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I’ve been working on a blog post all week and in prayer, basically talking to God, telling Him, You know what the problem really is? Middle school algebra.
(By the way, of course God knows what the problem is. He’s God.)
The problem is so many people in middle school algebra just wailing, “But why do I have to learn this stuff, I’m never going to use it!” Do you remember teachers, parents, people telling you, “you’re not always going to have a calculator handy?” We sure showed them, didn’t we? Now days we have phones at our fingertips that not only have built in calculators, they have a handy, dandy flashlight, too!
I guess you were WRONG. I always WILL have a calculator handy….
True story, I’m much better at just doing the math than I am at finding the calculator on a darn phone. But the point still stands, so many of us learned math by rote, disengaged from the process, just trying to put the numbers in the right order and check the right boxes to pass the stupid class, but really having no interest or desire or understanding of why or how any of this even matters.
Not all, mind you! Some people are math nerds, but the vast majority of us do not sit here in our adult lives diagramming sentences for fun nor solving equations to delight our souls.
The same problem can be true of scripture, we can have this inability to apply it, to receive it, to absorb it. The Word, applied to our individual lives.
There’s a lot of mystery to following Jesus. It’s not like a recipe or a math equation or something. It really defies explanation. You kind of have to just put one foot in front of the other, let go, and let God do what He does.
I know a whole lot of people, Christian people, who don’t read the Bible. I also know many who don’t or won’t apply it to their lives. The thing is, James 1:22 says in part, “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.”
I walked into church today and, poof! The sermon was actually on applied scripture and James 1. That is evidence of the mystery of The Word in action, the perfect synchronicity of the Lord, the way He hands us just what we need with His perfect timing.
I just love it when I walk into church and go, wait how did you know all that? Those aren’t just some vague references and loose connections, that is my whole life this week! Cracks me every time it happens.
James speak a lot about how we can be deceived, as he does in the verse I quoted, and about the vanity or falsehood of “religion.” “If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain.”
Our religion can be meaningless, vain and in vain too, just phoning it in like we did in middle school math, if it is not received and applied to our hearts personally.
The Bible, The Word, scripture, Jesus Himself, are what we must apply, personalize, and internalize. We don’t read scripture so much as we grow still and let scripture read us. Let the Author and finisher of your faith, read it to you. And it is good, it is fruitful, it heals us, it gives us wisdom and strength, it produces joy and fills us with peace.
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See, there's this thing called biology... 
God is good and in a good mood. Great insight. We must be doers of the word!
Love this: “The Bible, The Word, scripture, Jesus Himself, are what we must apply, personalize, and internalize. We don’t read scripture so much as we grow still and let scripture read us. Let the Author and finisher of your faith, read it to you. And it is good, it is fruitful, it heals us, it gives us wisdom and strength, it produces joy and fills us with peace.”
Blessings!
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Good word again, as always IB. There is one other area you pointed out that I agree with. At times an attempt to locate the calculator on the phone is futile. Then if I do find it, I can’t figure out how to use it, such as when the meat packages are marked in kilograms, and I want to know how many pounds the turkey is. Awe…change and old age….not a good combination! 😀
God Bless you and hubby, IB.
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This is so true. I remember having to memorize Bible passages when in school and wondering why. Now as an Old woman I know. Those words are some of my sharpest memories.
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I have that happen all the time. I will be studying a scripture only to go to church and it is the subject of the sermon. I used to look at it as wow. God proofs his proofs, and Wow I am on the right track. Then it dawned on me. That God wanted to get it into my own thick skull and it applied to me and was saying. You notice this scripture, now put it into practice MORE than you are doing currently.
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Back from 2011-2016 I had a blog, Doug’s BoomeerRants (that seems to still exist and won’t go away.. and I’ve long since forgotten the password to do anything with it), I did a post about my experiences with math in school.
https://dougsboomerrants.wordpress.com/2013/11/12/math-sucks-and-other-scholastic-rants/
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Thank you for sharing. I enjoyed it a lot. I love the way God works in our lives when we choose to listen and follow Him. He’s awesome!
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Good stuff.
On a slightly related note, when I homeschooled and my kids asked when they would ever use algebra in real life, I had the inexpressible pleasure of telling them, “Who knows? You might be a homeschool parent some day.”
Naturally, they rolled their eyes and said, “Not a chance.”
Then again, as I told them, that is precisely what I said about being a parent in the first place at their age, so… you just never know.
On that note, I’m going to go work on my Scripture memory since I never know when I might need to apply it…
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Bravo! Excuse me now. I have to go diagram some sentences and play with an equation I’ve been working on…
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Reblogged this on Truth in Palmyra and commented:
Even the demons understand deep theology. Remember the demons asking Jesus why He tormented them before the time? “And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time?” Matthew 8:29. They understood it, yet obviously had nothing but head knowledge. It takes a personal relationship; a personal relationship will beget a life application. Thanks, IB, good stuff here.
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Thanks, Wally. Much appreciated. That verse is perfect.
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Seemed so. Lots of that in churches these days. People know a lot, yet know nothing. Like Ephesus, losing our first love.
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This was beautifully stated: “The Bible, The Word, scripture, Jesus Himself, are what we must apply, personalize, and internalize. We don’t read scripture so much as we grow still and let scripture read us. Let the Author and finisher of your faith, read it to you. “
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Thanks, Slim.
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You’re welcome!
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Thank you! Beautiful!
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I always laugh when people think a certain learning exercise is useless. We don’t always recognize what skills we are absorbing from our learning until one day we wake up and go, “wow! All those proofs in Geometry actually helped my reasoning skills.” (Yeah, I can’t tell you any of those proofs off the top of my head, but the skills is deeply ingrained!) Some of the lessons God is teaching us don’t seem obvious for years. Then one day we wake up and go, “Wow. I remember when I went through ________, and now I can help __________ who is going through the same thing. Yup. Learning. It’s only good if we take our lessons and recognize we’ve got a Good Teacher. 🙂
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