Category Archives: Bible Study

Me and the Man

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The man and I have crossed paths several times in my Christian walk.  The first time that I remember is a weekly meeting at a rehab unit in Charity Hospital of New Orleans.  I was the speaker and he was my sermon; I compared what he did to what I had been like before I was saved. I got right to the end of my sermon and had to let someone else give the altar call because I was crying so hard.

We meet again a few years later when a fellow teacher gave morning devotions and she focused on Mark 5:15.  He was “fully clothed and in his right mind” there were multiple points received from that message but it is not uncommon to get that as an answer in the morning if you ask me how I am doing.

I guess all of the fellowship over the years came together when I wrote the poem on the next page of this blog.  It is meant to be a witnessing tool as you write your testimony below ours.  It started as a writing contest entry, not sure it ever made it.

But this is a Bible study blog so if I may, I am going to give a few other things I have seen along the way. I will direct the study from Luke 8: 22 to 9:2 it is similar to Mark 5 and Matthew 8 but I like Luke because he had to “study to show himself approved” because he was “not around” like Matthew and Mark had been. Actually, Bible scholars will tell you that Mark wrote his book first and the other two followed and some argue that all three used a common undiscovered document. By the way, if you Google this topic be ready to be bombarded with all kind of things, the one that I found most amusing was the argument that Mark did not know his geography. Gee, he was alive at the time and had probably visited the region with his uncles when they were fishing. (Gerasenes is too far from the Sea of Galilee.)

The reason I start with Luke 8:22 is the phrase “one day.” It frames this as part of the story and the fact that they got hit with a storm as Jesus was about to do this great work is not surprising.  The thousands of whining demons, pigs near a kosher country and Jesus conversing with Legion I will leave those topics to your own Biblical beliefs and backgrounds; I want to focus on other things.

The people of the Gerasenes or the Decapolis were afraid and asked Jesus to leave which he did. I personally feel the reason that they wanted Him to go was that if He could do that miracle what He must be saying is real and they knew they would have to make a choice and a change.  They were probably not Jewish because it was a Roman area, like Lo Debar it was on the east side of the Jordan and perched on a hillside.  According to Wikipedia, it was a very secure place and one of importance.

Then there is Jesus’ reaction to the man’s request to go with Him; Jesus refused, yet in chapter 9 He sends out the Twelve. Jesus had a plan and it seemed that he could be useful for the Kingdom all on his own.

The map is from http://bibleatlas.org/gadara.htm or Biblos.com  if you have never used this website give it a look it is very interesting and useful.

Be Still and Know God

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Waiting, being still what is the difference?

Remember that our modern English words don’t necessary translate nicely with Hebrew words.  Wait and being still are two words/phrases that can have several meanings and depending on your favorite translation of the Bible a verse may read different ways.  Wait can also mean hope so it will help how you view a passage if you look it up in your concordance.  “Being still” also has several meanings so if you find a verse you like check it out and see how it adds to your understanding.

Sometimes the Hebrew word for “still” can also be translated “wait.” That is why the Amplified Bible can be helpful, it will give alternate meanings to words. Anyway here are some different verses and there “be still’s.”

To “Be Still” means to stand one’s ground, confront, to stand before as in: I Samuel 12:16 – Now then, stand still and see this great thing the Lord is about to do before your eyes! (rain at wheat harvest when Israel wanted a king)

Exodus 14:14 – Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today.

To “Be Still” means to be still, silent, to rest as in: Psalm 4:4 + 5 – In your anger do not sin; when you are on your beds, search your hearts and be silent. Offer right sacrifices and trust in the Lord.

Habakkuk 2:20 – But the Lord is in His holy temple; let all the earth be silent before Him.

Jeremiah 23:18 – 22 Who has listened and heard His word? …. But if they had stood in my council, they would have proclaimed My words to My people and would have turned them from their evil ways and from their evil deeds.

To “Be Still” means to be quiet, hush or come to silence as in: Nehemiah 8: 10 + 11 – Do not grieve for the joy of the Lord is your strength. The Levites calmed all the people, saying, ”Be still for this is a sacred day. Do not grieve.

Zechariah 2:13 – Be still before the Lord, all mankind, because he has roused himself from His holy dwelling.

To “Be Still” means to be feeble, weakened, faint as in: Psalm 46:10 – Be still, and know that I AM God.  “Know” is yada it means knowing by observing and reflecting on things or by experiencing it.

