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- Is the church today doing everything it can to provide women a firm foundation of truth in Christ Jesus?
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- Well, it's true, there's no shortage of candy -coated Bible studies, potluck fellowships available to ladies.
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- But beyond Sunday morning, are Christian women being properly equipped to stand against the same deceptions that even enticed
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- Eve in the garden? In an attempt to address the need for trustworthy, biblical resources for women,
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- No Compromise Radio is happy to introduce Equipping Eve, a ladies -only radio show that seeks to equip women with fruits of truth in an age that's ripe with deception.
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- My name is Mike Ebendroth and I'm pleased to introduce your host, Erin Benzinger, a friend of No Compromise Radio and a woman who wants to see other women equipped with a love for and a knowledge of the truth of God's Word.
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- Well, hello ladies and welcome to Equipping Eve. I am your host,
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- Erin Benzinger, and this is the show that goes back to the Bible, right?
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- You heard the tagline at the start of the show, we seek to equip you with fruits of truth from God's Word, and really, in reality, that maybe isn't the best phrase because it makes it sound like we're kind of cherry -picking, if you will, to continue the fruit pun, and just kind of picking truths here and there that we like.
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- That's not how we get equipped from God's Word, is it? Is it, ladies? And if you've been listening for any length of time, you knew
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- I was going to say that. No, no, no. Fruits of truth from God's Word.
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- God's Word is a bountiful banquet feast of truth. God's Word is the only objective truth that we have, that we can know, and that is why it is so very, very precious to us, right?
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- If we have been saved, we love God's Word. Why do we love
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- God's Word so much? It's not that we worship the Bible, but God has given us the
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- Bible. God has given us His Word, and there's a reason He did that, right?
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- Sixty -six books, ladies, written over a period of approximately 1 ,500 to 2 ,000 years, written by approximately 40 human writers, and yet it is consistent.
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- It does not contradict itself. It actually explains itself. If you read through it, you know, people love to find the contradictions in the
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- Bible. No, no, no. The Bible actually explains itself. That's why we say, use Scripture to interpret Scripture. It has accurately prophesied major future events.
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- It's really easy to see that they were prophesied in Scripture, and you can sit and argue all you want that the
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- Scriptures were written after those events happened. It doesn't work. It doesn't actually work out in a way that you can prove that.
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- There's no false testimony in the Word. That is how we know that it is God's Word and not man's, right?
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- Those are just some of the reasons that we know. And so why, why do we love God's Word so much?
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- Ladies, I don't know about you, but I love it because in God's Word, Christ is revealed.
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- Even in the Old Testament, way back in Genesis, we see a
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- Savior. We see a Redeemer. We see a Messiah. Christ is in every single book of the
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- Bible. The Bible, it has the law and the law that shows us our sin, right?
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- You know, it's like a mirror and you look at it and you go, ugh, I'm in trouble because I'm gross and I am sinful and I cannot undo that.
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- And I cannot make any sort of propitiation. I cannot redeem myself because I am so sinful.
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- What am I supposed to do? Because God is holy. God is perfect. He is pure.
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- He has said, without the shedding of blood, there can be no forgiveness of sins. What am I supposed to do now?
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- I see my sin. This law has revealed my sin to me.
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- What do I do about it? Well, you can't do anything.
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- We just said that, right? You can't give enough money. You can't pray enough prayers.
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- Your prayers cannot save you unless that prayer is, Lord, be merciful to me, the sinner, and we call upon Christ and put our trust and faith in him alone.
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- Because he lived that perfect life that we cannot live, didn't he? And he died the death that we deserve and bore the wrath of God that we deserve and yet was raised three days later demonstrating
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- Father's acceptance of that sacrifice. And all of that wonderful truth is contained in the scriptures.
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- The person of Jesus Christ, he is revealed in the scriptures. So often teachers might focus on Christ's teaching and I'm certainly not downplaying that because it's in the
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- Bible. It's important. That's how we know how Christ would have us to live and how we are to worship him.
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- That is how we know what it is to be a Christian, through the teachings of Christ. That's what the apostles taught, the teachings of Christ.
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- But before we know what he taught, we need to know who he is. That's all in the
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- Bible. Those four gospels, they're in there for a reason.
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- It is so that you can know Christ. Not just know what he said because then you start to slip into law again without an appropriate picture of who
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- Jesus Christ is. I say is because he lives, right?
