HARD TO UNDERSTAND. 2 Peter 3:16.

My back hurts. My shoulders hurt. My arms hurt. I’m tired from swinging a heavy tool to remove a wet tile floor from a flooded house. It was not easy, but I got it done.

Y’all understand hard work. I know you do. Sometimes a task seems insurmountable, but you simply have no choice. So you keep working and eventually you finish. Do you ever feel that way trying to understand a Bible passage?

Do you ever feel the Bible is hard work, hard to understand? You are not alone.

Did you know that one Bible writer actually admitted that the writings of another Bible writer were difficult to understand?

But we have a lot more help than they did back then. For example, at the Bible Gateway website you can read the same verse in over SIXTY English translations. If one confuses you, perhaps another won’t. And there are Bible commentaries online as well, and sermons, and hundreds of articles on every passage in the Bible. The trick is knowing on which sources you can rely.

The Bible can be tough. But don’t be SOFT. YOU CAN DO IT! Put in the hard work and you will figure it out. Just like Simon Peter, who wrote:

“Paul speaks about these things in all his letters, in which there are some things that are difficult to understand” 2 Peter 3:16.

Other translations of Peter say there are parts that are “overwhelming and complicated to understand,” or that there are “difficult passages.” But Peter’s point is “untaught and unstable” people twist difficult passages to their own destruction.

Don’t let people twist the scriptures—not even the hard ones. Instead, work hard and do your own research. Paul’s writings may contain difficult passages, but there are always answers if you’re willing to dig.

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Lost in the Forest Without a Flashlight. 1 John 1.

Have you ever been in a dark forest without a flashlight? I have. More than once I have found myself trudging cross-country (where there was no trail) on a dark, moonless night. It can be so dark. You end up walking with one hand in front of your face to block the spider webs, their lines as thick as wires, and the other hand a little lower, feeling around for tree limbs and tree trunks. Meanwhile, you pick your feet up and put them down slowly, deliberately, knowing that any minute you might trip over a fallen log, or step off into a puddle or ditch of water, or sink into a soft bed of fire ants. And there are plenty of other risks, but you can’t think about them: snakes, dangerous animals, barbed wire, the risk of becoming hopelessly lost.

I will never forget walking along on such a dark night and hearing a huge animal not ten feet away. It must have been sleeping and I woke it. Suddenly the silence exploded with noise and something huge shot up out of the brush and went crashing away through the trees and tall grass. I never saw it, but by the sound of it, it was clearly much larger than I was. If it had charged me, I might never have seen it, and might not have been able to get out of the way.

A long walk in a dark woods is an exhausting challenge, to say the least. The minute you see a familiar sight, a mercury light illuminating the frame of a cabin or a truck or a shelter that you remember from the daytime, the relief is overwhelming. You plod straight toward the light, hardly taking your eyes off it. So what if you step in a puddle now?

Spiders, ants, snakes, fallen logs—nothing is going to keep you from getting back to civilization.

Nothing is going to keep you from getting out of the darkness and back to a place where you can see.

And imagine the same scenario in the inner city, in the gang territory of some rat-infested urban ghetto where every person out after dark is a potential threat. Even with streetlights, car lights, and moonlight, that sort of darkness can be scarier than the darkness in any wilderness. And yet, we toy with darkness all the time, don’t we? We dance around the edges, tempting the forest to snatch us up somehow—it’s all fun and games until you really are lost in it.

But God does not play with darkness. Instead he warns us about it.

“God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth” 1 John 1:5-6.

So who are these people in the darkness? Peter describes them:

“Bold, arrogant people! They do not tremble when they blaspheme angels…. They always speak blasphemies about things they do not understand…. They consider it a pleasure to carouse and party in the daytime. They have eyes full of adultery and are always looking for sin. They seduce unstable people and have hearts trained in greed…. Be aware of this: Scoffers will come in the last days to scoff, living according to their own desires” 2 Peter 2:10,13; 3:3.

In his gospel account of the life of Jesus, John explains that some people love the light—but some people actually love the darkness. Why would anyone love the darkness?

“This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than Light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light so that his deeds may be revealed to be the works of God” John 3:19-21.

Men love the darkness because their deeds are evil. If you are a lawbreaker, you do not want that to be revealed. If you are an evil sinner, you try to keep that a secret. People who live in sin and walk in darkness, learn to love the darkness because it allows them to sneak around getting away with things.

But they don’t really get away with it. Judgment awaits.

