Summary of Week 1:
Principle #1 - Don't miss the forest for the trees. It is important to have a Genesis thru Revelation theology.
Tool #1 - What an author says at the beginning and the end is usually important. This tool can be applied to individual books as well as the whole of Scripture.
Tool #2 - Connect the dots. Just like in kindergarten, it is important to connect the dots when studying God's Word.
This week we sought to apply this principle and these tools to the Bible as a whole. In doing so, we found that the Bible starts in a garden and ends in a garden. Not only that...but we find garden-type language throughout Scripture. This language is pointing to a spiritual reality, namely that of "eternal" or "abundant" life (John 10:10). Another way to describe this type of life is found in our theme verse for the semester, Proverbs 12:12. It says, "The wicked desire the plunder of evil men, but the root of the righteous flourishes."
You were created to flourish in the kingdom of God! What does it mean to flourish? Well, we'll spend the rest of the semester looking at that question.
Homework - What are two other Gardens that we find in the Bible?
Please feel free to post comments or questions. Look forward to seeing everyone next week.
So, as I tend to sometimes drift into my A.D.D. moments during any study, I find myself often fixated on random topics throughout our lesson. This week's A.D.D. moment for me came as we came across the verse Rev. 22:2b, in which it says "On each side of the river stood the tree of life". I am immediately intrigued and ask Bill, does it really mean that the tree of life is straddling the river? Can a tree do that? Bill's response is that everything is bigger in heaven and therefore the tree could probably do that!? I mean its in the Bible! So here it is Bill I found a tree, no doubt it is not the tree of life, but it does straddle a River! My A.D.D. moment of the week is resolved!
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Nice Mr. York.
ReplyDeleteNever doubted you for a minute!
My "granola" roots are coming out even in the first week of this study; and I have to say, I would LOVE to just sit on one of those roots that goes across the river in this picture. No wonder my most intimate moments with God are when I am out in His beatuiful creation; His Word speaks as to how we were intended to dwell with Him in His garden. I cannot wait!
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