to having a special affinity to such people and I suspect that a large majority of Christians congregate here. Many of us, having been brought up to apply the male pronouns he and him to God, would recoil at using she and her , as much as if our human father suddenly declared he wants us to think of him as a woman. But is this for some deep, spiritual reason or solely because it clashes with an ingrained habit? Language keeps changing, and the number of people brought up with gender-neutral language keeps increasing. So I cannot be sure if the study is still valid, but research not too long ago indicated that the use of the male pronoun when speaking in general terms is seen by people as being more gender-neutral than using the female pronoun. I suspect this would be particularly true of most Bible readers, unless they had been brought up on a very recent Bible version that, for example, never uses man for humanity . My guess is that this research points to a significant factor behind the reaction of many of us to referring to God as she . We find it easier to think of God as being less predominantly one gender or the other if we use the pronoun we are more familiar with, whereas the use of the female pronoun jolts us into thinking it implies not that God is in no sense genderless but specifically female. The truth is that for many of us, God’s gender is such an emotive issue that, despite convincing ourselves we are being spiritual and theologically correct, our own fears, biases and prejudices are in danger of raging stronger than our ability to hear the Spirit’s whispers and can cloud our reading of God’s Word. So much for sensitizing ourselves to factors that might be subconsciously influencing us: let’s plunge in. Things I am about to say are so contrary to the Holy One’s nature that I feel apologetic about even mentioning them. Nevertheless, it seems necessary in order to drive home just how different God is from our normal conception of what it means to be male. The exquisite but humanly flabbergasting uniqueness of God poses enormous difficulties when trying even to imagine him, let alone speak of him. One of the multitude of enigmas this poses is in choosing a pronoun to use for God. With human language being what it is, the options are only he, she, it or they. God is far too personal for it to be appropriate, and too united and opposed to polytheism for they . I would not dare accuse the God of the Bible of making a poor choice when selecting the male pronoun from these limited options but before bolting to wild conclusions, let’s remember that it does not say God is male and there are many senses in which every Bible believer agrees that he is not male. Most of us readily admit that God is neither a heterosexual male, nor homosexual male. He is sexually attracted to no-one. Both in the sense of procreation and in the sense of being attracted to gods of the opposite sex (of which, of course, there are none) we all agree that God is genderless, though not in the sense of being neutered, since there is no deficiency in God. There is nothing used to confirm gender in humans that applies to the divine. God has neither genitals, nor hormones, nor genes (chromosomes). Moreover, there is no opposite sex version of God with which to compare or contrast him. We cannot say he is taller, physically stronger or hairier or sweats more or has a deeper voice or flatter chest or a lower life expectancy or is less verbally proficient than his opposite sex counterpart. The very notion is, of course, ridiculous. Neither does God wear male clothing or is more likely to end up in jail, or have a receding hairline. There might be things an average woman is better at than an average man, and vice versa, but there is nothing that the God of perfection could be better at. To say the least, a ‘male’ lacking everything so far mentioned is a very peculiar ‘male.’ Neither is God male in the sense that males are more like him than females. Right from the beginning, the God of the Bible knocks this fallacy on the head by emphatically stating that both genders are equally in the image of God: Genesis 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. Genesis 5:1-2 When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. He created them male and female and blessed them. And when they were created, he called them “man.” When declaring that humanity is in God’s image, both these Scripture specifically mention both genders; perhaps hinting that there is something in what is unique about being female that is in the image of God and, likewise, there is something about what distinguishes males that is in God’s image. Perhaps, by consisting of both males and females, humans better reflect the fullness of the nature of God than either gender could achieve alone. It has been said that the sexes are not so much opposite as complementary. They complete each other. Christian theologians, however, have always insisted that God is complete in himself. Unlike Adam, he needs no helper. In fact, the Hebrew word used to describe Eve’s role as Adam’s helper ( Genesis 2:18,20 ) is never used elsewhere in the Bible of people serving God but almost always used to describe God’s role in rescuing us. This makes it closer in meaning to savior or hero than assistant . In any case, anyone trying to argue from Scripture that there is any way in which God is more ‘male’ than ‘female’ is forced to admit that it must be in an extremely limited narrow sense.

Hearing the Voice of God   The Thrilling Mystery of Hearing from God   Divine Guidance Made Easier     Your need to make a critical decision looms like a fast-approaching freight train. Yet despite desperately wanting to hear from God, he is frustratingly silent. That’s no surprise. God loves drama. Often he waits until almost the last split second before snatching us out of harm’s way. That builds faith. It puts steel in our backbone, spiritually.   But there is another reason for God having his own timetable. You are loved with an intensity beyond human comprehension. Relentlessly, the One who gave his all for you seeks to draw you closer to him, because that is our deepest need and our most exciting destiny. We, however, tend to be aware of our chronic need for his whispers only when our need for guidance is screamingly obvious. We get annoyed with God because we rarely recognize the extent to which our real need is not for occasional guidance, but constant companionship.   We long to know what to do; God longs for us to know  him . Guidance can come in a flash, but getting to know someone - especially when that Someone is infinite - is an adventure that never ends. Whereas we want a five-minute consultation, the Lover of our souls wants for us a lifetime of ever-increasing intimacy, culminating in an eternity of incomprehensibly greater intimacy.   When our agenda is shallower than God’s agenda, we will misunderstand what God is doing. We’ll think him frustratingly slow, maybe even cold and aloof, when he is actually molding within us things beyond our dreams. Likewise, this web series might move a little slower than you had wished, because it is responding not just to your heart cry for answers from God, but to his heart cry that you might better know him. And the two are inter-related.   Life’s Most Exciting Adventure   God is warm. He is fascinating, exciting, and full of surprises. He brings peace, contentment, security, love, and meaningful answers. To keep distant from him is to condemn ourselves to remaining a pathetic shadow of the vibrant, complete, fulfilled, confident, knowledgeable people we were born to be. And yet there are dark forces that want us to miss out.   Astoundingly, some people have so closed their eyes to reality that they imagine that even if there really are spiritual powers, none of them could be evil. Surely, a few minutes of world news should tell us otherwise. And anything evil is likely to be deceptive.   The God of love and truth has spiritual enemies non-human intelligences whose sinister purposes are furthered if they can discourage us from discovering how breathtakingly wonderful God really is, and from revelling in his goodness. They long to coax us down the slide toward supposing that God is a cold, harsh, angry, boring, killjoy - someone we would shrink from. The aim of their deception is to paint in our imagination such a false picture of our magnificent Lord that instead of instinctively snuggling into him, we apprehensively keep him at arm’s length. Should this deception succeed, God’s spiritual enemies would rob our loving Lord of his greatest joy, which is to lavish his blessings upon us. Hideous alien powers want to keep us weak and ineffective so that they can dominate us, rather than us rising up in the might of the Lord and thwarting their evil plans.   So our minds are a spiritual battlefield, regularly bombarded with demonically manipulated thoughts, fears, doubts and anything else that might weaken our longing to run into the warmth of God’s welcoming arms and enjoy him. This is why guilt feelings - the fear that God frowns on us - keep hounding Christians. (To counteract these lies, please bookmark this page and see   Handling Guilt .) And it is why we fear that God is going to tell us to do something unpleasant. (To see through that lie, read   Enjoying God’s Will for You. )   Once we cut through all this satanically inspired misinformation we can begin life’s most exciting adventure - discovering God, the most spine-chilling, most mind-boggling, most extravagant, most powerful, most loveable Person in all the universe. Locked within the Creators personality are wonders so beyond our knowing as to make the complexities and mysteries of the entire universe seem like a speck of dust. Trillions of words could never describe his magnificence. It even messes with my writing style. I dislike running so many adjectives together, but what can you do when fumbling around, trying to describe the indescribable? To hear from this terrifyingly perfect, spine-tinglingly majestic, heart-stoppingly beautiful Person, is to tap into infinite intelligence, infinite goodness, and infinite power. Hearing from God is the highest privilege any life form could ever hope to experience. And this incomparably desirable, stupendously intelligent, infinitely superior Person speaks to you. Often.     In the words of Scripture: For God  does  speak– now one way, now another – though man may not perceive it . Job 33:14 (Emphasis Mine) The Lord of the universe communicates with you far more frequently and intimately than you dare imagine. The heart-warming news is that you respond positively to his leading more often than you realize. Nevertheless, each of us would be stunned as to how much divine comfort and protection and loving wisdom we have missed because we did not realize the Lord was speaking.   The God Who Hides Himself Running through Scripture are two themes that almost seem contradictory. One is that God hides himself. The other is that God is evident everywhere. The apostle Paul proclaimed to the Athenians the One who was both the Unknown God, and the God in whom they lived and moved and had their being  ( Acts 17:23-28 ). What initially look like contradictory statements end up being almost the same truth. God hides himself by being everywhere; not by withdrawing from us but by being so intensely involved in our lives that the very frequency and intimacy of his dealings with us makes it seem too common and normal to be the supernatural God. We must explore this thrilling truth because until we grasp it we will end up dismissing a high proportion of the times that God speaks to us. The unseen Lord is ceaselessly sustaining us and working in our lives and circumstances. “ In him we live and move and have our being,” is a truth that Scripture applies even to non-Christians ( Acts 17:23-28 ). The omnipresent, omnipotent Lord is so much involved even in the lives of God-haters, that our problem in perceiving him is like a deep-sea fish that can never see the ocean for the water. The fish is so much in the ocean and gaining its whole life - its food, its oxygen, its ability to move - from the ocean that there is a real sense in which it has never seen the ocean. The water is transparent. The fish has never known what it is like not to be in water. It has never seen the surface, the horizon, or the shore. Likewise, God is so vast and we are so dependent on him, we are each so immersed in him and have never known anything different, that he is almost imperceptible. He is so close that we cannot step back far enough to see him properly. The Almighty is so pervasive - so intimately and actively and continually involved with us and in everything that touches us - that we have become blinded to much of what he does. We often find ourselves not seeing God’s provision, for the pay check; not seeing God’s love for us, for all the good things that happen to us; not seeing God’s leading for the astounding opportunity that suddenly opens to us; not perceiving God’s intimate word to us, for the Bible. Over and over, Scripture attributes to God, what we attribute to natural or human causes. When it says that God sends wind, rain, sunshine, locust plagues, and so on, it is not because people in the Bible era had not discovered the laws of nature. Do you think Jesus, who said God feeds the birds of the air, did not know all the effort a sparrow goes to in order to find food ( Matthew 6:26 )? Do you suppose the psalmist, who believed God gives lions their food, was unaware that they feed themselves by preying ( Psalms 104:21; Job 38:39-41 )? Isaiah said that even a farmers most rudimentary agricultural knowledge is the result of God instructing him. Do you think Isaiah was unaware that farmers teach their sons and learn off each other, and experiment and gain experience for themselves? Do you imagine he thought those who deny God are unable to farm?  ( Isaiah 28:24-29  is so contrary to our secular mindset that you might find it worth investing thirty seconds to read it.) Biblical thinking is so different to current thinking as to seem bizarre. This difference is not because Scripture was written by primitive people who did not know any better than to attribute natural events to God. It is because today’s society is plagued by spiritually primitive people who do not know any better than to attribute natural events to chance. No one imagines that an all-powerful God would be incapable of using processes or unable to control vast numbers of intricate, seemingly insignificant events. And yet somehow most of us begin to act as if the discovery of some of those processes removes God from the equation. The apostle Paul faced enough natural dangers to seize anyone’s attention - wild seas, infected wounds, bandits - yet he focused on spiritual causes. His gospel threatened the livelihood, pride and traditions of thousands. Wherever he looked, human reasons for his problems glared at him. Yet he saw the human component of his conflict as inconsequential ( Ephesians 6:12 ). Either the apostle was a fruit loop or we clash with the spirit world more than most of us suppose. In any act of God there are at least two levels of explanation, one of which science can contribute to. Consider, for instance, when Jesus told a man to stretch out his withered hand and it immediately healed ( Luke 6:6,10 ). Scientists might describe what took place within that man’s hand in terms of multiplication of cells, suddenly improved blood flow, and so on. Such an explanation, though accurate, would miss an entire dimension to this event: the hand was restored at Jesus’ word. Imagine someone thinking himself clever by deciding never to see an oil painting except through an electron microscope, expecting that such a restricted, but technologically advanced, view would enable him to appreciate the painting’s beauty and to understand what the artist wished to convey though his art. It is as if science lets us examine a masterpiece with a microscope (and such a view can be of value), whereas the Bible empowers us to see the big picture, enabling us to grasp the divine meaning and purpose of that masterpiece we call life. God in his genius separates those who love truth from those who are in love with themselves. He has devised a way that keeps bigheads ignorant and enlightens the sincere. We have little control over our natural intelligence but we have much control over our attitude. Jesus exulted in God being so ingenious as to make understanding of the most critical and profound truths in the universe dependent upon not I.Q., but attitude. Luke 10:21   At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.” Blinded by appalling arrogance, humanists imagine they have suddenly become incredibly smart, being able to discern physical and psychological reasons for phenomena. They have actually become incredibly thick, being able to see nothing but the blatantly obvious. The apostle’s words stick with appalling accuracy: “Professing to be wise, they became fools” ( Romans 1:22 ). Don’t catch their blindness. Suppose you are listening in awe at the talent of a concert pianist. Noting your reaction, a know-all exclaims, “Oh, how ignorant can you get! That’s nothing to admire! Look, I’ll just press this piano key. See? The noise you were hearing was simply because keys were being pressed. That’s nothing special! Even a cat could walk on the keys and make a noise.” Imagine him supposing he had undermined your reason for awe, simply because he knew how a piano operates! His observation was true, but pathetically shallow. The fact that he could prove his explanation was true just increases his arrogance and seals his ignorance. His understanding of physics and mechanics and sound waves might be astounding and yet the beauty and message of the music and the skill of the pianist went completely over his head. Before you think that no one would be so ignorant, let me break the terrifying news. We are each highly capable of such clever stupidity. In the words of Jesus, God has “hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.” If we think ourselves smart, rather than utterly dependent upon God’s grace for understanding, we are in grave danger of knowing much and yet knowing nothing. Any of us can so easily miss the beauty, goodness, wisdom and message of God, even though it is right under our nose. Our claim not to hear God is like someone complaining he has never heard music, and even while he complains music is playing in the background. “Then what am I hearing right now?” you ask incredulously. “Oh,” he replies, “that’s just sound coming from instruments.”   God speaks, and we hear him, but often we recognize it only as words, thoughts, desires and circumstances. We fail to see beyond God’s chosen instruments to the divine conductor. The Almighty gets his message through to us and we usually respond, “That’s a good idea! I’ll do that.” Or, if it’s a warning, we think, “That’s right! It would be foolish to proceed.” We rarely stop to realize that it is actually God who is guiding us. As long as we end up doing the right thing, it is seldom essential that we recognize the divine origin of what we conclude is a good idea. Not recognizing the Source of our guidance, however, can result in us wrongly supposing that God is a little remote, when in reality he is passionately involved in our lives and repeatedly speaking to us. A still more disturbing consequence of not realizing that it is actually God who is speaking, is that we could ignore the message, not realizing that we are exposing ourselves to the pain of rejecting divine wisdom. For us to recognize God when he speaks or intervenes in our lives, we must never imagine that our apparent ability to fully explain something means we are seeing the full picture. Like a know-all brilliantly explaining the molecular structure of a work of art and yet completely missing the beauty and purpose of the masterpiece, so we might explain acts of God scientifically or rationally with complete accuracy and yet completely miss even God’s involvement, much less grasp his purpose and message in those events. Consider Joseph’s famous statement to his brothers who had sold him into slavery. The one-time prisoner who was now Pharaoh’s right-hand man, declared, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good” ( Genesis 50:20 ). Filling the foreground, are the brothers, driven by hate, jealousy and deceit, doing their utmost to ensure Joseph suffered. It seemed obvious what was going on. We could explain every event in terms of human depravity. Completely out of sight, however, something astoundingly different was happening in those same events. God, brimming with love, kindness and wisdom, was using the brother’s hate-crazed actions to execute his plan to bless Joseph and his brothers beyond anything they could imagine. God did not plant evil intentions in the brothers’ hearts. On the contrary, he was continually restraining them. For instance, most of them were planning not Joseph’s slavery but his murder ( Genesis 37:18-20) . Their hearts were evil and anti-God, and they fully deserved the wrath and judgment of God. Nevertheless, God was still there in the background, guiding events toward a goal so contrary to their intentions that they could never foresee it.   It is so easy to miss what is happening on a spiritual level, not only because the spiritual is invisible but because, as we have just seen, God can be engineering the exact opposite of what seems to be happening. Our Lord loves creating lavish and beautiful surprises. When virtually no one would ever guess, the Lord was acting in Joseph’s life, bringing about good. (When all is revealed it will become apparent that God always and only does good.) When the Almighty surprises us by bringing good out of circumstances that we least suspect could have a happy ending, it highlights God’s genius in concealing his stunning, meticulously planned surprises. In the words of Proverbs 25:2 , “ It is the glory of God to conceal a matter . .  .” Only through the eyes of faith could anyone see God’s ingeniously concealed goodness in the midst of what seems a hideous tangle of disasters and setbacks. God declares that anyone displaying such praiseworthy faith deserves to rule with him as royalty for all eternity. As the rest of that verse in Proverbs says, it is glory of kings to uncover what God has cleverly concealed. What the Lord did in Joseph’s life is typical of what he does in the life of each of us. And just as the Almighty often conceals his hand, so he often conceals his voice. I would have liked to entitle this webpage  Divine Guidance Made Easy,  but the closest I could get was  . . . Made Easier.  Although we can make great progress in recognizing God’s voice, it is actually not intended to be particularly easy. God does indeed hide himself, even from his loved ones. If you are like me, you have felt hurt by this. I long to be on intimate terms with God and I have often felt offended that God makes it so hard to hear him and to sense him at work in my life. After much seeking of God about this puzzle I have at last made the heart-warming discovery that God hiding himself in no way suggests that he wants to remain aloof. On the contrary, he longs for us to find him. Nothing thrills him more than us by faith seeing through his disguises and discovering him speaking and loving us through people, thoughts, circumstances, desires, books, songs, dreams, billboards, nature, movies, Scriptures . . . does the list ever end? It is only if God lovingly hides himself that we can win the eternal glory of those who by the eyes of faith pierce the apparent darkness and silence and evil to see our holy, triumphant Lord loving us and speaking to us and weaving all things together for good. Perhaps you have heard of the man who in utter frustration asked his pastor why God had not been giving him answers. Unable to hear the pastor’s mumbled reply, the man moved closer, asking the pastor to repeat what he had said. Still unable to hear the reply, he moved closer and closer until finally his ear was almost touching the pastor. Then he heard in the faintest voice, “Sometimes God whispers so that we will move closer to him.” It is precisely because God is passionate about us that he sometimes acts slightly disinterested in us. Consider a woman faced with the heart-wrenching dilemma of having much stronger feelings for a man than he has for her. In her desperate desire for him she might decide to restrain herself and play hard to get. Despite it seeming that she is growing cold, it is actually a passionate attempt to win him. Since men differ, one would have to be God to know in what circumstances this tactic is wise. But the One who  is  God and  is  wise, yearns for our affections and attention more than we can imagine, and in the hope of gaining them he often seems to play hard to get or seems to give us the silent treatment. Even though the fact slips past our physical senses, we know by faith that God is present everywhere. Similarly, we can take it by faith that God is communicating and actively at work in us and all around us in countless ways, even though much of what he does for us slips past our senses. What matters is not whether we  feel  or can  see  God moving in our situation. The fact is that he is giving us comfort, support, wisdom and all manner of things, regardless of how conscious we are of it. Our challenge is to believe it and become increasingly skilled at detecting his hand and voice in the normal humdrum of life. Let’s see some biblical examples of how easy it is to miss God. Jacob went to sleep unaware that he was literally lying over the very gateway of heaven ( Genesis 28:11-17 ). Young Samuel could not distinguish the Lord’s voice from that of the man he served every day ( 1 Samuel 3:4-5 ). Multiplied thousands of people rubbed shoulders with the Son of God. They heard teaching like no one had ever given. They saw miracles that took their breath away. And almost none of them had a clue as to who he was. For miles, the resurrected Jesus walked and talked with two of his disciples, and they never realized who was speaking to them. ‘ . . . they were kept from recognizing him.’ The moment they discovered who it was, he vanished (Luke 24:13-31).   There were times in the life of Joseph, Job, Jesus - in fact everyone who has ever lived - when only through the miracle of faith could anyone see God’s loving hand in what was happening to them. Finally, at the time of his choosing - often not until after death - God lets people see without the eyes of faith what he has been doing behind the scenes. Then all those who have let doubt blind them will be ashamed of their foolish questioning of God’s love and goodness. But there are those who trust God’s loving goodness despite it seeming that God had abandoned them. These heroes will shine like the sun. Listening to God    Husbands are renowned for letting their wives’ chatter fade into the background. Sometimes this is because husbands have difficulty coping with the sheer volume of words coming from their wives. Usually, they suppose nothing significant is being communicated. Every now and then, however, they get caught out and discover they have missed something that even they regard as important. To our surprise, it turns out that this is often our problem with God. It is not, as we imagine, that God seldom speaks, but that he speaks so often that we take it for granted, and assume that if it is not fanfared by angelic trumpets it cannot be important. Often a husband misses out simply because he wants to focus on other matters, instead of what his wife is saying. He risks the health of his relationship, hoping he can grasp enough of what he needs to know from sampling the occasional snippet of what his wife says. Likewise, we take risks with God, paying only partial attention to what he is saying. Rather than giving listening for God top priority, we are too content to muddle through life with only a vague idea of the vital things God is wishing to convey to us. Nowhere is this more evident than in our attitude to the Bible. We acknowledge it to be the very word of God and without rival, and yet who of us could not devote more time to studying it than we do? As Elijah discovered, God may send a frightening earthquake or a ferocious wind or a wildfire, but to communicate he usually favors the subtle whisper ( 1 Kings 19:11-12 ). Of course the Almighty could split our eardrums anytime he wants. In an instant he could have us quaking in fear, pledging to do whatever he asks, but he prefers to be gentle. God longs for our love, not our forced or terror-motivated obedience. He prefers that we hear him because we want to hear him, rather than because it is impossible not to hear him. He longs to foster within us an alert, expectant, eager attitude toward hearing from him as we go about our everyday lives. The prophet Habakkuk asked a question of God and then said, “ I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what he will say to me . . . ” ( Habakkuk 2:1 ). In other words, as a sentry posted to protect an ancient city from a surprise attack must be ever watchful for the slightest movement, Habakkuk resolved to be alert to the slightest sign that God was about to speak. A watchman must be continually looking for the unexpected. An attack could come at any time and from any direction. It could come in the form of a vast army or a small raiding party. They might be camouflaged or disguised. Likewise, we dare not presume to guess when or how God will speak. What would a commander think of a sentry who decided to take it easy and rest his eyes, expecting to be alerted by the commotion should he be needed? I confess to having had that mistaken attitude. I had assumed that whenever God wanted to communicate to me he would, as if were, shake me awake and get my attention, making it immediately obvious to me that he is speaking and cause me to easily understand what he wishes to communicate. What if we had this laid-back attitude to conversion; expecting God to give us a spectacular experience like Saul on the way to Damascus, if ever he wanted to convert us? Just as we know from Scripture that God wants our salvation, we know from the same Bible that he wants to guide us and commune with us. We have grasped the fact that God has already taken the initiative in our salvation and all we need do is respond by praying and in faith accepting salvation. Similarly, he has taken the initiative in wanting to communicate with us and it is now up to us to respond by actively looking and listening for him. At any moment he could be trying to get his message through to us in a manner that we will recognize only if we are alert and expectant.   Just as getting answers to prayer can take much praying, so hearing from God can take much listening. Obviously, the Bible is the most important way to hear from God. We acknowledge that understanding the Bible takes much effort. Even after a lifetime of prayer and study, every man and woman of God is still discovering new spiritual truths in the Bible. The more effort we invest in Bible study and in fervently seeking God’s illumination of what we read and in putting into practice what God reveals, the more life-changing wonders we will discover in his Word. Conversely, the lazier we are in these areas, the more we will miss. This same principle applies with equal force to recognizing God’s voice when he chooses to speak to us by means other than the Bible. “With the measure you use, it will be measured to you - and even more.” You have heard this principle applied to finances and to judging others but it is significant that in Mark 4:24 Jesus applied it to the way we hear what God says. In other words, the more time we devote to seeking God as to what he is wanting to tell us and the more attention we give to understanding what he says to us, the more we will receive revelation from God. On the other hand, the more casually and lazily we treat things divinely spoken into our lives - whether through people or circumstances or the Bible itself - the more we will miss things God is longing to tell us. Yes, God could speak to us in a way that we could not possibly miss it, but that is not God’s usual practice, just as he could give us everything without us ever praying, but that is not his usual way. Without us realizing it, God works in our lives and circumstances, doing all he can to coax us to seek him. If it were not for all God’s behind-the-scenes efforts, none of us would bother to seek him. Nevertheless, having done all this to make us want him, he usually makes it a requirement that it is only those who truly look for him, who find him; only those who truly listen for him, who hear him. In the words of Scripture:   Deuteronomy 4:29   But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you look for him  with all your heart and with all your soul. 2 Chronicles 15:15    . . . They sought God  eagerly , and he was found by them. . . . Jeremiah 29:13   You will seek me and find me when you seek me  with all your heart. Psalms 119:145   I call  with all my heart ; answer me, O LORD, and I will obey your decrees. (Emphasis mine.) This applies not just to salvation, but to our on-going relationship with God.   Most often the judgment of God is not that he has ceased to speak to us but that we cease to hear and understand. So significant is the following that the New Testament cites it many times ( Matthew 13:14-15; Mark 4:12; Luke 8:10; John 12:39-40; Acts 28:26-27 - Romans 11:8 is similar) Isaiah 6:9   He said, “Go and tell this people:  “Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.” (10) Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.” The Bible is perfect. It is our infallible basis for knowing what God is like. Our interpretation of the Bible, however, is not infallible. Our understanding of the Bible will get better and better throughout our lives - unless we stubbornly refuse to accept that our first guess might have been less than perfect. Yes, we need to fear straying from truth, but we need also fear remaining in less than the full truth. The longer we are Christian, the more accountable God will hold us for stagnating around partial truths rather than moving toward full biblical truth. Not  our  interpretation, but  God’s  interpretation of the Bible is our final authority. Whether it be through the Bible or through any other means, hearing from God hinges on how content we are to settle for a mediocre relationship with God. The more care we pay to seeking God and keeping alert for his answers, the more revelation we will receive. Despite being godly and devoted to the Word of God, the inspired psalmist found himself having to pray, “Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law”  ( Psalm 119:18 ). He recognized that regardless of his own intelligence and commitment, if he were left solely to his own efforts, he would never see revelations of God that were staring him in the face as he studied the Bible. He knew what is true for every one of us: that unless he sought God for spiritual understanding, he would never detect many of the exciting, life-changing truths of God that were right there in front of him. It is staggering to realize that this profound truth applies not only to the Bible, but to everything we see and hear. “ The whole earth is full of his glory ,” chanted the seraphim ( Isaiah 6:3 ). But instead, the average person observing this planet manages to detect little but suffering, accidents, cruelty and decay. This being so, we cannot expect to hear God unless we follow the psalmist’s lead and crave the spiritual perception that comes only through seeking God for it.   “ Call to me , pleads God in Jeremiah 33:3 ,” and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” The apostle Paul was very conscious of the role of prayer in us becoming spiritually perceptive. Ephesians 1:17   I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. (18) I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints And both praying and listening necessitate waiting for an answer. So much does faith in God, and a relationship with God go hand in hand with waiting, that the Bible often refers to it as such. A well-known example is, “they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength . . .” To try to counteract the tendency for our eyes to slip over the many biblical references to waiting, let’s concentrate the power by packing together several significant examples. Psalms 27:14   Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD. Psalms 38:15   I wait for you, O LORD; you will answer, O Lord my God. Psalms 130:5-6   I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning. Proverbs 20:22   Do not say, I’ll pay you back for this wrong! Wait for the LORD, and he will deliver you. Isaiah 8:17  I will wait for the LORD, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob. I will put my trust in him. Isaiah 30:18   . . . Blessed are all who wait for him! Isaiah 64:4   Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him. Lamentations 3:26  it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD. Hosea 12:6   But you must return to your God; maintain love and justice, and wait for your God always. And that is just a tiny sample. Clearly, this implies that much of our relationship with God involves waiting - and that’s something none of us like. Because he refused to wait for the few minutes it would take him to get some food, Esau sold his birthright and even though he desperately sought to undo the consequences of his impatience, he could never get it back ( Genesis 25:29-34; Hebrews 12:16-17 ). They were about to hear from God, receiving what generations of their descendants would cherish as the most significant revelation their nation had ever received - the Ten Commandments and detailed instructions about the tabernacle and the divinely authorized way to minister to God. They agreed that Moses should climb the mountain to hear from God on their behalf, but it was taking several days longer than they had expected. Growing restless, they decided to worship God without waiting any longer for God to reveal his word to them. They had barely started worshipping an idol when Moses returned with God’s Commandments, one of the first of which forbade worshipping idols. God was not amused. Saul’s army was terrified. Samuel, the priest said he would come in seven days, but time was slipping by and Saul’s troops were beginning to desert. Feeling that he could wait no longer, Saul did something only a priest should do: he offered a sacrifice. He had barely finished when Samuel arrived. Our Lord was so displeased with Saul over this matter Saul’s dynasty was taken from him ( 1 Samuel 13:7-14 ). Have you heard of anyone praying desperately for needed finances or material provision and God holding back almost to the very last moment before meeting the need? I would not be surprised if the Lord has deliberately done this literally millions of times in human history. God acts the same way when it comes to supplying needed information or guidance. Faith grows by stretching. The Story So Far Usually, the terrifyingly powerful Lord is ever so gentle. He longs not to have to startle us, or even raise his voice, to get our attention. As is becoming obvious in our exploration of these issues, it’s not that God isn’t communicating, it’s that we keep tending to dismiss the divine origin of what he is saying because it is gentler and more subtle than we expect. Military commander, Naaman, almost missed his healing because he had expected something more spectacular than being asked to dip into a dirty stream ( 2 Kings 5:1-14 ). Similarly, we are in constant danger of missing divine guidance because it seems too ordinary. Or, like Saul in a mad rush, we can miss out because we are too busy to wait or pay close attention. It’s not that God speaks louder to those who are forever saying, “God told me this, God told me that,” but these people are more willing to see God in the things we take for granted - in circumstances, feelings, thoughts, Bible readings and so on. If we look only for the dramatic, we’ll miss the plot. For instance, if we pray for God’s guidance on a matter, it doesn’t mean we’ll necessarily hear or see anything we can call guidance. To answer our prayer for guidance all that God need do is to ensure that what we end up doing is exactly what he wants for us. The Almighty has numberless options in getting us to that point, and many of those options would to us seem like chance or our own doing. We miss so much because of our preconceptions as to  how  God should act. Too often, when the Sovereign Lord chooses to act in ways beyond our narrow expectations we mistakenly assume he has not responded. A closely related reason for missing God’s voice is that we do not pay enough attention. We must seek to be continually alert for anything he might say.

Enjoying God’s Will for You More wonderful than you could imagine! At first thought, God’s will seems so oppressively restrictive that it’s frightening. And we’re scared we’ll be told to go somewhere awful and do something embarrassing. In reality, for us to fear God’s commands is as unnatural as a much loved baby fearing its mother’s breast; as a shivering child fearing sunshine; as someone sick fearing health. To obey God is to say good-bye to mistakes and regret and open the door to excitement and achievement. No one understands you like your Maker. No one knows your future like your God. No one has your best interest at heart like the One who shed his blood for you. No one can bring you happiness like the Inventor of sex and sunsets, sight and sound, touch and taste, life and beauty. He alone offers heaven. When you really analyze it, nothing could be more exciting, fulfilling and rewarding than God’s desires for you. Fearing God’s will is as irrational as worrying about what the world’s best mechanic might do to your car, and as stupid as insisting on defusing a bomb for fear that experts will not do it properly. The Almighty, your Creator and Savior, is selflessly devoted to maximizing your happiness. Moreover he has infinite knowledge. When God asks you to do something, he is granting you the unique privilege of tapping into the greatest Mind in the universe. You have the opportunity to do something infinitely smart. Explore that thought more later. It could add a whole new dimension to your life. Disregard your Maker’s right to tell you what to do. He merely gave you life and everything you’ve ever touched. He holds your atoms together and gave you the brain cells you think with. Forget that Christ purchased your allegiance by trading his life for yours, becoming the devil’s plaything on the cross so that evil couldn’t touch you. And overlook the power of God to determine your eternal destiny. Consider merely God’s infinite knowledge, perfect goodness, and self-sacrificing devotion to your highest good. That alone is enough to force the conclusion that disregarding God’s slightest suggestion is the height of stupidity. Yet another exhilarating thing about God’s will for you is that it is not only perfected by infinite love, it is backed by infinite power. It is not only achievable, it is unstoppable. For as long as you let Jesus rule your life, nothing can thwart it. Do you believe God is all-powerful? Then you believe he could over-ride your every weakness. He could ask nothing of you that he couldn’t do through you. And if he has a speck of love, or any respect for his reputation, he’s not going to command, and then abandon you to your own resources. It’s exciting when God asks the impossible of you. A miracle is around the corner! Since God, in his love, longs to see you reach your highest potential, his desires for you will stretch you to the limit. But no matter how Satan tries to distort that thrilling truth into something scary, there is always something more frightening than doing God’s will – not doing God’s will. The mere fact that we could fear God’s beautiful will is clear proof that God has a spiritual enemy who carpet bombs our minds with malicious untruths. Nothing could be wiser, or better, than obeying the God who has a sacrificial commitment to giving you the very best. God telling you to do something is the Almighty Lord expressing his desire for you to enjoy his best. And obedience is simply receiving that love, delighting and rejoicing in the beauty, perfection and security of God’s yearnings for your welfare. We only disobey when we secretly believe we are smarter than God, that his love for us is inferior, or that he is so weak that our inadequacies could nullify his power. Obedience is love made real. It has rightly been said that God’s will is the greatest good his infinite wisdom can devise. Snuggle into it. Experience the exquisite perfection of his love plans for you. Then luxuriate in the security of knowing that of every possible alternative, you have chosen the very best. Note that submission to God is letting God be God – allowing Jesus to assume his rightful place in your life. The emphasis is not on you trying to obey, but on Jesus ruling. It is letting him do the work. It is avoiding taking upon ourselves responsibilities that don’t belong to us. The Evil One would love to distort this into a dreary put down, but it is actually a glorious relief. We’re free to enjoy life as God’s children and leave all the hard work to Jesus. We don’t have to prove ourselves to God, Jesus has already done it. We don’t have to defeat sin, Jesus has already done it. Submitting to God must never be thought of as obeying a set of rules. That’s dull and cold. And God is neither. Following a list of dos and do nots is not following God the person, but something impersonal. It brings with it the great danger of shutting God out. Submitting to God is loving God the person, getting as close to him as you can, and drawing strength and comfort and direction from him. It is driving with God in the front seat with you, enjoying his companionship. From time to time in your conversation he will say such things as, ‘Turn left . . . You’ll need to slow down a bit here . . . Let me show you a short cut . . . This next part is easy, drive however you choose, I know you’ll handle it well . . . Further on it gets tricky. Better let me do the driving for that stretch.’ Now let’s be brutally frank. God’s directions are seldom that clear, although when the situation demands that degree of clarity, he will give it. Mostly, God leads by such things as vague feelings. That can be frustrating, but it’s our opportunity to let faith rise, trusting God to guide with whatever degree of clarity divine wisdom knows is best, while we play our part by drawing close and listening intently. God and I seem to have an on-going argument. ‘Speak louder!’ I keep telling God. And I think he keeps replying, ‘Listen harder!’ Why God’s Will is Exciting When you have a critical decision to make, what would you give for access to someone with infinite knowledge? He would know every fact in every universe; all the future and all the past. He could keep you fascinated for weeks just telling you things about yourself you never knew. He could tell you how many inches the nail of the third toe on your left foot grew in the last 6.34 years; how many breaths you took on your fifth day of life; what your father thought the day he first heard you were conceived; the real reason your first romance ended the way it did; what forgotten incident caused that peculiar fear that plagues you. All your enemies’ secrets would be open to him. He would know what that fabulous looking stranger in the bus thought of you. He would know what your boss thinks while he’s having a shower. What if he also had the astounding intellectual power to know every ramification of every tiny event – every chain of events set off for all eternity by every action? The implications of such knowledge explode the imagination. And he could figure the exact mix of short and long term happiness that would work best for you. If we pampered ourselves all day everyday, our long term happiness would suffer enormously, yet sacrificing everything for long term benefits could leave us so dejected that we never reach our final goals. He would have your perfect solution. Suppose he also knows the true function and purpose of everything. And imagine the implications if his integrity and moral judgment are impeccable. He would be absolutely good and know how to maximize the good in every situation. Wouldn’t having his input be the greatest thing that could ever happen to you? So great is God’s love for you that he longs to marshal his infinite resources to determine precisely what is in your best interest. And he selflessly offers this incomparable gift, not just for ten minutes, but for a lifetime. How can we book a flight when we don’t know which one will crash? And yet we regularly make far more dangerous choices by the hour, knowing almost none of the pertinent facts. We choose marriage partners, having no idea how the ravages of time will assault them, whether tomorrow they will be permanently paralyzed or lose their mind or die; not knowing how wildly their future income and expenditure will plunge or soar; not knowing whether their unborn children will be deformed or hateful and how they will treat them; not knowing, if or when, our prospective partners’ kindness will turn to cruelty and their love to disgust. Forgetting the future, we know frighteningly little even about their past. A basic thing like reading their thoughts is beyond us. God's will We repeatedly find ourselves trying to solve million piece puzzles when we rarely get to see more than a dozen pieces. We walk in a constant fog, making life and death decisions, knowing nearly nothing. So whenever the Almighty reveals his mind, we should erupt with the joy of a man lost in a minefield suddenly finding a marked trail. At last the light has shone. At last infinite knowledge has reached us in infinite love. We should rush to obey, treasuring the slightest hint of God’s will, like the last drop of water in a desert.

