Truth Be Told

Ruining Your Favorite Bible Verse

So often, this verse is one that is taken out of context because of the comforting words, lovely poetry, and pleasant picture it seems to paint for our lives as God sees them. Taking verses out of context, however, is a dangerous game. When you misapply scripture to yourself or force meanings upon the text, you inevitably have to ask yourself - where does it stop?

Where does it STOP applying to me? What DON'T I want it to mean? When you begin asking these questions, even if you aren't being malicious, you are abandoning interpretation in favor of your subjective opinion and this is the worst way to do Bible study.

In this episode, we're just going through one verse (Jeremiah 29:11) as an example of how using verses out of context can quickly become problematic for our understanding and appreciation of Scripture.

Interestingly, the message that people want to force this section to say (that God loves us, has our best interest in mind, and is not, ultimately, desiring our downfall) is a true biblical message. But if it can be found throughout Scripture, why should we insist upon forcing this verse to say what it actually isn't intending to say?

 

Email: truthbetoldbiblepodcast@gmail.com

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDUkiQvCEF8Rc4TzjyBMsxg

Logo: Matt Hernandez

Music: Acoustic Indie Folk Years By MarkJuly

Meeting God At The Well

Throughout the Biblical narrative, there are overlapping patterns that so many largely ignore. However, if we track these patterns, we begin to see important messages and themes building in intensity that give us a much grander view of God's sovereignty over the construction of His Scriptures, and lifechanging lessons that weave our lives inextricably to the text of the Bible. 

In this episode, we walk through one such pattern of meeting God at the well. At first, you'll just begin to notice that wells, springs, and cisterns are mentioned more frequently than you had really considered before, but after we build the examples one on top of another and ask WHY the authors are continuing this pattern, we'll see that God was building towards something in epic fashion that reminds us of His goodness and love for us. 

 

Email: truthbetoldbiblepodcast@gmail.com

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDUkiQvCEF8Rc4TzjyBMsxg

Logo: Matt Hernandez

Music: Acoustic Indie Folk Years By MarkJuly

Examining the Generational Divide: Ani Interview (Preteen-Teen Demographic)

**PLEASE READ DESCRIPTION**

This episode starts off a series that I plan to slowly work through dedicated to analyzing the potential for division in the church that runs along age lines.

While I don't see any wild amount of disunity between the different age groups currently, there are differences in experience, thought, understanding, and preferred methodology that could quickly turn into division if we're not aware of them.

We should all be looking around at the members of our congregations and asking ourselves, "How can I better serve them?" The first step to this, in my opinion, is understanding them. By building relationships built on a desire to understand and succeed together, we mitigate the human tendencies to assume poor motives, to write people off, or to forge ahead alone believing ourselves to be the only correct thinkers. 

In this episode, I was privileged to talk to my good friend, Ani who spoke for herself but did her best to represent how she saw the mindsets of those in her age group. Ani is a regular listener of this podcast and was excited to participate but nervous, particularly about saying anything that reflected negative views of others.

The primary points that Ani brings out in this episode that I hope those of other age demographics will take note of are:

-YOUNG Christians desire to be interacted with as GROWING Christians. They don't know everything but many of them are eager to understand and are capable of more than surface level learning.

-Young Christians have some level of fear of expressing doubts and questions for fear of how they might be perceived. Other generations working to create a Church where vulnerability is allowed and encouraged out of an evident love for those who need to express it would go a LONG way.

-Young Christians face issues that you might believe you understand by virtue of living in the same world as them. However, while you're an adult living in this time period, you've never been a kid in this time period. Listening to them with respect first will produce an incredible amount of trust for you to be able to share your advice. If you attempt to share the advice first without building that trust, it won't create the lasting relationship that they desperately need from you.

 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDUkiQvCEF8Rc4TzjyBMsxg

Email: truthbetoldbiblepodcast@gmail.com

Logo: Matt Hernandez

Music: Acoustic Indie Folk Years By MarkJuly

The Gospel According to Zacchaeus

In the midst of a larger narrative in Luke 19, we're told a brief story featuring a small-statured, tax collector named Zacchaeus of Jericho. On its own, this account makes a cute, kid-friendly story about Jesus's willingness and desire to care for the outcast. In a deeper look, however, which we go through in this study, Zacchaeus becomes a microcosm of the entire Gospel message.

Luke is an intelligent and intentional writer attempting to accurately depict historical events, but he is also recounting these events with a purpose in mind. In this section of Luke, specifically, we are in a transitional period from the earthly ministry of Jesus to His death on the cross with this account of Zacchaeus sitting squarely in the middle.

Is this, simply, a retelling of events, or did Luke intend this retelling to speak to the larger purpose of the good news of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God?

 

Email: truthbetoldbiblepodcast@gmail.com

Logo: Matt Hernandez

Music: Acoustic Indie Folk Years By MarkJuly

God: The Fashionista

God is vast and powerful and beyond human comprehension on so many levels, but He does desire to be known. In fact, He has gone through some incredible lengths to teach us about Himself and His work. One way we can learn so much about God is by considering His creation. What better way to learn about the Creator than to look at what He has made?

