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Word Day 4 Follow & Remove: Digging Deeper

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Digging Deeper Days

Finding the original intent of Scripture and making good application to our everyday lives as we become equipped to correctly handle the Word of Truth!

Yesterday’s Journey Study connects with today’s!
Check out Follow & Remove!

The Questions

1) Why did Jesus go to Jerusalem for the Passover and why is this important to this passage? (verse 13)

2) Why did the actions of the people in the temple make Jesus so angry and why was His anger not sinful? (verses 15-16)

3) Why did Jesus not entrust Himself to them? (verse 24)

John 2:13-24

13 The Jewish Passover was near, and so Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple he found people selling oxen, sheep, and doves, and he also found the money changers sitting there. 15 After making a whip out of cords, he drove everyone out of the temple with their sheep and oxen. He also poured out the money changers’ coins and overturned the tables. 16 He told those who were selling doves, “Get these things out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a marketplace!”

17 And his disciples remembered that it is written: Zeal for your house will consume me.
18 So the Jews replied to him, “What sign will you show us for doing these things?” 19 Jesus answered, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it up in three days.” 20 Therefore the Jews said, “This temple took forty-six years to build, and will you raise it up in three days?”

21 But he was speaking about the temple of his body. 22 So when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the statement Jesus had made. 23 While he was in Jerusalem during the Passover Festival, many believed in his name when they saw the signs he was doing. 24 Jesus, however, would not entrust himself to them, since he knew them all

Original Intent

1) Why did Jesus go to Jerusalem for the Passover and why is this important to this passage? (verse 13)
Deuteronomy 16:16 instructed all men to appear before the Lord three times a year. The Festival of Unleavened Bread, which Passover is part of, was one of those times. Jesus would have made the journey to Jerusalem in accordance with this instruction along with all the other Israelite males as Jerusalem was the religious center of Israel. Therefore, the city would have been a bustling place full of travelers. The temple was located in Jerusalem and these travelers were also required to make a sacrifice while they were there. All of these details set up the scene we read about in this passage.

2) Why did the actions of the people in the temple make Jesus so angry and why was His anger not sinful? (verses 15-16)
Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread would have brought many travelers into Jerusalem all of whom were required to offer sacrifices to God according to the Law. While some would have brought their sacrifice with them, several would have arrived needing to purchase an animal for the sacrifice. The people of Jerusalem had chosen to set up a marketplace in the Temple Courts to not only sell animals, but also offer money changing services as people would have needed local currency. These merchants sold for a higher price and took up the space in the Temple that would have otherwise been reserved for worship. Jesus shows up and is angry at what is taking place in His Father’s house. He is angered at the Temple being defiled and people being cheated out of their money. Not only are they defiling the Temple, but they are profiting from their actions. Jesus shows His anger by clearing out the Temple of the merchants. However, this anger was not sinful because Jesus was responding to sin, He was responding to His Father being insulted. Neither was He acting “out of control” in His anger as we read that He had taken the time to “(make) a whip out of cords” (verse 15) as He observed the defilement around Him. Therefore, Christ’s actions were coming from a place of righteous anger and were not sinful.

3) Why did Jesus not entrust Himself to them? (verse 24)
Being the Son of God, Jesus knew the hearts of those standing before Him. He knew when He was being misunderstood or when faith was not genuine. Many eyewitnesses, who followed Jesus and saw all He did during His time in Jerusalem, noticed He was different, but did not embrace Him as the Son of God. Jesus knew they thought He was a good teacher, or possibly a prophet, but they refused to recognize Him as the promised Messiah. As a result, Jesus chose to keep Himself at a distance from those who didn’t genuinely believe Him.

Everyday Application

1) Why did Jesus go to Jerusalem for the Passover and why is this important to this passage? (verse 13)
Jesus went to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover which was customary in His day. There was a sacredness to these days and the Israelites took time to pause and remember what God had done. We could learn a lesson from the Israelites about slowing down and intentionally remembering what God has done in our lives. They spent time preparing their hearts by following customs designed to help turn their hearts to worship. While we aren’t bound by the same Law they were, it is wise to follow their example and set aside specific times in our calendar for remembering and celebrating what God has done.