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- We serve a living Savior. Again, all of that amazing, wonderful, awesome truth is contained in the
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- Bible and that is why we go back to the Bible here at Equipping Eve now.
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- I didn't do this at the beginning so I have to do it now because I don't think I've done it for a few shows. You can find
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- Equipping Eve on Facebook, unfortunately. Yes, we're on Facebook. There's not a lot of activity there, but we're there.
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- Search on Equipping Eve and you can find us there and you can find me on Twitter.
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- I have two Twitter handles. I have Equipping Eve. You can find me there. I also have one through my blog,
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- Do Not Be Surprised. That Twitter handle is at ebensblog and that's probably the best way to get me because I use that one more often simply because it's been around for quite a while.
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- That is how you can find me. You can email me, equippingeve .org, etc., etc.
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- I love to hear from you. I am looking at a stack of books in my bookshelf that I have set aside to give away, to do giveaways.
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- I'm not announcing a giveaway right now, but I'm going to say stay tuned to the social media pages and the website.
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- I think I'm going to have to do something pretty soon because the stack's getting tall and it's like I'm hoarding these awesome resources.
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- Stay tuned. I think we shall be doing a giveaway one of these days, hopefully soon.
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- Maybe before this airs. Who knows? Stay tuned. Okay, so I've been talking for way too long without getting into the show.
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- And I've actually kind of already revealed my hand a little bit, I think, going to talk about the
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- Bible today. Oh, shocker. You didn't know that, did you? But first, let's do a little exercise in illustration.
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- So I am looking at this box of Bible promises. I don't know if I've brought these up on the show before or not.
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- So I picked this up at a bookstore and it's called, it's a box of blessings. So who wouldn't want that?
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- Right? So I bought this for myself. Let's keep that in mind. And it's called Promises from God for Women.
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- So men, I know you're not listening anyway, but you know, these are not for you.
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- No, no. These are, these are for women. These are for ladies. So keep in mind, I bought this for myself, like I just said, and that's what makes this first one so hilarious that I'm going to read to you.
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- It says, you fill my life with joyful moments. So yay me, I fill my own life with joyful moments.
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- And on the back it says, the Lord will love you and bless you, Deuteronomy 7 .13. Okay, you know what, let's open our
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- Bibles. I have mine here on my lap. So turn with me to Deuteronomy 7 .13. Hmm.
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- Well, wait a minute. I think we're going to have to go back a little bit. It seems to me that God's not speaking to me in this verse.
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- It seems to me he might be talking to Israel. Hmm. Okay, so Deuteronomy 7, let's go back to verse 7.
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- The Lord did not set his love on you, nor choose you, because you were more a number than any of the peoples. For you were the fewest of all peoples.
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- But because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which he swore to your forefathers, the Lord brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.
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- Yeah, that wasn't me. God did not do that for me. That was for the Israelites. Anyway, moving on.
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- Verse 9. Know therefore that the Lord your God, he is God, the faithful God, who keeps his covenant and his lovingkindness to a thousandth generation with those who love him and keep his commandments.
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- That is true. God does not change, but repays those who hate him to their faces to destroy them.
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- He will not delay with him who hates him. He will repay him to his face. Therefore you shall keep the commandment and the statutes and the judgments which
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- I am commanding you today to do them. Verse 12. Then it shall come about because you listen to these judgments and keep and do them that the
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- Lord your God will keep with you his will keep with you his covenant and his lovingkindness which he swore to your forefathers.
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- He will love you and bless you and multiply you. He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock in the land which he swore to your forefathers to give you.
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- That was verse 13. Now wait a minute. This card says the Lord will love you and bless you. I'm not saying that that's not true.
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- The Lord loves those who are his and certainly gives us blessings beyond what we deserve because we deserve condemnation.
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- But let's read verse 13 again. He will love you and bless you and multiply you. They left that off.
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- He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock in the land which he swore to your forefathers to give you.
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- Okay. So. Hmm. Verse 14.
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- You shall be blessed above all peoples. There will be no male or female barren among you or among your cattle. It seems to me, correct me if I'm wrong via email, since this is one way here.
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- It seems to me that that verse that is supposedly a promise from God for women doesn't actually apply to anybody except the
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- Israelites to whom he was speaking back here in Deuteronomy 7, 13.
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- Hmm. Ladies, that would be an example, an illustration of taking a verse out of context, not even a whole verse.