Developing Your Love Affair With God Continued Never ‘flirt’ with others 1. People We must love other people, but if ever there is a conflict of loyalties between God and anyone else, we must willingly choose God. Those who are united to Christ should avoid romantic involvement with anyone who is not fully committed to him. According to Scripture, for a Christian to marry a non-Christian is a spiritual perversion. If you are already married to such a person, however, God hates divorce and he wants you to do all you can to maintain that union. Naturally, we must continue to love, respect and, where appropriate, look after non-Christian relatives. The ideal is to be close enough to non-Christians to influence them for Christ, without being so close that they begin to adversely affect our spiritual life. 2. Spiritual Powers Since the only way to God is through Jesus, any spiritual experiences that occur without complete reliance upon Jesus Christ, cannot be from God. Such psychic phenomena must therefore be due to the activities of evil spirits. Most of us have had some association in the past with one or more practices like these. Many of us thought they were quite harmless, but it is necessary that we confess to God that we have sinned by becoming involved with them. Ask your Lord’s forgiveness and have nothing more to do with such things. Almighty God is far more powerful than anything in the occult. When Jesus returns to earth all evil powers will be totally destroyed. Fun ways to grow spiritually Christian music is a great way to learn and be reminded of wonderful spiritual truths. It obviously adds a whole dimension of beauty and power to church praise and worship, but modern technology means we do not have to leave this precious experience locked up in a church. We can take it with us driving or relaxing at home. Hunt around and you’ll find Christian music catering for virtually every conceivable taste. There are many thrilling and inspiring Christian books that you won’t be able to put down, such as books detailing Christians’ spiritual adventures. Ask at church and friends about their favorite Christian books. (And maybe place a hint or two about borrowing some!) Visit some Christian bookshops, explain roughly where you are spiritually and what interests you (maybe humor, for example) and see what they come up with. Good books are an entertaining way of fostering spiritual growth. Audio tapes, videos, websites, Christian television and radio, are other possibilities. Another easy but valuable help is simply chatting about spiritual things to Christian friends. ‘Any friend of his, is a friend of mine’ Your Lord loved you while you were still his enemy. You are therefore obligated to love your enemies. Beyond this, you have a special obligation to love those who are your true brothers and sisters in Christ – all Christians. Even if you don’t feel that great love is being expressed by believers that you know, that is no reason for allowing your love to diminish. Try not to allow the failings of others to influence you. Those of God’s children who are in fellowship with each other, enjoy greater security and satisfaction than those who are isolated from other believers. They are also more likely to experience (in a special way) Jesus’ presence and answered prayer. Yet another advantage is that each individual has greater power than if he/she were alone. Praying aloud with other believers can be a wonderful experience. Your choice of church is very important. If you really love Jesus and yet still find it quite a chore to go to church, it might be that you need to change churches. Don’t take God for granted God is so wonderful that he far surpasses any other lover, or anything else in existence. Of course, there can be no sexual aspect in your love affair with God, but your relationship can, and should be, far more intimate than would ever be possible between two humans. This is not just wishful thinking. We were, quite literally, made for this relationship. So realize the uniqueness of your relationship with God and never fall into the trap of accepting substitutes or be bluffed into thinking the ‘honeymoon’ is over! Enjoy your Lover’s wealth As explained in You Can Find Love , making everything that is yours (your time, abilities, possessions, etc.) available to God, makes everything that is God’s – his time, abilities, possessions, etc. – available to you. So there is now a huge collection of gifts your King wants you to enjoy. All you need do is accept each of them by faith and start using them. These gifts cost God dearly – they can be ours only because of Jesus’ death. So endeavor to accept, appreciate and use all his gifts. One of the precious gifts we should immediately begin cutting our teeth on is the divine power to break free from the hold that sin once had in our lives. Ask for one of his gifts (it’s probably best to concentrate on one at a time), believe that it is now yours, and then act as if you have it. Praise him Boast about your Lord. Appreciate his gifts. Grumbling and complaining breaks God’s heart. Praise is powerful because: It is the language of love It honors your Lord It increases your faith, building spiritual muscle like nothing else can It is a weapon that defeats evil forces It is God’s anti-depressant. It liberates us to become God-centered, instead of self-centered Praising God when things look bleak is an act of love and trust that particularly touches God’s heart and gains you eternal honor. You’ll praise your Lord forever, but when this world ends you’ll never again have the opportunity to praise God in difficult circumstances. So make the most of the opportunities that come your way! You will be eternally grateful for every time you have thanked and praised God, and particularly for those times you persevered in praise, even though it seemed hard. When all is revealed, it will be proved that, in every perplexing situation, our Lord was not only right in what he did, but he deserved our thunderous praise. In Scripture, God rarely performed a miracle for people who were not in serious difficulty. So rejoice when things seem absolutely disastrous and you can see no way out! A miracle is almost certainly just around the corner! Love him fervently It is important to work hard for Jesus, but he wants your love far more than your labors. One of your new abilities, due to your union with Christ, is that you no longer need be controlled by your emotions. You can rule your emotions. So, literally stir up your emotions and get excited about God. Stop thinking you would be happier with more money or more friends or some such thing. Realize that what you really need to satisfy that emptiness within is an even closer relationship with your Perfect Lover. Serve the Lord with gladness! Don’t be seduced Sincerity of belief is not enough: we must believe the right things. The Bible teaches that even if a true apostle or angel from Heaven preaches a gospel contrary to the Bible, that ‘gospel’ must be rejected. False teaching is to be spurned, even if it’s accompanied by supernatural manifestations such as visions, or even miracles. Of necessity, any parts of the teaching of false cults have to be true in order to seduce people, but the false parts are deadly. They usually don’t mention their false doctrines until you are beginning to let your defenses down. It is therefore important to specifically and politely question people concerning the following things. If they differ from the following beliefs, don’t listen to them. Politely ask them to leave and have nothing to do with them. That sounds harsh, but unless you normally disarm nuclear bombs before breakfast, leave spiritual poison to the experts. We can expect false teachers to quote freely from the Bible. The more familiar you are with God’s Word, the easier it will be for you to recognize any distortion of it. Important truths 1. The Bible is 100% God’s Word . It is therefore completely reliable and unique. Over and over in his teachings Jesus revealed his high regard for Scripture. If it’s good enough for him, it’s good enough for me. Be cautious about those who teach doctrines that are based wholly or partly upon traditions, writings or visions that are not part of Scripture. Be particularly wary of those who belittle the mighty Word of God by implying that it has ‘errors.’ 2. The doctrine of the trinity We must not allow our conception of God to be distorted by our puny intellect and experience. When we examine all the biblical evidence (too vast to mention here), we are forced to conclude that, in one sense, God is three Persons: God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, but, in another sense, God is one. Jesus is unique. Steadfastly refuse to attribute to anyone any honor that belongs solely to Jesus. He is divine, the eternal (uncreated) Son of God. The Holy Spirit is clearly revealed in Scripture as a person. He also has the attributes of God. 3. Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty our sins deserved The only way to God is through Jesus. No matter how much good we try to do, it will never remove our past. Only genuinely wanting to be free from sin and placing our faith in Jesus’ forgiveness can cause us to be united to God. After we are united to our Holy Lord (the only Source of moral goodness) we are then able to do good, but only because it is God working in us. Any true good comes from God, not us, and so we can’t get any credit for any good we do. All the honor and praise belongs to the Almighty alone. 4. Jesus rose from the dead and is now seated with God, interceding on our behalf. 5. Our standards of morality must match those of the Bible. 6. The dead spend forever in only one of two places – Heaven (a place of honor and joy in God’s presence) or Hell (a place of shame and misery banished from God’s presence). 7. No single church, or group, has a monopoly upon truth. Be wary of groups that seem to think their group is almost the only one whom God approves of. 8 . The true God is a supernatural God . He performed healings and miracles in biblical times and he has, of course, lost none of his power. Be eager to have his children The spiritual destinies (eternity in Heaven or Hell) of billions of people are at stake. It seems impossible to think of anything more important. Because the Almighty has purposely limited himself, he needs you to help save people from Hell. You are entrusted with this great responsibility because your all-powerful God has faith in you and loves you so much that he wants you to share in his great work. Don’t let God down. He’s depending upon you. How to have spiritual children 1. The essentials Maintain an intimate union with Jesus. Pray Live a life that radiates God’s beauty – love, joy, peace, kindness, purity, etc. Keep trying! 2. Methods Explain to other people the Christian message Tell others what Jesus has personally done for you Give them Christian tracts Invite them to Church meetings, etc Contribute to the financial support of those who are spreading the Gospel Have many grandchildren! After being used of God to bring a new Christian into this world, you then have the exciting responsibility of helping that person grow spiritually. Do all you can to encourage your spiritual children to spiritually reproduce. By this means, even if you are only a teenager, you can be a spiritual grand-parent or even great-grand-parent! Give your Lover gifts It is a great privilege to give gifts to the Lord. Only because of his great love for us does the Owner of the universe accept and appreciate our gifts. And the greatest thing you can give your Lover is your love. Give joyfully, liberally and out of love, because this is the way in which your Creator has given to you. It is quite unscriptural to think that we have fulfilled our financial obligation to our Lord once we have given one tenth of our income. On the basis of biblical principles we could conclude that if God really wanted to bless the church, he would create within it an unequal distribution of wealth. An immense flood of prayer, praise, love, joy, prosperity, and blessing would then result from the equalization of this wealth. A great, world-wide inequality does indeed exist. It is up to you and me in the rich countries to create such a flow of finance to our needy brothers and sisters that God will be glorified and the whole world will sit up and take notice. Perhaps you are thinking that you can hardly ‘make ends meet’ now. But God has promised to take care of all your financial needs when you give sacrificially to him. Of course, there is nothing basically wrong with money or material possessions, but we must face up to the realities of life. There are people dying of physical and spiritual starvation who could be saved if we gave them some of our money instead of spending it on ourselves. The really ‘rich’ people are those who have discovered the joy of giving. Look forward to your wedding day In one sense, your relationship with Jesus is, at present, more like an engagement than a marriage. Your marriage to Jesus will occur at the culmination of this age when Jesus fulfills his promise to return to earth. We long for our union with Christ to be consummated. Life with Jesus, right now, is great, but it’s only a vague shadow of the tremendous things that God has in store for you when his Son returns. When the King of kings returns to earth, you will become perfect, just as he is.

The Heart of Bible Interpretation The Word of God often identifies a “hard heart” as the reason for people failing to perceive spiritual truth. Isaiah 6:9-10   He said, “Go, and tell this people, ‘You hear indeed, but don’t understand; and you see indeed, but don’t perceive.’ Make the heart of this people fat. Make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn again, and be healed.” Mark 8:17   Jesus, perceiving it, said to them, “Why do you reason that it’s because you have no bread? Don’t you perceive yet, neither understand? Is your heart still hardened? Ephesians 4:18  being darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them,  because of the hardening of their hearts  (Emphasis mine) Why the heart is critical in the perception and understanding of spiritual truth becomes obvious when we grasp the meaning of the term. In biblical thought, the “heart” includes that part of us that processes information and reaches conclusions: 1 Kings 3:9   Give your servant therefore an understanding heart to judge your people, that I may discern between good and evil  . . . Proverbs 2:2   . . . apply your heart to understanding. Proverbs 14:33   Wisdom rests in the heart of one who has understanding  . . . Proverbs 15:14   The heart of one who has understanding seeks knowledge  . . . Matthew 9:4  Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts?  . . .” Ephesians 1:16-18   . . . making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him; having the eyes of your hearts enlightened  . . . Given the importance of the heart in understanding anything, here is a truth that haunts me: Jeremiah 17:9   The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly corrupt: who can know it? How disturbing it is to consider that the “heart” is the human factor most critical in determining one’s ability to understand, and yet it is treacherously unreliable! We have parts of us deep within that – ably assisted by our spiritual enemy, the Deceiver – are in constant danger of deceiving not just other people, but ourselves. Psalms 36:2  For he flatters himself in his own eyes, too much to detect and hate his sin. Proverbs 30:12  . . . pure in their own eyes, yet are not washed from their filthiness. Proverbs 16:2  All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the Lord weighs the motives. Proverbs 16:25   There is a way which seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death. We keep tending to think that it is only non-Christians whose heart deceives them. This is most certainly not so: Revelation 3:17    . . . you say, ‘I am rich, and have gotten riches, and have need of nothing;’ and don’t know that you are the wretched one, miserable, poor, blind, and naked 1 Corinthians 4:4-5   For I know nothing against myself. Yet I am not justified by this, but he who judges me is the Lord. Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and reveal the counsels of the hearts. . . . 1 John 3:20   because if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. How difficult it is to get in touch with what is deep within us is perhaps hinted at in this Scripture: Deuteronomy 8:2   You shall remember all the way which the Lord your God has led you these  forty years  in the wilderness, that he might humble you, to prove you,  to know what was in your heart , whether you would keep his commandments, or not. (Emphasis mine) Moreover, Bible readers are particularly open to self-deception. James 1:22   But be doers of the word, and not only hearers,  deluding your own selves . . . . (Emphasis mine) There is nothing like a head knowledge of Scripture for so blinding us with pride that we suppose we have arrived when we haven’t left the starting blocks. 1 Corinthians 8:1   . . . Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. Both knowledge and love make a person seem bigger but one is nothing but hot air. Love is manifested by putting Bible knowledge into practice: John 14:15   If you love me, keep my commandments. Romans 13:9   For the commandments  . . . are all summed up in this saying, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself. . . .”   Breakthrough We gain God’s heart as a branch slowly gains fruit – by remaining spiritually connected to Christ, the vine and by allowing God to “prune” us. To the inexperienced, pruning seems a cruel and senseless waste of parts of the branch that have great potential. Despite appearances, however, pruning increases fruitfulness. I believe pruning can come in the form of trials for which Scripture tells us to be thankful. When teaching about the vine, however, Jesus emphasized the role of his Word in pruning us ( John 15:3 ). By obeying God’s Word we let him cut off our favorite sins and our favorite theories. We gain God’s heart by maintaining intimate oneness with Christ and letting God’s Word “remain” in us ( John 15:7 ) by heeding what it says. This is why Scripture says: James 1:22   But be doers of the word , and not only hearers, deluding your own selves. (Emphasis mine) We have noted that the Bible frequently cites a “hard heart” as the reason for an inability to comprehend spiritual truth. This must be important, but what exactly is a “hard heart”? Although in modern English we often speak of having a hard heart, basic hermeneutics rightly affirms that how a figure of speech is used in modern English does not necessarily reflect what it meant when the Bible was penned. The most accurate insight into the precise meaning of an expression is obtained by examining how the Bible uses that expression and related concepts. Surely sin is a factor: Romans 2:5   But according to your hardness and unrepentant heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day . . . Neither of the next two scriptures mention “heart,” but they seem relevant: Hebrews 3:13  but exhort one another day by day . . . lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Scripture links a seared conscience with being theologically deceived: 1 Timothy 4:1-2   But the Spirit says expressly that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons, through the hypocrisy of men who speak lies, branded in their own conscience as with a hot iron .If sin is involved, does any particular sin predominate? Matthew 19:8   He said to them, “Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, allowed you to divorce your wives . . .” This is vague but it hints that a selfish failure to love as God loves could be a factor in having a hard heart. This suggestion is further strengthen by this incident: Mark 3:3-5  He said to the man who had his hand withered, “Stand up.” He said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath day to do good, or to do harm? To save a life, or to kill?” But they were silent. When he had looked around at them with anger, being grieved at the hardening of their hearts, he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored as healthy as the other. Jesus kept clashing with people who, in zeal for upholding the law of God seemed faultless, but in loving as God loves were seriously flawed. I’m reminded of how the disciples’ reaction to the man born blind differed from Jesus’ reaction: John 9:1-2   As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” What an intriguing question! That would keep theologians in fever pitch for years. Instead, Jesus healed the man. It is so easy to find ourselves delighting in theological and intellectual discussion, rather than being moved by compassion for needy people. Remember in the parable of the Good Samaritan the priest and the Levite, perhaps on their way to holy duties in Jerusalem, walking on the other side of the road when confronted by human need. Again, “heart” does not appear in the following, although it might be implied: Matthew 25:24  He also who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Lord, I knew you that you are a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter. The context suggests a “hard man” to be the opposite of someone we would call tender hearted. He’s the opposite of Jesus who was so easily “moved with compassion.” To harden one’s heart would seem to mean making oneself unresponsive to God and/or people. Though one might remain fervently religious and completely self-deceived about one’s spiritual state, to harden one’s heart is to become the exact opposite of Jesus. It is the breaking of what Jesus pronounced to be the essence of the entire old covenant: loving God and loving man ( Matthew 22:37-40 ). How much they needed to pray the prayer made famous by Bob Pierce, founder of World Vision:  Let my heart be broken by the things that break the heart of God . This is a vital – and often forgotten – key to Bible interpretation. When encountering gays, prostitutes, child molesters, abortionists, liberal preachers or fallen pastors we might be exceedingly zealous in upholding God’s standard of righteousness, but do we uphold God’s standard of love and grace? How tender our heart is toward those who have failed morally is at least one measure of the hardness of our heart. How much our eyes are filled with God’s compassion is an indication of how likely we are to see biblical truth through God’s eyes. Back (If you reached this page by a link in the middle of another webpage) An important webpage that helps us locate and navigate around some of the other dangers is: How to Avoid Deception Beginning of this series

