Living by the Book/Living by the Book Workbook Set (53 page)

Teachers of the Word tend to exhort others in the areas in which they possess core strengths. For instance, if they excel in relationships, they exhort others to build relationships. If they excel in a particular method of evangelism, they encourage others to adopt that method. If they happen to be a Christian in the business world who has found a particular principle of doing business to be useful, they tend to urge others to practice that same principle. If solitude is a spiritual discipline that fits especially well with their wiring, they promote solitude as a path to spiritual growth.

In many ways, that tendency is as it should be. Better to teach something you actually know about and practice than something you have no clue about. But let’s consider that the reason a particular way of practicing our faith works for us may well be because it fits our particular God-given design. Others who are designed differently might (and perhaps should) approach the same area differently, by virtue of their design. My advice would be to always highlight a core truth, then use an example as an illustration of how that truth has been applied in my life or someone else’s life. But always leave options when it comes to the application. Remember,
interpretation is one; application is many.

The elasticity with which biblical truth can be applied to so many different people facing so many different circumstances is a tribute to the wisdom of God. Only God could speak truth that is so far-reaching, yet so unchanging.

That ability of the Word to fit into the variables of each person’s life allows us to “customize” Christianity—to make it our own, to make it personal. It means we don’t have to settle for vague, generalized platitudes that have no edge, no bite, no relevance to our individual situation. And it means we don’t have to try and squeeze into a one-size-fits-all approach that works really well for a few, but leaves the rest of us with a mediocre experience of the faith.

Please understand, by “customizing” the truth of the Word, we are not
accommodating that truth to our own opinions and preferences. To do that would be to distort the text, which is one of the hazards of Interpretation we said to avoid in
Chapter 28
. There’s no room for “customization” in the step of Interpretation. But when it comes to Application, we must acknowledge that each of us brings unique strengths and limitations to the task, by virtue of our God-given design. By accepting that design and cooperating with the way it works, we are more likely to practice God’s Word in the particular way He meant it to apply to us.

E
arlier, when we studied the step of Observation, I said that one of the things to do with any passage of Scripture is to bombard the text with questions. The same is true when it comes to Application. So here are nine applicational questions you can ask whenever you come to the Word:

Have you noticed how much of the Bible is biographical? That’s not an accident; it’s by design. God fills His Word with people because nothing helps the truth come alive the way people do.

The challenge, of course, is to draw parallels between your situation and that of the character you are studying. Consider Abraham in Genesis 18. The Lord reveals to him that He is about to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, where Abraham’s nephew, Lot, lives with his family. So Abraham pleads with the Lord not to destroy Sodom, if he can find enough righteous people living there.

Not too many people have come to me and said, “Hendricks, God told me He’s going to destroy such-and-such a city unless we can find ten righteous
people living there.” If someone did tell me that, I’d be wondering what looney bin he escaped from.

So does that mean there’s nothing for me to apply from Genesis 18? No, on the contrary, Abraham is an outstanding model of compassionate prayer on behalf of wicked people. There he is on his knees, begging the Lord to spare them from judgment. So I have to ask, is that the kind of prayer I’m praying for the people around me? Or am I sort of hoping that God will rain down fire from heaven on all those “evil pagans” out there?

One of the values of the Word of God is that it raises your level of consciousness in regard to moral issues. For years before I became a believer, I did things that if somebody had told me were sin, I’d have said, “You gotta be kidding.” I had an altogether different standard of right and wrong.

It was only when I came to Christ and began reading Scripture that I learned what sin really is. It was like a friend of mine who told me, “Man, I didn’t even know I had a bad marriage until I became a Christian. I thought that was how everybody lived. Then I read Ephesians 5 and began to realize how trashed up my marriage really was.”

God’s Word is filled with promises—promises that are made by the Person who does not lie and who is totally capable of fulfilling them. Remember our study of Nehemiah 1? Nehemiah claimed God’s promise concerning the restoration of the land if the people would confess and repent of their sin. God honored His word. He even used Nehemiah as part of the answer to prayer.

