Jump Start # 1248

2 Timothy 2:15 “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.”

Well, I finished it this week. When the idea was presented, it sounded great. In the process of doing it, I really second guessed myself and wondered what in the world I was doing. Now that it’s over, I liked it. What I’m talking about is a recent class that I taught. The elders where I worship restructured some of our adult classes. Instead of the typical 13 week quarter classes, we had ten week classes and several five week classes. I was teaching some of the five week classes. The first round was about the Holy Spirit. Five lessons. Not too bad. Then came the monster, Revelation. Revelation in five weeks. Revelation in five days, basically. It was going to be the 33,000 foot view. Hit the high points. Tell the over all picture. See the obvious things. In the midst of teaching it I wondered if it was too much. But we did it. The class loved it. The big picture. The overview. We managed to squeeze in the two visions, the mark of the beast, the 1,000 year reign, Satan’s binding, judgment and Heaven. We made a booklet. We did it. After class was over I told someone since we did this, we can now do Ezekiel in 13 minutes. Only joking.

But this little experiment revealed something to me. I wonder if our verse-by-verse study that we so often do on most books is best. There is certainly a place for that, but every time? Always? The only way to look at a book of the Bible? What really got me thinking about this is that we don’t read other material the same way we do the books of the Bible. For instance, imagine getting one of those yearly Christmas letters from a friend. We always get a few every year. Now, imagine you and your family taking 13 weeks to read that letter. Once a week, you read a few words then you talk about them. You don’t read the letter in it’s entirety. We don’t do that we college texts. We don’t do that with the newspaper. Now, I understand, and I have myself taught, that no book is like the Bible. No book is read like the Bible. Understood. However, do we lose the message and kill the flow by being so tedious and meticulous with every word? Letters, especially, are to be read in one sitting. My friend Bob taught a class on Ephesians. He began every class with his iphone and speakers. He would play the book of Ephesians to the class. This is how they first received it. They didn’t have Bibles opened in their laps. They heard someone reading it. They had to listen. The book of Revelation gives a double blessing. First, to the one who reads, and then, to the one who hears.

Handling accurately the word of truth is what our verse today tells us. Mishandling the truth leads to wrong impressions, wrong ideas and trouble. With the Bible in hand, many things are said that are not truly supported by the Scriptures. It wasn’t accurate. My son-in-law, Jared, is an internal auditor. He looks at the books. When things are not accurate he goes into hyper drive and digs until he finds out why. Accuracy. We want that in our banking. Only in Monopoly will you find a bank error in your favor. We want our surgeons to be accurate. We want pilots to be accurate. We want surveyors to be accurate about our property lines. But when it comes to the Bible, somehow that drive for accuracy can be lacking. Too often, it’s easy to let someone else do all the homework and then make a passionate presentation to us. If it sounds logical and they can back it up with facts and passages, it’s good enough for most of us. God wants each of us to know, handle and be accustomed to truth. Our faith doesn’t rest in what someone else believes, but in what we believe.

The words do need to be looked at in detail. The questions that arise need to be answered. The thought, intent, background and principles need to be flushed out. We need to know the book. We are to be a people of the book. So approach books from different standpoints. Don’t be stuck always reading and studying the same way. Here are a few suggestions:

• When studying the gospels, focus upon the questions that are asked. Notice who asked the questions and how they were answered.
• In the gospels, especially in Mark, notice the reactions from the multitudes. Just study those reactions.
• Notice word patterns. You’ll see repeated words often in a context. Pay attention to those.
• Notice references to the Old Testament
• Notice the people Jesus met.
• Notice how Jesus was interrupted.
• Notice what bothered people and what bothered Jesus. They are not the same.
• Notice prayers.

These come out in a verse by verse study, but they can be lost. Try making these things the study. Is it wrong to study verse-by-verse? No. Absolutely not. We need to. We must. I will continue to teach verse-by-verse studies. But once in awhile, that 33,000 feet view helps.

Handle the truth accurately. At the end of the day, at the end of a lifetime, have I handled God’s word accurately? If I have, it then ought to have an impact in my life. It ought to have shaped me, changed me and made me better. The truth within my heart will guide my faith, it will define my hope and it will strengthen me in difficult times.

Handle it. Touch it. See it. Feel it. Tons of folks are using electronic versions of the Bible. I do in some occasions. Friends tell me that they can turn to passages faster electronically than I can with my fingers. We may have to have a showdown some day. I expect I’ll lose. However, I’m one who still likes the feel of pages in my fingers. I like the sound of turning pages when I preach. One is not better than the other. The Bible is not made to be stored in a museum, in a locked box, but rather handled. Raise the hood. Look inside. Tinker with it. Look at it. Ask questions. See things that are there. Underline. Make your Bible user friendly to you. I’m amazed to see some folks turn to a book of the Bible by feel. Without looking, they can turn to a section. They have handled and handled that book. It’s more than touching, it’s handling the message. It’s knowing what is said. It’s reading it. It’s studying it. It’s looking up verses. It’s seeing the true and accurate picture.