Do you ever think about that judgment?

Most believers avoid darkness because it is dangerous and scary—whether the monster under the bed or midnight car trouble in the urban ghetto. But what about God’s judgment? Can you imagine being destined for God’s judgment?

I believe those who are headed that way get a glimpse once in a while, a warning maybe. I’m sure those visions of the future come in many different forms, but I think for some people a deep knowing settles in about the horrible, terrifying destiny that awaits their soul. Can you imagine the fear? My brother has told me that when he was young, he knew he was lost and he was scared of hell. That fear convinced him to surrender to Jesus—and the fear left that day and has never returned. But some people just learn to live with fear. Others talk themselves out of it.

But what about believers? God will judge our sin too.

Let’s turn from evil. Turn from the darkness, and learn to love the Light. “But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin.” 1 John 1:7

Dear God, help us to avoid the darkness. Give us a love for the Light—your Light. Fill us with your light and help us to love it more and more. Help us to love you and to love your word—to read it, study it, pray it, think about it, memorize it, and fill our minds and hearts with it every day.

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Be Faithful to the Basics: You Learn By Repetition. 2 Peter 1:12.

Photo from the Sault Star, Salt Ste. Marie, Ontario 1972.

Every time I left the house as a little boy my mother said, “Be careful.”

It was such a constant greeting that I interpreted it more as a salutation than actual advice. “Be careful” was her way of saying goodbye—or that’s what it seemed like at the time. I took it to mean, “I love you and I’m worried about you.” I never thought about it after I walked out the door. Not once. Not once while trying crazy stunts on my bike did I ask myself, ‘am I being careful right now’? I wanted to be brave and manly and have adventures.

But my dad said it too—not every day. He knew careful was the last thing I wanted to be. But sometimes he stopped me on my way out the door, looked me deep in the eye, pausing to get my attention, and then he said: “You be careful out there.”

That would stick with me. For about two seconds. It was not until I was nearly grown that I began to understand the way that being careful can save a person so much grief.

Do people in your life repeat themselves? Do you ignore them because you’ve heard it all before? Simon Peter knows he repeats himself. But he defends the practice, arguing some messages bear repeating:

“Therefore, I will always remind you about these things, even though you know them and are established in the truth you have. I consider it right, as long as I am in this bodily tent, to wake you up with a reminder, knowing that I will soon lay aside my tent, as our Lord Jesus Christ has also shown me” 2 Peter 1:12-14.

Wait! Did you catch that last part? Peter reveals that Jesus has shown him he will not live much longer. That is an amazing revelation—can you imagine hearing that from God?

Peter knew his days were numbered, and what did he do? He chose to spend his days repeating himself, teaching again the things he had been teaching for years.

People often say you should live each day as though it were your last day on earth. Peter is doing just that by continuing to teach Christian discipleship. But what if his audience already knows what he is saying?

Peter did not care. He admitted as much:

“I will always remind you about these things, EVEN THOUGH YOU KNOW THEM” 2 Peter 1:12.

The fact that listeners know something is not a reason to stop saying it. Have you ever listened to a song more than once? Watched a movie or read a book more than once? Do you tell someone you love them one time, then never mention it again?

If, like Peter, I knew my days were drawing to a close, I would repeat the basics too. Here are some truths I would emphasize, a summary of Bible truths I find most important to teach:

Read the Bible, study the Bible, memorize parts of the Bible, learn how to do research, learn how to go to the Bible with every topic, every question, every cause, every current event.

Seek wisdom in this ancient collection of 66 books that you can apply to every aspect of modern life.

Read all the Bible, not just the New Testament (but put off the hardest parts until you are ready).

Learn to reconcile topics that appear contradictory, such as law and grace.

Approach the end times prophecies of our future by understanding truths from fulfilled prophecies in our past.

Never put God in a box, but remember He is bigger than any one man’s opinion. If you can’t figure out something in the Bible, trust God and wait for Him to reveal the answer in His time.

Never place faith in men, no matter how godly they appear or how much you love them, and never lose faith in God who is infinitely greater than the godliest of men.

The basic truths of the Bible are golden nuggets, precious jewels. Pull them out and study them every day! No matter how well you think you know God’s word, there is always more to learn. And the better you know God’s word—God’s story—the more you love to hear it!

“I love to tell the story

For those who know it best

Seem hungering and thirsting

To hear it like the rest

And when, in scenes of glory,

I sing the new, new song,

‘Twill be the old, old story,

That I have loved so long.”