2) Why did the actions of the people in the temple make Jesus so angry and why was His anger not sinful? (verses 15-16)
As New Testament followers of Christ, we no longer have a temple we are required to make pilgrimages to. However, Scripture is clear that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20) In light of Jesus’ high view of the temple in Jerusalem, we should ask ourselves if we are conducting ourselves in a manner worthy of ourselves being called a temple. The Holy Spirit resides in all who have placed the full weight of their trust in Jesus and His sacrifice for us, therefore we should glorify God with our bodies instead of defiling them as the merchants defiled the temple. We can also think about these verses in relation to the church, which is God’s people living out His love to others on earth. We can bring disunity within the church and damage the church’s impact when we become distracted by anything less than worshipping our Creator. Likewise, we should remember there is such a thing as righteous anger. However, in response to sin and injustice, we must be careful to act within the authority we have and not assume the authority of Jesus. We should rise up against injustice and stand up for those who are treated unjustly. We should be angered by sin within ourselves and others. However, we are not called to be the judge and jury for those outside the Body of Believers. Instead, we are called to love the sinner and point them to Jesus. (1 Corinthians 5:11-13)

3) Why did Jesus not entrust Himself to them? (verse 24)
Jesus knew the hearts of those around Him when He walked the earth, and He knows ours as well. He knows if we are genuine in our faith or faking it to the world around us. “Faith cannot be one-sided here any more than elsewhere. Christ gives Himself to those who give themselves to Him. They who so trust Him that He is sure they will follow Him even when they cannot see where He is going; they who trust Him, not in one or two matters which they see He can manage, but absolutely and in all things; to these He will give Himself freely, sharing with them His work, His Spirit, His reward.” (Expositor’s Bible Commentary) There will be challenging days in our faith and we are called to trust Christ, not only when life is easy and we know where we are headed, but also in moments of uncertainty or when those around us waiver. When we choose faith, the reward is large. This past year of 2020, has been a year of staying faithful in the unknown and hard for many of us. However, even in those moments, we are called to genuinely believe and trust Jesus. Following Him won’t always be easy, but it will always be worth it!

What do YOU think?! Share Here!
Missing the connection to our other Journey Study?
Catch up with Follow & Remove!

Digging Deeper is for Everyone!

1) Take this passage (or any other passage).
2) Read it, and the verses around it,
several times
3) Write down your questions
as you think of them.
4) Ask specific culture related questions and be ready to dig around for your answers. Google them, use www.studylight.org, or look them up in a study Bible and read the footnotes (click on the little letters next to a word and it will show you
other related verses!). (www.esvbible.org)
5) Check your applications with other trusted Christians that you are in community with and embrace the fullness of God
in your everyday!

Digging Deeper Community

Share What You’ve Learned!
Pray Together!
Join us in the GT Facebook Community!

Our Current Study Theme!

This is Word Week One!
Don’t miss out on the discussion!
Sign up to receive every GT Journey Study!

Why Dig Deeper?

Finding the original meaning is a huge deal when we study Scripture and can make all the difference in our understanding as we apply God’s truths to our everyday lives.

In our modern-day relationships, we want people to understand our original intention as we communicate; how much more so between God and humanity?!

Here’s a little bit more on why we take Digging Deeper so seriously.

Study Tools

We love getting help while we study and www.studylight.org is one of many excellent resources, providing the original Hebrew (Old Testament) or Greek (New Testament) with an English translation.

Want to know more about a specific word in a verse? Click on “Strong’s Interlinear Bible” then click the word you’d like to study. Discover “origin”, “definition” and hear the original pronunciation – That Is Awesome!

Want more background? Click “Study Tools”, then pick a few commentaries to read their scholarly approach, keeping in mind that just because a commentary says it, doesn’t mean it’s true. (just like the internet :-))

Memorize It!

Download this week’s verse and make it your phone’s lockscreen!
Tap and hold on your mobile device to save.

The GT Weekend! ~ Beloved Week 3

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The GT Weekend!

At Gracefully Truthful, weekends aren’t for “checking out”.
Use this time to invite the Almighty’s fullness into you life in a deeper way!
Saturdays and Sundays are a chance to
reflect, rest, and re-center our lives onto Christ.
Don’t miss the opportunity to connect with other women in prayer,
rest your soul in reflective journaling,
and spend time worshiping the Creator who
longs for intimacy with each of us!

Worship Through Journaling

Worship Through Journaling

1) When you think of God and sexual intimacy, what are your first responses? Pulling away? Shame? Closeness and delight? Gratitude? How we respond to the idea of God and sex reveals what we believe about our Creator and intimacy with us. As you unpack your beliefs in this area, take the challenge to read through Song of Solomon aloud. Spend some time praying beforehand, asking God to open your heart to understand His desire for oneness and delight in marriage. The world, and our enemy Satan, would have us believe that sex is dirty, embarrassing, and anything but sacred. Whether you are single or married, all of us have room to grow in elevating our view of the holiness of marriage and sexual intimacy. As you finish reading through Song of Solomon, write down the truths that most arrested your attention. Ask the Lord to keep expanding your understanding of these rich truths!