Whether you study word by word or take that 33,000 feet approach, get into the Bible. The more we get into the Bible, the more the Bible gets into us. Now, that’s when things start to really happen.

Roger

Jump Start # 1064

2 Timothy 2:15 “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.”

 Paul’s words to the young preacher Timothy stresses the importance of speaking as God speaks. Handle the word accurately, are Paul’s words. Mishandling, inaccuracies lead to misrepresenting God and stating things that God did not say. A common threat of Satan is to get people to twist and misuse the Bible. By doing this, people feel safe because they are using the Bible. They are lost along the journey because they are not handling the Bible accurately.

A new example of this is the current movie, Noah. The title and the trailer about a man in a boat with animals, would lead one to think that this is based upon the Bible. It’s not. This is yet another attempt by Hollywood to discredit and change what the Bible says. I will not see this movie. I’ve read enough to know that it will fry my biscuits and make me mad because of how they misused God’s incredible story. The movie is packed with stars such as Anthony Hopkins, Russell Crowe and Harry Potty star, Emma Watson. Noah is an herb farmer who runs an animal hospital. He tries to save the animals from poachers. The movie is not close to the Biblical record. The reason for the flood, the choice of who is in the ark, the actual people in the ark, and the presence of God is all skewed. The movie is not accurate. The movie isn’t close. The most accurate thing about the movie is water. One might as well make a movie about Abe Lincoln and John Kennedy being neighbors who rode their bikes to school where they were taught by George Washington. Dumb. Fake. Fiction. It shouldn’t be surprising that it turned out this way since the director of Noah, Darren Aronofsky, is a proclaimed atheist. He doesn’t believe in God, the Bible or the truthfulness of what the account says. He’s the wrong person to make that movie. What’s the purpose of this movie? If it is not to accurately tell the story, are they rewriting history to move people away from the Bible? Do they have an agenda?

Here are some things we need to know:

1. This movie will become truth for many people. So few people even understand that Noah was a righteous man and that sin was the reason that God punished the creation with the flood. The common thought is that the Genesis account is a collection of flood fables from around the world. That thought is gaining strength. Indeed, there are over 200 cultures that have a flood story. There are similarities between those stories and the Bible account. Instead of thinking that someone put these together in the Bible, it may be that the Bible led to these other stories and more likely, these different cultures had this history passed down from generation to generation because it was true. If the flood account in Genesis was myths that were written down, who wrote them down? What about the rest of Genesis? Creation—that’s been tossed out and replaced with evolution. Abraham? Joseph? The New Testament is built upon the historical accuracies of Genesis. Jesus referred to Noah, Abraham and the beginning. Paul, Peter and James used Genesis as proof for the things that they were saying. To discredit Genesis is to discredit the New Testament. So few people read the Bible today, that this movie will become truth for them. This is what many will now believe. That is the power of movies. That is the shame that most homes have a Bible but it’s never opened.

2. This movie will be an opportunity for you to talk to others about the true flood story. People will go to the movie. They will have an opinion. In conversations, ask them to read with you Genesis 6-9. Let them see for themselves what the Bible really says. This is an occasion to defend God’s word. This is an opportunity to teach what really happened. The movie, fiction as it is, can be a tool, to get people back to the Bible. You can be that bridge. Study up on the flood. Know the facts. Understand what happened. Speak out. Don’t let others toss the Bible under the bus. Don’t let an atheistic agenda discredit what the God of Heaven says. The Bible or Hollywood? Which will it be? Most don’t see the big picture. They don’t see the connection between Noah and Jesus. They don’t see Genesis in the N.T. They don’t see what is wrong with taking some liberties with what God said. If one can do it with the flood, can they do it with what God said about marriage? How about church? How about Heaven? God said it, but no one pays attention. We’ve allowed ourselves to shape the Bible to our own liking. There is a “Gay Bible” on the market now. Really? That is the outcome when we allow ourselves to be loose with God’s word. Paul said handle it ACCURATELY.

3. This movie is a reminder to us that we also, must be accurate with God’s word. There are things we do not know. Speculation can build mighty theories and ideas. We can place more hope in those theories than what the Bible actually says. As Paul warned Timothy, we must handle accurately the word of truth. The old motto from the early days of the Restoration movement was, “We speak where the Bible speaks and are silent when the Bible is silent.” That silent part gets us. We’ve moved on from that. When the Bible is silent, we often have an opinion. We guess why God does what He does. Isaiah tells us that God’s thoughts are higher than our thoughts. Moses said the secret things belong to God. Speak accurately. Speak firmly. Back up what you say with Biblical evidence.

