This will be a multiple part study. That said, in my personal study and growth I want to see more than what I’ve heard for most of my life growing up in church and attending Sunday school. What do I mean? Well if you’ve spent any amount time growing up in Sunday school you no doubt have heard all the tales from the Bible and probably have missed their deeper meanings. I’m not just talking about as a child either. I know many churches use curriculums and I’ve been a teacher myself so I know what Bible stories are being told and what we as teachers are told to convey about them to the students. It never felt quite right, but not quite wrong either. When I began to homeschool my own children my perspective changed a lot as I was digging deeper into what I was reading in preparation to teach my kids. This preparation became a meaningful study of the scripture for me and opportunity to discuss with my own children at home. It also meant that I had to correct things they were hearing at church or that I had to go deeper to explain what God’s word was actually saying. If you don’t study the Bible at home with your children, I’d encourage you to do so. Teaching kids doesn’t mean you have to water down what the Bible says either. Just teach them the truth. In the end this will help them as they grow up to have a better and deeper understanding of the scripture and their relationship with Christ. There is equally no reason to make things too simple, losing the actual meaning, for adults. Just speak the truth. The Holy Spirit will take it from there. You can’t change hearts, only he can.

Today, a mini study for an explanation on what “God in 3 persons” means. First, let me say that as imperfect humans who are not God, without His intellect, we will never fully understand, however, scripture does reveal things to us. Who are the 3 persons? The 3 persons of God are, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. They are all fully God and they are all eternal. They are equal in rank, for lack of a better term, but they are separate in personhood. Each has a distinct role in creation and salvation. They have a personal relationship with each other. They are all God as in they are all the being or essence of God.

What does scripture say? Matthew 28:18-20 gives us a clear picture about there being 3 names under one God, not 3 Gods but persons of one God; “¹⁸ Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. ¹⁹ Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”” We also see the 3 roles, or distinct personhoods at the baptism of Jesus in Matthew 3:16-17, “When Jesus was baptized, he went up immediately from the water. The heavens suddenly opened for him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming down on him.  And a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased.””

Study the facts with me and learn why we have this book of writings that we call the Bible. Let us not read the Bible as a self-help guidebook. That does not mean the Bible isn’t for us living today, because it is. If we read the Bible without adding ourselves or searching for something to make us feel good, what do we see? What do we learn? What is the overall theme of the Bible? What is this book really about? I hope to answer these questions in today’s post to the best of my ability and understanding of studying the scripture. Let’s pray together for the Holy Spirit to guide our understanding so that we may know truth.

This is my continuation from my previous post. Again I want to get this out in the open, I’m not going to pretend I know everything ; I don’t. My goal here is not to make you believe me or convince you of my thoughts, feelings, and opinions. My goal is to help you think and ask the questions, but more importantly, to search for the truth in the scripture, so that you may grow in your knowledge and relationship with Christ. As born-again followers of Christ living in today’s world it’s so very easy to hear things that sound biblical but just are not scriptural at all. I call them the feel good mantras. They make people feel good but it’s not the reality of the teachings in the scriptures or Jesus himself. Remember, context it key. It’s never okay or correct to pull out a verse and twist it to say something it’s not saying and I pray I don’t do that. That becomes misleading. I’ve been “around the block” and I’ve heard it all. Well, maybe not “all” as these past few years I’ve heard things that shocked me that people claim the scripture says, that when I actually look for it, it’s not in there, but instead it is some man’s interpretation to get some kind of man made idea across. I’ll say it again, the Bible is not that complicated when you read it without presuppositions or man’s idea of what they want it to say. Just allow the Holy Spirit to show you what it says. Don’t read the scriptures with a YOU centered bent or a modern day Christianity idea. That is to say, there was no such thing as “Calvinism”, “dispensationalism”, “Baptist”, “Catholic”, etc, when the scriptures were written and it’s this author’s opinion you should not read the Bible this way. All of these types of interpretations can make things a lot more confusing than they really are. I’ve heard the opinions of Pastors and Bible teachers…many…and I was always left confused about things that didn’t make sense when I read the words that have been placed into what we call the Bible. I am not one to take man’s word just because he has a title like “Pastor”. This doesn’t mean I don’t respect Pastors, who to the best of their ability, are preaching the truth. I also wanted to seek out what others opinions were on many of these topics that I was taught was the only “truth”, according to some man who interpreted the Bible to say something in particular, and yet others say something else. Who’s right? Does it matter who’s right? My opinion is the only thing we have to get right is “who is Jesus and what was his purpose?”. The rest is not worth arguing over. Still, I wanted to point out things that over the years have made me nuts when I hear them because that’s not what scripture says and I do think it’s important that we understand what was written down and why in the context of who, what, and when. It’s okay for you to question your Pastors, your teachers, and your traditions, but do it with your Bible in your hand.