The majority of us, Christians, in particular, will never be Bible scholars. The good news, "you don't have to be a Bible scholar to get to heaven." Even more, since God is not a respecter of people, flaunting a "Bible Scholar" title in absence of obedience is not enough to secure a spot in heaven. Essentially, anybody who can read, and memorize can be a Bible scholar, but, to be a Christian, one must live the kind of Godly life that he or she talks about.
The heart must be pure, kind, compassionate, always hiding God's Word there. The first step to acquiring understanding is recognizing deficiencies, admitting they exist and making a genuine effort to learn. There is no such thing as having read enough of the Bible! As humans, we bear sinful natures, which means those natures must be constantly tended to. While the Lord gives grace and forgives us for our sin if we repent, to know how to receive his grace we must study to show ourselves approved.
"Now Abram’s wife Sarai had not borne a child to him, but she had an Egyptian maidservant namedHagar. So Sarai said to Abram, “Look now, the LORD has prevented me from bearing children. Please go to my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family by her.” Genesis 16: 12
Several years ago, I ran across an article on a Christian blog. The blog site which is no longer online had an eye-catching tagline. Actually, just two words in the tagline instantly grabbed your attention, "Progressive Christian." Apparently, the author wanted to appeal to the not-so-staunch Christian, if you will. My first thought was, "now what is a progressive Christian?" There was a featured post in the blog titled, "Does This Make Me Look Fat?" The post included a photo of a thick woman looking in a mirror at herself while depicting and comparing her plight with gaining weight to Sarah's struggle of barrenness? (Not able to have children)
"The first obstacle to the covenant faced in Genesis is Sarah’s barrenness. If one of the benefits of the covenant was for Abraham to become a great nation, he would have to start by having children." John Walton on February 13th, 2009. Tagged under Sarai.
Above all get understanding, applies perfectly to the author's "not well-thought-out," comparison of a weight-gain problem to barrenness. But first, the author would need to have an indepth understanding of the stigma associated with barrenness during Sarah's lifetime. Obviously, she didn't! In absence of that knowledge, one could easily make an inappropriate, if not insulting comparison just to bolster reading interest. Finally, perfecting the art of "making appropriate comparisons is priceless."
The heart must be pure, kind, compassionate, always hiding God's Word there. The first step to acquiring understanding is recognizing deficiencies, admitting they exist and making a genuine effort to learn. There is no such thing as having read enough of the Bible! As humans, we bear sinful natures, which means those natures must be constantly tended to. While the Lord gives grace and forgives us for our sin if we repent, to know how to receive his grace we must study to show ourselves approved.
"Now Abram’s wife Sarai had not borne a child to him, but she had an Egyptian maidservant namedHagar. So Sarai said to Abram, “Look now, the LORD has prevented me from bearing children. Please go to my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family by her.” Genesis 16: 12
Several years ago, I ran across an article on a Christian blog. The blog site which is no longer online had an eye-catching tagline. Actually, just two words in the tagline instantly grabbed your attention, "Progressive Christian." Apparently, the author wanted to appeal to the not-so-staunch Christian, if you will. My first thought was, "now what is a progressive Christian?" There was a featured post in the blog titled, "Does This Make Me Look Fat?" The post included a photo of a thick woman looking in a mirror at herself while depicting and comparing her plight with gaining weight to Sarah's struggle of barrenness? (Not able to have children)
"The first obstacle to the covenant faced in Genesis is Sarah’s barrenness. If one of the benefits of the covenant was for Abraham to become a great nation, he would have to start by having children." John Walton on February 13th, 2009. Tagged under Sarai.
Above all get understanding, applies perfectly to the author's "not well-thought-out," comparison of a weight-gain problem to barrenness. But first, the author would need to have an indepth understanding of the stigma associated with barrenness during Sarah's lifetime. Obviously, she didn't! In absence of that knowledge, one could easily make an inappropriate, if not insulting comparison just to bolster reading interest. Finally, perfecting the art of "making appropriate comparisons is priceless."
