Education needed?

I belong to a few quilt groups. Most of the quilters are very skilled and their work shows good judgment with color, design, and other elements that make up a compelling quilt. However, some others have little money for good fabric, are mostly self-taught and seem unaware of basic principles concerning accurate seam widths, pressing, and other skills.

When I started this activity, I had sewn for years, but my first efforts revealed that I needed more education to do this art properly. I took twelve basic classes and many others, and still feel like I’m a beginner.

Piper’s devotional today is about the need for education. He says all Christians have reason for training our minds so we can read the Bible with understanding. I know I need the Holy Spirit to understand what I am reading even though several years of school taught me how to read. My high school literature teacher is fondly remembered for teaching much about books and understanding how words work.

For me, Piper’s statement seemed a bit obvious. I take for granted the preciousness of reading, yet realize not all cultures have a written language. Many people are not able to read even ordinary writing, like a newspaper or a simple book, let alone something as complex as Stephen Charnock’s writing or the Word of God that was translated into English, even though we have several hundred versions at various reading levels. Some are for children, others for those just learning English.

At least the translators realize how levels of reading ability are important. Otherwise, like quilts made without some instruction, the understanding can fall short of being a blessing. This happens because even with the ability to read and understand just the words and ideas expressed, some do not realized the importance of the Holy Spirit to interpret His words as He intends them. Even as I read, I need to read with this intent:

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:1–2)

This points to the need for renewal. Even the well-educated can assume sufficiency apart from God and from relying on His Spirit. Reading all of this passage is a good reminder:

Where is the one who is wise?. . . . Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. . . . For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. . . . these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. . . . For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (1 Corinthians 1:20-2:16)

PRAY: Jesus, while I need to grasp biblical thoughts, have learned the alphabet, grammar, syntax, the rudiments of logic, and how meaning is imparted through the connections of sentences and paragraphs, I cannot hear You speak without Your Spirit. That You give Him to me is pure grace. Thank You.

Stay out of the shadows …

Today’s devotional begins with: “Sometimes a great mystery is made out of the life hid with Christ in God as though it is a strange mystical thing that ordinary people cannot understand.” It goes on to describes this abundant life as liberty vs. bondage, as servants vs. sons, yet some experiences this week show me that there is another element that makes it a mystery. Those who are Spirit-filled get it, but those who walk in the flesh are mystified.

This showed up when I shared about the tulips. The full story: we live in a small condo complex where the board wants all units to look the same. One of 15 has a door wreath. While I’d like to paint my door orange (big no-no) I went looking for a wreath. Those in the store were cheap silk flowers, ugly, but the store had nice stuff and I soon noticed I was covetous, and also realized that my motive for getting a wreath was not right either. So I walked out of the store empty-handed.

At home, I did a computer search and found only one door hanging that I liked. It was pink tulips cascading out of a basket, but it was $258 so I shut my computer off and confessed my vengeful attitude, and the covetousness, and then prayed, “Lord, if You want me to have pink tulips, then You will have to supply them. Forgive me for being so foolish.”

That was a Monday. Tuesday morning, our doorbell rang. It was a neighbor who said they had a gift for me. He handed me a vase filled with a dozen pink tulips, real ones. I was flabbergasted.

Later, when telling others this story, the Christians that seem filled with the Spirit chuckled with delight at a God who can hug and rebuke us at the same time. They understood my delight at this hug, and the surprise of what He did. However, there were a few who struggle with worry and other things. Instead of being delighted, they were puzzled as if wondering why the neighbor gave me flowers or why God would ‘reward’ my confession by answering my prayer. They didn’t get it.

This mystery of resting in Christ is available to those who are actively relying on the Lord, yet hidden to those who are filled with worry, doubt, and self-centered ideas. That mode of living cannot see truth because it is hidden by the world’s way of thinking, or by the I-wants of the old nature, or by the lies of the devil. While not totally in the dark, walking in the flesh produces many shadows.

The devotional writer ends with this: “I sometimes think Christians look on our Lord as someone appointed to keep them out of their possessions, rather than to bring them in to them. They little know how such an implication grieves and dishonors Christ. (Yet) when they do recognize it, the spirit of bondage becomes impossible to them.” That is, once we see it, we can see the contrast and forget what our darkness was like.

That is the wonder of trusting God. It is described in verses like these:

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6–7)

You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. (Isaiah 26:3)

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. (John 14:27)

Pink tulips make no sense to someone who thinks God punishes their sin and will withhold His blessings if they are not behaving properly. Sometimes that happens because His children are not yet perfect in behavior, but when we confess He forgives and cleanses — and He never stops loving us and wanting us to know the wonder of His love.

PRAY: What can I say? You died on a cross to prove Your love for all humanity. That great sacrifice is enough, more than enough, but then You add the warm touch of no fear, perfect peace, and occasionally, pink tulips.

 

Understanding the Bible

 

1 Chronicles 11–12; Amos 7; Luke; Hebrews 13

Today’s readings point to three reactions to the Word of God. The first one is Rejection. Amos warned Jeroboam king of Israel, saying he would die by the sword and Israel would be exiled. Amaziah the priest of Bethel didn’t listen and instead told the prophet: “O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, and eat bread there, and prophesy there, but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom.”

Amos answered that he was a mere “herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs” when the Lord told him to prophesy. His reply to Amaziah was strong: “You say, ‘Do not prophesy against Israel, and do not preach against the house of Isaac.’ Therefore thus says the Lord: “ ‘Your wife shall be a prostitute in the city, and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword, and your land shall be divided up with a measuring line; you yourself shall die in an unclean land, and Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land.’ ” (Amos 7:10–17) Rejecting what God said brought judgment against the people who would not listen.

Another reaction is Listening and checking it out. This happened at the birth of Christ:

When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. (Luke 2:15–19)

I added italics to highlight a particular Greek word: “rhema” which means ‘a word spoken that fits the occasion and is a matter that is thought about’ — The people hearing it somehow understand that God is speaking and they pay attention!

A third response is Hearing but not understanding. This happened when Jesus stayed in the temple as a youth and his parents could not find Him. He said, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” And they did not understand the saying that he spoke to them. (Luke 2:49–50)

I relate to this. Before Jesus came into my life, I read the Bible for about seventeen years and didn’t understand any of it. For me, it was just words. It was not until the Holy Spirit granted faith and began using those words in His special way (rhema) that they began to make sense.

The wonder of God speaking to the human heart through His book never fails to amaze me. Not only that, this makes me cautious about how I respond to other words. Rhema is an act of grace on His part. Grace can be defined as a revelation from God that changes lives — certainly rhema is part of that. It is also the reason for warnings like this:

Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them. (Hebrews 13:9)

Diverse and strange teachings can be understood but if they are not from God and not of grace, then they have no benefit. It is the power of the Holy Spirit that makes truth (not lies) understandable. He transforms His people by grace, the grace of revealing Himself (truth) to us and speaking to our hearts — graciously at our times of need.

Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. (Hebrews 13:20–21)

APPLY: I was saved reading the old KJV. Now I often wonder about the value of making ‘easy to read or understand’ translations. Without the power of the Holy Spirit, how can God be heard and understood? Relying on human understanding can lead to misinterpretation. When God speaks “rhema” and I know He is speaking directly to me, I must accept it is from God (even if I don’t like it). Giving thought to the matters He speaks about is vital to my spiritual growth. He also tells me not to worry about matters that are unclear. The Holy Spirit will make them plain when I need to know them!