–“I Love to Tell the Story,” by Arabella Katherine Hankey, verse four.

Never be afraid to repeat yourself, if you are repeating God’s word. The words you are repeating are not wasted words, but are in fact, the most efficient, valuable words you can speak. Because God’s word is never wasted.

“My word shall not return void but shall accomplish what I desire” Isaiah 55:11.

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Scoffers, Blasphemers, and Conspiracy Theorists. Jude 10, 18-19.

I know a man who recently divorced his wife.

That may not sound unusual, but the two had been married over fifty years. They were grandparents and in their seventies. Why did they get divorced? Because Mrs. Divorce had recently become a more and more devoted follower of one of our presidential candidates. Mr. Divorce could not stand the man. And somehow they could not put that difference aside. Politics took over their home, and they spent their time fighting and slinging accusations.

Accepting a viewpoint entirely too common in our time, the two spouses, now political opponents, each believed the other to have joined the “Enemy.” The bad blood finally culminated in a tragic and unnecessary divorce.

What is going on in American politics? When did we forget how to be friends and set our differences aside and “reach across the aisle”? With every presidential election, the level of animosity between the parties seems to ramp up.

One reason is the internet. The internet generally and social media specifically are extremely divisive.

Memes, short videos, podcasts, and media from self-proclaimed “content creators” with no education, expertise, or personal knowledge of the facts—have a tendency to drive people apart.

Social media moves the right wing further to the right and the left wing further to the left.

Social media manipulates us not only into hating each other, but it manipulates us with sensationalistic stories. We are drawn like moths to the flame. We cannot look away, like drivers passing an accident. We strain for a look at something exciting, when safety and truth would have us look straight ahead. God would have you look straight ahead. “Do not turn aside to the right or to the left” Deuteronomy 5:32.

Feel free to reject what I am saying. It is covered well in the film “THE SOCIAL DILEMMA.” But you are free to dispute the film’s argument about causes. But consider the effect: we have become a land of scoffers. Increasingly we don’t believe in anything. Each of us seems to have climbed out on our own branch of the conspiracy tree. Some are convinced the “Deep State” is pulling strings and controlling the federal government. Or that NASA is a lie factory and we never went to the moon or even beyond the atmosphere. Oh, and the earth is flat, of course.

And our political party is pure and good and right and your party is comprised of Satan worshippers operating a pedophile ring out of the basement of a pizza parlor. This is all madness. (The pedophile ring story was classic “fake news,” but it took the internet by storm, thousands believed it, and one true believer—in the lie—walked into the pizza place with a gun to “conduct his own investigation.” There were no secret rooms filled with kidnapped children and no one was hurt during the reckless incident.)[1]

“In the end times there will be scoffers walking according to their own ungodly desires. These people create divisions and are unbelievers, not having the Spirit” Jude 18-19.

“These people blaspheme anything they do not understand” Jude 10.

Are you a scoffer? Do you question the nation you once believed in? Do you think there are powerful secrets at the top and that no one can be trusted? Do you blaspheme or mock things you do not understand, whether physics (the space program) or cutting-edge medicine or law enforcement or the US Supreme Court?

Few of us are experts. No one is an expert in all subjects. But don’t be what the book of Proverbs describes as a fool. Do not mock or disrespect what you do not understand. Pray. Ask God for wisdom. And work a little harder to understand. Educate yourself. Give experts the benefit of the doubt. And trust God.

I’ll admit it: conspiracies are EXCITING! However, when God wanted to reveal Himself to Elijah, God was not in the storm, the earthquake, or the fire. God was in the “still, small voice” 1 Kings 19:11-13.

“God is not a God of CONFUSION, but of peace” 1 Corinthians 14:33. Turn away from the drama of the latest conspiracy theory and look to the Prince of Peace.

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[1] Pizzagate: What to Know About the Conspiracy Theory | TIME

Jesus said the end times would be characterized not only by “wars and rumors of wars,” by earthquakes and famines and the beginning of the birth pangs, but by DECEPTION. “Take heed that no one misleads you” Matthew 24:4. I have never seen such a chorus of misleading voices. Between anti-intellectualism, social media, Artificial Intelligence, Deep Fakes, incompetent Influencers, the predatory wellness movement, biased reporting masquerading as journalism, the ignorance of expertise, plagiarism and other factors decimating scholarship and the peer-review process, the rise of false religions, cults, and new age spirituality, I am more inclined to call ours the end times than ever before.

