A Little Insight

Good Morning!  How's the weather there?  Here, it's a balmy 29F.  At least the sun is shining!

I talked in my last post about how, during my convalescence over my neck injury, I spent the time studying the Bible.  And I thought I would explain just how I do that just in case you were wondering.

When I study, I study, I don't just read the Bible and memorize verses.  One of the things I do is when  I read the scripture, I also read the surrounding verses to make sure I'm taking the scripture in context.  Sometimes that means I end up reading the whole chapter just to be sure.

For example, the scripture 1 Corinthians 13:11, "When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child:but when I became a man,  I put away childish things." KJV (King James Version)

Most people use that to tell someone to "grow-up" and be responsible.   I have heard preachers quote that scripture in that context. 

But when you read all of verses in the chapter in you realize that Paul, the author of Corinthians, was actually continuing his teaching from the previous chapter where he talked about the Gifts of the Spirit, I'll explain those later, but then in this chapter, 13, he's talking about what good is it to have the Gifts, if you don't have love and compassion.

Then in verse 8 of the same chapter,13, he says, "All of the special gifts and powers from God will someday come to an end, but love goes on forever.  Someday prophesy, and speaking in unknown languages (what is commonly referred to as 'speaking in tongues'), and special knowledge will disappear. (9) Now we know so little, even with our special gifts, and the preaching of those most gifted is still so poor.  (10) But when we have been made perfect and complete, the the need for these inadequate special gifts will come to an end and they will disappear.  (11) It's like this: when I was a child I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child does.  But when I became a man my thought grew far beyond those of my childhood, and now I have put away the childish things. (12) In the same way, we can see and understand only a little about God now, as if we were peering at His reflection in a poor mirror, but someday we are going to see Him in His completeness, face to face." LBV (The Living Bible Version)

When Paul said that about childish things, he was using it as an example of how when we get older, we understand more and are able to do more without help.  He used it to help the Corinthians to understand that there would come a day when we would truly know and see God for ourselves without the help of other people's Gifts of the Spirit.

By the way, did you notice that I quoted two different versions of the scripture? 

That is part of my study tools, having more than one version of the Bible to read from.  I have four different printed versions of the Bible, plus a free app on my tablet that allows me to have all the versions. 

I also use three different versions of the dictionary; Merriam Webster, Oxford and Scholastic.  And believe it or not, they each have different features besides just the definitions and that can be very helpful too to get a full meaning of the word and how it is used.

Why do I need dictionaries?  Because, I have found that no matter how well read a person can be, or  how highly educated they may be, they can still use a word incorrectly and then the rest of us start using the same word the same way and the whole time, we're totally wrong.

Like the word "indignation", for years I thought it meant having your pride hurt, and apparently so did a lot of other people that I asked.  But it actually means to be upset at the injustice another person suffered.

I also have notepads, pencils, highlighters, sticking notes, and sticky tabs.  LOL  Like I said, I study the Bible.

Stay Tuned  . . .my next post will be about how exactly I put all of this to work for me.