2) We all love the thrilling feelings of soaring excitement when relationships begin or when we finally say, “I do.” It’s the after when the excitement fades, disagreements arise, and suddenly, the glorious feelings we once felt towards the one person we vowed to love are nowhere to be found. Stacy shares of her euphoria at the beginning, only to watch it fade to mundane and lackluster in the after. A million and one distractions tempt us away from growing in love and maturity with our spouse, and if we aren’t on guard, these can quickly fuel entitlement in relationship effectively driving a wedge between two who were once inseparable. If you’re married, some ways your spouse has become distracted and entitled are probably already popping into your mind! But, turn it around and ask the Spirit to show you how you are becoming disengaged and entitled as well. Thank Him for showing you these, then ask for His power to flee the temptation to run towards these and run away instead. Single friends, consider the idols you run towards most often to distract you from hard or messy things. What patterns do you notice about yourself when you are feeling unloved or unaccepted in your relationships? Take these to the Lord and ask Him to show you His rich redemptive work in your life!

3) Give yourself permission to have some space in your day to be still and reflective. Maybe you lock your closet or your bathroom door, or maybe “quiet” needs to look like your kids are loud. Just make the space! Close your eyes, take some deep breaths and consider what it has felt like, or what it might feel like, to have someone sing over you who knows you deeply, wholly, and without condition or judgement. What words would they choose to set to melody? What would their voice sound like? What characteristics would they eagerly highlight about you? What might they say about their own love toward you? What if this was the Lord’s voice over you; how might your heart respond? Pause here and take in these feelings without discounting them or brushing them aside. Beloved, how deeply the Lord loves to love you! Breathe in this truth and let His voice sing over you with bold declaration! Stay here as long you need, then as your time closes, ask the Lord specifically who you can sing over. Whether it’s with true musical melodies or it’s just a spoken word of truth, woven with life-giving love, be willing and ready to extend a song of love over whoever the Lord brings to mind!

Praying Scripture back to the One who wrote it in the first place is a great way to jump start our prayer-life! Pray this passage from Zephaniah 3:17 back to the Lord and
let His Spirit speak to you through it!

The Lord your God is among you,
a warrior who saves.
He will rejoice over you with gladness.
He will be quiet in his love.
He will delight in you with singing.”

Prayer Journal
Your love truly is matchless, oh Lord, my Savior and my God. Your love is as mighty as an ocean wave at every single moment of my life. When I feel alone in my relationships as friend, daughter, mother, or wife, You “send Your faithful love by day and at night Your song is with me.” (Psalm 42:8) No one else offers steadfast constancy like You. Forgive me, oh Abba, for the many times I choose to hinge my delight on another’s love and care for me instead of yours. Never will Your love change or disappoint; remind me to listen for Your love song regardless of feelings. Make me aware, Holy Spirit, of the countless distractions pulling me away from You, the Only One who loves me perfectly and completely. Empower me to turn my eyes from worthless things, focusing on You as complete satisfier of my every need. As I practice turning and looking in full at You and Your word, teach me how to love others selflessly with the same humility You model towards me. I love You, Lord Jesus, heal my relationships and use me as a conduit of Your love.

Worship Through Community

Can we pray for you? Reach Out! We’d love to pray for and with you!
Send us an email at prayer@gracefullytruthful.com

Build community, be transparent, and encourage others:
Share how God spoke to you today!
Comment Here or in our Facebook Community Group!

Worship Through Prayer

Worship Through Music

Beloved Day 14 Catching Foxes: Digging Deeper

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Digging Deeper Days

Finding the original intent of Scripture and making good application to our everyday lives as we become equipped to correctly handle the Word of Truth!

Yesterday’s Journey Study connects with today’s!
Check out Catching Foxes!

The Questions

1) How do you catch the foxes?

2) How do the little foxes ruin the vineyards?

3) Why does it matter if the vineyards are in bloom or not? Wouldn’t foxes always be a concern?

Song of Solomon 2:!5

Catch the foxes for us—
the little foxes that ruin the vineyards—
for our vineyards are in bloom.