THIS IS NOT MELATONIN. Ezekiel 44:5; 2 Timothy 2:15.

Sometimes Bible reading is like mood music in a department store—humming along quietly in the background, but no one’s really listening. You may call your devotional a “Quiet Time,” but your mind should NOT be quiet—it should be buzzing with thoughts about what you’re reading.

Consider how we sell Bibles. Are they surrounded by tea cups, and lavender bath oils? Or maybe the Itty Bitty Book Light for those who crawl in bed and read next to a sleeping spouse? Does your Quiet Time look like someone else’s “Me Time” (or so-called “self-care”)? If it includes a bubble bath and scented candles, or nodding off from exhaustion, you are not giving the Bible (or its AUTHOR) the energy you should.

It’s great to read a novel in bed, knowing your eyes will become heavy and it will help you fall asleep. But that’s no way to master the word of God!

And a bubble bath with hot tea and “smooth jazz” may relax you. But the Bible merits intense scrutiny; read it without distractions!

Instead, bring to the Bible your FULL ATTENTION. Read it EAGERLY, expecting to be blessed—expecting to HEAR FROM GOD.

Read the Bible when you are mentally fresh.

Sit in a place where you can study effectively. Use serious lighting. Take notes. Expect to research and learn something. Expect to THINK HARD and go away stimulated, not to have your mood soothed and be lulled off to sleep. This is not Melatonin! This is God’s greatest revelation of Himself. Wake up! He wants to show you something!

“Son of man, pay attention! Look with your eyes and listen with your ears to everything I tell you… TAKE CAREFUL NOTES” Ezekiel 44:5.

“STUDY to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, RIGHTLY INTERPRETING THE WORD OF TRUTH” 2 Timothy 2:15.

God, show us how to approach your word with DILIGENCE, to read hard, ask good questions, and push ourselves. Show us more of You every day!

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STUDY THE WORD. 2 Timothy 2:15.

My Facebook profile pic this week is a quotation from a great preacher:

“You can live on froth, bubbles, and little wisps of badly understood theology until the pressure is on. But when the pressure is on, you will want to know what kind of God you are serving” —A.W. Tozer.

I posted this for personal reasons: I’ve been wrestling with what to make of a certain preacher. He is SUPER-ENCOURAGING. If you’re down, he will make you feel better. But not by quoting the promises of God, but by simply telling you “God’s getting ready to do something great. Your best days are still to come.” 

But he never opens his Bible. Literally NEVER. He may be the most popular preacher in the world, in terms of number of viewers. Also, he doesn’t praise Satan or anything. He is more or less doctrinally sound, sort of. But really he’s like Mr. Rogers—a super-easy show for preschoolers. There is NO meat, no depth. It’s baby food, vegetables put in a blender so babies with no teeth can eat them.

A.W. Tozer might describe his messages as “froth, bubbles, and little wisps of badly understood theology.”

I think God expects more from preachers—and from ALL of us.

“STUDY to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not be ashamed, rightly interpreting the word of truth” 2 Timothy 2:15.

When I get to heaven, I do not want to be ashamed because I believed and promoted a wrong view of scripture. I want to study and I want to please God with my efforts. Even in tough areas, like the unprecedented public health questions raised by the COVID pandemic. God has answers and He will lead us if we study. But if you think you can live your whole life on Noah’s ark, Samson, Adam and Eve, and a few over-simplified flannelgraph tales you learned from VBS (or VeggieTales), you will be lost and drowning when hard times come. And hard times WILL COME. Prepare now by studying the word like a serious student and storing its truth away for later.

God, help us love your word and please you with our efforts to study it. Help us read it daily. 

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DO THE HEAVY LIFTING. 2 Peter 3:15-16; 2 Timothy 2:15.

Do you agree with these principles?

  1. If God is real, nothing you will ever do in life matters more than knowing him.
  2. If there is any area of life that deserves serious attention, study, and your hardest work, it is learning everything you can about God. (Can you name anything more worthy of your attention?)
  3. God the Creator is a person of infinite genius. His creation is practically infinite. You could spend a thousand lifetimes discovering the beauty, mystery, glory, and love that God puts into everything He does.
  4. Therefore, if God has surrounded us with His amazing creation, His own infinite being, and His incredible Word that explains both, HOW CAN WE BE LAZY ABOUT STUDYING both His creation and His word?

–Yet, most Christians prefer sermons that skim the surface and never get deep.

