Tag: Bible Interpretation

What’s your Issue(s)?

There’s a story in the Gospel writings in Luke 8:43-48 about a woman who had an issue of blood. She was bleeding profusely for twelve long years with this disease and spent all her money going to see different doctors, but she never improved. She was suffering. In fact, the Bible says, her condition got worse until she encountered Jesus. Interesting?

I can relate to this woman seeing many doctors. I have multiple sclerosis. Diagnosed in 2010, and it’s been one trip after another to see doctors. There are bi-yearly wellness visits, MRIs, physical therapy, medication management, infusions, and sometimes hospital stays for steroids when I have an MS relapse. Unlike this woman during her time, I’m not ostracized by the community because of my health condition. In fact, I once said jokingly to one of the hospital’s welcoming team members, “You guys need to get me a cot and a room to stay over as much as I’m here.” She laughed. Having a medical issue that there is no cure and doctors can’t fix is difficult and daunting.

But medical issues are not the only issues from which we suffer. There are various types and degrees of issues. I like how this verse begins, “There was a woman who had an issue of blood.” The text is specific to her gender and problem. We’ve learned how Jesus came to save the world, so we can draw a universal principle here. Let’s read it again, placing ourselves in the text. “There was a woman [or man] who had an issue of… Stop right there. The Bible teaches us in Isaiah how the Spirit of the Lord was upon Jesus to save, heal, deliver, or set people free, not only from sin but from other problems or issues they may have. Jesus still does this because He is alive. He is still handling people’s issues who believe and come to (or touch) Him in faith. This is the gist or theological principle in this story. He said in Matthew 11:28, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Isn’t this what this woman, and Jesus, did?

You too may have been suffering from an issue for a long time. You’ve tried to solve it yourself or sought help to alleviate the pain, as the woman did. But you found no relief; your issue lingers. What may your issue be? Maybe you’re suffering from a bad attitude, insecurity, lying, racial or biased views, hatred, drinking, mental illness, cancer,  rejection or foolish attempts to fit in, be “cool” with peers, a need to please, overworking, autism, bipolar, body image issues, striving for perfection/success, anxiety, inability to communicate, illiteracy, infatuation with committing criminal acts, drug dealing or dependency, pride, an awful mouth, continually hooking up with wrong romantic partners, intimacy issues, introversion… and on and on and on the list could go.

Jesus commended this woman, who was afraid to be noticed in the crowd because of her issue. He calls her “daughter” and tells her it was her faith that healed her. She could now go on with her life in peace. You too can receive God’s commendation. Believe that Jesus came to heal your broken heart too. Know that He’s alive and wants you to come to Him. To touch Him and be made whole. No issue is so bad, or too complex or complicated for Him. He has the remedy! Only believe!

He has surely helped and continues to help me with mine. 🙂

Be blessed until next time…!

“Not of the World” repost by Sheri Rose Shepherd (2015), His Princess Every Day Devotional, Bible Gateway

Another sister in the faith agrees how we’re not of this world. (Retrieved 9/4/2023 from https://www.biblegateway.com/devotionals/his-princess-every-day/today. Sign up to receive Sheri’s His Princess Letters in your email inbox. Be blessed until next time…. 🙂

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My Princess Warrior,

I am the master builder of your home in heaven, and I am the Creator of everything on earth. This is not your home, my beloved warrior; your true citizenship is in heaven. While you’re on the battlefield fighting for souls to be saved, I am preparing a paradise for you. The Place I am preparing for you will have no more death, heartache, pain, or war. But for now, my chosen one, I need you to fight the good fight of your faith with your whole heart, soul, and mind, knowing that this spiritual war will soon be over and eternal rewards await you.

Love,
Your King who reigns in heaven and earth

Jesus answered, “My Kingdom is not an earthly kingdom. If it were, my followers would fight to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish leaders. But my Kingdom is not of this world.” – John 18:36 (NLT)

A Prayer for Kingdom

I pray for you, my sister princess, to receive a touch from heaven today… that our Father in heaven will remove the blinders from your eyes and you will experience an eternal view of the amazing things to come. May you find peace in knowing that the troubles of this world will soon be over, and the joys to come will be everlasting. I pray that thoughts of eternity inspire you to share God’s love everywhere you go and increase the citizenship of heaven. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Dear friends, I warn you as “temporary residents and foreigners” to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls. – 1 Peter 2:11 (NLT)

In It, But Not of It: Huh? Part 2

Last month, we looked at Jesus’ words to the disciples in John 15:18-21, where He said,

“If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. However, because you do not belong to the world, but I chose you out of the world, for this reason the world hates you. Remember what I told you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they obeyed my word, they will obey yours too. But they will do all these things to you on account of my name because they do not know the one who sent me.”