Original Intent

1) How do you catch the foxes?
Writing this study might be my most difficult writing assignment, easily requiring more research than any other. True confession, Song of Solomon isn’t a book I typically spend much time reading, I’m not even sure I had read the entire book until this study! While its imagery is difficult to understand and interpret, my husband says that telling stories allows difficult concepts to be more easily understood because suddenly, they become relatable.
At the moment, I’m on a plane traveling with a friend to a women’s retreat. Using these few uninterrupted hours to bang this out has been my intention for a couple of weeks. The problem is my traveling companion is watching the Chiefs game on her phone and I keep glancing over to check the score. Let’s be honest, watching Patrick Mahomes make amazing plays is more intriguing (and easier!) than working to unpack a hard passage of Scripture! This is when I realized this football game is a fox! Before you can catch a fox, you need to understand they are lurking about. In his song, Solomon uses a relevant example, a story if you will, his readers would understand. Vineyards were prevalent, and readers would understand the care and attention needed to keep these little creatures out of their just-blooming grapes. The comparison between foxes that destroy fruit and distractions that destroy relationships with our spouse and with God would make sense. The best way to catch a fox is first to realize they will come prowling! Next, is to develop safeguards or boundaries to keep them at bay.

2) How do the little foxes ruin the vineyards?
Song of Solomon graphically depicts the love shared between a husband and wife, providing an example for celebrating love within marriage from God’s perspective. Its poetic song would have stuck out to its original audience as missing some then-common components like manipulation, false-god worship and sacrifice, and using sex as a means of achieving something else. Song of Solomon celebrates marriage, celebrates committed love for spouses, and celebrates shared love that stays between a husband and wife. To safeguard such a beautiful rarity, the Lord included some warnings within this amazing love song like this one about catching foxes that ruin the vineyard. While the Song was originally written to celebrate, and give wise counsel for, a marriage relationship, we can make some connections to our relationship with God from the Song. In the Old Testament, God often used marriage to illustrate His divine relationship with His people. Check out the book of Hosea and our accompanying Journey Theme, Bride, for some amazing insights! The foxes in Solomon’s song smell the blossoming grapes and are hungry, they are looking for food. More than likely the foxes aren’t sitting back thinking, “I can’t wait to get in there and destroy that vineyard.” No, they are simply looking to satisfy their hunger. Being aware of sabotages, and setting up safeguards, boundaries, or traps for these sly foxes would have been familiar to the first readers. Given the context, they would have made the correlation between vineyards and their hearts.

3) Why does it matter if the vineyards are in bloom or not? Wouldn’t foxes always be a concern?
When something is in bloom, it’s fresh and new. I would imagine there may be a different scent to fresh blossoming grapes that could be more attractive to hungry little foxes. Vines which are just beginning to grow, are naturally weaker and more susceptible to harm. Foxes would always be a concern, but more attention would be taken at the beginning to ensure vines received the best care in order to develop into maturity. The same reality translates into the dynamics of a new, blossoming relationship as described in Song of Solomon. When love is fresh and new, you are naturally more aware of potential distractions or enemies. This would have been a reminder for both of the lovers to keep their eyes open and hearts focused on developing a strong, enduring love with one another.

Everyday Application

1) How do you catch the foxes?
You should also know this particular football game was originally scheduled for Thursday, but had been postponed to Monday during my flight due to Covid-19. Additionally, our flight was originally scheduled for earlier that Monday, but the airline changed the departure time. All the while, I was completely oblivious to how these small, seemingly insignificant, distractions would eventually keep me from focusing on writing. I was not looking for, or mentally putting up any safeguards, for foxes (distractions) that might creep in, overtaking my study time. Notice how the Scripture says “little” foxes. This is often how distractions work! Little things here and there that, when all added together, are enough to create a big distraction stealing away our focus. Relationships are hard! Not only those with our spouses, but also with God. They both take time, energy, and attention. If we don’t make a conscious effort to be aware of what is happening, and understand that distractions (often seemingly good ones) will come, we will be overrun by little foxes sooner than later. Without preparing for the already-present foxes, we’re already losing the battle to safeguard our precious relationships. 1 Peter 5:8 warns us of this same thing, “Be alert. Your adversary, the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion”. We must pay attention not only to what is happening around us, but also to potential places in which distractions might sneak in and rob us of spending time with God or our loves.

