Living by the Book/Living by the Book Workbook Set (50 page)
Read Living by the Book/Living by the Book Workbook Set Online
Authors: Howard G. Hendricks,William D. Hendricks
Tags: #Religion, #Christian Life, #Spiritual Growth, #Biblical Reference, #General
By now, you should know the steps as well as you know your own name: observation, interpretation, application. We’re now considering the step of application, where life-change occurs. But let me point out one more time that the order of the steps is crucial. It is crucial because prior to applying the Word, you’ve got to have firsthand acquaintance with what it teaches. You gain that knowledge first by diligent observation, then by careful interpretation. At
that
point—and only at that point—are you in a position to act on what you know.
In 1 Timothy 4:16, Paul warns Timothy, “Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching.” Once again, the order is critical: pay attention to yourself, first, Paul tells Timothy. Then pay attention to the communication of biblical truth to others. Why? Because if you don’t know yourself, it’s difficult to help other people apply the Bible to their lives.
In fact, one of the main reasons application is not more effective with many people is, frankly, they really don’t know themselves. How about you? In the next chapter we’re going to look at the enormous importance individual differences make for how we each apply Scripture. But for now, let me ask you a couple of questions. First,
What are your assets?
What have you got going for you? Could you write down your three greatest assets on a three-by-five-inch card right now? (In my experience most people have a hard time doing that.) Second,
What are your liabilities?
What are your limitations? What is your greatest hindrance to growth?
Now put these two together, and you’ll see the value in application. If you know your assets, it will develop your confidence. If you know your liabilities, it will develop your faith. Your assets tell you what God has done for you. Your liabilities tell you what God needs to develop in you. The reason most of us don’t grow more is that we really don’t know what we need.
Romans 12:3 offers insight here: “For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you” (NIV). Sometimes we have an exaggerated opinion of ourselves. Other times we have a distorted opinion. Paul says, “Don’t! Don’t get a puffed up idea of who you are. But make sure you don’t dump on yourself, either.” Every time you dump on yourself, you’re doing the devil’s work—and he doesn’t need your help. He’s a specialist in that.
Insight, then, is the first step toward spiritual growth—insight into the passage, and insight into yourself.
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Once we know the truth of the Word, we must relate it to our experience. In fact, Christianity is best understood as a series of new relationships. Remember 2 Corinthians 5:17? If we are “in Christ,” we are “new creatures.” The same persons, but persons undergoing transformation. God is forming a “same new us. ”And so new things start coming, because Christ has moved into our life—right to the center. Once there, He affects every area. As we’ve seen, He goes to work on our home life: we start to become more sensitive as a partner, as a parent, as a person. He strengthens our thought life: our mind begins to dwell on constructive things, we develop wider interests, and we cultivate more godly values. He renovates our social life: our relationships with friends and associates change as we begin to treat them with Christlikeness.
Christ even affects our sex life. Most people don’t have a clue that the Lord designed sex, which makes Him the only one who knows how it truly functions. Some may be embarrassed to talk about it, but He was not embarrassed to create it. He wants to create healthy intimacy in our lives, and to make even our sexuality new and clean and honorable to God.
What about our business life, our vocational life? People talk about “Christian businesspeople.” No, they are not Christian businesspeople. They are businesspeople who happen to be Christians. Unfortunately, many have never related biblical truth to their life in the workplace.
Jesus Christ wants to renew
every
area of life. That’s why Christian growth is a process—a dynamic process. Every day I wake up to the realization that there are still areas of my life over which the Lord does not have control. So a Christian is a person who is maladjusted to the status quo (which has been well defined as “the mess we’re currently in”). I’ve got to keep coming to the Word of God throughout my lifetime. Spiritual growth is a long-term process. And unless I heed the Word of God, I’ll never arrive at the goal of Christlikeness.
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o you want to apply God’s Word to your life? Start by knowing yourself. To help you do that, Doug Sherman of Career Impact Ministries has developed an inventory that reviews your habits and behaviors in light of God’s expectations in at least five broad areas of life. Here are few questions to consider.