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- Right? I mean, it was just like just a couple of words from that verse because that verse is telling me he's going to bless the fruit of my womb and the fruit of your ground and grain, your new wine and your oil, the increase of your herd, the young of your flock.
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- I don't have herds or flocks, so we're running into problems here. That verse does not apply to me.
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- It does not apply to you, actually. So what do we have here?
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- We have a problem with context. Right? We have a problem with the context of the verse because we're not understanding the background of that verse in terms of the context within the chapter, the context within that book of the
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- Bible, the context within its placement in Scripture. That is from the Pentateuch, the first five books of the
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- Bible. What is the context of this verse? From the verse of the media at least surrounding it to the chapter, to the book, to its placement in Scripture, to its role in Scripture as Scripture reveals
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- Christ to us as we talked about earlier. See, this is a huge problem in professing evangelicalism, this issue of context.
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- Right? How many dish towels and mugs and t -shirts have we seen, we can do all things through Christ who gives me strength, you know?
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- Be still and know that I am God. We are so good at pulling out little nuggets from the
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- Bible and saying, that makes me feel warm and fuzzy, I'm going to slap that on a mug so that when
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- I drink my coffee, I feel really good about myself. It's ridiculous. That is not how we study the
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- Bible. And what's even more dangerous than a mug or a t -shirt is there are entire Bible studies that are done this way.
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- So many women's ministry resources are like this. You know, they twist a
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- Bible story and they make it about you and it's completely ripped out of context. That's not how we study
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- Scripture. So, I came across an article a couple of weeks ago that I found really helpful and that's what put this idea of context in my mind and you might often hear context, context, context, the first three rules of biblical interpretation.
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- Well, it's true. Context is key. It's king. So, I came across this article that sparked my idea to talk about this and it's a great article.
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- So, I thought I would share it with you. So, it's written by my friend Michelle Leslie and her website is michelleslesliebooks .com
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- and that's Leslie with an E -Y, so michelleslesliebooks .com
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- and she wrote this on April 19th. It's called Bible Book Backgrounds, Why You Need Them and Where to Find Them.
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- And I thought, well that's a fascinating little topic, why didn't I ever think to write something like that? And that's why
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- I love Michelle. She has a really great website and some great resources, so I highly recommend her site to you.
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- And she's also on Facebook and Twitter, so you should follow her. Okay, so she writes, it's time for your daily
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- Bible study. You've decided to study Habakkuk or Philippians or Lamentations. When you pick up a random book of the
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- Bible to study it, how do you know what's going on in biblical history at the time the book was written? How do you know when the book was written and by whom?
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- How do you know who the intended audience was? How do you know where, geographically, the action takes place?
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- How do you know the cultural aspects of the period that will help you better understand allusions and customs? Unless you've done a considerable amount of study in the field of biblical history in the ancient
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- Middle East, the answer is you probably don't know all these things. And as a result, your study of the book you've chosen probably isn't going to be as fully orbed as it could be.
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- And let me stop here. You know, we were just talking about context within scripture, but there is more to the context of a verse or passage of scripture.
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- And that is, Michelle hit it, hit the nail on the head, it is the background of that book that you're reading.
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- You know, what is the cultural context? And you think about it so often, you hear teachers kind of interpreting the
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- Bible in terms of 21st century America. Well, no, that doesn't work, right?
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- Because the original audience to whom these letters and whatnot were originally written, we have to take that into consideration.
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- What were they understanding when they read this text based on the cultural context?
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- That is really important. It's important that we read the New Testament, for example, with an understanding of the first century, right?
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- We need to understand that we can't read it simply coming from 21st century
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- America, because we're going to misunderstand things. A perfect example is the issue of slavery, the issue of slavery, and, you know, think of the book of Philemon, we think of slavery in one way here in America, while slavery in the
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- Bible is very different. And we're going to come back to that, but I want to go back to Michelle's article really fast before I jump ahead of myself too much.
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- So she goes on and kind of gives some ideas to help us understand the background of a biblical book.
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- You know, if we're going to do Bible study, we might as well do it right, right? So she says macro
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- Bible study is one way. She says reading every book of the Bible is the best way to get a good grip on the meta narrative of Scripture.
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- And she recommends a chronological read through of the Bible every few years. And I think that's a great idea because the
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- Bible books aren't necessarily in chronological order. She says pay attention to the text.