More Help in Understanding the Spiritual Side of Bible Interpretation    Part 4 Start at Part One Often, we must find the heart of God about matters on which the Bible seems to say frustratingly little. These are not opportunities to put the Bible aside. Rather, they are invitations to plunge deeper than ever into Scripture and the heart of God. One such subject is the morality of solo sex. It is not appropriate to deal with it here. I have addressed sexuality in depth elsewhere on this site. Here, I will select and adapt just those parts that provide insight into how we should use Scripture to enlighten us on issues the Bible seems not to specifically address. In order to move from the known to the unknown I will also briefly mention other behavior that the Bible says more about.    Scripture’s Silences We all have a tendency to read Scripture’s words in a way that least threatens our comfort or our presumptions. How much more, then, are we likely to twist Scripture’s silences, reading into them wrong conclusions. Once we concede that Onan’s sin was not solitary sex, nor does this common practice even rate a mention in the Bible, nor does it cause obvious psychological or physical injury, it might seem we can give it the green light. But such a conclusion would be dangerously premature. To demonstrate that neither apparent harmlessness nor the Bible’s silence are sufficient to suggest God views a matter as morally neutral, we will briefly consider an act that clearly has divine disapproval: sex outside marriage.   Especially in the past, some Christians’ teaching against sex outside marriage used to strongly emphasize the possibility of disease and unwanted pregnancy. Many people hearing this wrongly concluded that it must be these dangers that make sex outside marriage immoral. This is not what the Bible says. It is a human attempt to second-guess God’s reasoning. That’s dangerous because the next move down the slippery slide is to start regarding our speculations as fact.   In the era just before AIDS, when medical advances had lowered the physical risks, those who believed they had figured God out assumed that sexual looseness must now be morally acceptable. They thought anyone thinking otherwise must be adhering to a morality that applied only to less technologically advanced eras. Christian morality, however, has never been based on a crude and selfish analysis of the physical dangers to the offender. The Lord Jesus emphasized the sinfulness of lust, even though mere lust carries no possibility of disease or pregnancy, nor even the possibility of the victim being emotionally hurt. Similarly, the relatively modern rediscovery that self stimulation does not cause obvious physical harm, has led people to leap too soon to the assumption that it must therefore be morally acceptable.   It is staggering to realize that throughout the Bible even the sin of sexual intercourse between unmarried people is not spoken against as forthrightly as we might expect. Scripture definitely pronounces it to be a serious sin, but to find this clearly spelled out, one must search the Bible carefully and prayerfully. For the most part, Scripture is content merely to condemn “sexual immorality” without specifying exactly which sexual acts fall under this black umbrella. In the original language, the broad term used is  porneia.  The word is found 25 times in the Greek New Testament. It could be that when speaking so strongly against  porneia,  the range of sexual sins God had in mind includes masturbation. But if we have to seek long and hard to be sure that in God’s eyes  porneia  includes premarital sex (and it certainly does), we have to go even further into the heart and mind of God to know whether it includes solitary sex. The only way to truly know right from wrong was through fellowship with God. Devout Jews, however, typically poured enormous effort into knowing the Word of God, but little into knowing the heart of God. They ended up knowing Scripture so well and understanding it so little that they could “prove” emphatically that the Son of God was guilty of blasphemy and that it was their holy duty to murder their Messiah. The frightening thing is that most of us imagine we could never make the same mistake as the clean-living, Bible-revering, Christ-killing First Century theologians. Tragically, those devout murderers were equally certain they would never make the same mistake of their forefathers who murdered the prophets. Every day, we walk through a spiritual minefield, foolishly unaware that at any moment just one false step could be disastrous. The entire Christian life must be lived in total dependence upon our Lord. We either cling to Christ, trusting him alone – not our intellect, knowledge and experience – or the consequences are unthinkable.   It is hard to resist the powerfully persuasive logic that says God gave us sex for marital union and that, like prostitution or bestiality, solitary sex must therefore be a perversion of God’s gift. But is this  God’s  logic? I dare not steer my life – much less the lives of others – while intoxicated by my supposed cleverness. I have a deep distrust of human logic – be it the product of my intellect, or anyone else’s. Human attempts to fit together pieces of biblical revelation caused the greatest theologians and devout Jewish leaders to arrange the murder of their Messiah. Logic inspired Saul to conclude he was serving God by torturing Christians in the hope they would blaspheme the Son of God. Human logic might conclude that lust is morally harmless. The biggest limitation of human reasoning is that we have at our disposal only a tiny fraction of the facts. Our understanding of human sexuality and of God’s purposes renders human attempts to see things God’s way like trying to see the picture in a million piece jigsaw when we have only a dozen pieces. When railing against masturbation, a respected Bible commentator’s attempt at logic fell to the ground because it was founded on the medical knowledge of yesteryear, which, like most things human, time has revealed to be inaccurate. Many of my own thoughts will fall if solitary sex does not program our sexual response to the extent that I believe it does, or if it turns out that God puts sexual self-stimulation in a totally different category to anything else to do with sex. Christianity is not the product of human reasoning. It is the revelation of the most powerful Intellect in the universe – the God who made our brain cells. Christianity is not a vain attempt to use tiny human brains to guess the mind of Almighty God. True Christianity is about connecting to the God of the universe, the Designer of our bodies, the Creator of sex, and letting him reveal his ways, which are infinitely superior to our own, and letting him rule in our lives in the perfection of his love and wisdom. I do not want to be so arrogant as to shatter the divine silence in Scripture by sounding off as if my presumptions were the Word of the Holy One to the entire body of Christ. Instead, I urge all Christians who imagine they have divine approval to indulge in any form of solo sex to get down on their knees and seek the face of God about this. At times, Scripture gives us examples to help us grasp a divine principle and leaves it to us to connect the dots.    For an obvious example, consider  Exodus 23:4: If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey going astray, you shall surely bring it back to him again.   Scripture says nothing about an enemy’s horse or sheep or finding his stolen computer. What if his house is on fire? What if he is sick and his crop needs harvesting? God obviously expects us to use our brains and extrapolate general principles from Scripture’s specific examples. Anyone having the attitude of avoiding only those things Scripture specifically names as forbidden, does not have a heart for God. More than once the Bible tells us to meditate upon Scripture and to discuss it with each other. Clearly, God expects us to think things through as we prayerfully pursue the mind of God.   I can by no means trust my finite intellect. Nevertheless, everything God does is perfectly rational and consistent. I would therefore need to be particularly cautious about any “guidance” that seems contrary to rational thought. This is especially so when on one side looms the danger of sexual perversion and on the other is merely the possibility of missing a little pleasure (and even the possibility of pleasure is doubtful, since solo sex seems to aggravate one’s frustration and the carrot of satisfaction it dangles before our eyes is largely an illusion). Add to this the fact that our natural tendency is to try to convince ourselves that self-indulgence is acceptable. Furthermore, if solo sex is sin, the Evil One has a vested interest in deceiving us and he is not beyond giving supernatural “proof” to try to convince us that sin has divine approval. One would therefore need exceptionally clear guidance to go against rational thought and be certain that a decision in favor of Do-It-Yourself sex is not being influenced by our own cravings or by the cunning of the Enemy of our souls.       Hidden Agendas    I don’t think I’ve heard anyone preach more powerfully against sexual looseness. He kept it up year after year – until it was discovered that he visited prostitutes. I don’t believe his preaching was blatant hypocrisy. I suspect he was preaching at himself, trying to bolster his flagging resolve to fight temptation.    This raises two issues: whether we should have Bible teachers at all (we’ll address that shortly) and the distorting effect that personal experience has on one’s interpretation and exposition of Scripture.    Personal experience cannot change God’s truth, but it can hinder one from discovering the truth or from accurately conveying that truth to other people. Not even a genius can think straight about an activity that enslaves or entices him. Even people who are now free from a previous addiction often have clouded thinking. Ex-smokers, for instance, are legendary for the emotive way they react to people smoking in their presence.    Ideally, no one should be teaching about the morality of an action for whom it is an emotive subject. People yearning for a clear conscience while wanting to continue indulging themselves, or to keep questionable behavior as an emergency backup should their lives suddenly go haywire, will be strongly pressured to interpret the Bible in a way that justifies their secret longings. On the other hand, people wanting to argue the sinfulness of a behavior, to bolster their fight against a habit, or fearing a return to the habit, will be pressured to come out strongly in the other direction, overstating their case and making loud noises like the evangelist just mentioned.    No one peering through the haze of guilt feelings, defeatism and fleshly cravings can hope to see clearly. If you have a vested interest in, for example, “discovering” that God approves of a particular behavior, try to approach the issue as if it means little to you personally. If you find yourself strongly drawn to something, try to approach your search for God’s will about it as if with a simple prayer you would never again feel the slightest inkling to have what you currently crave and that everything positive would remain untouched. In short, seek to be as neutral as you possibly can and fervently pray that our gracious Lord override the frightening possibilities of any lingering bias.    Jesus said things in the hearing of all his disciples that applied only to Judas. They all needed to hear it so that later it would comfort them (and us) with valuable confirmation that Jesus’ death was no accident but a critical part of God’s plan. In the short-term, however, eleven of them misunderstood, and needlessly worried that Jesus was suggesting it was they who would betray him:    Matthew 26:21-22   . . . one of you shall betray me.   And they were exceeding sorrowful, and began every one of them to say unto him, Lord, is it I? (KJV).   This is one of many times in biblical history ( Daniel 8:26; Matthew 13:17; 1 Corinthians 2:6; 1 Peter 1:10-12 ), and beyond, when timing was a critical factor in spiritual revelation. Everything would be clarified later.    Another perplexing factor, however, is the enormous variability between people; ranging from some who are alarmingly oversensitive, right through to those whose insensitivity puts them in grave spiritual danger. There are people who are so hardened by the deceitfulness of sin that Scripture’s sternest, most terrifying warnings are an act of divine mercy, desperately needed to shake them out of their spiritually suicidal apathy. On the other extreme, are people so delicate and tormented by groundless worries, that not only do such Scriptures not apply to them, but the gentlest hint of a warning directed at someone else, sends them reeling in needless fear and condemnation. People can even suffer from a medical condition that floods them with chronic feelings of guilt that bear no resemblance to how God views them, and causes them to misread Scripture and feel the object of God’s wrath, when nothing could be further from the truth. Over the years, literally hundreds of people suffering from this debilitating affliction have written to me. I have many webpages devoted to helping them (e.g, Scrupulosity).   In a webpage for people seeking to help people who are hurting I wrote about another source of sensitivity:   If you were treating the open wounds of accident victims, you would realize that the most gentle, well-meaning touch could send patients reeling. You would not be offended if someone you were seeking to help lashed out in pain with almost involuntary action. You would half expect it. But imagine the confusion if the wounds were invisible and the person looked uninjured. Consider the further complication if in that person’s experience everyone who had tried to help (and how does he know you will be any different?) had in their ignorance done little but inflict pain.   That’s the norm for someone who is hurting inside.   Emotionally wounded people cannot help but be highly sensitive. Words hit them like whips. It is vital that they be treated verbally with the careful tenderness you would use if you were dressing gaping physical wounds.   A totally different example of how much people differ is that for some people, Scriptures referring to God as a father are immensely comforting, whereas for some who suffered horrific child abuse, these same Scriptures are literally terrifying. Some even recoil at the Bible’s use of the male pronoun for God. It swamps their minds with thoughts, images and emotions that are utterly contrary to the intentions of the inspired writers.   There are many other factors causing people to react in wildly different ways to the same words. Consider, for example, fears, insecurities, a strong need to feel superior to certain people, an infatuation with a particular sin, a battered self-image, or the fact that everyone close to you insists that something is true. These are just a few more examples of life experiences, any one of which can blind us to biblical truth. It might be through no fault of our own, but if, for whatever reason, we end up convinced of the truth of any matter or strongly want something to be true, we are alarmingly vulnerable to having our minds play tricks on us, such that, without even realizing what is happening, our minds twist our reading of Scripture to confirm our own prejudices, convictions and view of the world, rather than allowing our reading of God’s Word to shape our thinking.   Ably supported by the status quo and by anti-God spiritual forces, our capacity for self-deception is terrifying:   Proverbs 16:2 All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the Lord weighs the motives.   Proverbs 16:25 There is a way which seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.   John 3:19   . . . men loved the darkness rather than the light . . .   John 5:44 How can you believe if you accept praise from one another, yet make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only God? (NIV)   John 7:17 If anyone desires to do his [God’s] will, he will know about the teaching, whether it is from God, or if I am speaking from myself.   2 Timothy 4:3 For the time will come when they will not listen to the sound doctrine, but, having itching ears, will heap up for themselves teachers after their own lusts   Hebrews 3:13   . . . hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.   Rather than being exclusively taught by God, all of us – no matter how sincerely we study the Bible – are far too much the product of our times, our education, and our fleshly weaknesses. In the words of Paul:   1 Corinthians 4:4 My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. (NIV)   1 Corinthians 10:12 Therefore let him who thinks he stands be careful that he doesn’t fall.   The astonishing variability between people’s reaction to the same words, plus the timing issue, plus our vulnerability to self-deception, means we dare not merely read Scripture, but we need to personalize it, by joining with the disciples in asking, “Lord, is it I?” Does this apply to me or to someone else? Do I need to take this to heart now, or should I leave it until later?   When seeking God on such issues, it is good to pray along these lines:   I come to you, the all-knowing Lord of the universe, seeking truth. I ask that in your mercy you lift from me legalism, worldliness, selfishness, undesirable cravings, a know-it-all attitude, a fear of pleasure, or anything else that could fog my mind from detecting and delighting in your truth. Give me your heart so that I might be worthy to be given your mind on this important subject.   You are no killjoy, precious Lord. In the extravagance of your love and creative genius you have crafted for your children a stunning array of exquisite delights. Before sin’s pollution, when everything sparkled with your perfection and purity, pleasure was an integral part of the creation that you pronounced to be very good. But I know it is not good to be a slave to pleasure, nor to be defiled.   May I delight you and thank you by enjoying all the thrilling things you have lovingly planned for me. And may I avoid every treacherous imitation of eternal fulfillment; every enemy of lasting joy.   I can escape disaster and find truth only by you breaking my infatuation with sin. So cause me to be so in love with you that my highest joy is to see you honored. I want to be so swept off my feet by the dazzling beauty of your holiness that I recoil in horror from the smog of the world; so captivated by the perfection of your ways that I would rather suffer a martyr’s death than experience the exquisite pleasures of sin.   I am surrounded by deadly traps – both satanically inspired license and equally satanic legalism. Only you can show me where the dangers lie. I cannot trust my own intellect nor even my conscience. As your Word says, “The heart is deceitful” (Jeremiah 17:9) . Open my eyes to the way you view my self-worth, my sexuality, and every other aspect of my being, so that I may be one with you on this vital issue. May your light burst through the fog of my upbringing, cravings, prejudices, fears, past experiences, faulty logic, lack of faith and whatever else could keep me from knowing and living your glorious truth.   When used as you intended, all of your gifts are perfect. May I not dishonor you by spurning your gifts, nor by misusing your priceless gifts. In your mercy, show me the difference between holy pleasure and Satan’s bait. Should We Even Have Bible Teachers and Bible Commentaries? We have hinted at the dangers of Bible teachers influencing others while themselves driven by prejudices and inner turmoil. Another serious issue is teachers or preachers wanting to be seen as authorities on various issues. Ideally, we all should trash trying to sound authoritative and infallible, and instead seek the higher honor of pointing people to  the  Authority. Matthew 23:10-12   Neither be called masters, for one is your master, the Christ. But he who is greatest among you will be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. Rather than seek to impose my personal views on anyone, I much prefer the undeserved privilege of being used of God to assist others in reaching their own, divinely-inspired convictions. A leader’s greatest joy should not be self-exaltation but, as it were, carrying people’s bags, while they pursue their own personal adventure in discovering the beautiful and perfect will of God. But should we even have Bible teachers? The role of Bible teachers is emphasized in the Old Testament. A powerful example is: Nehemiah 8:7-8    . . . and the Levites, caused the people to understand the law: and the people stayed in their place. They read in the book, in the law of God, distinctly; and they gave the sense, so that they understood the reading.. Other Old Testament examples abound. I’ll limit myself to two more: Leviticus 10:8-9, 11   Then the Lord said to Aaron, “You and your sons . . . are to teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the Lord has spoken to them by Moses.” 2 Chronicles 17:7-9    . . . [Jehoshaphat] sent his princes . . . the Levites . . . the priests. They taught in Judah, having the book of the Lord’s law with them . . . The role of teachers has not diminished under the New Covenant: Matthew 28: 19-20   Go, and make disciples of all nations . . . teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you. . . . Acts 2:42   They continued steadfastly in the apostles’ teaching . . . Acts 5:42   Every day, in the temple and at home, they never stopped teaching and preaching Jesus, the Christ. 1 Corinthians 12:28   God has set some in the assembly: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers . . . Ephesians 4:11   He gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, shepherds and teachers. Colossians 1:28   whom we proclaim, admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. 1 Timothy 4:13   Until I come, pay attention to reading, to exhortation, and to teaching. Hebrews 5:12   For although by this time you should be teachers, you again need to have someone teach you the rudiments of the first principles . . . There are very many more New Testament references to the importance of Bible teaching. Since our Lord has ordained that there be teachers in the body of Christ, it would be an insult to the wisdom of God to imply that we do not need them. This does not mean, however, that the Lord has given us teachers to indulge our laziness. We each have a responsibility to prayerfully seek truth and personally study God’s Word. Neither does the importance God places on teaching mean that everyone who assumes that role does so under God’s direction. Nor does it mean that sitting under teachers protects us from all error. When someone we highly esteem knows the Bible thoroughly and deeply loves the Lord, it is hard to keep in mind that he/she can sometimes be mistaken. The reality, of course, is that nothing – not even the noblest assortment of gifts, graces and devotion – makes a person infallible. Just because a much loved Bible teacher is persuasively passionate about a subject does not, of itself, mean he/she is right, no matter how authoritative, how used of God or how much genuine revelation the person has received on other subjects. On the other hand, we should not reject a certain understanding of Scripture just because people who are often wrong in their beliefs and/or behavior happen to believe it. We must neither blindly accept nor blindly reject a teaching because of what others believe. A Spiritual Law for Bible Interpretation You reap what you sow. The measure with which you dish out is the measure used to pay back to you. Scripture uses many different expressions to describe this fundamental spiritual law that applies not just to money but to judging others and virtually every area of life. In fact, it seems to apply to the way we treat the Word of God. In reference to the attention given to Jesus’ teaching, we read:   Mark 4:24 “Take heed what you hear. With whatever measure you measure, it will be measured to you, and more will be given to you who hear. . . .”   Another way of describing this law is whoever is faithful in little will be given much.   The more faithful we are with God’s Word, the more divine revelation we will receive. There are two key areas in which Bible readers should display faithfulness:   1. Intense Effort to Understand   Deuteronomy 6:5-9 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. These words, which I command you today, shall be on your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them for a sign on your hand, and they shall be for frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the door posts of your house, and on your gates.   