David’s Blog

A friend of mine spent some time reflecting on Luke 10:1-24 today in his devotional reading. Below are some quick observations made about local and global outreach.  Thought you might find them helpful.

    * vs. 1 – teamwork, no lone rangers

    * vs. 2 – reaping opportunities are abundant

    * vs. 2 – pray for additional workers

    * vs. 3 – remain innocent in the midst of danger

    * vs. 4 – God will provide for your needs

    * vs. 4 – avoid distractions as you get started

    * vs. 5 – be gracious, not confrontational

    * vs. 6 – seek out people of influence

    * vs. 7 – go deep with a few, don’t spread yourself too thin

    * vs. 7 – allow God to meet your needs through others

    * vs. 8 – be gracious and grateful in response to others’ generosity

    * vs. 9 – meet real needs in the lives of those you encounter

    * vs. 9 – proclaim the gospel

    * vs. 10-11 – don’t take rejection personally

    * vs. 16 – realize who it is they are rejecting (Christ, not you)

    * vs. 17 – there is joy in engaging in outreach

    * vs. 19 – we have spiritual authority over the enemy

    * vs. 21 – God delights in using the ordinary

As with anything that is beyond our understanding and spiritual in nature, remember to pray.  Without God opening our eyes and heart to the scripture, it will continue to be something that we don’t understand, it will continue to be boring and will continue to go over our heads.  So just pray that God will speak to our hearts with His word.  John 16:13-15, says that He guides us in all Truth.

Rules of Inductive Study

   1. Observation – What is the scripture is saying.

         1. Read the passage one time through.  Try not to read anything into your reading. Just read for information.

         2. Answer the Questions: 

               1. Who:  Who wrote it? Who said it? Who is it written for? Who is mentioned? 

               2. What:  What are the main ideas or themes? What are the people like?  What the behaviors being addressed? What is being taught?

               3. When:  When is it written? When will it happen? When did the author write it?

               4. Where: Where was it done?  Where was it said? 

               5. Why:  Why was it mentioned? Why was this reference mentioned? Why should we do it? Why did they do that?

               6. How:  How was it done? How did that come come to be? How can I do it?

         3. Look for the type of writing.  Is it historical, poetic , a letter, what?

         4. Discover facts about the piece of scripture.

               1. Identify names and people

               2. Identify events

               3. Identify keywords.

               4. Discover the theme

               5. Define clear segments

         5. Get the Details keeping context in mind.

               1. Does the text answer any of your questions from above?

               2. Look at your keywords, define the words, and dig a little about each word.

               3. Make a simple timeline for each verse.

               4. Develop themes for major areas.

So just read through the scripture through.  Let me know how it goes.

Too many times we let things slip without really thinking about the meaning of what we are saying or what we mean. Take for example the name, “Christian”. Does it really mean anything anymore? With 85% of American proclaiming the faith marker of “Christian” does it mean anything? Do they even know Jesus? Most do not even know what living for Jesus means and they probably don’t want to. Oh they know they are searching for something, but that something can not be Jesus Christ. That name is just something they say when they get angry or hurt.

The name of Jesus Christ means something. He stands for care and compassion to the margins, we know that, because He cared for the margins. He stands for justice and mercy and righteousness. He did not stand by and let people just believe and live the way they wanted. He cares for Truth and Action, and He wasn’t afraid to speak the truth. He also was not afraid to let things go when the person wasn’t ready to receive the truth. He was willing to love people to the point of acceptance.

The name of Jesus Christ means something. But in order to take on the name of Jesus, we have to deny everything about ourselves… Everything about us must go and we must take on everything like Jesus.