Scripture shows us we can learn about God as a shepherd, a father, a farmer, a king and, now, a fashionista. 

In this episode, we track a pattern outlined in the Bible of being alternately clothed and stripped of clothing culminating in a final clothing event where we are given more excellent garments by a benefactor.

We see this pattern in the stories of Adam and Eve, Joseph and his brothers, David and Saul, Jesus and His incarnation, and even in our own lives as it relates to the scriptures. 

Viewing God as someone who is intricately invested in clothing might seem like a bizarre lens to view Him through, but there are incredible, encouraging lessons in this study that we might not get in the same way other places.

 

Email: truthbetoldbiblepodcast@gmail.com 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDUkiQvCEF8Rc4TzjyBMsxg

Logo: Matt Hernandez

Music: Acoustic Indie Folk Years

What Does It Mean That, YHWH Is Our Righteousness?

"YHWH Is Our Righteousness" is one of the compound names of God that describes Him as, not only righteous but, righteousness on our behalf. How are we supposed to understand that Someone can be righteousness for us when that doesn't seem to work in our human relationships? When many see the fulfillment of this in the person of Jesus Christ, they assume it means we have no obligation to behave righteously anymore since He did it for us.

 

Commandments? Laws? Good works? None of these are meant to SAVE a person (they couldn't even at their best), but if our King has shown us and offered us His righteousness, should we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not.

 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDUkiQvCEF8Rc4TzjyBMsxg

Email: truthbetoldbiblepodcast@gmail.com

Logo: Matt Hernandez

Music: Acoustic Indie Folk Years

How To Make Bible Study Interesting Again Part 2

Last week's episode outlined 4 practical steps to cultivate a natural curiosity of Scripture:

1. Generally know the stories, truths, and virtues of Scripture

2. Train yourself to find Biblical patterns

3. Find those patterns that reflect universal truths, themes, and types EVERYWHERE (including outside of the Bible)

4. Reverse the order (find the themes, truths, and types you love and connect with from other stories/examples and find them IN scripture).

 

This week, I wanted to go through these steps using one of my favorite examples: Gandalf the Grey from The Lord of the Rings. Hopefully, after walking through this example, the steps will become clearer to envision and you'll begin to see how you can borrow the emotion evoked by more modern stories/media/examples and apply them to Scripture because those examples are only borrowing from Scripture in the first place. 

 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDUkiQvCEF8Rc4TzjyBMsxg

Email: truthbetoldbiblepodcast@gmail.com

Logo: Matt Hernandez

Music: Acoustic Indie Folk Years By MarkJuly

How To Make Bible Study Interesting Again Part 1

So many Christians struggle to maintain proper motivation for prayer and bible study. Sometimes, the thought of studying the Bible can even feel downright boring and this can lead to a tremendous amount of debilitating guilt. 

Wouldn't it be amazing if we were more genuinely curious about the Scriptures so that it didn't feel like a chore to look into them more frequently? Wouldn't it be great if we could confidently dive deep into the word of God without the fear of feeling guilty over how much we just don't know? What if feeling actually interested in the text didn't feel so forced?

In this episode, we walk through 4 practical tips for cultivating a natural curiosity of Scripture that should help to remove those roadblocks that hinder you from desiring deeper study.

 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDUkiQvCEF8Rc4TzjyBMsxg

Email: truthbetoldbiblepodcast@gmail.com

Logo: Matt Hernandez

Music: Acoustic Indie Folk Years By MarkJuly

Do We Misunderstand Christ's Role As Our Mediator?

When we consider what a mediator does in a modern context, we might immediately have some modern conflicts come to mind. It's only natural for these modern conflicts to shape our view of the role itself.

When we consider Jesus as our Mediator before the Father, do we allow some of the horrible conflicts that modern Mediators deal in to shape our understanding of what He is doing for us? If so, we might be in danger of, not only, misunderstanding the role of Jesus Christ, but also misunderstanding the disposition of the Father towards us.

Jesus as Mediator acts as a conduit for us to run back to the Father, not as a shield against the hatred we believe the Father might have for us. It's true, our sin needed dealt with and there is a lot of anger/enemy language in those contexts that can't be ignored, but they shouldn't cause us to think that the Father is vengeful and hateful towards us when He is the One who SENT the Mediator as a way to repair the relationship between us that we broke in the first place.

 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDUkiQvCEF8Rc4TzjyBMsxg

Email: truthbetoldbiblepodcast@gmail.com

Logo: Matt Hernandez

Music: Acoustic Indie Folk Years By MarkJuly

Lessons In Transformation From the Staff of Moses

In Exodus 4, the staff of Moses is, in one way, transformed into something wholly unique and different from what it had ever been before. This change doesn't come with grandiose celebration or any sort of fanfare. In fact, most readers would probably gloss right over the change that takes place without paying it much attention.

However, when the staff of Moses becomes the staff of God, amazing symbolism takes place that correlates to Moses' own life which, in turn, should give us many things to think about in our own lives as well.

 

Email: truthbetoldbiblepodcast@gmail.com

Logo: Matt Hernandez

Music: Acoustic Indie Folk Years By MarkJuly

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDUkiQvCEF8Rc4TzjyBMsxg