In any of its meanings for me to be still is very hard; I try, sometimes I can do it many times I don’t.  For me anyway this is not meditation or musing over a thought this is just standing/sitting still and quite before God.  If you can really reach a time of being still you may find yourself like Oral Roberts in his book The Ultimate Voice (p. 101), “There was no moving of my physical body, only the wild beating of my heart.” 

All verses are NIV.

Waiting on God

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Isaiah 40: 27 – 31. This is a great Bible verse and people will frequently turn to this passage when they are tired and not sure they can go on.  We focus on verses 30 and 31 and seldom read it in context; we read #31 and start to hope so we can get strength.  I also have done this but one day I started looking up some keywords; I don’t think what I found changes the reality of the verse, but it changes where we should put our emphasis.

One thing that I always suggest in studying any verse is to look at it in different translations and look it up in a concordance, so you get the meaning of the words in their original usage.  For this study I used the King James, so I looked in my Strong’s Concordance which has the Vine’s Dictionary incorporated into it.

I feel that it is God speaking here and in verse 27 scolds and comforts by asking,” Why do you think I am ignoring your cries.” In 28 He reminds us that He is not the problem and in 29 states He is always ready to help us. But verse 31 is where I got a whole new meaning in this passage. Hope is and can be translated as “wait” and renew does not carry the English meaning I thought it would.  Renew is chalaph (H 2498) in Hebrew and it carries the meaning of letting something “slide by or hasten away or change.”  One concordance even suggested the idea of losing something.

I always thought I would get my strength boosted; instead, it seems that I will get rid of my strength and get NEW strength – God’s strength. Then we can soar like an eagle.

Isa 40:27 Why do you say, O Jacob, and complain, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD; my cause is disregarded by my God”?

Isa 40:28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.

Isa 40:29 He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.

Isa 40:30 Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall;

Isa 40:31 but those who hope (wait) in the LORD will renew (lose, hasten away, change) their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. (NIV) I added things to emphasize.

Another interesting numerological idea about Isaiah 40 is that if you look at Isaiah as having 66 chapters like the Bible has 66 books then chapter 40 relates to the beginning of the New Testament, and it is the chapter that transitions to the hopeful part of Isaiah.

The Holy Bible, New International Version®. Pradis CD-ROM:Isa 40:27. Grand Rapids: The Zondervan Corporation, © 1973, 1978, 1984.

It is Bad Luck to be Superstitious

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Superstitious comes from a Latin phrase “to stand in terror of the deity.”  The Catholic Encyclopedia states that there are four types of superstitions:

  • improper worship of the one true God (indebitus veri Dei cultus);
  • idolatry:
  • divination;
  • vain observances, which include magic and occult arts.

Here are some examples of these things in the Bible.

Numbers 21: 9 Moses made the brazen serpent (Nehushtan) to heal the people who were bitten by the snakes.  It worked once so they kept it and worshiped it instead of the God who was testing their faith.  In 2 Kings, 18: 4 Hezekiah (a good king) broke it into pieces because of the worship of it.  It had worked once so just always do it that way instead of following God.  People want something to see to worship; God wants it done in the spirit.

1 Samuel 4:3 Israel been beaten by the Philistines because the Ark was not in the camp.  There is no mention of them seeking God before the battle as David and Joshua had done, they were using the ark as a good luck piece.  They had put God in a box that was to magically work wonders just by its mere presence.  They acted just like they did in Jericho and they yelled so loud that the earth shook.  Jericho is the only place mentioned that the Ark was involved in a battle.  

1 Samuel 5:5 the presence of God knocked Dagon to the floor and broke off its head and hands on to the threshold of the door.  So the Philistines never stepped on it again as they went through the door.  In Zephaniah 1:9 the Israelites and picked up that habit so that God was going to “punish all who avoid stepping on the threshold.”  Probably the custom of carrying the bride across the threshold of the house roots itself in this superstition. Watching the people of the world instead of following a holy God, you pick up their religious habits.

Jeremiah 44: 17 the Israelites made cakes to the queen of heaven and poured out drink offerings.  They were convinced that because they stopped doing this they were having bad luck.  “If it works for them we should do it too, and it worked once do it again.”  The concept that food can bring us closer to God is laid to rest in 1 Corinthians 8: 8; so much for eating black-eyed peas and cabbage on New Year’s.

1 Kings 20: 13 Ahab defeats Ben-Hadad and his counselors start guessing why they had been beaten and what they had to do to beat Israel. They decided that the Lord must be a god of the hills so they were going to fight them in the valley next time. Think about coaches who will wear only a certain tie while they coach or they won’t shave if they are winning. Or players who won’t change their socks or at least won’t wash them during the season they are convinced that a thing had something to do with them winning.  Dirty batting helmets or slapping a sign or spot before they go out to a game are also very common acts of luck.