Note how loving the Lord – the greatest command, taught Jesus – is linked not just to revering the Word, but to actively and habitually mentally processing it by discussing it, teaching it to your children and continually reminding yourself of it.   Consider the vast amount of time the Lord expects us to devote to studying and applying one’s mental powers to Scripture:   Psalm 1:2 but his delight is in the Lord’s law. On his law he meditates day and night.   Psalm 119:97 How I love your law! It is my meditation all day.   Psalm 119:148 My eyes stay open through the night watches, that I might meditate on your word.   Why would the Lord put such emphasis upon devoting so much prayer, time, meditation and discussion to the Word if it is his intention to reveal truth to Christians no matter how lax they are?   Why did Jesus plead with us to ask, seek and knock? Because he felt like spouting some empty words or because of the grim truth that unless we do it we’ll miss out?   For three full weeks Daniel prayed and semi-fasted for divine revelation about the meaning of what, like the book of Revelation, is now part of Scripture. Who knows how long this determined man of God would have kept this up had the answer been further delayed? We might read, puzzle, and consult Bible commentaries but do we with steely resolve set ourselves to pray and fast for understanding of a passage of Scripture?   When we consider spiritual heroes who pressed on to great achievements in God despite immense opposition, do we think to include in our personal hall of fame those who, rather than leave a matter on the too hard shelf or settle for anything less than God’s best, wrestled in prayer until they received divine understanding of a portion of God’s Word?   2. Putting It Into Practice   In addition to being faithful in intensive, prayerful study, we must be faithful with what we do with the knowledge gained. In any course of study, there is no point in undertaking more advanced studies if you have not mastered the basic lessons. Why should God reveal new truths to someone who is not even applying what God has already revealed to him? Master what you have so far received by living the truths you know and you will be given new truths.   Under the Old Covenant, each king was to have not just his own personal copy of Scripture, but:   Deuteronomy 17:19 It shall be with him, and he shall read from it all the days of his life; that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them (Emphasis mine).   He was to read the Bible “all the days of his life,” not for mental stimulation or religious ritual but for the highly practical purpose of applying it to his life and living it daily.   Again, we read:   Joshua 1:8 This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it ; for then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall have good success.   Matthew 7:26-27 Everyone who hears these words of mine, and doesn’t do them will be like a foolish man, who built his house on the sand. The rain came down, the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat on that house; and it fell—and great was its fall. (Emphasis mine)   If a doctor prescribes medication, you can study the directions on the label, religiously read them three times a day and memorize them word perfect, but all your effort will achieve nothing unless you actually follow those directions and consume the medication as instructed.   If we are faithful in devoting time and prayerful effort into Bible study and faithful in prayerfully seeking to live what God is revealing to us, then we can expect our revelation to be continually expanding. Soaring to a New Level One cannot find love, joy or goodness by scientific analysis. Neither can one find spiritual truth by intellectual analysis. Limit yourself to studying a painting with an electron microscope or X-ray machine and you might pride yourself in going far deeper into the painting than the average person but you will completely miss what the artist intended to convey. Similarly, if you limit yourself to the tools of Bible academics you might pride yourself in your great knowledge, but you will completely miss the message God wants to convey. To explode to new heights in biblical revelation we need an invasion of the supernatural that hinges on us praying along the following lines. It is worded to help us glimpse the breath-taking beauty and wonder and joy of our calling. Lord, Like a finger on a hand, I was created to be in exquisite union with you. As a body needs its head, only with you am I complete. You are my love, my life, my joy, my hope. Only with you can I soar to my glorious potential. Without you I am pathetic. With you I am everything. So keep me ever mindful of my glorious dependence upon you. May I not frustrate myself, harming my Christ-bought potential for eternal greatness, by trying to see, be or do things without you. In you I am free. Only you can open my eyes to the spirit realm as you did to Elisha’s servant who suddenly saw the so-close but invisible armies of God (2 Kings 6:17). Likewise, only you can open my eyes to the exciting mysteries in your Word. I thrill in the knowledge that because of Jesus’ priceless sacrifice I have the mind of Christ and am indwelt by your very Spirit. Nevertheless, I shudder to consider how little this is so far manifested in my life and thinking. I beg you to deal with everything within me – most of which I am probably not even aware of – that is refusing to let you rule in me in the powerful, non-human way that you long to operate. I can understand your truth only to the degree that I have your heart. Only when your beauty becomes part of my lifestyle can I hope to appreciate the beauty of your ways. That necessitates letting you rip everything ungodly from my life. I know I must abandon the soft life and embrace the way of the cross. I am scared about what that might entail but it is the only way to the abundant life that you freely offer. You alone are the God of all comfort. Any other apparent source of comfort is a vapor that will turn to poison. Not only are you passionately and selflessly devoted to my eternal welfare (as demonstrated by Christ crucified), you alone have infinite knowledge of the past, present and future and can match that with infinite wisdom. Like a fish out of water, so am I when I’m out of your will. Help get this critical truth into my head. Etch it into my brain. Like the ugly duckling discovering he is a beautiful swan, so I am discovering my true identity whenever I find in your Word more of how you want me to live. I am only fully alive, achieving my highest when, empowered by your Spirit, I am living your glorious Word. To shrink from your liberating truth is like a shivering child fearing warmth, and yet too often this is how I live. Not to obey your commands is like money never spent, food never eaten, warm baths of pleasure never luxuriated in. Change my whole way of thinking that I might continually relish discovering and doing your will. To see as you do, I must, as it were, see through tear-filled eyes at a God-hating world. Fill me with compassion for those who despise me. Make my heart tender. I must take on your nature or I will always find bewilderingly incompatible your love and wrath, your mercy and judgments, and so many other aspects of your perfection. Either I yield to your longing to make me pure, selfless and righteous, or else biblical concepts like turning the other cheek, it being more blessed to give than to receive, and so much else will seem nonsensical to me. Without your holy, eternal perspective, I’ll never understand even fellow humans like the apostle Paul who, despite horrific torture and deprivations, kept talking of joy and “light, momentary” afflictions so inconsequential as to be beneath attempting a comparison with future glories. As I’ll never see what lies ahead unless I keep moving forward, so I’ll languish in ignorance unless I’m daily living more and more of your Word. As a vine bursts into seasons of fruitfulness only if it endures times when it seems nothing but a dry, twisted stick, so I must persevere, seeking your face and reading your precious Word no matter how dry it sometimes seems. May I cherish your word more than a starving man with his last crumbs. Keep prodding me to courageously press against the tide of popular thinking – even popular Christian thinking – whenever it clashes with your full and glorious truth. Break me out of the straight jacket of human thinking so that I might soar with you. Stop me from swallowing half-truths. Take me way beyond my natural intellect and morality. Give me no peace while I’m content to settle for second best. One by one, expose my blind spots and deal with everything within me that saddens you. Don’t let me get away living a shallow life. May my every moment bring you joy. May I give you my best and receive your best. I can do none of this alone – and I thank you that I don’t have to – but in your love for me you wait for me to cooperate. And in my love for you I want to dedicate to you my every effort. I yield to you, like a brush to the artist, like a drowning person to his rescuer, like a lover to caresses. The Next Page The next page delves further into how heart issues affect our ability to interpret Scripture correctly. You might have already read this page if you explored a link on an earlier page in this series. Or perhaps you would prefer a change of pace by exploring the related issues listed below. Otherwise, you’ll enjoy: The Heart of Bible Interpretation

Help in Understanding the Bible   Part 2 of Series About How to Avoid Misinterpreting the Bible Start at Part One   In the  previous webpage  (which should be read first) we began to discover from the Bible itself that the primary reason for missing biblical truth is not intellectual, but spiritual. We ended by noting that despite Jesus repeatedly teaching the disciples that he would suffer and die, this fundamental truth “was concealed from them” ( Luke 9:45; 18:34 ).   It would seem that had the disciples been able to grasp what Jesus was saying, they would have been much better equipped to handle the traumatic events following Jesus’ arrest. Nevertheless, Christianity’s central truth – that the Messiah would suffer – “was concealed from them”. We must explore this peculiar phenomenon because it is repeated in our own lives over and over.   The full reason for their failure to grasp the truth is probably a combination of several, or maybe even all, of the possibilities we will explore. Regardless of what kept  the disciples  in ignorance, however, each of the possibilities we will mention can blind  us  to spiritual truth, even though, like the disciples, we are devoted to Christ and have already received immense spiritual revelation. So let’s examine the possibilities:     1. The Disciples Saw No Need to Ask Jesus Was a significant factor behind the disciples’ ignorance simply that they felt no pressing need to seek a fuller explanation from Jesus? No doubt their own hang-ups made it hard for them to ask – and we’ll examine this soon – but had they been sufficiently motivated, they would have pushed through the obstacles and asked Jesus regardless.   How great is our loss, simply because we are content to leave something in the too hard basket and remain in ignorance? Or how much do we miss out on because we choose to puzzle over something ourselves, rather than specifically and earnestly and repeatedly seek Jesus’ help?   Proverbs 25:2   It is the glory of God to conceal a thing, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter. God plays hide-and-seek with his children. He deliberately hides spiritual truths and then begs us to seek them.   Jeremiah 29:13-14   You shall seek me, and find me, when you shall search for me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord . . .   Jeremiah 33:3   Call to me, and I will answer you, and will show you great things, and difficult, which you don’t know.   Matthew 7:7   Ask, and it will be given you. Seek, and you will find. . . .   But all this is lost if we don’t bother to seek/ask.   What if, like the disciples, we keep quiet and don’t get around to badgering Jesus for an answer? Let’s not allow James’ sad commentary to apply to us: James 4:2   . . . You don’t have, because you don’t ask.   This principle was understood by the psalmist who asked the Lord: Psalms 119:18   Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things out of your law.   For the psalmist, this was no throw away line. In fact, in this very psalm he asked six times that God grant him understanding of Scripture and a further nine times that God would “teach” him Scripture. And in yet another part of the psalm he prayed that God not “hide” the meaning of Scripture from him.   The man uttering these prayers was so divinely inspired that at that very moment he was actually penning Scripture and yet he realized that, even for him, the Bible’s spiritual treasury would remain locked unless he earnestly pleaded with God for the interpretation. Obviously, this man of God had already discovered powerful, life-changing truths in the Word of God. He declares: Psalms 119:98-100, 103   Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, for your commandments are always with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the aged, because I have kept your precepts. . . . How sweet are your promises to my taste, more than honey to my mouth!   Nevertheless, this enlightened man of God was not content with his abundance of spiritual insight. He knew there were still more treasures locked away in the Word of God and that continued prayer was an essential key to obtaining those riches.   Note this key to spiritual insight: Proverbs 2:3-5   Yes, if you call out for discernment, and lift up your voice for understanding; If you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures: then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.    James 1:5   But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach; and it will be given to him.   Note that those who suppose they are already wise lose out completely. They won’t bother to hound God for the wisdom to understand his Word because they are too proud to even know that they need it.   Proverbs 26:12   Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.   “ I can of myself do nothing ” declared the Son of God ( John 5:30 ). We should burn those six words into our brains because if that statement applied to Jesus, how much more must it apply to us! And it certainly applies to our ability to understand the Scriptures.   Let’s not treat Bible interpretation as if God has died and left us with instructions as to how to cope in his absence. As the disciples could ask Jesus about the meaning, so can we. Jesus said it was  better  that he leave because then the Holy Spirit would come and guide the disciples into all truth ( John 16:7,13 ).   For devoted Christians, our greatest danger lies not in deliberately resisting God’s Spirit as he seeks to interpret Scripture for us. Our greatest danger is simply not seeing the need to keep asking for God’s help.     2. Too Ashamed to Admit their Ignorance   Maybe the disciples were too proud to ask. Or perhaps they feared that admitting their ignorance would produce yet another rebuke from Jesus for being slow of heart. Jesus certainly handed out many rebukes: Mark 4:13   He said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? How will you understand all of the parables?   Mark 7:18   He said to them, “Are you also without understanding? Don’t you perceive that whatever goes into the man from outside can’t defile him . . .”   Mark 8:17-18   . . . “Why do you reason that it’s because you have no bread? Don’t you perceive yet, neither understand? Is your heart still hardened? Having eyes, don’t you see? Having ears, don’t you hear? Don’t you remember?   Luke 24:25   He said to them, “Foolish men, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! . . .”   And, of course, Jesus delivered other rebukes for lack of faith, and so on.   There is a thrilling side to Jesus’ rebukes. It means Jesus believed in them – even more, in fact, than they believed in themselves. He was not expecting them to fail. He saw their blunders as an aberration – a failure to reach what was within their grasp – not an indication that they were incapable. He knew they had what it takes to succeed.   Love and wisdom drive everything God does – even times when we wrongly think he is expecting too much from us.    Our constant temptation is to shrink back from God and keep him at arm’s length, fearing that he is harsh and disapproving. In contrast, God’s longing is for us to nestle into him and hear his heartbeat. Only then does Scripture come alive for us. Bible study must never be allowed to degenerate into a do-it-yourself project. If you think the disciples’ fear of rebuke would be unlikely to silence them, you have probably forgotten that they had all heard Jesus’ stinging “Get behind me, Satan!” in response to Peter’s reaction to this very subject – Jesus saying that the Son of Man must suffer ( Mark 8:33 ).   Heart to heart communication takes courage. It demands total openness and risking angry responses. If we keep quiet about our problems with God – our doubts about his goodness, our fears, our resentments, our anger toward him – we have kept from him nothing he doesn’t already know, but we enter a cone of silence ( Get Smart  fans will appreciate this) in which communication begins to break down.   God is big enough and loving enough to handle conflict but it can only be resolved by us facing it and talking it through with God. If we bury anything affecting our relationship with God, the result is a false and dangerous peace.   The Lord might at times seem as unapproachable and prejudiced against us as he did when he kept ignoring the Canaanite woman’s pleas to heal her child and implied she was a dog ( Matthew 15:22-28 ) . If we keep persisting as she did, however, we will not just gain our request, but his praise and proof that underneath his mysterious ways beats a tender heart that longs for us. Nothing thrills him more, and nothing is more rewarding, than when we resist the urge to shrink from him.   We must risk rebuke or whatever else it takes to maintain a transparent openness with our Lord. To avoid being kept in the dark, bring everything to the light.   3. The New Truth Seemed Unscriptural   Strong Jewish traditions, based on the Word of God, had the disciples expecting a triumphant king, not a suffering servant. With Jesus’ new teaching seeming to contradict Scripture, is it any wonder that they did not want to explore the implications of what he was saying?   It is tragically possible for a good grasp of some Scriptures to actually close our minds to further biblical revelation the Lord wishes us to have.   As I have written elsewhere: “Seek and you shall find” is a clear promise from God. So how can sincere Christians all seek God’s truth about a Bible passage or doctrine and not find the same thing? The obvious answer is that many of us stop seeking too soon.   When devout Christians come to wrong conclusions, much of their understanding is correct. Almost all of us, however, long to rush ahead and try to join the dots too soon. The problem then becomes our tendency to feel more certain than warranted by the evidence so far gathered, and to unintentionally close our minds to anything further God may wish to reveal to us that does not gel with our presumptions.   It is so hard to remain open to the possibility that we have reached our conclusions prematurely and that God has startlingly new things to show us on that topic. We tend to become closed off because we are rightly concerned about being seduced into error. Seldom do we consider, however, that we might already have slipped into a mistaken conclusion. This is one reason why humility is so critical for truth seekers.   And in yet another webpage, I’ve written:   Alarmingly many of our convictions about God that we presume to be grounded on divine revelation are actually the product of experiences gained through living from babyhood in a world that behaves in a way that is highly contrary to God’s heart. One might expect diligent Bible study would explode our every mistaken view of God. Instead, our preconceptions are so controlling that the more we revere the Bible, the more likely we are to end up unconsciously cherry picking verses to try to prop up our misconceptions and arrogantly maintain our illusion. Yes, we read the exhortation in  Romans  about not being conformed to the world and instead being transformed by the renewal of our minds ( Romans 12:2 )  but so deceptively persuasive is the relentless brainwashing of childhood experiences and everything around us that is not one hundred per cent of God, one hundred per cent of the time, that I wonder if anyone on this planet has ever totally broken free from their pervasive and beguiling influence.   “Who has bewitched you?” agonized Paul, distressed that the Galatians, who had started off so well in their grasp of spiritual truth were in danger of losing it all. The parable of the sower tells of those who don’t even start their spiritual journey because of birds that snatch the seed of God’s Word before it can take root. But the parable continues. Those who burst into spiritual life have no reason for smugly settling back. It’s a long, slow process from germination to producing grain and many, says Jesus’ parable, don’t make it.   We can start off so teachable and open to the Holy Spirit, that we grow remarkably in spiritual understanding, but if this growth turns to pride, everything sours. Like a ravenous lion, the Evil One waits for us to forget that spiritual revelation flows from the grace of God, not from our devotion or intelligence. Then the Evil One pounces, getting his revenge by perverting our divinely given knowledge into a source of pride that ends our spiritual growth spurt. Even our earlier gains can be mauled.   Spiritually devastating pride can ambush us at any stage of our journey. In fact, the further we go in God’s blessing, the greater the danger. King Saul started off so humble. Though chosen as king, he hid himself rather than take center stage ( 1 Samuel 10:22 ). Soon after, he again displayed humility by refusing to use his popularity and authority to take revenge on those who despised him ( 1 Samuel 10:27 ;  11:12-13 ) As he grew accustomed to being treated as royalty, however, he slowly sank into someone so drunk with pride that he repeatedly made a fool of himself and ruined his life.   No matter how much we grow in spiritual knowledge, there is always more in God and we never lose our utter dependency upon the Holy Spirit. The more we think we know, the more likely it is that we will cut ourselves off from new truths we desperately need. We must always be open to the possibility that our current understanding – no matter how Bible-based – is not the full picture.   Permit me to quote from my book “Waiting for your Ministry” to illustrate the power of humbly acknowledging that in God there is always more.   When I read that throughout his life George Muller “never stopped learning” and “was always willing to change” I knew I had found a vital root to his fruitfulness. While laboring in close association with Henry Craik, Muller discovered that Henry’s sermons were saving more souls than his own. I’d have assumed my mix of gifts was different and resigned myself to smaller yields. Muller was smarter. Careful observation revealed that Henry was more spiritually-minded, more fervent in prayer for soul-winning power and had a more direct approach. George prayerfully and humbly appropriated these elements into his own life and became an equally effective evangelist.   John Pollock writes of D. L. Moody’s amazing “capacity for growth right until the end.”   