We concluded how:

  • Sometimes Jesus’ statements are hard to grasp or accept.
  • Jesus equates those who have accepted Him with Himself.
  • Jesus suggests a mind shift to now seeing ourselves as not a part of this world, although we live here.
  • This “spirit of the world” opposes the Spirit of God. It does not know God or accept Jesus Christ’s ways, teachings, or message. It hates God and His Son, Jesus.
  • We too will experience hatred and opposition as His disciples. We should expect this and not seek any comradery with or acceptance by the world.

In continuing this discourse about “not being of the world,” in John 17, we find Jesus this time talking to His Father, God about it. He prays in verses 13-19, 

“But now I am coming to you, and I am saying these things in the world, so they may experience my joy completed in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but that you keep them safe from the evil one. They do not belong to the world just as I do not belong to the world. Set them apart in the truth; your word is truth. Just as you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. And I set myself apart on their behalf, so that they too may be truly set apart.”

Jesus knows He is about to physically leave them. He confirms with God how the disciples: (1) now belong to Him because they accepted His truthful words; (2) were sent out to proclaim His word, and they went; and (3) they no longer belong with the world but are now with and for Him and God. On this basis then, Jesus asks the Father: not to take them out of the world; to set them apart from the world (or distinguish them) by the truth; and to protect and keep them from the evil one or evil spirit that runs the world. Again, Jesus equates the disciples with Himself, “[Father] they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.”  God sent Jesus; Jesus sends us. The preservation Jesus asks for is about a distinction Christians should have and a work for which they were chosen–to proclaim God’s kingdom and Jesus’ message of being Savior of the world.  They needed divine power, protection, and sanctifying grace for this.

So, Jesus commits them to the custody and care of God. But it’s not just for them. He continues in vss. 20-23,

“I am not praying only on their behalf, but also on behalf of those who believe in me through their testimony, that they will all be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. I pray that they will be in us, so that the world will believe that you sent me. The glory you gave to me I have given to them, that they may be one just as we are one–I in them and you in me–that they may be completely one, so that the world will know that you sent me, and you have loved them just as you have loved me.”

That’s us, folks! 😊 One day, we heard or read the disciples’ testimony about Jesus Christ in the Bible, or someone told us; we believed and accepted it. So, we too, are called out of the world and sent into it with a specific message to share. We unite with other believers to testify of God’s love and show forth Jesus’ oneness with God. Others will also believe and glorify God as we proclaim Jesus’ message in the world.  For such, we’re in it, but not of it.

Author and Pastor Ray Stedman agrees about not being a part of the world. He writes on his Ray Stedman Daily Devotion website a devotion titled, “The Way of Health” at https://www.raystedman.org/daily-devotions/nehemiah/the-way-of-health, “We must never forget that we are in the world but not of it. We are never to settle down here for good. I love the way C. S. Lewis has put it: ‘Our kind heavenly Father has provided many wonderful inns for us along our journey, but he takes special care to see that we never mistake any of them for home.’ We are pilgrims and strangers, passing through this world. We are involved in it, deeply sometimes, but we are never to see ourselves as a part of it.”

May we receive the grace to understand and accept this truth from Jesus while still here. May we unite as never before as the early church did–sharing the message of the Gospel of Christ, keeping the unity of the faith, and staying close together.

Blessings until next time! 😊 

Jesus Christ…Heard of Him?

Jesus Christ is a popular name. He made and changed history. Have you heard about Jesus? What have you heard? What do you know about the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, the Bible records many claims Jesus made about Himself and His mission while in the world. Many of those claims and the goals of His mission include you. Take a look.

Maybe you have never heard about Jesus Christ. This blog is your first-time hearing His name mentioned. Allow me to introduce Jesus Christ to you. One of the biblical authors, the apostle Paul, tells us good news about Jesus Christ. In 1 Corinthians 15:3-5 in the Bible, Paul says,

“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve…”

Jesus was a real human being who lived and died on earth, my friend. This is not a fictional story. John 3:16-17 from the Bible tells us why Jesus came. It says,

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him.”