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- And what I love about this article is Michelle is first taking you back to the Bible itself, like find your context within the
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- Bible. You know, you don't have to have a library full of books to understand these things. You just have to actually read the
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- Bible. So she says you have this macro Bible study, then pay attention to the text. She says sometimes the details you're looking for are in the text itself.
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- Perhaps a certain month and day are mentioned or during the reign of King so and so. If the text specifies a certain city or country, look it up on a good
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- Bible map to get your bearings. Sometimes a particular custom or expression is explained as an aside.
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- Some books specify who they're written to in the first few verses. She says use your Bible's footnotes and cross -reference notations and look up any related verses that can bring clarity.
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- That is so helpful. And then she says Bible book backgrounds.
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- She says this is an overview or survey to read before you begin the book of scripture you'll be studying. I found that it's helpful to use a survey of the book as a foundation and framework for subsequent study of the text.
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- While some commentaries contain an introduction to each book of the Bible, many do not. But she recommends several online sites that provide helpful
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- Bible book backgrounds. So she links them to these. There's Bible Introductions at Grace to You.
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- And so these are written by John MacArthur. And Bible Book Overviews at Reformed Answers.
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- I'm not familiar with that. Bible Surveys at Got Questions. I'm also not familiar with that, but you can check them out.
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- She's got the links and I will link to her article. And she says Best Book in the Bible at Entreating Favor.
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- It's a work in progress, but they're doing a little bit of background information in that blog series there at Entreating Favor.
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- So I want to go back to her first recommendation, which is the Bible Introductions at Grace to You. These are available online, but they're also found in the
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- MacArthur Study Bible. And so that's always helpful, right? Because a lot of us have a
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- MacArthur Study Bible. And if you don't, it's fantastic that it's available online to you, right?
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- So I just mentioned Philemon and this issue of slavery. And again, you know, we here in America have one understanding of slavery from our country's history, and it's not a favorable understanding.
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- And that's OK. You know, that's our history and that's the way it is. But we cannot, when we read about slavery in the
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- Bible, we cannot read that understanding back into the scriptures.
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- We need to be really careful of that. And so Philemon is a great example of this. And so I'm looking at the
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- Bible background in the MacArthur Study Bible. Well, this is actually the MacArthur Bible Commentary, but it's all of the
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- Study Bible Notes in one big book without the actual scripture. So it's the same thing.
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- So let's see, this I'll just read the headings to you so you can understand how this is helpful.
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- It talks about the title, it talks about the author and date, the background and setting, the historical and theological themes.
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- Nine interpretive challenges. So those are kind of standard headings for each of these Bible backgrounds that are offered in this resource from Grace to You and John MacArthur.
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- So regarding the Book of Philemon, MacArthur writes, Philemon provides valuable historical insights into the early church's relationship to the institution of slavery.
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- Slavery was widespread in the Roman Empire. According to some estimates, slaves constituted one third, perhaps more of the population.
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- It's important for us to understand that, right? And it was an accepted part of life. In Paul's day, slavery had virtually eclipsed free labor.
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- Slaves could be doctors, musicians, teachers, artists, librarians or accountants.
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- In short, almost all jobs could be and were filled by slaves. Do you hear that?
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- Do you see what a difference that is from our understanding of slavery here in America? So he goes on, he says, slaves were not legally considered persons, but were the tools of their masters.
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- So again, that's not good. I'm not saying that slavery was wonderful back in the first century.
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- But what we need to understand is it was viewed very differently. As such, they could be bought, sold, inherited, exchanged or seized to pay their master's debt.
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- Their masters had virtually unlimited power to punish them and sometimes did so severely for the slightest infractions.
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- By the time of the New Testament, however, slavery was beginning to change. Realizing that contented slaves were more productive, masters tended to treat them more leniently.
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- It was not uncommon for a master to teach a slave his own trade, and some masters and slaves became close friends.
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- While not recognizing them as persons under the law, the Roman Senate in A .D. 20 granted slaves accused of crimes the right to a trial.
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- It also became more common for slaves to be granted or to purchase their freedom. Some slaves enjoyed very favorable and profitable service under their masters and were better off than many freemen because they were assured of care and provision, while many freemen struggled in poverty.
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- The New Testament nowhere directly attacks slavery. Had it done so, the resulting slave insurrections would have been brutally suppressed and the message of the gospel hopelessly confused with that of social reform.
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- These are really important points. Instead, Christianity undermined the evils of slavery by changing the hearts of slaves and masters.