We get nervous when we hear words like “doctrine,” or “eschatology.” We want preachers to tell good stories and make us feel inspired, but we don’t want to think too much. We want to sing songs about our feelings, not hymns filled with life-changing words about God’s amazing qualities.

Ask yourself this simple question: does church remind you more of a rock concert or a university classroom? Perhaps there is a place for both. But if church doesn’t remind you of a classroom at least once in a while, you may be in the wrong church. Peter and Paul wrestled with deep topics. Peter writes about Paul’s epistles:

“Our dear brother Paul has written to you according to the wisdom given to him. He speaks about these things in all his letters in which there are some matters that are hard to understand” 2 Peter 3:15-16.

Peter ADMITS there are some matters in Paul’s writings that are hard to understand.

But does Peter say it’s okay to give up? No. He assumes his audience will work to figure it out, telling them to “grow in the grace AND KNOWLEDGE of Jesus Christ” 2 Peter 3:18.

“Study to show thyself approved unto God, rightly interpreting the Word” 2 Timothy 2:15.

In other words, DO THE HEAVY LIFTING. Don’t be lazy about Bible study.

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CHINA OR EVERYDAY? 2 Timothy 2:20-22.

One day at the home of my mother-in-law, we noticed she had stacked dozens of dishes on her kitchen counter. Apparently one of her grandchildren had asked for some dishes!

The interesting thing about dishes is that they come in two types: “China” and “Everyday.” Lots of couples choose dishes for their wedding registry, and friends shower them with butter dishes, chargers, creamers, and gravy boats, some for everyday use, some for special use. A busy family’s kitchen is diverse—you may have paper plates, reusable plastic, your original “Everyday” dishes, and a mis-matched hodgepodge of Southern Living at Home, Fiesta, Blue Willow, and fancy China.

Paul uses this variety of dishes as a metaphor:

“Now in a large house there are not only gold and silver bowls, but also those of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable [chamberpots]. So if anyone purifies himself from anything dishonorable, he will be a special instrument, set apart, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work. So flee from youthful passions….” 2 Timothy 2:20-22.

Have you ever wondered what sets people apart? Why two with similar skills, talents, and gifts may live such different lives? I have often wondered whether the difference was sin. Just as a bowl that could have held delicacies for a king is transformed into something else after one use as a chamberpot, so a heart harboring sin can cause someone to live a different life than he might have otherwise.

But Paul argues it is not too late: “If anyone purifies himself from the dishonorable, he will be a special instrument, set apart, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work” 2 Timothy 2:21.

I believe if we will purify our lives, cleaning out the “dishonorable,” God will bless us and use us for “every good work.” I don’t know about you, but I would rather be the king’s wine goblet than his chamberpot!

May God help us take purity seriously! I am going to start by making these verses my next memory verse.

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Give the Word the Benefit of the Doubt. 2 Timothy 2:15.

God saved you, right? He made you, loves you, forgives you, died for you, correct? No one loves you the way He loves you.

And what tool does He give you to get through the daily challenges of life? His Word. His written record of truth and answers and solutions. It’s all in there: the greatest treasure we possess. Don’t miss the chance to discover that treasure. Mine it. Dig out the gold, the jewels, the rubies and riches.

And here’s the principle I want you to think about:

GIVE HIS WORD THE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT.

Some things are timeless, such as “thou shalt not murder” Exodus 20:13. Other things are cultural or have limited application, such as “don’t eat fish without scales” Leviticus 11:9-12.

But here’s the thing. God loves you and He knows how to put a book like the Bible together. So give Him the benefit of the doubt. When you read things in the Bible, assume He means it for today, that is, assume it is TIMELESS until you have done so much serious study that you are certain the passage has a limited application to ancient Israel.

Because of who God is, His word deserves THE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT. Always assume that what you read applies to you RIGHT NOW. Never say, “oh, that’s just a rule for back then,” unless you have studied the matter so thoroughly that you could stand before the throne of a holy God, look up at His face glowing like fire, and say, “Yes, Lord, I studied the Word and am convinced this rule was a cultural thing, and does not apply today, and here’s why.”

We are instructed to “study to show thyselves approved unto God, a workman who need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” 2 Timothy 2:15.

Until you have studied the Word that thoroughly, you must give God the benefit of the doubt. Always take it at face value and believe and obey what it says. If you think it does not apply today, study the word so well you can prove it—or keep obeying the word as it is. Those are your only choices.

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