Tried With Fire

"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." Thus saith the familiar proverb. Tonight the ladies in our church will begin a series of "fishing" lessons. Not casting or tying lures but lessons in biblical hermeneutics. The teaching pastor recently taught this course at a seminary in Uganda, and now it's our turn to be the students. We will still need to hear the preaching of the Word. We will still need the fellowship of the local church. We will still read books. But teach a woman how to properly interpret the Bible and you've opened the treasure house of the only authoritative means whereby God speaks to His people. Some might think this is an impractical academic exercise. I would respectively disagree. If we want to be godly women, we need to know who God is.  If we want to obey and please Him, we need to know His commands Where else will learn this but in the Word? Granted there are plenty...

If God's Word is alive and active and powerful, then, first, we should study it with respect for the words. Second, we should study it trusting in the sufficiency of the words - without itching for something else. Such a powerful Word is a sufficient Word. Peter tells us that God's "divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which, he has granted to us his precious and very great promises" (2. Peter 1:3-4). Everything ... all things we need for life and godliness are ours in Christ, who brings to completion every promise God has ever made, every word ever spoken.  The sufficiency of this Word, as it reveals the sufficiency of Christ, should keep us from being the kind of people with "itching ears", who "will not endure sound teaching" but who "will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn aw...

"A Word from God implies a word from outside of us, a breaking into our lives by some transcendent being to whom we are obliged to listen. But our culture is listening much more closely to voices inside ourselves; we tend to read words and say how they make us feel, rather than read words and ask what they say and how we should rightly respond. To read the Bible as the authoritative Word of God means to read it with a heart ready to listen and submit. This is a radical activity in a culture that does not embrace the legitimacy of authority." "If we start with the assumption that we as readers use our individual contexts and experiences to shape our own meanings from the words, then Bible study will consist mainly of a series of personal reactions and opinions. The dance will be chaotic and, in the end, narcissistic. On the other hand, if we study with the assumption that God intends to give us meaning that we can receive more or less clearly through words, then Bible...