• | What is the status of your spiritual disciplines—disciplines well-known to correlate with spiritual growth, such as Bible study, Scripture memory, prayer, or the reading of devotional literature? |
• | What about your physical condition and habits of eating, exercise, sleep, and rest? |
• | What behaviors do you especially desire to overcome: a temper, or deception, or sexual lust? |
• | What behaviors do you especially desire to establish: patience, or hospitality, or perseverance? |
• | Do you have a set come-home time from work that your family can count on? |
• | Do you “date” your spouse regularly? |
• | Do you disengage emotionally from work and chores in order to spend unimpeded time involved with your children? |
• | Are you upholding your responsibilities to your parents? To your spouse’s parents? To other relatives? |
• | How often do you place yourself under the instruction of Scripture? |
• | Do you faithfully, generously, and joyfully donate money to the cause of Christ? |
• | Are you praying regularly for your pastor and other church leaders? |
• | Do you know what your spiritual gift is, and are you using it? |
• | Do you give an honest day’s labor to your employer? |
• | Do you follow through on commitments you make to your customers? |
• | Do you read and otherwise stay up on new developments, ideas, and methods in your field? |
• | To the extent that you can, do you hold a steady job by which your needs and those of your family are being adequately met? |
• | Do you have a family budget? Do you stick within it? |
• | Do you regularly exercise your right and responsibility as a citizen to cast an informed vote? |
• | Do you pay your fair share of taxes? |
• | What is the status of your driving record? |
• | Do you maintain your property within the statutes of your community? |
• | Are you in any way conscious of and involved with the poor and their needs? |
There are scores of other questions that could be asked. The point of such an inventory is to help you evaluate yourself critically to determine areas in which you need to grow spiritually. All of these specific applications flow out of specific Bible passages and biblical principles.
Suggestion: Ask someone who knows you well, such as your spouse or a close friend, to go through this inventory and give their own evaluation of how they think you measure up in each area. Then compare your responses. This is a great way to achieve objectivity and make this exercise more useful.
Adapted from Doug Sherman and William Hendricks,
Your Work Matters to God
(Colorado Springs: Navpress, 1987), pp. 232–33.
Once you realize that Jesus Christ wants to impact your life in a profound way, you need to look for areas in which to relate the Word to life. I like to see these in terms of what I call the “Working Word.” In observation and interpretation, you come up with new insights—things that you’ve never seen before. These new insights effect a series of new relationships.
A new relationship to God.
He’s now your heavenly Father. You have a personal and intimate relationship with Him. He’s provided His Son for your salvation, and the Holy Spirit to help you grow and accomplish His purposes.
A new relationship to yourself.
You develop a new self-image. If God loves you, if Christ died for you, if the Holy Spirit has gifted and empowered you, that means you have tremendous value and significance. Your life takes on new meaning and purpose.
A new relationship to other people.
You discover that other people are not the enemy. They may be victims of the enemy, but they are the people that God has placed in your life. He calls you to treat them with Christlikeness.
A new relationship to the enemy.
Please note: Once you come to Christ, you change sides in the battle. Before, you were just a pawn of the enemy. He moved you around wherever he wanted you to go. You had no idea that you were duped by him. But now you discover that you’re on God’s side. Believe me, the enemy is none too happy about that. That’s why your Christian life will remain a constant battle.
The new insights that you gain from Scripture need to be applied in all of these areas of relationships. Notice how that takes place.
The Word exposes your sin.
As we’ve seen in 2 Timothy 3:16, Scripture has a reproving and corrective function. It tells you when you are out-of-bounds in order to clean out the sin from your life.
The Word gives you God’s promises.
It tells you what you can expect from God and what you can rely on Him to do. That is incredibly comforting when you’re facing circumstances that are beyond you.
The Word gives you God’s commands.
Just as there are promises in Scripture, so there are conditions to be met. Commands and principles are laid down that lead toward health and life.