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- By emphasizing the spiritual equality of master and slave, as we see in verse 16 of Philemon, Galatians 3 .28,
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- Ephesians 6 .9, Colossians 4 .1, 1 Timothy 6 .1 and 2, the Bible did away with slavery's abuses.
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- The rich theological theme that dominates the letter Philemon is forgiveness, a featured theme throughout
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- New Testament scripture. Paul's instruction here provides a biblical definition of forgiveness without ever using the word.
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- So you see how important that is then to understand the book of Philemon, to understand when we see slavery talked about, especially in the
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- New Testament, to understand what the understanding was of that institution back then, as opposed to seeing it from our
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- Western eyes. So that's just kind of a really blatant example to turn to.
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- But this is why context, even the context of the background, the cultural historical background of what you're reading, is so important.
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- Because when we are not looking at the whole context of scripture, ladies, you know what we end up doing?
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- We end up narcegeting the text. And that's a word that's certainly made its way around the internet in recent years.
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- But you think of the term exegesis and you exegete the text.
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- Well, narcegete, narcissism, exegete. You read yourself into the text. And that's exactly what happens when we ignore the biblical context, the biblical and historical context of a passage.
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- We see, and this is often done with Old Testament stories, you know, we see teachers taking an
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- Old Testament story and we twist it and turn it and suddenly it's all about you. And it has nothing to do with the original context.
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- You are David slaying your Goliaths and your Goliath is, you know, shopping. It's ridiculous.
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- That's not how this works. That's not how Bible study works. And if we attempt
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- Bible study that way, we don't see Christ in the scriptures. We see ourselves.
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- And then suddenly the scriptures aren't going to be enough for us. Well, why? Because they're kind of making us uncomfortable.
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- You know, we have to do a lot of gymnastics to try to make them about us. Because when we don't do that, then we might get convicted a little bit and then we don't like that.
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- So now we start looking for experiences outside of scripture because we say we want to go deeper with God, quote unquote, go deeper.
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- But what we really want is to feel warm and fuzzy. And when I was studying
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- Jonah, I didn't get a warm fuzzy.
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- So I'm going to wait for the still small voice because I didn't understand that story in context either.
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- And now I've walked away from scripture. I've poorly interpreted scripture, but now
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- I've also walked away from it because it's no longer enough for me because I've not been looking at it rightly.
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- So now I'm expecting new revelation from God, personal revelation specifically for me.
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- And I'm looking to add things to the pack of my Bible when God speaks to me personally and it becomes all about me.
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- There's one popular Bible teacher who is quite skilled at twisting the scripture to suit her own purposes.
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- And she has written in one of her books, quote, I got a bit of a late start writing today. Toward the end of the praise and worship service
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- I attended in the den of my cabin this morning by myself, I heard the voice of God speak to my heart and it said, come and play.
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- I love that he said, come not go, come. That meant he was already there. I also love how
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- I could tell by the sweet tone of the silent voice whispering to my spirit that he was smiling. Let me stop here.
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- This doesn't make any sense. And this is a whole other topic of how women are attracted to gobbledygook.
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- This is just nonsensical. If you sit and read these sentences and break them down, they don't make any sense.
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- And they sound really flowery and frou -frou and just lovely, but they're, they're stupid.
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- I'm just going to say that word. They're stupid if you sit and look at them. I love how I could tell by the sweet tone of the silent voice.
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- There's a silent voice, but it has a tone. It's silent with a tone and it's whispering, but it's silent. And she can tell that God is smiling.
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- Well, that's ridiculous. It's nonsense. And yet this woman draws huge crowds.
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- And so she goes on and says, come in place. So I did. I built a snowman.
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- I used grapes for his eyes and a half moon shaped sesame snack made the perfect smile. I laughed with God.
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- He laughed with me. Why is that? Because scripture wasn't enough for her anymore.
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- And so she decided she needed an experience. And hey, you know, God appeared to people in the
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- Bible and he spoke to them and gave them dreams and visions. And he still does the same thing today. Does he?
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- Does he? Does he do that? One writer has said, quote, when
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- God spoke to the prophets, it always had to do with his redemptive plan, not personal issues in their lives, unless it involved his redemptive plan.
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- End quote. That's really key because that means that God wasn't telling the prophets and the apostles wasn't appearing to them to go build a snowman.
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- It has nothing to do with God's redemptive plan. And yet this author, speaker, says she made a snowman with God and laughed with God.