So, you see, Jesus came from God on a mission born out of love. Unlike others, God did not send Jesus to shake His finger in your face to scold you about how “bad” you are, or to stick his nose up at you to show how much your actions “repulse” Him. In fact, the intent was just the opposite. 

Emanating from God’s heart of love for humanity, and His compassion and mercy which He has plenty of, God was
propelled to send His Son, Jesus Christ–to save us from sin. The idea of humanity needing a savior is true. We do! Being “saved” from something suggests a problem or danger exists that we need to be rescued from. There’s
something bad or negative lurking around in the shadows. Right?

Well, yes, there is a danger lurking around in our human hearts and world – it’s called “sin.” Sin is not something God likes or participates in. On the other hand, humans, unfortunately, have a natural proclivity for it. We were born in sin and have the instinct to partake of sin’s fruit. At one point, God recognized how humankind’s proclivity for sin and evil was so great, He relented (or regretted) that He had made mankind. That’s pretty saddening, I’d say. It says, in the first book of the Bible, Genesis chapter 6, verses 5-7,

“But
the Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind had become
great on the earth. Every inclination of
the thoughts of their minds was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he
had made humankind on the earth, and he
was highly offended.”

We have an opportunity to understand here how God does take issue with sin (the word we hate to say); it is the problem or danger in us that stands in the way of Him and us. It’s in the way of us rightly relating with God because He is Holy and, as the younger generation would say, He’s “all good.” Yes, God is good and therefore sin must be faced, addressed, and dealt with in order to know Him.

Bing! This is where a Savior is key and Jesus Christ is important to get to know. Jesus Christ stood in the gap for you and me to handle this sin problem that offends God. Sin has a penalty—death–and somebody has to pay a price for it to stay in God’s company. This is what Jesus did. One time, for all, Jesus took the punishment for sin that humanity deserved so that we could become the righteousness of God. Jesus, a good guy, died a criminal’s death on the cross. The Bible says it this way in 2 Corinthians 5:19-21,

“In other words, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting people’s trespasses [sins] against them, and he has given us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making his plea through us. We plead with you on Christ’s behalf, ‘Be reconciled to God!’ 

God made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we would become the righteousness of God.”

The good man Jesus, the Savior, took the fall for the bad guys (you, me, and the rest). We can, however, be reconciled (made right) before God right now and begin a relationship with Him because of the fall Christ took and the price Christ paid on the cross for our sins. Please, do so.

God wants us near and close to Himself, as family members. God, the Father wants you to know and experience His life. Simply believe and receive this truth about his Son, Jesus Christ—that He came as the Savior of the world and died, was buried, and rose again to bring you to God. He was more than just a religious prophet and teacher. In fact, Jesus Christ is the only One who can bring us to share in God’s eternal life, as Acts 4:12 shows us this about Jesus’ name. It says,

“This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, that has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among people by which 

we must be saved.”

Don’t reject the message about Jesus Christ any longer. It is true. Believe and receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior right now. Ask Him to come into your heart and give you God’s eternal life. Then the truth about what this
eternal life is, as recorded in John 17:3, will immediately begin in you. It says,

“Now this is eternal life—that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you sent.”

“Welcome…nice to meet you. Please, come in and have a seat at my table,” you will sense God saying, once you do!  😊

Let us know if you received God’s life

God’s Message by The Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit’s Role in Interpreting the Scriptures

The Holy Spirit is probably the most misunderstood and overlooked of the Trinity. However, He performs several essential functions. God introduced Him in Acts 1:8 as One with power who would help the apostles witness for Him. At Pentecost, He came astoundingly as told, and the men spoke in each other’s native languages and miraculously understood each other. In her article, The Unsettling Holy Spirit, Dr. Judy Siker discusses the astonishment the Holy Spirit’s presence created. Instead of an entrance that made the men feel comfortable, the Holy Spirit’s presence shook the place and transformed the entire atmosphere and the men in it (Siker, J., 2004). This is indicative of who the Holy Spirit is. He’s the One who inspired biblical authors of old to record God’s message for humankind.  Not only did the Holy Spirit inspire the writing of the Bible, but today he also interprets it for us.  As interpreter, the Holy Spirit challenges our presuppositions, manifests God’s truth to us, enables us to understand what God is saying, and then empowers us to live according to it.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

