Until Full Light

Instruction, inspiration, and resources to help you understand and apply the Bible in your life.

You are here: Home / Archives for Bible Study

Speak His Words to each other, a command and joy

by

I was at a Bible study last night and among other things, we were discussing the importance of sharing God’s Words with each other—literally, God’s Words—the Bible, the Word, the truth in it. As I woke up this morning I was reminded of Mal. 3:16-18

Then those who feared the Lord spoke with one another. The Lord paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the Lord and esteemed his name.  “They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him. Then once more you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him.

How extraordinary—when we talk about our Lord with each other, God pays attention to us. And not just a passing glance of attention so like we give to each other today with one eye on our cell phone and our attention spread over the busy, multi-tasking life we live—He listens; He remembers; He records it.

Context of the verse—the  book of Malachi

The book of Malachi, the last of the books in the Old Testament is written to a very religious people—much temple worship was going on, lots of talk about God, lots of Temple sacrifices. But the sacrifices were blemished, the teaching was self-absorbed and false, the relational and work lives of followers a mockery of their faith. Malachi places both the blame and the solution on the priests in Malachi 2:

 “And now, O priests, this command is for you. 2 If you will not listen, if you will not take it to heart to give honor to my name, says the Lord of hosts, then I will send the curse upon you and I will curse your blessings. Indeed, I have already cursed them, because you do not lay it to heart. 3 Behold, I will rebuke your offspring ,and spread dung on your faces, the dung of your offerings, and you shall be taken away with it. 4 So shall you know that I have sent this command to you, that my covenant with Levi may stand, says the Lord of hosts.

5 My covenant with him was one of life and peace, and I gave them to him. It was a covenant of fear, and he feared me. He stood in awe of my name. 6 True instruction was in his mouth, and no wrong was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many from iniquity.

7 For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. 8 But you have turned aside from the way. You have caused many to stumble by your instruction. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the Lord of hosts, 9 and so I make you despised and abased before all the people, inasmuch as you do not keep my ways but show partiality in your instruction.”

Application to us and God’s priesthood of people

We can’t simply point fingers today at poor teaching in churches. Because of the death, resurrection, and our salvation in Jesus, the commands and responsibilities of the priesthood fall on all of us who call Jesus Lord, as Peter reminds us in 1Peter 2:9

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

We have a message to share with the world around us of salvation in Jesus. To encourage and energize us to do this, we need to spend time with each other sharing His Words, discussing how they relate to our lives and encouraging and challenging each other with them. We may be fortunate and attend a church where the Word is preached and sacraments properly observed. These experiences are essential, but they aren’t enough if we are to live well-rounded Christian lives. Two other quotes from last night are helpful here:

Faith demands a community.

Don’t just talk about God—speak His Words.

Meeting with other believers and talking about God isn’t an option if we want to live obedient lives and grow in our faith. If you aren’t part of a small group, Sunday School class or group of friends where you can talk with others about God, make it a priority to get into a group where you can.

Discernment, one of our most useful tools for Spiritual Warfare

by

choices
Choices, choices–our life is made up of choices and we want to make the ones pleasing to the Lord. His Word helps us–know it to make the right choices!

After getting to something about God, people often ask “What does God want me to do?” That’s a great question and in many ways is easier to find out answers that it first seems.

Part of finding the answers has to do with the topic of what some church all “Spiritual Discernment.” Big term, but not nearly as unrelated to life as it sounds at first.

Let’s take the term “discernment” first. Though it is incredibly important, it isn’t “spiritual” in the sense that it doesn’t apply to everyday life. It is incredibly practical in that biblical discernment teaches us how to live. We have many choices, many directions we can go in and discernment helps us choose ways that are pleasing to God.

A while back, we did a series of classes on this and I brought back the notes to share them with you.

In order to make the past series of classes practical, we sent out an email asking for questions from people where they felt they needed discernment. Then we took them one-by-one and answered them and the question below is one many people often ask, it was:

There are some areas I struggle/am struggling with: discerning if I am at the right place (could apply to school, job, church) discerning God’s purpose for our life. What should I do?

As we learned in the class (and the complete notes follow), many of the specific decisions in life will take care of themselves if we are following God’s leading in our life by being in His Word and knowing the Bible so well that we make every decision in life based on it. As we saw from the characters in the Bible, God isn’t nearly as interested in where we are as WHO we are. Out of a continual walk with God and in fellowship with him day by day, in peace we can make the big and little decisions of life.

Below are the notes for the class, click on either image to download them:

Discernment lesson 1Discernment, lesson one notes

Read your Bible for study using commentaries

by

Bible Commentaries are great resources for you as you study your Bible, but they are NOT the Bible. They are a good way to check out the ideas of the great Christian minds that have come before us, but they are not infallible. This short video gives you some reasons to read them and introduces you to a website where it’s easy to skim and compare content as well as do an in-depth study.

An overview and tour of Classic Bible Commentaries site
When you aren’t sure what a passage of scripture is about, checking classic Bible commentaries can help. This site has some of the best and a very easy way to switch between them.

How to read your Bible devotionally

by

For God’s Word to fill our minds and hearts, we need to read it every day. This brief video gives you reasons why and a link to a great little site that will send you a daily Bible reading on your mobile phone or computer. Below the first video is a little video tour of the recommended site.

This is a brief overview of the www.ewordtoday.com Bible Study site and what is on it. It provides a short Bible devotional today and links to many Bible versions, devotions and resources.