River Valley Rockford Blog

Predestination: What Does It Mean?

“It’s your destiny.” Have you ever heard that? Or, maybe you have said it. What does it mean? When I hear people say that, and often it is people who have no faith in Christ, it sounds like there is some power beyond the great out there that lures and aligns and manipulates and determines what our lives will be. It is as if we are all headed toward that preconceived and plotted point, our destiny. No one can know it, of course, but such people believe we all have a destiny and we can feel that in our bones.

Transfer that to the Christian world and you get the same sort of thoughts (and questions) around the concept of “predestination.” But, what does that really mean?

How to Understand Your Bible- Step 3: Application

The goal of understanding the Bible is transformation. We study and learn to grow. We want to know so we can grow and go. It is that simple. As Jesus’ brother so potently said, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.”  (James 1:22)

But how do we know what we are supposed to do?

That is where application comes in.

Application is the third major step in Bible study, behind Observation and Interpretation. Application answers the question, “So What?” or “What do I do?”

This mini-Lecture gives you some warnings and four practical steps to apply the Bible accurately to your everyday life. You can listen and look through the notes. You can also comment and ask questions below. But whatever you do, put your study into practice.

 

How to Understand Your Bible- Step 2: Interpretation, Part 2

What you are about to read you can understand, and you can understand it because you think in logical terms about how words and phrases are connected. You don’t normally think about it, but you do think about it. Read this and see if I’m correct:

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”  (John 3:16)

Did that sentence make sense?  Of course it did. You are good at this. It is the part of interpretation that we call “PHRASING,” figuring out how phrases relate so as to draw out the meaning.

How to Understand Your Bible- Step 2: Interpretation, Part 1

In John 10 Jesus said some important things. He talked about being a shepherd, which doesn’t sound that important, but hang on. He said a shepherd can go through the gate to the sheep pen and lead his sheep out with his voice. He then said he is the shepherd and we are the sheep. Like I said, interesting stuff. But is it helpful?

In many ways Jesus might as well have been talking in Greek. Well, he was. He might as well have been talking about nuclear physics; maybe that is better. His words really don’t make sense to us because we aren’t shepherds and most of our buddies aren’t either. To understand his metaphor, 

How to Understand Your Bible- Step 1: Observation

I was casually driving down the road when all of a sudden three passengers in my car yelled, “Stop sign!” Just so you know, yelling isn’t the best thing to do to any driver. When your muscles tense and your heart pounds, you aren’t necessarily going to choose to do the right thing or physically be able to do it. Somehow, I was able to stop—a little past the sign but short of the crossing traffic. Wiping the sweat and posing as if I was in control, I realized a disturbing fact. I saw, but I didn’t observe. I was looking, but the stop sign never registered. It is a real possibility to miss important information even when you are not distracted.

And here we have an important illustration that supports a critical step in understanding the Bible. 

How to Understand Your Bible- The Big Picture

If the Bible can mean anything, then it doesn’t mean anything. Do you know what I mean?

I had a conversation that went like this (actually, I have had a lot of these, and maybe that says something about my communication skills). “I heard what you said, and I know what you meant. And I disagree.”  Then I respond, “Yes. That is what I said. But that is not what I meant.” To which the expected reply comes, “Yes, you did. That is what you said.”

Now, in a situation like that, who is correct about meaning?

How to Understand Your Bible- The Basics

Why do we need the Bible? So, we can know God and his ways.  Why do we need to know God and his ways? So, we can love him and others better, and so we can experience the incredible life God has planned for us. God wants to bring us into an intimate relationship with him. He wants us to know about life and how to live it maxed out. He also wants to tell us about the future, and how we can prepare for it and eliminate fear of it. He tells us all that and more in the Bible.  All of that, however, hinges on understanding the Bible correctly.

In a recent Reverse Why-Fi survey in our church, we found that 90% of people attending said they don’t read the Bible regularly because they are not motivated or they don’t understand how to do it. I think most people are motivated to understand the Bible, but that dissipates as they try and fail. Who wants to keep reading a book that makes no sense to you and seems irrelevant? But, if you learn to understand the Bible, your hunger (i.e., motivation) grows.

Mini-Lecture: Who Is the Holy Spirit & What Does He Do?

He use to be called the “Holy Ghost,” which was a little eerie, but now he goes by the “Holy Spirit,” which isn’t much better. He is the third person of the Godhead. He is a “He” not an “It.” He lives inside every believer. He transforms, gifts, empowers, fills, and that is just the beginning. Tell all that to a new believer and she might run for the hills. And who could blame her.

So, let’s try it this way. 

Mini-Lecture: What Is the Difference between Mormonism & Christianity?

I remember as a child watching the Donny & Marie Show on television. She was a “little bit country” and he was “a little bit rock ‘n roll.” It was decent. So, it was fun to see their family in person after I became a young adult and they became older people. At the end of the high-energy show, the entire Osmond family came on stage and began to sing a hymn; I can’t remember which one. As they were singing, a super-sized image of Jesus was projected on the screen behind them, and the crowd cried and cheered and worshiped. I was confused.

Mini-Lecture: Why Did Jesus Have to Die?

Sometimes my mind seeks complicated answers to obvious questions. This is one of those. I’ve known almost all of my life why Jesus died. Every kid worth his squirmy energy, if he went to church or heard some TV preaching, could tell you in his own words what the Apostle Paul succinctly stated, “Christ died for our sins,” (1 Corinthians 15:3). But, like I said, sometimes, when a creak catches my attention, my mind drifts, and I think harder about simple subjects.

When someone offends me, I often simply forgive the person. Notice I didn’t say “always,” but I’m working on that. That leads to the natural question, though: Why can’t God do that? Are people better than him? Am I? Jesus' death is the center of Christian faith, so we ought to know a little about why it happened, and that answer ought to have a little more teeth than a trite (but true), "He died to forgive sins." Why Jesus? Why death?