When eighteen-year-old Moody was interviewed for church membership he was asked “what has Christ done for us all – for you – which entitles him to our love?”   “I don’t know,” confessed Moody, “I think Christ has done a good deal for us. But I don’t think of anything particular as I know of.”   Two deacons were assigned to instruct him. Nearly a full year passed before he was finally accepted into membership and even then, commented his kindly Sunday School teacher, “little more light appeared.”   After about another year, his ungrammatical attempts at prayer made people so uncomfortable that he was asked to keep silent in future.   Eventually he decided that although he could not possibly teach children, he could at least bribe them with sweets and kindness to lure them to Sunday School. Once, to his horror, he found himself with a small group of children and no speaker. He was forced to stumble through a Bible story. He gradually discovered he could tell a story to children, provided no minister was within earshot. Addressing adults was unthinkable.   At age twenty-eight he would invite seminary students to preach at a church. One day a student failed to arrive and he felt obligated to act as an inadequate substitute. Slowly, year after year, decade after decade, he developed into an outstanding evangelist.   He once invited theologian Henry Weston to address his conference. Moody could draw far bigger audiences, and, through Christ, save thousands more souls than this man. In fact, it is conservatively estimated that in an era before microphones, not to mention no radio or television or jets, 100 million people seized the opportunity to hear Moody. Of the eight encyclopaedias, biographical and Christian dictionaries I consulted, all devoted space to Moody; Weston did not rate a mention. So vast was Moody’s influence that Weston’s own students challenged his views on the basis of what they had heard from Moody. Yet when Weston rose to speak, Moody carried his chair off the platform, placed it literally at Weston’s feet and sat there soaking in every word. Suddenly he shouted, “There goes one of my sermons!” Startled, Weston asked for an explanation. Moody replied that he would now have to dump one of his favorite sermons because Weston had just proved to him that it was based on a misconception. Weston recommenced his address only to be interrupted a little later by, “There goes another . . .”   Small wonder that like a towering tree, Moody kept growing and growing; eventually making those who had originally outstripped him look like stunted bushes. He developed gifts so vast that it is said he could have run for President of the United States.   To turn a vibrant, growing Christian into a tragedy, convince him he has already learned all that he needs to know. It’s not where you start that matters; it’s where you end.   So the challenge confronting us is the need to be continually open to new revelations from God, even if the new is as perplexing as the Messiah seeming to break one of the Ten Commandments, or, like Peter being asked in a vision to eat unclean food, the new initially seems contrary to a truth you, or even your entire church, hold dear. (Of course, in such extreme cases we must exercise immense caution and humility lest we fall into serious error.)     4. The Arrogant Ignorance of Narrow Human Thinking   Surely a significant component of the blockage keeping the disciples from grasping what Jesus was saying is that to them it was unthinkable. Their logic must have run like this: “There is no way God could be glorified by the Messiah being murdered, therefore it could not possibly happen. This must be yet another of Jesus’ strange sayings: whatever he means, it could not possibly be what he seems to be saying.”   For every situation, the Almighty has more options than we can conceive of. No doubt the disciples must have been as moved as any of us by the unforgettable words the Lord spoke through his prophet: Isaiah 55:9   For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.   As much as we all try to keep remembering it, the disciples – like we so often are – were still caught unawares by the implications of this profound truth.   There is so much more to faith in God than stubbornly believing our way is best or that our way is the only conceivable way.   Narrow, human thinking blinds us to spiritual truth. When Peter got it so wrong when Jesus spoke of his coming sufferings that his Lord had to say, “ Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me,” the Lord added, “ for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of men ,”   ( Matthew 16:23   – emphasis mine). Even though just verses earlier, Jesus had lauded him, saying “ Blessed are you, Simon Bar Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven,”  ( Matthew 16:17 ), Peter was back to human thinking again.   God said no the holy One’s plea to “take away this cup from me”  ( Mark 14:36, KJV ) and to Paul’s plea to take his away the thorn in his flesh ( 2 Corinthians 12:7-8 ). Both of them so desperately wanted a less agonizing way that they begged for it not once, not twice, three times ( 2 Corinthians 12:7 ).   No matter how many Scriptures and testimonies we amass that God never denies faith-filled prayer, every Bible reader slams into glaring exceptions, like the two just mentioned. The Faith Chapter, for instance, piles example upon example of God rewarding faith with miraculous deliverances but then, when least expected, it takes a sudden U-turn: Hebrews 11:35-39    . . . Others were tortured, not accepting their deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Others were tried by mocking and scourging, yes, moreover by bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned. They were sawn apart. They were tempted. They were slain with the sword. They went around in sheep skins and in goat skins; being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated (of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts, mountains, caves, and the holes of the earth. These all, having had testimony given to them through their faith, didn’t receive the promise   In theory, the sudden reversal should jolt us awake; ramming home the error of our presumptions. Many of us, however, grow so cock sure that we have the biblical principle – and God – figured out, that the total contraction to our theory barely registers, and we remain convinced that faith always delivers us from poverty, suffering and death, despite Scripture emphatically stating the opposite.   This is where cherry picking Scriptures to prop up our presumptions can turn so dangerous that when reality finally catches up with people, the shock can so bewilder them that rather than acknowledging they had read into the Bible ‘promises’ that were never there, they mistakenly conclude that God lies or that he is against them. Instead of finally realizing how unbiblical their theory had been, some end up so flabbergasted that they even give up on God.   Though they all fled, and Peter suffered the shame of being so unprepared that three times he denied his Lord, eleven of the disciples spiritually survived their harrowing experience when ignorance hit reality. But many don’t: Proverbs 1: 20-32   Wisdom calls aloud in the street . . . “How long will you simple ones love your simple ways? . . . If you had responded to my rebuke, I would have poured out my heart to you and made my thoughts known to you. But since you  . . . ignored all my advice  . . . I in turn will laugh at your disaster; I will mock  . . . when calamity overtakes you like a storm, when disaster sweeps over you like a whirlwind, when distress and trouble overwhelm you. Then they will call to me but I will not answer; they will look for me but will not find me. . . . For the waywardness of the simple will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them . . .”  (NIV)   If ignorance is bliss, it’s akin to the drug-induced high of someone on a building top thinking he can fly.   5. Blinded by the ‘Obvious’   We’ve touched on this, but let’s probe a little deeper.   Ponder this context: Luke 9:37, 43-44    . . . a great multitude met him. . . . while all were marveling at all the things which Jesus did, he said to his disciples, “Let these words sink into your ears, for the Son of Man will be delivered up into the hands of men.”   They saw Jesus, highly popular and displaying great power. What Jesus was saying did not make sense to them because their own logic – based on current circumstances and, as already mentioned, their current understanding of Scripture – was screaming so loudly in their heads that it drowned out what Jesus was trying to get through to them.   Other than to give us a push if we are stalling, the Lord has no need to tell us something that is already obvious to us. Any revelation that we desperately need will therefore clash with our current understanding and expectations.   This puts us continually on the wrong foot. We are always biased toward dismissing as nonsensical whatever new revelation the Lord is trying to get through to us. And the more impressed we are with our own intelligence or grasp of spiritual truth, the more closed off to God we will be.   We think we love God too much to be continually dismissing what he is trying to tell us, but love isn’t the issue. When mixed with his inadequate understanding, Peter’s love for Jesus was so exploited by Satan that Jesus had to tell Peter, “Get behind me, Satan!” The problem was that Peter thought he knew better than Jesus. If we had asked Peter if he thought he was wiser than Jesus, he’d have sincerely denied it. And yet here it was for all to see.   Our ability to discern spiritual truth hinges on our awareness that our current understanding is incomplete. At best, to use Paul’s famous expression, “we see through a glass, darkly”  ( 1 Corinthians 13:12 , KJV). Since God’s understanding is infinite and ours is not, at any moment the Almighty could be trying to reveal to us something significant that does not gel with our present understanding. This tests two key areas in our lives:   1.      Our humility  How willing are we to admit that our understanding has been wrong or inadequate? 2.      Our faith Is our faith rooted in our current understanding of Scripture or is it rooted in the Spirit’s ability to go beyond our current limitations and lead us into all truth? How much do we trust our loving Lord to lead us deeper into truth, while protecting us from spiritual deception?     6. Scared of the New Truth   The biblical accounts are clear that the disciples let fear stop them from asking Jesus about this critically important topic: Mark 9:31-32   For he was teaching his disciples, and said to them, “The Son of Man is being handed over to the hands of men, and they will kill him; and when he is killed, on the third day he will rise again.” But they didn’t understand the saying, and were afraid to ask him.    They even asked each other, rather than Jesus: Mark 9:10   They kept this saying to themselves, questioning what the “rising from the dead” meant.   John 16:17-18   Some of his disciples therefore said to one another, “What is this that he says to us, ‘A little while, and you won’t see me, and again a little while, and you will see me;’ and, ‘Because I go to the Father’?” They said therefore, “What is this that he says, ‘A little while’? We don’t know what he is saying.”   What precisely was it that made them too scared to ask Jesus? We have uncovered some possibilities, but let’s keep probing.   When Jesus was talking about his suffering, could the disciples have grasped enough of it to sense it was something so unpleasant that they simply did not want to know what Jesus talking about?   At all costs, we must pursue Jesus, who is Truth, even if it means having our pet theories blown out of the water, having to admit we were wrong, or being booted out of our church. The cost of facing up to truth can sometimes be so great that it is exceeded only by the eventual reward. The disciples were in turmoil from Jesus’ arrest until his resurrection appearances. Could they have spared themselves so much distress and defeat if only they had had the courage to seek the truth earlier?   Multitudes foolishly refuse to become Christians because they won’t face the truth that they are sinners doomed to hell. They do not understand that seeking God for truth sets one free and is always abundantly rewarded, no matter how distasteful the truth initially seems.   Our need to swallow what seems bitter truth in order to savor God’s blessings does not end at salvation. Throughout our spiritual journey we face the dilemma of whether we will have the courage to embrace the next truth God dangles before us, or whether we will recoil from it in fear.   The enemy of our soul is the ultimate liar who loves to slander God. The deceiver is continually hinting to us that the Perfect One is harsh and egotistical. In reality, God is love, and true love is total unselfishness, as demonstrated by Jesus’ sacrifice. God’s will for you is always the greatest good his inexhaustible wisdom can conceive. As I explain in a webpage devoted to the subject, to fear God’s will is as ridiculous as a shivering child fearing sunshine. To miss God’s will is to miss the best we could have had and leap off a cliff in the dark. No matter how exhilarating the freefall, we will inevitably smash onto the rocks of regret somewhere below. Our only hope is that our crash is soon. The longer the painless fall, the more disastrous the end.   So courageously seek God’s truth at all times, knowing that ignorance is bliss that ends in tragic regret.     7. Their Hearts Differed from Jesus’ Heart   Is the following order of events mere coincidence?   Luke 9:44-46   “Let these words sink into your ears, for the Son of Man will be delivered up into the hands of men.” But they didn’t understand this saying. It was concealed from them, that they should not perceive it, and they were afraid to ask him about this saying. There arose an argument among them about which of them was the greatest.   While Jesus was talking about humiliation and selfless sacrifice, they were striving for the exact opposite.   We see something remarkably similar another time that Jesus discussed his suffering: Matthew 16:21-25   From that time, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and the third day be raised up. Peter took him aside, and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This will never be done to you.” But he turned, and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of men.” Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, and whoever will lose his life for my sake will find it.    So here again we see a worldly mindset apparently preventing one of Jesus’ disciples from understanding.   If God’s passions are not our passions, communication problems will be rife in our relationship with him. How can God share his heart unless we share his heart? If we don’t understand his heart, we have little chance of understanding his words.   When evaluating two possible interpretations of a passage, one of which devastates you and the other delights you, which interpretation will you be biased toward? Consider someone with a raging sex drive who from infancy has let Hollywood be his moral teacher; or someone whose goal in life is to make millions; or someone lusting after revenge. Imagine the enormous psychological pressure on such people to twist Scripture into meaning something that does not threaten their heart’s desire. The pressure to ease their conscience could be so intense that they might be completely unconscious of distorting Scripture to conform with their desires. Again, ponder the implications for someone given to laziness or comfort or selfishness or fear or negativity or whose self-image differs markedly from God’s view of them. The range of extreme situations is vast but perhaps even more dangerous are less obvious differences between God’s heart and our heart. Although miscommunication is highly likely with someone who has a different set of values to our own, miscommunication is almost inevitable if we don’t even realize that our values differ.   The psalmist confessed: Psalms 73:3   For I was envious of the arrogant, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.   That’s hardly a godly attitude. Not surprisingly, it affected his ability to discern spiritual truth: Psalms 73:16   When I tried to understand this, it was too painful for me.   He leaves us in no doubt about the spiritually blinding effect of his ungodly attitude: Psalms 73:21-22   For my soul was grieved. I was embittered in my heart. I was so senseless and ignorant. I was a brute beast before you.   God shares his secrets with those who share his passions. Since Jesus is the truth ( John 14:12 ), we know truth to the extent to which we know Jesus. If we don’t know his heart, we won’t know his truth.   7. Satanic Interference   The instinctive reaction of most of us is that dark forces could not possibly be a factor in the apostles’ failure to understand. These were God’s chosen; hand-picked to be the receivers and then the carriers of the divine message. Moreover, they were continually living in the physical presence of the almighty, demon-crushing Son of God. But wait . . . didn’t Satan enter into Judas? Okay, he was the solitary exception. But then there’s Peter. Wasn’t he virtually the leader of the apostles and the one who received such revelation from God that Jesus commended him saying, “ Blessed are you, Simon Bar Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. . . .”  (  Matthew 16:17 )? Yet when Jesus started talking about his future suffering, things got so out of hand that Jesus had to tell Peter, “Get behind me, Satan!”   For Peter to have received that rebuke, evil powers must have involved at the very time that Jesus was telling the apostles about his sufferings. When the devil was at work in Peter, the apostle was not slipping into obvious sin or anything likely to make an opening for the devil. On the contrary, he seemed to be expressing genuine love for the Lord by wanting to spare Jesus from suffering. (I’m reminded also of Saul who supposed he was zealously serving the Lord by persecuting Christians.) If the enemy could influence Peter so greatly that Jesus had to issue that staggering rebuke at the very time when Jesus was seeking to reveal a new truth, we too could be subject to the deluding powers of darkness when our Lord is seeking to reveal a new truth to us. Like Peter, none of us reaches the point of being beyond the possibility of satanic influence.   Whether it be through demonic brainwashing, delusion or whatever, “ the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving ”  ( 2 Corinthians 4:4 ). The god of this age is no longer our god, but he is our spiritual enemy, preying after our souls. Since every spiritual truth that we have yet to discover and apply to our lives will make us a greater threat to the kingdom of darkness, and since our enemy is the Deceiver, specializing in blinding unbelievers from the very truth that will set them free, he will surely seize any opportunity he gets to use his well-honed tricks and blind us to new truths that we need to know.   Through our victorious Lord we are not helpless pawns when dark forces move in. Nevertheless, since no one who is deluded thinks he is deluded, we must be ever alert to that possibility and continually seek God to keep our spiritual eyes open.     8. Not God’s Timing?   Perhaps it was simply not God’s time for the disciples to understand. If so, Jesus was not wasting his breath. They needed to be able to look back later and realize that Jesus had known it all ahead of time.   Despite learning the Scriptures from childhood and being taught by Jesus for years, it was not until after his resurrection that Jesus opened the disciples’ minds to see how all the Scriptures they had studied referred to Jesus ( Luke 24:45 ) .   He told the disciples who had sat under his teaching for years: John 14:26   But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and will remind you of all that I said to you.   The Spirit’s role in reminding the disciples of Jesus’ teaching shows that Jesus’ teaching (found in the gospels) is critical, but it is not enough without the Spirit’s action on that teaching.   We could think of the Word as a light bulb and the Spirit as the power. We are illuminated only when they work together.   There are seasons in God.  Colossians 1:26  speaks of “the mystery which has been hidden for ages and generations. But now it has been revealed to his saints”. There are words that will be sealed up “to the time of the end”  ( Daniel 12:4 ).   There are seasons in another sense as well. There is a time for sowing – for absorbing, memorizing and meditating on Scripture even when it makes little or no sense – and there is a time for reaping, when suddenly it all falls into place and we have that divine “Eureka!” moment.   Sometimes, even with divine revelation, we will never reap in joy if we never sow in tears. To reap, we must embrace the pain of study and times when reading Scripture is like feeding on dust. God honors faithfulness and diligence. As mentioned already, Jesus told his disciples that the Spirit of God would teach them and bring to their remembrance all that Jesus had taught them.  ( John 14:26 ). The supernatural came only after the natural. Had they not sacrificed years of their lives to sitting under Jesus’ teaching, the Spirit would never have done his part.   One final thought on God’s timing: there’s a time for asking and a time for receiving, but those who delight God and win for themselves much glory are those who praise God for answers before they hold them in their hands. Likewise, there are seasons when spiritual understanding is easy, but there are those with the faith and devotion to God to gain understanding ahead of time.     The Story So Far   Our Lord is a teacher who hands his class a textbook he knows everyone will find confusing and will misunderstand. He is unconcerned by this because he specializes in one-on-one teaching. He longs to personally take each of us through the book, explaining portions of his choosing until they not only become highly meaningful and precious to us, but life-changing. This does not mean, of course, that we will fully understand everything in the book. He gives the same textbook to both his newest and his most advanced students. What a tragedy it would be if on earth we ever reached the point of fully understanding the Bible! There would be no more new discoveries for us and little more growth.   Since the Almighty is in every way superior to us, we must be willing to tolerate mysteries – even mysteries that highly offend us. We discovered that an additional reason for mysteries being inevitable is that God has seasons for so many things, and divine enlightenment is no exception. Yet another reason for divine mysteries is that the Lord uses them to test our hearts. When Jesus walked this planet, the mysteries included what seemed unintelligible teaching and the way he perplexed and offended people by seeming to be a Sabbath-breaker and thus a breaker of God’s Ten Commandments. It’s essentially the same today. The Bible still seems peppered with moral dilemmas, unintelligible teaching and offenses to the intellect. Just as Jesus could have removed offenses in his ministry, so God could have removed offenses from Scripture. Instead, they are cleverly embedded in the Bible to filter out people whose god is their mind, whose moral standards are their own invention or who want to serve not the King of Glory but some predictable god who is so pathetically small that even they can figure him out. There are people who let God be God and there are those who want to be God’s God. There are those who are willing to trust the perfection of God’s wisdom and integrity and there are those who, like the devil himself, think they are better than God.   Consider Jesus saying people must consume his flesh and blood. He refused to explain, even though people left in droves. I’m reminded of Richard Bach’s quote: “If you love something, set it free; if it comes back it’s yours, if it doesn’t, it never was.” Those who truly believed in Jesus would cling to him no matter what. Everything in the Christian life hinges on faith, and faith grows best in the dark.   In reality, what people considered to be the low point of Jesus’ ability to communicate divine truth was astoundingly brilliant. By referring to eating his flesh, Jesus was delivering a profound truth cleverly packaged in such an unforgettable way that if they followed Jesus for long enough the saying would eventually be detonated by additional facts and explode into meaning for them.   Although we must not be offended by spiritual mysteries, we must not tolerate them to the point of defeatism, where we despair of ever understanding them in this age and so stop asking God and seeking. A know-it-all attitude is such a killer of spiritual growth that it should be feared. Equally deadly, however, is an I’ll-never-know attitude. The two attitudes often combine into a spiritually numbing I-know-all-I’ll-ever-know approach to certain biblical truths. No matter how dry we feel and how long the wait, we must keep asking and seeking.  Your  name is on God’s calendar.   Nevertheless, as Jesus said about himself: “ By myself I can do nothing ”  ( John 5:30 ). We don’t even know what to seek (we need some truths far more desperately than others) nor how to seek. So we must look to the Lord even for help in seeking. Everything in the Christian life is done in intimate partnership with our Maker.     Other Dangers   We’re all on a voyage of spiritual discovery leading to increasing fulfillment and achievement. But there are great dangers. So far, we have identified just the tip of the iceberg that could sink us.   Although we have exhausted what seem to me the most likely possibilities for  the disciples  failing to grasp the meaning of one facet of Jesus’ teaching, there are many other spiritual and heart issues that could be stopping  us  from discovering truths in God’s Word. As already mentioned, it will eventually turn out that spiritual ignorance is anything but bliss. This makes it critical that we not settle for recognizing only the few dangers so far identified. We need to discover everything that could be keeping us in spiritual ignorance.     So let’s proceed to the  next page: The Neglected Spiritual Dimension to Bible Interpretation