I expect few would want to know that God destroyed the world because of man’s wickedness. That thought would make us wonder about today. It would cause a person to stop and look in the mirror. It could lead to changed life styles and righteous living. It’s easier to change the message than to change our hearts.

God’s message doesn’t change. A movie won’t change what God says. Popularity doesn’t change what God says. God’s word stands, whether we believe it or not.

Handle accurately. Handle carefully. That word is powerful. It can change you and bring you back to God. I’ll stick to the Genesis flood—that’s the way things really happened. I’ll pass on this movie.

Roger

Jump Start # 986

2 Timothy 2:15 “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.”

Our verse today is one that many of us have heard preachers use over and over in sermons. This verse contains four thoughts.

First, there is an attitude: Be diligent to present yourself. Get about it. Diligence gets on the ball and gets things done. This is not without thought, preparation and planning. However, it is also not putting things off, on the back burner or being lazy. Diligence is sometimes lacking in folks. They don’t seem to be in much of a hurry to get at it.

Second, there is a purpose:  be approved to God. Right with God. God pleased. Those who served in the military understand that when the bugle blew that they assembled in a hurry but they also assembled ready. Sloppy wouldn’t do it. This is not talking about military inspections but having a heart that God is approved of. Be diligent to present to God a heart that is approved. Jesus said in His sermon, “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness…” Seek to be right with God. Approved by God. What kind of things does God approve of? First, the things that He has authorized. Second, God approves of holy and righteous living. Third, God approves of those things that seek to glory Him. Approved by God. Checked off by God. Thumbs up by God. That only comes from a heart that is God thinking.

Third, there is an illustration: as a workman who does not need to be ashamed. What kind of workman is that? The one who does his job. Not all workman are like that. Some want the paycheck without working. Some want to find ways to get out of work yet still receive a paycheck. Some ought to be ashamed. They are not doing what they were hired to do. They are not working at all. Instead, we are to be like the worker who is not ashamed. He works hard. He works diligently. He works whether the boss is around or not. He is mindful and thankful to have a job and does it well. That’s the example. That’s the way we are to be. This is not about work, this is about presenting ourselves approved to God. Do it right. Do it in such a way that you are not ashamed.

Finally, there is an area of application: handling accurately the word of truth. This is what Paul is driving at. This is what he wanted others to be diligent in. This is one area we stand approved of God. This is how we are to be the workman who is not ashamed. Handle accurately the word of truth. Handle it carefully. Handle it with caution. Use the Bible properly. The Bible can be misused to teach things that God never intended. Taking things out of context, focusing upon one verse to the extent that the rest of the Bible is ignored, misunderstanding who is being spoken to, not understanding words, having a preconceived idea—are all powerful ways that the Bible can be used inaccurately. Inaccurate. Wrong. Not what it says. Put a verse behind an idea, build a ministry around it, gather up a few followers, publish a book, hire a PR firm to promote you and the next thing you know you are on stage before thousands believing that God is using you for something good. People testify about how you have helped them. The money rolls in. The movement swells. A huge staff is hired. Things seem to be rolling. There appears to be no stopping. Praise is given to all the great things God has done. Yet, it is all wrong. It is built upon inaccurate concepts and principles. It is a house of cards. People have been fooled. That is where we are today. So many books misuse Bible teachings. It is common for folks to think that God is still directly talking to them, just like He did the apostles. Beliefs in the end of times, what happens at death, salvation, worship, the role of the church have been mishandled so much and for so long, that the common guy on the street has no concept of what is the truth.

Paul’s words are for God’s people to be diligent…to be approved of God…like an unashamed workman…handling accurately the word of truth. The Bible, like medicine, if not used properly can be harmful and deadly. Accuracy is vital. Following the directions are vital.

Instead of reading what someone says about the Bible, including what I write, read the Bible for yourself. Instead of having someone else tell you, dig in there and figure some things out for yourself. Get your paper and pen out, do some note taking, do some thinking. Look up other verses. Use another translation. You’ll start to see things. You get the idea. Things will fall together. Quit being spoon fed by a preacher. Do your own thinking. Find the answers to your own questions.

Be diligent. Be approved. Be accurate. Those three “Be’s” will make all the difference in the world.

Roger

Jump Start # 607

2 Timothy 2:15 “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.”

Our passage today is one that preachers often used years ago. It’s a great verse that expresses three central ideas and one illustration of that idea. These words are to inspire and motivate brethren. They ought to muster a “let’s go do it” spirit within them. We can sometimes use a bit of that ourselves. It’s easy to get stuck in the same routines and even get a bit lazy with our spiritual life. Sure we still attend church services, but the personal stuff, the praying, spending time with the word, the being busy in good deeds, can be put on hold with kids, life and all the things we are doing. It’s not done on purpose, it just happens. But without noticing it much, when we get that way, we suffer. We lose our sharpness, our spiritual awareness, and our passion. Most of us have been there. I believe we are not the first, that’s why we find verses like this.