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- It's nonsense. That quote came from Beth Moore's book, When Godly People Do Ungodly Things, Finding Authentic Restoration in the
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- Age of Seduction. Well, it's an age of seduction, but it is seduction by whatever thing was talking to her and telling her to go build a snowman.
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- Because that thing was not God. But this is what happens when we start to throw away scripture.
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- Because if we're not studying scripture in context, this is a progression, ladies. If we're not studying scripture in context, then we're not understanding it rightly.
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- We're not getting the actual truths that it contains. We're too busy trying to make it about ourselves. And all of a sudden, that's not enough.
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- God's word isn't enough for us because we've refused up to this point to hear it for what it has to say.
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- And so now we have to go out and find experiences. And all of a sudden, we have a silent voice talking to us.
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- And it's smiling. It's nonsense. And it's because we're not reading the
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- Bible in its right context. Oh, God appeared to people in the Bible, and he can do the same thing today.
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- Really? Have you read Isaiah 6? Have you read the book of Revelation?
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- Let's turn to those quickly, shall we? Turn to Isaiah 6 with me. You want a vision like they have in the
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- Bible? Isaiah 6. In the year of King Uzziah's death, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of his rope filling the temple.
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- Seraphim stood above him. Actually, let me go back. Verse 1, right there. This is what Michelle Less was talking about. In the year of King Uzziah's death.
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- There we go. We have a date now for this passage of scripture. Moving on.
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- Verse 2. Seraphim stood above him, each having six wings. With two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.
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- One called out to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory.
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- And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out while the temple was filling with smoke. Then I said,
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- Woe is me, for I am ruined, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips.
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- For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs.
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- He touched my mouth with it and said, Behold, this has touched your lips, and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin is forgiven.
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- Demonstrating the cleansing of sin. So there we go. This is not a vision meant just for Isaiah.
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- And he's not laughing with God and building a snowman. He's saying, Woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips.
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- These people who hear from God regularly and see God and this and that, I have yet to hear them say that they fell down flat on their face when they saw the
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- Lord or when they heard from the Lord. Instead, they're just prancing and dancing around through fields of flowers or snow -filled fields making snowmen.
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- And yet we love that because it appeals to our sinful fallen flesh that would much rather have that warm fuzzy feeling than actually get into the truths of Scripture.
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- Scripture convicts. But ladies, if we study it, it also comforts and it encourages because it is the word of our
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- Lord. Revelation chapter 1.
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- John is describing seeing the risen Christ. Verse 14.
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- His head and his hair were white like white wool, like snow, and his eyes were like a flame of fire.
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- His feet were like burnished bronze when it had been made to glow in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of many waters.
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- In his right hand, he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp two -edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in its strength.
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- When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man. So John didn't see him.
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- I mean, John walked with Jesus on the earth, and yet here he's seeing the Lord Jesus Christ and says, when
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- I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man. He didn't say, hey,
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- Jesus, what's up? I see that your hair is white like snow. There's some snow over there. You want to go have a snowball fight?
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- Let's go build a snowman. No, no. I fell at his feet like a dead man.
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- Oh, that's so different. Because John knew who
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- Christ was. Because John knew the scriptures. They hadn't all been written yet.
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- He was in the process of writing some of them. John knew.
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- And that is why we study the scriptures, so that we can know Christ because he is holy, but he is merciful and forgiving and loving.
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- And so we study the Bible so that we can come to know the God whom we serve and know him rightly and know all of his attributes, not just that God is love, not just that he is the judge.
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- He is all those things. And so we strive to study the
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- Bible well, understand the context, the historical context and the biblical context, and don't just pick out a few verses that make us feel good on a gloomy day.
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- It's so important. It's so key. Studying scripture and context keeps us from delving into our narcissistic selves.
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- It does not because it points us back to Christ, because scripture points us back to Christ. Well, ladies,
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- I have gone on way too long. So I hope this has encouraged you to maybe dive in with your personal
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- Bible study and maybe toss in some historical context study too, so that you can really understand what you're reading, understand it a little bit more.
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- I know it's encouraged me. And so I hope that it has done the same for you. And until the next time, ladies, get in your
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- Bibles and get on your knees and get equipped. Thanks for listening. You've been listening to Equipping Eve, a no -compromise radio production.
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- If you'd like to get a hold of Erin, you can reach her at equippingeve at gmail .com, or you can check out one of our two websites, do notbesurprised .com