The Neglected Spiritual Dimension To Bible Interpretation Every Christian, simply by being a child of God, has access to truths that even great theologians might have missed. Part 3 of a Series About How to Avoid Misinterpreting the Bible Let’s recap: we are exploring matters that are vital to all Christians, and easily understood by all. Even the newest Christian is engaged in the pursuit of biblical truth. We all use hermeneutics (methods of interpreting the Bible) even though most of us never use the word. The emphasis in most Bible schools and seminaries tends to be on teaching methods of interpreting the Word that anyone can use, regardless of whether the person has any spiritual connection to God or is even pagan or atheistic. This is no criticism of theological institutions. The techniques taught are important and could be called basic or rational hermeneutics. We simply need to understand that there is more to Bible interpretation than this. As children, we learned to read. This has proved a most valuable skill that we continually draw upon when studying Scripture. Some of us learned to read in a Christian school. Most of us learned in secular schools. It makes no difference, because an ability to read has nothing to do with one’s relationship with God. What we could call basic hermeneutics is like that. It could be taught just as effectively in a secular college as in a theological institution. It’s a valuable skill that we should be using all the time when studying the Bible. But just as one can read the Bible well, without truly understanding it, so one can skillfully employ basic hermeneutics and not understand the spiritual truths of the Bible. The danger is that the more highly trained someone is, the more he might fool himself into thinking he understands a Scripture, when he is actually completely missing or misunderstanding much of the divine message. No matter how great his intellect, when a non-Christian encounters spiritual truths, “ . . .  he can’t know them, because they are spiritually discerned .” (1 Corinthians 2:14). That sounds spooky. We who pride ourselves on our intellect can find it so offensive that we reject the possibility of there being things the finest human minds cannot grasp without a spiritual transformation. It almost takes a divine miracle just to gain the faintest inkling as to why understanding spiritual truth is beyond the grasp of the unaided human mind. What would it be like to experience the sensations a lizard feels when it detects a sexually desirable lizard or a delicious cockroach? No matter how much ingenious research we did, trying to figure out what it feels like to be a lizard would remain mostly guesswork and we’ll never know how off the mark our presumptions are. The only way to perceive things as a lizard does, is if, for a while at least, we had the mind of a lizard. And even if offered that opportunity, some of us would find the offer too scary to accept. This is like the impossibility we face in trying to understand spiritual truth. It is something so foreign to human experience that no matter how great our intelligence and how deeply we ponder and analyze it, we cannot perceive things as God perceives them without undergoing a transformation of mind-boggling proportions. The sheer impossibility is reflected in Paul’s almost nonsensical prayer about God’s love: Ephesians 3:14-19  . . . I bow my knees to the Father . . . that he would grant you . . . to know Christ’s love which surpasses knowledge  . . . Learning facts will never do. We cannot understand as God understands without a supernatural transference of God’s mind/nature to our mind. This life-changing experience does not come in a one-off explosive burst, wrecking every neural connection in our brain. It comes one staggering revelation a time throughout the life of everyone who is in intimate union with the divine. It is an on-going process that we can stop or hinder at any moment. This is why Peter urges Christians t o grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ ( 2 Peter 3:18 ). Paul, too, speaks of “ increasing in the knowledge of God ” ( Colossians 1:10 ) and tells his readers they “ put on the new man, who is being renewed [note the tense] in knowledge after the image of his Creator ( Colossians 3:10 ) . Here’s a fascinating promise: Isaiah 54:13 All your children will be taught by the Lord  . . . The promise is not merely that all will have access to Scripture. As important as access to the Bible is, it is like the excitement of being given a seat on a jumbo jet, only to discover that the plane has no pilot. As a telephone is dead unless someone speaks to us through it, so is Scripture, unless God speaks to us through it. Our great need is to be taught by the Lord, as the above Scripture promises. The Almighty usually does this through Scripture, but it is something he must do. If, rather than being taught by God, we are self-taught, we will inevitably miss vital spiritual truths, no matter how diligently we study the Bible. Proverbs 28:26 One who trusts in himself is a fool  . . . The same is true about looking to human teachers, rather than the Lord: Isaiah 2:22 Stop trusting in man, whose breath is in his nostrils  . . . Matthew 16:17 Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.  . . .” In the previous two webpages (which should be read first – please start here ) we began exploring the factors determining our receptivity to divine empowerment to discern spiritual truth. Having commenced this fascinating and critical subject, we now need to uncover still more spiritual factors affecting one’s ability to understand the Bible. Elsewhere on this vast website I have written much in which I needed to use Scripture to discern God’s heart on various subjects. Sometimes when writing on these matters I thought it helpful to explain various principles I had had to draw upon in order to have any chance of “properly handling the Word of Truth.” So although most of this series of webpages about Bible interpretation is new, there are occasional quotes or adaptations from portions of my other webpages, here compiled to bring together some of the many factors that affect our ability to discern spiritual truth in the Bible. The following section is one such instance. You Can Find Truths Missed by Theologians We mentioned earlier that the need for this series of webpages becomes frighteningly obvious when we consider the degree to which Christians differ on doctrine and Bible interpretation. What is so disturbing is that these matters divide not just new Christians or worldly Christians or uninformed Christians. We are tempted to think poorly of anyone who disagrees with us, but if we dare look with godly eyes we will find Christians worthy of our highest esteem passionately believing opposite things. We might not know who is wrong, but clearly some of them must be. They cannot all be right! This sends us crashing to the humbling – even scary – reality that whenever we seek to understand such topics we are daring to confront a matter on which numbers of truly great men and women of God have got it wrong.   It is tempting to think that if God allows this divergence of opinion among even the most spiritual and knowledgeable Christians on earth, it must be because the matter is unimportant. If this were so, however, it would become perhaps even more confusing. It would mean that so many fine Christians on  both  sides are wrong in thinking it is important.   If people more spiritual, knowledgeable, experienced and gifted than ourselves have somehow missed the truth, who are we to get it right? The thought seems enough to send us reeling into defeatism. We feel the same way when hearing the crushing news of a great Christian having a moral fall. If such a person could fall, what chance do we have? Nevertheless, there is one truth with the power to lift us out of defeatism: no matter how much Christians may differ in giftedness, causing some to seem superior to us, everyone without exception is equally dependent upon the grace of God for the understanding of spiritual truth and for every spiritual step we take. Some of us can leap higher than others but it makes no difference in a quest to reach the moon. To leave earth’s gravity, each of us, no matter how athletic or disabled, is equally dependent upon a power outside of us – a spacecraft. Likewise, in reaching heavenly truth, human advantages or disadvantages make little difference. All that matters is our willingness to yield to a power greater than any of us – the grace of God.   If anyone could be mistaken, it’s me. But if anyone can reveal the truth, it’s God. If it depended on us, we might have little hope, but since it depends on the grace of God, each of us has boundless reason for hope.   If we can stop putting our faith in our devotion, experience, Bible skills and human teachers, and place our faith solely in the Almighty’s power to override all our inadequacies and penetrate our dull minds with his truth, then we have mastered two key factors in receiving divine revelation: humility (“ He will guide the humble  . . .” –  Psalms 25:9 ), and placing all of our faith in the Almighty, none in our finite, easily deceived selves.   The obvious starting point for discovering God’s truth is, of course, a right relationship with God. The psalmist prayed for the miracle of supernatural insight into Scripture’s wonders ( Psalm 119:18 )  but we cannot expect divine answers while unrepentant sin hinders our relationship with God. “ If I cherished sin in my heart, the Lord wouldn’t have listened ” ( Psalm 66:18 ). “ But your iniquities have separated you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear ” ( Isaiah 59:2 ). Sin must be removed by us trusting in Jesus’ cleansing and by genuinely wanting that cleansing. We are genuine only to the extent that we passionately long for purity and for devoted obedience to our Lord.   Another essential for accurate Bible interpretation is to have such a driving passion to receive the truth from God that we rival the mother of the demonized child who kept refusing to be put off from her quest to receive from Jesus the longing of her heart. Our Lord “ is a rewarder of those who seek him ” ( Hebrews 11:6 ). Seeing Through God’s Eyes When Jesus said, “ Why are you fearful, O you of little faith ?” ( Matthew 8:26 ) did he roar the words with terrifying, spirit-withering fury? Did his eyes fill with tears or tender compassion? Could the disciples detect a wounded expression on his face or in his voice? Was there a twinkle in his eye or a faith-inspiring hint of a smile? The disciples often had enormous difficulty in understanding what Jesus was saying and yet they had access to invaluable non-verbal information that has been stripped from the accounts we are left with in Scripture. How much harder our task is! To fully understand the Bible we need information that only God has. Our one hope of regaining what is lost is to be so filled with the Spirit of God and walking so close to the Lord that we know his heart. Despite the priceless opportunity to read Jesus’ non-verbal signals, the disciples often got it wrong because they were not able to read Jesus’ mind. The ideal would be not just to read Christ’s mind but to open the Bible and read  with  Christ’s mind. Imagine being able to read the Gospels with Jesus’ understanding and insight into those events; feeling what he felt, seeing what he saw, and knowing what he knows. That would be the ultimate in knowing precisely what Jesus meant. This is no pipe dream: 1 Corinthians 2:16  “ For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he should instruct him ?” . . .  We feel like plunging into defeatism again. What chance has anyone with a three figure IQ to understand the infinite Mind? How can we, with eyes fogged by selfishness, prejudice, self-justification and impurity, see as God sees? There’s no possibility for those not spiritually connected to the Lord. Yet for us, the verse continues in the most thrilling, staggering manner:   But we have Christ’s mind.   Access to the mind of Christ is the right of everyone in genuine relationship with Christ. The outworking of this, however, is a progressive experience that requires our cooperation. This is why Paul had to urge Christians: Philippians 2:5   Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus  (KJV)   Had this been automatic for Christians, Paul would not have had to mention it. Again, he told Christians: Romans 12:2   Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind  . . .   And he reminded other Christians: Ephesians 4:12-23   ... were taught in him . . . that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind.   We have the mind of Christ to the extent that we have died to selfishness and let Christ live his life through us and think his thoughts through us. “ Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus ” refers not to academic knowledge but to a radically changed, otherworldly mindset even to the extreme of willingly submitting to voluntary suffering for the glory of God ( Philippians 2:5-8 , KJV). “ . . .  be transformed by the renewing of your mind ” is prefaced by, “ present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God ” ( Romans 12:1 ). This is worthy of careful reading: Ephesians 4:17-24   This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardening of their hearts; who having become callous gave themselves up to lust, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But you did not learn Christ that way; if indeed you heard him, and were taught in him, even as truth is in Jesus: that you put away, as concerning your former way of life, the old man, that grows corrupt after the lusts of deceit; and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, who in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of truth.   The Bible is divinely designed to be understood only by people indwelt by the very Spirit who experiences the actual feelings and deepest secrets of God. Please read this prayerfully:   1 Corinthians 2:6-13  We speak wisdom, however, among those who are full grown; yet a wisdom not of this world, nor of the rulers of this world, who are coming to nothing. But we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the wisdom that has been hidden, which God foreordained before the worlds for our glory, which none of the rulers of this world has known. For had they known it, they wouldn’t have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written, “Things which an eye didn’t see, and an ear didn’t hear, which didn’t enter into the heart of man, these God has prepared for those who love him.” But to us, God revealed them through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For who among men knows the things of a man, except the spirit of the man, which is in him? Even so, no one knows the things of God, except God’s Spirit. But we received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might know the things that were freely given to us by God. Which things also we speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual things.   Although every Christian has the Spirit of God, our ability to grasp biblical truth is proportional to our willingness to let the Spirit have his way in our thoughts and actions. Scripture provides a practical way of measuring how much the Spirit is illuminating our understanding:   Galatians 5:16   But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you won’t fulfill the lust of the flesh .   We are filled with the same Spirit who inspired Scripture, to the degree to which we are victorious over fleshly or selfish desires. Lack of temptation is  not  a measure of our walk with the Lord. What counts is not what assaults us, but whether we resist.   What hope have we of seeing as God sees if lust, bitterness, greed, envy or any other ungodly attitude clouds our eyes? How much we see as God sees depends on how much we yield to God’s longing to kill every ungodly attitude within us. Dying to self is far more exciting and fulfilling than we dare hope. There is a valuable link about this at the end of this series of webpages.   No matter how much we study the Bible, we cut ourselves off from biblical revelation to whatever extent that the Spirit of God is not having full sway in our lives.   We let the Spirit rule in our lives and understanding by, wherever there is conflict, trashing human wisdom and treasuring God’s wisdom; despising our own wishes and delighting in God’s will; killing ungodly desires and birthing godly ones. This is not attained by human effort. It is a divine miracle. Almighty God manifests his love, however, by not abusing his fearsome power by forcing godly attitudes upon us. Instead, the King of kings waits for our cooperation.   To Understand the Word of God We Must Understand the Heart of God   This section is adapted from a webpage of mine about the unforgivable sin.   Suppose a parent warns a child, ‘Disobey and I’ll kill you!’ The correct interpretation of those words depends entirely on the person’s character. It will mean radically different things if the parent is loving and gentle, with a sense of humor, or is harsh, or is quite capable of murder. To know for sure that we have correctly understood someone’s words, we must know that person exceptionally well.   To understand what God means in his Word, we must get to know God as deeply as we possibly can. We must know his heart and character and values. Related to this: a key way of knowing how someone will react in a new situation is to observe over a long period how he handles similar situations. So to understand how God will react to someone blaspheming the Spirit, let’s look at how he acted previously, after issuing other dire warnings: * The Law of God said no Moabite could ‘ enter into the Lord’s assembly; even to the tenth generation ’ ( Deuteronomy 23:3 ) and yet Ruth, David’s great-grandmother, was a Moabite and became God’s chosen ancestress of the Messiah. * God’s law said that everyone guilty of adultery must be put to death  ( Leviticus 20:10;   Deuteronomy 22:22 ;  John 8:5 ). David, the adulterer, repented and, despite God’s anger, he was not only allowed to live but to continue to reign as king with God’s full blessing ( 2 Samuel 12:13 ). * The prophet Micah prophesied in the days of King Hezekiah, saying, ‘ the Lord of Armies says: Zion shall be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest’ Hezekiah sought the Lord, and God relented ( Jeremiah 26:18-19 ). * King Hezekiah was terminally ill. The great prophet Isaiah said, ‘ The Lord says, ‘Set your house in order, for you will die, and not live .’’ Hezekiah prayed and another prophecy hit the dust ( Isaiah 38:1-5 ). ‘ But whoever denies me before men, him I will also deny before my Father who is in heaven .’ ( Matthew 10:33 ). The same Greek work here translated “disowns” is used several times in the original Scriptures to describe what Peter did to Jesus and twice to describe what the Jews did to Jesus ( Acts 3:14-15 ) and yet full forgiveness was offered to them all ( John 21:17-19 ;  Acts 3:19 ). 1 Corinthians 6:9-10   Or don’t you know that the unrighteous will not inherit God’s Kingdom? Don’t be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor extortionists, will inherit God’s Kingdom.   If we panic, however, it is because we have ripped such verses out of the Bible; reading them in isolation, without adequately considering the rest of Scripture. In this case, the answer is in the very next verse:   1 Corinthians 6:11   Such were some of you, but you were washed. But you were sanctified. But you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and in the Spirit of our God.   The importance of the context in which a verse appears is often emphasized. The latest example highlights the value of this. In the earlier examples, however, we found a key verse for understanding a Scripture in a quite different part of the Bible.   It makes no difference whether the interpretive key to a Scripture is in the next verse or a thousand verses away; a verse is taken out of context not only if surrounding verses are overlooked but whenever a passage is divorced from the full biblical revelation of God. Look at how Jesus responded to the devil’s attempt to tempt him by distorting Scripture ( Luke 4:9-12 ). Jesus did not search the Internet for the opinions of highly acclaimed theologians on that Scripture. Neither did he say, “Well, devil, if you look the preceding verse . . .” Or, “If you look at the historical context . . . And the ancient Hebrew means . . .” Jesus didn’t in the slightest analyze or argue about the Scripture the devil quoted. He merely quoted another Scripture that to him was indisputable and contrary to what the devil was implying. That was enough for Jesus. Furthermore, a verse is also taken out of context if it is interpreted as if it were spoken by someone of different character to that of the true God. The Lord is neither fickle, nor a liar. He sticks steadfastly to what  he  means; never to anyone’s misunderstanding of what he means. The only way to avoid misunderstanding God is to never underestimate his merciful, loving heart, and how an offender’s change of heart and faith in Christ’s sacrifice frees God to forgive as he longs to, and suddenly the impossible becomes possible. Of course, if a person does not respond the way God hopes, the dire statement remains in force. This overview helps us see the heart of God and know what he really means by harsh statements that seem to give no way out. Their very harshness is intended to move people to seek God so that he could relent.   