[And you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.]
Acts 1.8
So not to long ago I was talking to a friend I really look up to and we were talking about studying God's word. Honestly, it has been one of the biggest struggles of mine, trying to study His word. Constantly wanting to know the context of a verse. Or trying to make the connection to the New or Old Testament (which is not bad at all). But I constantly found myself a bit overwhelmed by the grandness and depth of this book called the Bible. You know what I mean? So what do I do? I get commentaries, I get 'self-help' books, I go rabbit chasing with the verse that connects to the present verse that I'm reading and then do more rabbit chasing. And then I just end up getting lost, but find it fascinating how it's all connected. But honestly, I wasn't really retaining the information. I was covering a lot of scripture but not really retaining much.
[It's so cool how God reveals Himself to me in my education classes!]
So in my Social Science Education Class (where I learn how to teach), we are always in this constant debate about curriculum and what should be taught and how we should teach it. (Bare with me). One of the issues that we talk about is depth vs. coverage. For example: Do you try to teach the entire history of the world in a year OR do you study a few major historical events really in depth?
Personally, I'm more drawn to a belief that depth is better than coverage. And here's why.
So that friend I was talking about earlier, we were discussing how to study God's Word. His brother had challenged him to do this unique (to me) kind of study of God's word. Instead of trying to read the entire bible in a year (nothing wrong with that), he challenged me with this.
"I want you to read Acts 1.8. and make 30 observations". [My thoughts: Peace of Cake. This will be like child's play]. "The catch is, you can't use any commentary [uh oh], and you can't use any of the verses before or after for reference. You have to just make 30 observations about what is in front of you [oh snap]. For example [Modeling, a great teaching method through examples], when we read "You will receive power", we can observe several things: 1. We haven't received power yet. 2. Someone is giving power 3. I will receive, not general statement
Well. Let me just say. It's difficult trying to make 30 observations, but I challenge you to do so.
It has really opened my eyes to God's Word. I have found myself truly relying on the Holy Spirit to teach me when I'm reading through His word.
Earlier this year in a bible study, we were really talking about this common idea/misperception (whether or not you admit it...): "God needs us. He needs us to share the gospel. He needs us to interpret His word to non-believers".[False, He doesn't need us, He chooses to use us. His gospel will be proclaimed over the world with or without you]. I think to an extent that we are called to teach and speak truth into peoples lives, BUT, the key is the Holy Spirit. He is the one that saves. He is the one that leads people to repentance. And so I remember saying in this bible study, "If I give a non-believer a bible, how is he/she going to be able to understand the context or the meaning of what Paul or Luke was saying? I mean, someone needs to explain the bible to him/her."
I can now clearly see how ridiculous that statement is. It is fundamentally saying this: God you need me to teach your Word. I don't think that your Word alone is powerful enough. I am the one that you need. Not the other way around.
Well obviously, God is God and I'm John. So He wins. I've really underestimated the power of the Holy Spirit when reading His word. Ridiculous stuff. I have found it to be so awesome! The Holy Spirit is the teacher right? Man, when will I stop depending on myself, to teach myself? Ridiculous stuff.
So this last part seems to be really broken up and not really coherent, mainly because I didn't write in one sitting.
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