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Follow Day 11 Question, Follow, Faith

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Read His Words Before Ours!

Luke 1:26-56
Isaiah 55:8-11
1 Corinthians 3:18-23
1 Corinthians 1:20-31

Follow, Day 11

Questions are a part of our worlds. At the restaurant, it is “How may I help you?” At the doctor’s office, it is “What are your concerns today?” In school, it is “What are you learning?” At home, it may be “What’s for dinner?” Or if you have a young toddler it may even be the beloved “Why?” question.

Throughout a day I find myself asking questions often. Sometimes they are to myself and sometimes they are verbalized to others. Occasionally they are rooted in frustration as I try to figure out why I just made a choice I did or what a coworker was thinking in hers.

Most recently I have found myself echoing the toddler’s cry in talking with the Lord as I have asked the “Why” question regarding His timing and plans in my life, especially in light of the reality that is the year 2020.

Oh how grateful I am that the Lord made us to question. We are made in His image and the Lord first introduces His use of questions in Genesis. I believe the Lord welcomes our questions, especially when we are truly seeking to know Him and His character better. For anyone who has been told that asking God questions is a sin I would encourage you to ask the Lord His thoughts on that.

That being said, questioning the Lord CAN lead to sin. They way in which we ask the Lord, our heart postures in the process, and our response to the outcome of our questions are all arenas in which we can find ourselves running rampant in sin. In my own life I have found myself sinning when lashing out at the Lord in my questions and asking the Lord for answers and then rejecting the one I receive because it was not the one I wanted. Questions are a sweet gift the Lord has given to us to build relationship with Him. They are also a solid litmus test for the status of our hearts.

A prime example of a woman who succeeds in questioning the Lord and honoring Him in the process is Mary, the mother of Jesus. I can picture the look on Mary’s face and the tone of her voice as she asks the angel how exactly she, a virgin, would bear a child. This was a childlike inquisitiveness and a subsequent response filled with obedient submission. After asking her question, Mary’s next words accepted the role she would play.

She said yes and began a journey that would simultaneously wreck her life and reward it with life beyond her wildest imagination. Because Mary said yes she experienced earthly rejection; more than likely days of doubt; the battering only a mother’s heart could experience as Jesus Himself grew, faced rejection himself, and ultimately was crucified; and countless other details that could be inferred by imagining her life.

However, at the very onset of the story, as Gabriel, the angel of the Lord, speaks to her, Mary’s ability to follow the Lord’s leading shines through. She asks how this would become reality and her next words were ones of acceptance. Jump ahead a few weeks and Mary’s words have moved from acceptance to thankfulness for the part she would play in this love letter the Lord was writing to the world. Scripture does not show that Mary heard directly from Gabriel again nor were we told that a manual for navigating the upcoming days, weeks, and months was provided for Mary. She accepted her role, celebrated the blessing that it was, and walked closely with the Lord.

Isaiah 55 declares that God’s ways are not our ways. More often than not, His ways require levels of faith that challenge us. Mary was no different. Where Mary stands out from so many of us lies in her posture to say yes and rejoice in all that yes included. How often have I failed to experience the fullness of what the Lord has for me since I refused to say yes, did so with grumbling, drug my feet in obedience, allowed the fear of man to paralyze me, or treated the entire process as a trial to endure rather than an entrustment to find joy in throughout?

Mary demonstrated the effectiveness and freedom of using questions in her relationship with the Lord. She also displayed the beauty of following the Lord with a surrendered and humble heart. She modeled the faith and fortitude required to follow when the path leads into counter-cultural regions, through hard seasons of many kinds, and with rarely more than the next step to take illuminated. I pray that I can live my life with a similar grace, joy, tenacity, and contentment.

Let’s use our questions to draw closer to the One who knows all the details and writes the best stories. Let us also respond well to the answers to those questions, dear sisters, for His glory and our gain. When we follow His guidance, we may just discover immeasurable joy and adventure amidst all the unexpected twists and turns.

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He Day 12 Yahweh Sabaoth: 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 Yahweh Sabaoth!

The Questions

1) What is meant by “jars of clay”? (verse 7)

2) What is the “treasure” and the “all-surpassing power”? (verse 7)

3) With all of these trials and afflictions, why believe in God?

2 Corinthians 4:7-9

Now we have this treasure in clay jars, so that this extraordinary power may be from God and not from us. 8 We are afflicted in every way but not crushed; we are perplexed but not in despair; 9 we are persecuted but not abandoned; we are struck down but not destroyed.

Original Intent

1) What is meant by “jars of clay”? (verse 7)
In telling us “we have this treasure in jars of clay”, Paul is poetically referring to our beginnings in Genesis when God created the first man, Adam, from the dust of the Earth. (Genesis 1:27) Adam was a vessel, a jar, formed by the clay of the earth by the very hand of God. In the ancient Middle East, the culture of the Bible, earthen clay vessels were used to store supplies and often necessities for life like food or water. Some vessels were sturdier than others. Clay jars used for storing water and oil were probably the heaviest, having thicker walls. There were also clay jars made of finer quality, likely kept on a high shelf (a mantel of sorts perhaps), this held sacred (holy) oil. This oil was used for anointing for prayer. (John 12:3, Luke 7:37-38) No matter the contents, vessels were still made of the same material. Clay. Earth. Fragile. Paul uses a metaphor by saying we, as human beings, are those vessels. Human, but still fragile. Each of us, regardless of shape, gender, race, or age, carry such value that God Himself has chosen us to store His treasure within!