2) How do the little foxes ruin the vineyards?
The easy answer is they ruin the vineyards of our hearts by stealing our focus and attention. Recognizing these “little foxes” is half the battle. We all are well aware of how easy it is to turn our eyes away for just one minute only to realize much later that our relationship is in trouble. This holds true both in our human relationships as well as our relationship with God. Distractions don’t need to be big, or even bad, to do significant damage. When talking about the relationship with our spouse, distractions come in many shapes and sizes like kids, finances, jobs, keeping the house clean and laundry caught up, etc.. All good things, but when we allow them to overtake our focus, our spouse receives the leftovers and the vineyards of our marriage and our hearts are in danger. Our marriages must be a priority for us! This means scheduling date nights, time away, and constant courtship. We must not slip into taking our spouse for granted and assuming we will “catch up” one day when the kids are gone and life is less stressful. That kind of thinking is just plain dangerous! The same is true for our relationship with God. We must prioritize spending time alone with just Him as our number one priority! How easy is it to miss one quiet time and then another, or one Sunday at church, and then struggle to find our way back to a place of depth with God? Sure, life happens, kids get sick, friends need help, groceries need to be purchased, but God is the necessary foundation for keeping our lives on solid footing. God loved us so much He sent Jesus to save us, He will absolutely help you find the time to spend with Him if you ask! Be aware of those foxes, then make a plan to trap them!

3) Why does it matter if the vineyards are in bloom or not? Wouldn’t foxes always be a concern?
Young love is fragile. It’s new, unsure, and hasn’t yet developed strong roots that only grow over time. New marriages haven’t yet endured hard seasons of suffering or learned that true love endures through intense struggle. New couples haven’t yet half-walked, half-dragged one another through those seasons when all we want to do is take a nap! Young lovers can’t imagine anything or anyone becoming an obstacle to their love. Of course, long-term marriages can face abrupt endings and even young love has the potential to grow cold, however, new marriages are indeed particularly fragile. Like new fruit in the vineyard, they deserve special, guarded attention. The same is true for our relationship with God. New Christians are on fire for Jesus, and rightly so. Just like with young love, a new relationship with God is fresh and exciting. You feel more alive than ever and are eager to boldly save the world for Jesus! Life and circumstances, however, don’t always cooperate with our passionate dreams. Trials come, temptations wrap around us, sin entangles us, and we have yet to learn the benefit of daily meeting with the Lord, feasting on His word, and surrendering ourselves to His hand more every single day. Steadfast endurance in our relationship with the Lord God is built one day at a time over the long haul. Watch for the distractions leading you away from what can feel like a tedious, daily investment in your walk with Christ. Flee the temptation to chase the foxes, instead, choose each day to live in hope of all Christ has for us! Revelation 21:5 says, “I am making ALL things new.” If we allow Him to grow the vineyards of our hearts, and we are willing to invest time and energy into our relationships, He is faithful to mature our love into one that endures all things! (1 Corinthians 13:7)

What do YOU think?! Share Here!
Missing the connection to our other Journey Study?
Catch up with Catching Foxes!

Digging Deeper is for Everyone!

1) Take this passage (or any other passage).
2) Read it, and the verses around it,
several times
3) Write down your questions
as you think of them.
4) Ask specific culture related questions and be ready to dig around for your answers. Google them, use www.studylight.org, or look them up in a study Bible and read the footnotes (click on the little letters next to a word and it will show you
other related verses!). (www.esvbible.org)
5) Check your applications with other trusted Christians that you are in community with and embrace the fullness of God
in your everyday!

Digging Deeper Community

Share What You’ve Learned!
Pray Together!
Join us in the GT Facebook Community!

Our Current Study Theme!

This is Beloved Week Three!
Don’t miss out on the discussion!
Sign up to receive every GT Journey Study!

Why Dig Deeper?

Finding the original meaning is a huge deal when we study Scripture and can make all the difference in our understanding as we apply God’s truths to our everyday lives.

In our modern-day relationships, we want people to understand our original intention as we communicate; how much more so between God and humanity?!

Here’s a little bit more on why we take Digging Deeper so seriously.

Study Tools

We love getting help while we study and www.studylight.org is one of many excellent resources, providing the original Hebrew (Old Testament) or Greek (New Testament) with an English translation.

Want to know more about a specific word in a verse? Click on “Strong’s Interlinear Bible” then click the word you’d like to study. Discover “origin”, “definition” and hear the original pronunciation – That Is Awesome!

Want more background? Click “Study Tools”, then pick a few commentaries to read their scholarly approach, keeping in mind that just because a commentary says it, doesn’t mean it’s true. (just like the internet :-))

Memorize It!

Download this week’s verse and make it your phone’s lockscreen!
Tap and hold on your mobile device to save.