Of course, not all of the promises in Scripture are given to you and me. Some promises God made to certain individuals, not to people in general. Others he made to groups of people, such as the nation of Israel. We can’t claim promises that haven’t been made to us. But we can certainly claim promises made to the church, as well as those made to “the righteous” in Proverbs and other portions of the wisdom literature.

Abraham teaches us something about prayer in Genesis 18. So does Nehemiah. I encourage you to make a study of the great prayers in Scripture: for example, David’s prayer of confession in Psalm 51; Hannah’s prayer of thanksgiving after the birth of Samuel (1 Samuel 2:1–10); Jonah’s prayer from the belly of the fish (Jonah 2); Mary’s prayer in Luke 1:46–55; Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians in Ephesians 3:14–21; Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:36–46; Mark 14:32–42; Luke 22:39–46); and the Lord’s Prayer, which is really the Disciples’ Prayer, and in fact,
our
prayer (Matthew 6:5–15).

As you study those passages, ask yourself,
What is there in these prayers that I need to be praying?

The Bible is filled with potent, clear-cut commands. There are fifty-four in the book of James alone. Likewise, the “applicational” sections of Paul’s epistles—Romans 12–15, Galatians 5–6, Ephesians 4–6, Colossians 3–4—are primarily exhortation.

A wise, old scholar was once asked how to determine the will of God. His response was simple: “95 percent of the will of God is revealed in the commands of Scripture. If you spend your time attending to those, you won’t have much trouble working out the other 5 percent.”

Many of the promises of God are based on conditions set forth in the text. For instance, Jesus said, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you” (John 15:7). Do you notice the conditions? “
If
you abide in Me, and [
if
] My words abide in you.” Jesus makes an incredible promise: “Ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you.” But the conditions must be met.

Obviously, any verse of Scripture can be memorized. But some will carry more significance for you than others. That’s why I highly recommend that
you launch a Bible memorization program. Perhaps you can use something such as the “Topical Memory System” that I mentioned in
chapter 42
. After you complete that, you can develop your own list of verses that have become personal and meaningful to you.

I also encourage you to memorize larger portions of the Word. When my sons were just boys, they had a Sunday school teacher who recognized the value of Bible memory. He used to sponsor contests to see how much Scripture they could memorize. Eventually they were memorizing entire chapters of the Bible, such as Psalm 1, Isaiah 53, and even John 14. Word-perfect, too. So it is possible. And the benefits are immeasurable.

One of the positive developments that I’ve observed among Christians during my lifetime has been a renewed emphasis on people and relationships. That’s what the outworking of biblical truth ought to produce—love and concern for people and their needs.

However, during the same period I’ve observed an unfortunate loss of basic theological and doctrinal knowledge. Many Christians have fuzzy thinking when it comes to fundamental building blocks of the faith such as the resurrection, the virgin birth, the inerrancy of Scripture, and the ministry of the Holy Spirit. As a result, they are sitting ducks for theological error.

Personal Bible study can help to turn that around. As you investigate God’s Word, ask yourself:
What doctrines and truths is this passage teaching? What theological errors is it exposing? And then: What changes do I need to make in my thinking in order to bring it in line with what the Scriptures teach?

Have you ever read a portion of the Bible and felt convicted that you needed to act on the basis of what you’ve read? The Spirit of God will prompt that. When you read the Word, He’ll challenge you to respond in some area of your life or in some situation that you are facing. Perhaps it’s a relationship that needs to be healed. Perhaps it’s an apology that needs to be made. Maybe you need to get out of something that is drawing you away from God. Or maybe
there’s a habit you need to start cultivating. Whatever it is, the Spirit uses Scripture to promote changes in your life.

Are you open to such change? Are you prepared to take on His challenges? I guarantee that if you approach God’s Word with any degree of honesty and teachability, the Spirit won’t let you go away disappointed.