Here’s a verse that seems to give no hope to anyone found guilty:   To understand what God means by, for example, an unpardonable sin, it is essential to interpret it in the light of God’s forgiving heart, and his ability to forgive through Christ,  and  his inability to forgive outside of faith in Christ. If, however, instead of reading the Bible in sync with God’s heart, we read it while letting ourselves be dominated by a condemning conscience or by fear that Jesus is not ‘ able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him ’ ( Hebrews 7:25 ) we will repeatedly get it wrong. Although the full revelation of Scripture helps us see the heart of God, there are spiritual and psychological factors that can hinder us. For example, feeling sure of God’s forgiving nature is particularly difficult for people who themselves are harsh and unforgiving. Sadly, it is also difficult for some people brought up by harsh, judgmental parents or suffering psychological afflictions such as Generalized Anxiety Disorder (free-floating anxiety can be misinterpreted as being unable to be freed from guilt), Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (which can cause a condemning conscience and/or uncontrollable, blasphemous thoughts), major depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia or delusional disorder. And not everyone suffering from such an affliction has been diagnosed. Treating such illnesses and correcting spiritual problems will help people read the Bible in a way that is closer to how God intends it to be understood.   Our Frightening Capacity for Self-Delusion The Word of God often identifies a “hard heart” as the reason for people failing to perceive spiritual truth. This, along with its implications for Bible interpretation, is worth exploring. Since the findings are somewhat similar to what we have already discovered, however, I’ll place it in a separate webpage:   Bible Interpretation: The Heart of the Matter.  For those who wish to move on, I’ll just cite one of its conclusions: how much our eyes are filled with God’s tender compassion for those we are tempted to despise is an indication of how likely we are to see biblical truth through God’s eyes. If part of us craves assurance that we are not disobeying God, and part of us yearns to do something contrary to God’s will, we will be subjected to strong psychological pressures to interpret Scripture in a manner that assures us that we can go our own way without displeasing God. In an attempt to silence the screams of a nagging conscience, intelligent people concoct cunning and persuasive manipulations of truth to try to pervert Scripture into excusing their sin. So if, for example, you believe you are sentenced to lifelong sexual frustration and deprivation if Scripture says a certain practice is morally wrong, there are ready-made “clever” arguments waiting for us to be impressed by their logic and references to Greek/Hebrew, rather than believe what Scripture actually says. 2 Timothy 4:3   For the time will come when they will not listen to the sound doctrine, but, having itching ears, will heap up for themselves teachers after their own lusts. Without us realizing what is happening, our yearnings, fears, prejudices and presumptions can cry so loudly within us as to drown out the Spirit’s whispers. 2 Peter 3:16   . . . his [Paul’s] letters, speaking in them of these things. In those, there are some things that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unsettled twist, as they also do to the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. Truly, we need to pray: Psalms 139:23-24   Search me, God, and know my heart. Try me, and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me  . . . Our only hope is to be so aware of our potential for self-deception that we don’t trust our own perceptions and thinking processes, but instead put all our faith in God’s grace – his willingness to forgive and reveal truth to us, despite our unworthiness. To trust in our own intellect, our purity of motives, our faithfulness, or our ability to hear from God is like trusting a computer programmed to give the occasional wrong answer in an unpredictable and undetectable manner. By definition, no one knows when they are deluded. How vital it is that we take seriously this Scripture: Proverbs 3:5  Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and don’t lean on your own understanding . . . . Don’t be wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord, and depart from evil. And how important it is that this Scripture does not apply to us: Matthew 15:8   These people draw near to me with their mouth, and honor me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.   A Suicidal Date With Delusion We all have the tendency to explore the Bible, not so much to find the mind of God as to find proof texts of what we have already decided to be the answer. Far too often I come to an understanding through reading portions of the Bible and from then on I lose objectivity. No longer am I without bias and humbly open to whatever my Lord may reveal. Instead, I absorb Scripture through the filter of what might be a too hastily reached conclusion. Although barely aware of what I am doing, my mind is probably trying to make the rest of the Bible conform to my own belief, rather than honestly yielding to the full teaching of the Bible and letting Scripture shape my belief. We all tend to develop a theory, or a preference, or are handed a doctrine by someone we rightly respect. From then on – often without realizing it – we end up wrestling Scripture into submission, making it confirm our theory, rather than passively submitting to the Bible, freely allowing it to modify our theory. Unless we resist the urge to use the Bible to prove ourselves right, we will most likely end up – while barely aware of what is happening – twisting Scripture to suit our own purposes. To do so is to open the door to delusion. It has rightly been said that the Scriptures we most need are the ones we haven’t underlined in our Bibles. They are the parts most likely to kill our theories and threaten our narrow thinking. Our motive in searching the Scriptures should always be to boldly find God’s truth, no matter how much that truth clashes with our hopes, fears and presumptions. Since we all have blind spots that we are quite unaware of, we need to keep praying for an openness to any revelation that is truly from God that we might unknowingly reject because it “does not compute,” as it is incompatible with our current mindset. It is essential that we maintain a humble dependence upon the Holy Spirit’s illumination. We desperately need the grace of God to avoid reading his Word through glasses colored by our expectations, or pride in our human ability to interpret Scripture, or a longing for a soft life. We must delve not just into God’s writings, but into God’s heart. The Lord himself – not our interpretation of experience, nor our human interpretation of Scripture – must be our authority.   Much More It takes humility to remain open to the possibility that even though we have strong biblical support for a belief we hold dear, our view could still be distorted because we have not yet discovered the full truth. What if, for example, we consider ourselves more spiritual and more biblically correct that Christians who differ from us, and we have no idea that those we look down on have seen another aspect of biblical revelation that we have failed to grasp? As I have written elsewhere: One of the greatest dangers for us Bible lovers is not blatant error but oversimplification. Certain glorious truths shine so brightly that we let them blind us to other, equally vital, biblical truths. Liked chocolate-coated poison, oversimplification is a particularly sinister form of error. We come to trust oversimplification because in easy situations it works but just when we are most vulnerable, it lets us down. Even worse, we are then tempted to imagine it is God or his Word that has failed us, when the real cause is letting a shallow reading of the Bible entice us to jump to false conclusions. Half-truths are as exciting and addictive and deceptive and dangerous as the early stages of heroin addiction. For so many of us, what we rather proudly think of as our theology or doctrine would better be called a set of presumptions. Here’s an ancient prayer of uncertain origin that stirs me deeply: From cowardice that shrinks from new truth, from laziness that is content with half-truth, from arrogance that thinks it knows all truth, O God of Truth, deliver us. To have that prayer answered is a huge step toward receiving divine revelation as we read the Word of God. Nevertheless, there are even more matters to be considered, so let’s proceed to the  next page.   How to Receive Spiritual Revelation

I’ve recently attempted something quite different to anything I’ve ever done before — crafting lyrics for a song to touch the hearts of people whose beliefs are utterly foreign to me. I refer to people spiritually confused by Woke and/or New Age beliefs. Their issues are probably foreign to you, too, but they need Jesus, of course, as much as any of us. I’m told the most appropriate music for the most needy audience is likely to be rap (again something foreign to my own tastes and experience). However, I have no musical ability, nor any way of getting an audience even if I did. Unless God raises up someone with the appropriate gifting it will never take off. If you would like to join me in prayer about this, I would be most appreciative. If you would like to see the lyrics as they currently stand, I will place them below. It’s called “Reality.” The repetition is deliberate. I’m sick of the game, Pretending I’m enough, Hiding my blame, Flouting my shame, Enslaved by people’s opinions. It’s time to end the insanity. What I call “my truth” is a mockery God, shock me with your truth. I need the view from eternity. Hit me with reality. Appalled at my flaws I look at the cross, Stunned at what you’ve done. I’m without excuse, You’re my only hope And you’re all I’ll ever need. I’m done with make-believe, Mesmerized by mirages, Pretending I’m a god When it’s obvious I’m not, Fleeing reality like a panic-crazed coward. Appalled at my flaws I look at the cross, Stunned at what you’ve done. I’m without excuse, You’re my only hope And you’re all I’ll ever need. Spiritual delusion won’t cut it; I’m desperate for reality. Almighty God, open my eyes like never before. Unchain me from beliefs that will never endure. I need what will last for all eternity. As I look to you, O Timeless One, You draw me back two thousand years. I gaze at the cross and begin to see The ultimate reality— Divine mystery embedded in human history. Never have such agony and purity met. I’m appalled, I’m enthralled, I’m numb, Overwhelmed by what you’ve done to pay my debt. No one but you could go to such extremes. You’re my only hope And you’re all I’ll ever need. I’ve had enough of telling myself I’m enough, Pathetically brainwashing myself in an attempt to avoid reality. I’m ending slavery to what people think of me. No more imprisoning my mind in a fantasy, Driven by a sick attempt to get people to like me. The more I ponder the cross, the more I find I’m leaving delusion behind And encountering the ultimate reality— Divine mystery embedded in human history. Never have such agony and purity met. I’m appalled, I’m enthralled, I’m numb, Overwhelmed by what you’ve done to pay my debt. No one but you could go to such extremes. You’re my only hope And you’re all I’ll ever need. If things grew so bleak That even the strongest quaked And whole nations despaired, They could still look to you and boldly declare, The darker it gets the better we see You’re our only hope And you’re all we’ll ever need. The darker it gets the better we see You’re our only hope And you’re all we’ll ever need.

Hello Grantley and I (vicki) are new to this, patience needed. Eye rolling at us is fine as long as you can do it as well as a teenager. Lol. God is amazing isn’t he. I am so often of out ideas, back against the wall… then God steps in and blows my mind away with his grace. Grantley is going to be posting here. If you know Grantley you know he loves to write. ☺️ Please watch this space as we share and update you with what God is doing. Please feel free to share your stories and what God is doing for you. Your Sister Vicki Morris

Breaking Through Barriers To Creativity Barrier 1: Criticism No one who always surrenders to criticism will achieve anything significant for God. There is no type of music, for example, which appeals to every Christian. Suppose ninety-nine percent of people find your ministry atrocious. If your band played at an anti-nuclear rally, they wouldn’t know whether to ban the bomb or bomb the band. What should you do? Assuming they are reacting to your style, and not spurning spiritual truth, it would seem desirable to serenade the one percent when the others were out of earshot. That should make the unappreciative less inclined to consider a lynching. However, heaven does not measure a ministry by the number of people influenced. If you appeal only to a minority, it could well be a minority that is not being reached by other means. If so, the church would be poorer without your specialized ministry. Heaven’s approval outlasts earth’s applause. Barrier 2: Self-Doubt Even if I spent hours producing something I liked, I used to worry others wouldn’t like it. But that was five minutes ago. Now, I’m learning to trust God. Though bent by Adam’s crash and bashed by my own sin, God gave me my personality with its tastes, and for years I’ve been looking to him to mold me. So I believe that somewhere are people with cerebral plumbing like mine. They will appreciate my style and are most likely the ones God has called me to minister to. Should there be millions of them, I’ll be famous; if only a few, I’ll blend with the wallpaper. But it won’t affect God’s view of me. If popularity is a valid measure of success, our deserted Lord was a failure. Take my poetry (not everyone can take it). I actually found someone who likes it (and they have pretty good poems at pre-school these days). Audience-wise, that’s all I need to validate my ministry. What would it matter if everyone regarded my admirer and me as literary nincompoops? I’d rather win an illiterate to Christ than be hailed a genius. The person who appreciates my poetry is just as precious to God, just as worthy a recipient of ministry, as all the critics. ‘Experts’ regularly berate the simplicity of Fanny Crosby’s hymns. It is said she had the literary skill to silence her critics but she deliberately simplified her songs to meet more powerfully the needs of the distressed, the infirm and the poorly educated. That does not mean I can be lax. To limit oneself to a particular style can be very demanding but because Fanny considered it the most effective way to reach her target audience she strove for perfection within this framework. Since my actions reflect on my Creator and Redeemer, living below my best tarnishes God’s glory. In Christ, however, my best is powerful. Within the framework God sets me, my best, nothing more and nothing less, is just what the Father ordered. Too bad if people think I’d be a greater blessing selling inflatable dart-boards. If God has commissioned me, that’s all that matters. And if my poems make Shakespeare turn in his grave, I’ll assume he needs the exercise. If it turns the experts off their food, I’ll be the envy of the weight loss industry. You don’t like my humor either? It makes you want to what? Well, if it’s that bad, how come you’ve read so much? Oh. Well, how was I to know you would open the book at this very page? I was going to produce a book you couldn’t put down but I couldn’t figure out how to stop the superglue from setting until the critical moment. It’s a gift. Some people turn heads, I turn stomachs. Stomachs are important, too. Being a stomach specialist (I could market myself as the kingdom’s gastroenterologist) need not automatically disqualify my writing. I could still be in business if all humanity despised my writings. I know of at least one person soundly converted by a song he loathed. You needn’t concern yourself with such extremes, however. We are often so over-awed by God’s moral standards that we overlook other aspects of his nature. Our Lord is Creator as well as Savior, and the Maker of rainbows and nightingales didn’t suddenly lose his creative urge at the close of Day Six. God’s creativity is inexhaustible. And you were made for him. He longs to express his creativity through you. As an instrument and musician together make beautiful music, you and your Lord can unite to create exquisite beauty. What you can do together defies imagination. You make an awesome team. Yield to Christ, like a brush to the artist, and from your life will flow unearthly beauty. We are not responsible for the paucity of our talents. We are accountable, however, for the level of faithfulness with which we honor God with whatever we have. Could we have used our supposedly meager talent in a way that would have given God greater honor? That’s the burning issue, not whether we are as talented as Fred Nerk. In the parable of the talents, it was the servant given the least who buried his gift. (Matthew 25:14-18) Don’t imagine the master said, ‘That’s okay, son. I didn’t give you much anyhow. I know you’re incapable of anything. Come, enter into the joy of your lord.’ For me, a single sentence is a man-crushing python – a writhing anaconda to be wrestled into submission only through a virtual life-and-death struggle. It is not uncommon for me to spend an hour formulating one sentence. The reward for such care? A tangle of half-strangled sentences squirming for more attention. On rare moments my word-groping lurches beyond snail-pace to a teeth-rattling tortoise-trot. Moments later I hit the dust again, compelled to retrace my route on hands and knees, scouring the text for hours like a near-sighted Mr. Magoo, convinced I must have missed something in my inordinate haste. Words! There’s never one around when you need it. I try on a dozen for size, and even the best hangs off the cuff, is unfashionable and forever needs ironing. At school my English grades were so poor that I dropped the subject the first opportunity I had. There must be thousands of Christians who could have written my book with greater ease. But they didn’t. ‘You have a very readable style and some of your expressions and word usages are brilliant,’ wrote a magazine editor about an early draft of my book. I cherish that quote, but could any average person pour such torrents of prayer and effort and submission to God, year after year, into a project and the result be anything less than brilliant? A boy had such intellectual limitations that his parents feared he was subnormal. He later remarked that being a slow learner lengthened his thinking time and caused him to focus on simple things. His name: Albert Einstein. You will achieve as much as megastars who have twice your ability if you have twice their diligence. More importantly, your greater faithfulness will bring more glory to the Lord. It will thrill him. And your ministry in the world to come will far exceed the future ministry of a lax megastar. The most significant work is not the one displaying the highest skill, but the one most used of God. The Lord is not seeking people who astound audiences with their talent. He wants ministries who will leave people exclaiming, ‘That had to be God!’ Our inadequacies are often the perfect backdrop for displaying God’s splendor. (2 Corinthians 4:7) Our lack of ability will never thwart God – only our failure to draw upon his abilities. So if you feel too inadequate to minister effectively without miraculous intervention, I envy you. God’s strength is made perfect in such weakness. (2 Corinthians 12:9) You sound desperate enough to keep pounding heaven’s door until you receive an exceptional blessing. (Genesis 32:24-28; Matthew 15:21-28; Luke 5:18-26; 11:5-13; 18:1-7; John 16:24) And that blessing will overflow to those you touch. I often mourn the flaws in my writing, but the gray is tinged with gold. The hope of improvement dies only when we think our labors are satisfactory. Provided we don’t bow to discouragement, the more failings we see in our efforts, the higher our motivation to improve and the brighter our future. That sickening awareness of inadequacy can be turned around; hastening, rather than hindering, our future ministry. When you feel useless, picture a child, paintbrush in hand, gleaming with excitement. Enveloping her hand is the gentle hand of the world’s greatest artist. ‘And what shall we put in this corner?’ asks the man, as his skill and the girl’s imagination merge into one. See the artist’s smile and the child’s delight as together they create stunning beauty. Under God’s guiding hand, your possibilities are mind-boggling. No matter how you feel, you are the focus of God’s attention; doted on as though you are the only friend God has. If ever a man wanted to shower his bride with love, or his son with gifts, God longs to lavish you with his extravagance. Expect great things from God. Anything less is an insult to your almighty Savior. With your Lord impossibilities are playthings. Let faith mushroom by seizing the fact that the Omnipotent Lord is powerful enough to use you – over-riding your every inadequacy – and loving enough to want to. And believe that though he may lovingly delay your mission, his timing is perfect. Everything God touches is destined for glory. Even now, you are God’s ‘filthy rags to heavenly riches’ success story. The Kingdom needs prayer warriors, not prayer worriers. No matter how much you cry, beg, and wish, you have not moved from superstition to authentic Christian prayer until you can thank God for the answer, knowing it is yours before you hold it in your hand. Faith is not thinking that God can; it is knowing that he will. (Mark 11:24; James 1:5-8) You will see it when you believe it. To follow in the footsteps of ‘the sweet psalmist of Israel’ (2 Samuel 23:1 b) we would need more than musical genius. If we added David’s extensive theological understanding and spiritual insight, we would still be hopelessly deficient. We would have to match his patient, forgiving spirit, (Eg 2 Samuel 16:6 ff) his humility, (Eg. Psalm 51:1-5) faith, (Eg. 2 Samuel 12:15-23) intense yearning for God, (Psalm 143:6) his desire for personal holiness (Psalm 139:23-24) and eagerness to obey the Lord. (1 Samuel 13:14). Even then, there would be a hollowness about our lyrics unless we shared David’s privations and exposure to danger. His sufferings lifted his songs from ‘contemporary’ to timeless. According to Paul, the ability to serve hurting humanity comes not from a textbook but from hardship. (2 Corinthians 1:3-6) Not even the Son of God could begin his high priestly duties until he had undergone temptations and sufferings. (Matthew 4:1-2; Hebrew 5:8-10) The principle was established long before Jesus’ birth: Levitical priests, though born for the ministry and surrounded by it all their lives, had to wait for their thirtieth birthday before entering the priesthood. (Numbers 4:3) And the principle is still in force: Scripture stipulates that church officers must not be new converts. (1 Timothy 3:6)