2) What is the “treasure” and the “all-surpassing power”? (verse 7)
When an ordinary man, woman, or child chooses to trust in Jesus, believing Him to be exactly who He claims to be in the Bible, God places His Spirit within that individual. The Spirit then begins the work of transforming that person into someone who loves and follows Jesus and reflects His amazing divine love to a world lost and lonely without Him. The Spirit teaches the Christ-follower about God, helping him or her understand the Bible and discover deeper truths about God and His character. Vine’s Dictionary defines the treasure as “the full knowledge of the goodness of God.” The treasure we have through God’s Spirit, the treasure available to all who surrender to God, is the knowledge of who God is and the power that comes along with that belief. The more we know God through studying His Word by the power of the Spirit teaching us, the more closely we will follow Him and love those around us. This is God’s power unleashed through us! Through the Holy Spirit, we have access to the same power that raised Jesus from the dead (Luke 24:5-6), healed a bleeding women (Mark 5:30), made dead men breathe again (John 11:44), and changed the leper’s skin to clear as snow (Luke 17:14). With the treasure of God’s Spirit within, the power of God is at work both in us and through us, drawing in those who are far from God to be close to Him, so they too might know Him deeply.

3) With all of these trials and afflictions, why believe in God?
Paul is not only referencing what he himself has gone through, which was significant. (shipwrecked, betrayal, beatings, stoning to near death, Acts 9:23-25, imprisonments, and house arrest to name a few) He is also pointing to Christ Himself in what Jesus endured while He was on earth. Christ was also betrayed (Mark 14:44) and carried a weight (the sin of the world) Christ prayed would be removed from Him. (Luke 22:42) This letter was written during a time of great persecution for the church as a whole, and Paul’s recipients in Corinth would have been facing severe difficulty and danger for following Christ. All of these trials were real, heavy and pressing, yet Paul encourages his readers that they will not be abandoned in the midst of them. In his letter to the Philippians, Paul writes that compared to knowing Christ, everything else is rubbish! (Philippians 3:8)

Everyday Application

1) What is meant by “jars of clay”? (verse 7)
We have value and worth because, not only were we handcrafted by the God of the Universe, but each of us were also made in His own image. We are etched with the image of God! Every one of us! (Genesis 1:27) Every bitty baby in its mother’s womb and every wizened elderly being have been fearfully and wonderfully made to reflect God’s own image and have inestimable value. (Psalm 139:13-14) However, for the one who trusts fully on the Lord Jesus Christ for their eternal salvation and has surrendered their lives to Jesus, these clay pots become the holding place for a treasure beyond comprehension, God’s Own Spirit! (2 Corinthians 1:21-22) Christians are still clay treasures, but they hold within them the Treasure of God’s Spirit. We are the fine vessels containing the costliest of contents. God’s love through His Spirit. The love He poured out on Calvary and the power he gave us when His spirit was poured out on Pentecost is available for all today. (Titus 2:11) It doesn’t matter if our vessels are tarnished, chipped, or cracked. We are still His chosen, and still invited to contain the greatest gift of all time, the Spirit of the Living God!

2) What is the “treasure” and the “all-surpassing power”? (verse 7)
We can have access to the power of God’s Spirit by storing up His treasures within us, His earthen, human vessels. His treasure, His word. Paraphrasing Dr. Suess, “the more you know, the more you grow” applies to our walk with Christ too.  Need a starting point? Begin in the Gospels Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John.  If you have a Bible with Christ’s words in red, begin there. John is a great gospel to start with. Go slow, write down your questions and curiosities. It’s not a race to finish so you can check it off a list, it’s an invitation to know the God of the Universe! Everything Jesus gave His followers, His disciples, is available to you, to all of us, through reading His Word! There is no cost other than submitting and turning your heart over to Him. Consider making this passage in Ephesians 1:17-18 a personal prayer. Simply insert “me” in a few spots for ‘you’ and ‘my’ for ‘your’.  Pray that your eyes are open to the glorious knowledge and wisdom Christ has for you. With that comes relationship with Him and the power of His word as the Spirit makes it alive for you!

3) With all of these trials and afflictions, why believe in God?
Jesus, Paul and the believers who made up the early church were not the only ones to face difficulty, just take a peek in any family’s life around the world! While hardship is common to everyone who breathes oxygen, the difference is that, for believers, we have hope and strength and power from the Living God. We can’t manufacture this on our own! We have a God who works all things for good, for those who love Him, even in the middle of trial. (Romans 8:28) Wiersbe’s commentary says all the struggles we go through in our everyday lives are not our final destruction, and don’t necessitate our despair. Rather, when we are faced with hardships, crushed a bit, it allows for the ‘goodness of God, the light of Christ’ to seep out and affect others in the midst of our hardship because His strength shines brilliantly in our weakness. (2 Corinthians 12:9-10) For us it means that we, in all of these life circumstances, in the persecutions, disappointments, betrayals but also just the general wearing down of our physical bodies, we have a blessed hope to which we fervently cling. (Titus 2:11-14) Not only are we given the ability to endure through trial, we are not alone. (Matthew 28:20) We have the Lord of Hosts, God Himself ever present in our time of need. (Psalm 46:1) We have a host of angels who are surrounding us, unseen by human eyes, but always at the ready just like the story of Elisha and his servant. (2 Kings 6:15-17)

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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!

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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!

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