The main thought that everything in this passage is wrapped around is “presenting yourself approved to God.” Presentation. Military people understand what happens during inspections. You are presenting yourself. There are two ways this is done. First, it is done at the judgment of God. Everyone is presented before God. We stand before God. The books are opened. It sounds scary, and maybe it should to a point. Eternity rests upon what the righteous Judge says. This is why we walk by faith. The grace of God is what saves us.

The other way we present our selves before God, is everyday. Everyday God sees me, knows me, hears me, and is aware of what I am doing. The point is not presenting yourself, that happens without you having much to do with that. There is no escaping that. The thought is presenting yourself APPROVED before God. That’s what this is all about. Be approved. Be right. Be pleasing to God. This is done with a God awareness in our lives. That awareness will help shut the door to temptations. It will drive us to being spiritual people. Walk approved.

Approved, as a workman who is not ashamed. That’s the illustration. An unashamed worker. Who would that be? One who does his job well. You see both sides of this illustration all the time. You see folks who truly earn their paycheck. They work hard. They work honestly. They work, whether the boss is around or not. They have nothing to be ashamed about. Receiving their paycheck is something they can feel good about because they have worked hard. Then there are the others. They show up but they don’t work. They play around on the computer, they call people on the cell phone, they find ways to avoid work at all costs. Come payday, they’ll get a paycheck, but they ought to turn it back in. They haven’t earned it. They ought to be ashamed. Paul’s point is, present yourself approved to God like the good workman, like the person who takes it seriously.

The second principle here is how we do this: Be diligent. Get about it, right now. Diligence carries the idea of urgency and importance. This is the manner in which a person presents himself approved to God—he is diligent about it. Changes that need to be made, are made. Growth happens. This is a person who wants to please God right now—as a high school student, as a newly married couple, as a young parent…they are not waiting for something down the road. They are not waiting until a better time in their life, they are diligent. They are in the “Now.”

The third principle this passage puts before us is how we present ourselves approved before God. There are many ways this could be done: morally, by obedience to His word, by being busy helping others—all wonderful ways. Paul tells us what he has in mind. By “handling accurately the word of truth.” That’s how. That’s what we are diligent about. That’s how we present ourselves approved to God. It’s not the only way, but it’s the way that is important and that Paul has in mind. Handling accurately the Bible. Don’t misuse it. Don’t make it say what it doesn’t say. Don’t use it to get your way. Handle it carefully. Handle it accurately. Handle it rightly. God’s word brings us all to Him. God’s word molds us and shapes each of us. God’s word builds faith and strengthens our commitment. God’s word helps us to fight Satan. Misusing God’s word can lead us into error. It can corrupt hearts and distort the image of our Savior.

Paul’s words are to Timothy, a young preacher. All preachers, even the old ones, need to handle God’s word accurately. But the principle applies to each of us, preacher or not. To handle it accurately implies that we know it. We understand it. We’ve spent time with it.

What a privilege and a blessing it is that we have God’s word. It is His story, not ours. It is His will and His heart revealed. God could have easily said, you sinned. Now you try to find me. He didn’t. He could have said, you figure it out. He didn’t. He gave us His word. It is His promises. It is what He desires from us. I’ve got a bunch of Bibles. I have a couple of favorites. The covers are worn and the pages well used. I like the feel of those Bibles. Without looking, I can nearly open to any book of the Bible, just by feeling the pages. I’ve spent a lot of time in those books. They’ve become like an old friend. They have taught me. They have reminded me. They have opened my eyes. They have stepped on my toes and thumped me.

There are not short cuts to studying the Bible. It’s like a workman, there is work involved. Looking, thinking, doing research, reading, discovering are all a part of Bible study. These things pay off. First, you know what God says. You know what He wants. You walk confidently, because you know. Second, you can’t help read without changing. Spending time with Jesus pulls you to Him. It helps you become “approved” to God. You quickly recognize what’s not right, because you know so well what is right. But about all, you have a strong relationship with the Lord. Trust, faith, obedience all come from spending time with God’s word.

I’m seeing many folks being too busy for this. They are moving away from this. We are allowing what we get during church services to be our spiritual vitamin that gets us through the week. Not good. Make some adjustments. Find the time. Be diligent. Be the unashamed workman. Handle it accurately.

Great reminders from the apostle. We need those. It will make a difference. We are one day closer to Heaven, don’t forget.

Roger