[Faith-talk] FW: [masterslist] The Bible Is Not a Cheat Sheet

[Eric Calhoun]

Original Message: 
From: "Dean Masters" <dwmasters at earthlink.net>
To: "masters list" <masterslist at yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [masterslist] The Bible Is Not a Cheat Sheet
Date: 
Tue, 22 Mar 2011 09:35:17 -0400

The Bible is Not a Cheat Sheet
by Ryan Duncan, Fish.com Editor

Teach me, LORD, the way of your decrees, that I may follow it to the end.

Give me understanding, so that I may keep your law and obey it with all
my 
heart.
Psalm 119: 33-34

I have a confession to make. Back when I was still in school, I attended
a 
chemistry class that I hated. The building was cold and smelled like 
chemicals.
The lessons were slow, with hours of homework assigned afterwards. On top
of 
everything, I had never been good at chemistry, and my frustration
usually
boiled over faster than our science solutions did.

The class did have one upside though; the way the room was set up allowed
me 
a perfect view of the desks in front of me. So, whenever an exam was
held,
I cheated. I used a variety of excuses to justify this. Chemistry wasn't
my 
gift, so why should my GPA suffer? The answers were there, they were 
available,
why shouldn't I use them? Who cares how I got the answers so long as
they're 
the right ones?

It was only later that I realized my mistake. Sure, I knew the correct 
answers, but I didn't understand how the formulas constructed those
answers. 
Without
that, my knowledge of chemistry was surface level at best. I was
completely 
and utterly lost.

I think sometimes we like to use the
Bible
 as a cheat sheet. When the world confronts us with a problem, we open
our 
Bibles and yell, "See, the Bible says it's wrong, end of story!" But the 
Bible
was meant to serve as a textbook, not a cheat sheet. If we don't study
God's 
word, we won't understand why Jesus said the things he did. We fail to
ask
questions, and we breeze through passages without taking time to consider

their meaning. We are, quite frankly, bad students.

Try to think of it this way. Before a doctor can heal a person's illness,

they must first understand the disease at work. They have to understand 
where
it came from, what affect it has on the patient's body, what types of 
treatment can fix the problem, why those treatments work, and which of the

treatments
is best for the patient. If the doctor does not understand this, there is
a 
good chance they'll end up hurting their patient. God calls us to be
healers
and lights to the world, but without understanding his word first, we
become 
heavy-handed.

We must not be afraid to question our
faith.
Instead, we must study it with an open mind and faithful heart. That way,

when the real exam comes, we pass with flying colors.

Intersecting Faith and Life

What questions do you have about the Bible? Take some time to talk them
over 
with a friend or Pastor.

Further Reading

Psalm 119





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"I would ratyher walk in the dark with Jesus than to walk in the light on
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