Four leaf clovers, black cats, salt over the shoulder, Friday the Thirteenth or any number of other things that people think are lucky or bad luck.  Some have a natural answer why it happened once like never light three smokes with one match. A soldier did this and the enemy was able to fix the location and shoot him.

Now people also have this in the church, one minister told the story of a church where a person got filled with the Holy Spirit sitting on the piano, the same thing happened the next week.  So, the third week they were trying to get people to sit on the piano to be filled with the Spirit.

How should we act – Fix our eyes on Jesus, He is the author and finisher of our faith.

References:http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14339a.htm

The Number Thirteen in the Bible

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The number thirteen in the Bible heralds that a change is coming. We like to attach all sorts of meanings to numbers, but the truth is that God created numbers for His use (See Genesis 1). Thirteen as used in the Bible is another number that God uses to show His plan for His people.

Numerology is part of studying the Bible; there are certain numbers that have been assigned certain meanings.  Three, seven, six, twelve, eight, and forty are just a few numbers that most Christians will be able to give you as having an important significance in the Bible. Three is a “God” number for the three persons of the Trinity.  Seven represents completeness from the seven days of the week. Six is the number of man this comes from the fact that we were made on the sixth day and the number 666 from the Book of Revelation.  Twelve represents the government as shown by the twelve disciples and the number of the tribes of Israel (the sons of Jacob). Forty is the number of testing or trail as shown in the years spent by Israel in the wilderness and the length of days Jesus was tested after He received the Holy Spirit. Eight is the number of new beginnings given that the eighth day of Creation started a new week.  The number fourteen is also an interesting study if you would like to see mine you may click this address https://ificouldteachthebible.wordpress.com/2013/07/21/the-number-fourteen-in-the-bible/  A study of the number fifteen is available at Cleaning Up to Celebrate.

Unfortunately, people and Christians in particular start to focus on the number instead of the God of the numbers. So we get people with triskaidekaphobia which is the fear of the number thirteen. Beliefs about this number are varied and separating fact from fiction is impossible. Some early ideas on this number and its “significance” to bring bad luck are hinged on the assumption that there were only 13 people at the Last Supper and that Jesus died on a Friday the 13th. (World Book Encyclopedia)

WHY I would like to offer a different look at the number 13 from a Biblical perspective. I already know that this does not fit into most numerological frameworks but I will ask you to follow through with my reasons and then you make up your mind.  I will show that a possible meaning for the number thirteen is the signal for the “start of or the beginning of something new.”  I am not trying to mix this with the number eight in any way.

Examples of Thirteen in the Bible These are a few of the instances that there are thirteen of something and each of these represents the “start of a new thing.”

1. In Genesis 17:25 Ishmael is circumcised at the age of thirteen which is when God made the promise to Abraham; this contrasts with Isaac being circumcised at eight days old.

2. 1 Kings 7:1 Solomon took 13 years to complete his palace.

3. Genesis 14: 4 Sodom rebelled after 13 years of servitude to Chedorlaomer king of Elam (Babylon) and Abraham rescued Lot.  This brought on Melchizedek’s blessing and Abraham’s covenant with God.

4. Esther 3: 12 Haman had orders written on the 13th day of the first month about the 13th day of last month to kill all Jews.  They have to defend themselves and so put an end to the threats of Haman the Agagite, who is an Amalekite, and a new time of freedom for the Jews.

5. Jeremiah starts his ministry in the 13th year of Josiah (Jeremiah 1:2).  Josiah had started purifying the land in his 12th year of being a king.  Jeremiah may have been 13 years old when his ministry started.  The term for his age shows a child up to the age of becoming a young man.

6. Joseph was 17 years old when he was taken as a slave. He was 30 when Pharaoh put him in charge of Egypt (13 years). Genesis 37:2 to 41:46.

7. The Children of Israel went around Jericho 13 times before they yelled and the walls fell down.

There are many more “13’s” in the Bible but I hope you get my point about it showing a “new start.”

My personal feeling about thirteen/Friday the 13 and other lucky things is summed up in this: It is bad luck to be superstitious!  ← (This is another post in my blog.)

So I look at it this way.

 Number 13

graphic by Ryan Johanningmeier

Ryan Johanningmeier – Oklahoma, USA, RyanJo Productions, Oral Roberts University | about.me