The Holy Spirit works in the Church through illumination. We’re able to know emphatically God’s word is divinely inspired. And, He tells us what God means. Can you recall times, if ever, when you read or heard the Bible taught or preached, and suddenly, a light turned on in your mind? No longer did it feel as if you were reading a fairy tale story. A sense of reality hit you like a thunderbolt. “This is true,” you suddenly realized! You had read or heard that scripture passage over and over for years, but you could never quite grasp its full meaning. It didn’t penetrate your spirit. You tried meditating on it, but nothing. This happened to me with the verse, “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure” found in Philippians 2:13 (KJV). It’s one often quoted or preached in church and discussed among Christian friends. For me, as often as I had read this verse, it never clicked inside me what God meant. Not until one day, while reading it, the Holy Spirit came and illuminated my mind. When the Holy Spirit works in illumination, it’s like He’s turning on a light. Your surprised! Stunned! It’s an OMG moment, where your eyes are instantly opened, and you can see! The Holy Spirit helped me understand how transformation into Christ’s image is a work God does. This scripture means the Lord works in us to even want to do His will and works in us to do it. I was one of those persons on a treadmill walk to successful Christian living (with many peaks and valleys and highs and lows, may I add). I approached my Christian walk the same as I did my job. Be on time, work hard, strive to be good at it, and toil long hours, if necessary, to get the job done. I was going to get this thing right. It was remarkable when the Holy Spirit explained this verse to me. I found so much freedom and relief from the stress I was under trying to live God’s life through my own efforts.  Contrary to some popular church teachings and beliefs today, the Christian life is living the life of God–one we know nothing about. We’re humans, with a sin nature, and a proclivity for sin. God knows this about us. It’s why the Holy Spirit must come alongside us and enlighten us in God’s word and work in us a desire to do God’s will and live for His good pleasure. It’s not in my nature to want to do this. This is what our great Father–God, the Holy Spirit–is all about. It’s why, since Pentecost, He has continuously been helping guide believers and non-believers to understand the truth about Himself (John 14:6 NIV).  

God, the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit—the Trinity. They work in accord and each function in one purpose. Scripture tells how God, the Son–Jesus Christ–always did what pleased the Father (John 8:29 NIV). It makes sense then how it’s only through the Holy Spirit’s work in illumination that we gain a proper understanding of scripture, which helps us become like Christ. He only acts in accord with what is written in God’s word. His interpretation will be consistent in revealing what is written about God’s nature, His ways, and what pleases Him. The Holy Spirit will not alter the written word to appease our lifestyles or desires, to make us feel comfortable, or to make us be right. People do that. At the same time, however, The Holy Spirit does not do all the work for us in interpreting God’s word. “The Lord expects us to use the available Bible tools to discover God’s message” (Duvall & Hays. 2012, pp.229-230). Second Timothy 2:15 (NIV) supports this idea, where it states, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God…”

“So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God,” Romans 12:17 tells us. By hearing God’s word, we become convinced about what God has said. Next, it takes root in our hearts and becomes our way of being and thinking. Finally, as we go about our daily life activities and encounter various type situations and people, we then do (or put into practice) what the Holy Spirit has made known to us. How do you know this to be true, you may ask? Well, in John 14:26, when Jesus was preparing His disciples for His departure, He told them, “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have told you.” An advocate speaks up boldly to defend someone’s cause. We can rely on the Holy Spirit to come alongside us in our situations in life to boldly speak for God, reminding us of what He said and strengthening us to carry it out. He’ll be championing us on–assuring us “we can do all things through Christ.” I don’t know about you, but this is inspiring for me to know we have a Holy Spirit who equips and prepares us for all things that pertain to life and godliness.

Put a praise on it with me for Our God, The Holy Spirit! Inspiration by Ellie does not own the rights to this song.

So, in closing, I admonish you today to continue reading, studying, and meditating on God’s word, even when it makes no sense to you at all. Don’t become discouraged or disappointed because you’re not “getting it” and put it down, because you don’t know at which time you’re reading or listening to God’s word, when the Holy Spirit is going to show up to shake your world and change your life by turning the lights on to what God’s message is to you. If anyone is reading this who has never pursued the life of God or read the Bible, you can start today. Try it! Begin reading God’s words in the Bible today and watch! 😊

Be blessed until next time.

References

Duvall, J.S., & Hays, J.D. (2012). Grasping God’s Word. Zondervan. Grand Rapids, MI.

Siker, J. Y. (2004). The Unsettling Holy Spirit. The Living Pulpit (Online), 19.

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