Prayer and Purpose

In theology, hermeneutics specifically refers to the interpretation of Scripture. William W. Klein defines hermeneutics as “ both a science and an art.” [1] It is a science because one must employ a methodology and other fields requiring particular methodologies are utilized as well. These fields include anthropology, archaeology, and history. However, Klein says because texts are written with human hands, they “cannot be reduced solely to quantifiable and precise rules.” [2] Instead, there are many nuances involved in interpretation of texts. Leo Percer reminds us that words have denotations as well as connotations. [3] Denotations, or the dictionary definition, can be approached scientifically. These denotations give definitive meaning to words. Connotations, however, rely on context. This reliance is not only on the context of use in a sentence, paragraph, book, etc., but also on the context of culture and intentionality.   As an example of the necessity of understanding ...

I am reading a book given to me by a wonderful friend of mine who is serving as a missionary in Africa. The book, The Power of a Praying Wife by Stormie Omartian has a lot of good prayer points for a wife to pray over her husband. I am not done with the book, and I am not writing in an effort to promote it, rather, her prayer points got me thinking again about having a daily prayer focus for my husband, my kids, and other important things in my life. My favorite prayer points come from Monica Andrews at Daily Dwelling . She has created beautiful art to go along with the prayer points, and they would be great to print and put into a prayer journal if you are into that, but she only has twenty points. So, if you do one point a day, in the typical month you would repeat the first ten points on days 21-30 in the month, or maybe do two points a day on those days. Why not instead have thirty prayer points? Omartian has 31 listed prayer points in her book, but I would feel like that 31st po...

In Numbers we find instructions that Yahweh has given Moses to give to Aaron regarding a blessing upon His people: "Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 'Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them, Yahweh bless you and keep you; Yahweh make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; Yahweh lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. 'So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.'" Numbers 6:22‭-‬27 ESV Re-read the last sentence. God wanted the priests to mark His people as His. I grew up hearing this every Sunday as our benediction, and it is fitting because, though I am not an Israelite, I am chosen by God, adopted into His family. Paul writes in his letter to the Galatians, "for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither sla...

I was reflecting on how I am often my own worst enemy. My anger, lack of patience and tenderness are often my undoing and, in my opinion, my greatest weakness in both motherhood and in being a beacon of light in this world to reflect God's love. This reflection led me to a cathartic means that I have long neglected using, poetry. I wish everyone a happy New Year and hope that no matter how close or far from God you are now, that you grow closer to Him throughout 2019. My heart aches I long to be better than I am To be who You desire me to be Yet I never cease to fail At all that I do The world echoes my fears Screams my own doubts back at me But You love me My identity is found in You Help me seek You daily Help me to seek you each moment To step back and see what matters Will this matter tomorrow? Many things will, others won't Let my eyes be set on eternity For this life is like vapor, a mist Here today, gone tomorrow May I serve You daily And may I do as Y...

I love camping, and I love my kids, but let me tell you, those two things don't always go well together. This summer for camping my kids were ages 3, 2, and 9 months. Those are hard ages for getting them to fall asleep when everyone is together. So, we try to go to bed in our one room tent and the youngest, Phoebe, needs it quiet, otherwise she wonders what is going on and wants to be involved. My older two are chasing each other and wrestling, being altogether too loud for anyone within about 50 feet to get any rest. We tried movies utilizing our "entertainment center," which is just a pouch for a tablet, and sometimes it was successful. Mostly, though, Jason and I spent around an hour or more every night trying not to go crazy as our children tried their best to resist the sleep they, and we, desperately needed after long and tiring days. If we got upset with them for being loud and tried to discipline them by talking to them or giving them a spanking, it only made it w...

One of my favorite passages in the Bible comes from Paul's letter to the Romans: "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. " Romans 1:18-20 (emphasis mine) I love that this passage points us to nature, the constant witness of Yahweh. There would be no nature without Him, for He spoke it into existence, and the only way to deny this is to "suppress the truth". Instead, we ought look to nature and see the glory of God in His creation. I remember a youth group retreat where my Pastor asked us to go find evidence of God, I walked a couple steps away from the fire pit and grabbe...

I am desperately in love with Yahweh! I am a forgiven child of God. I am created to love, serve and commune with Yahweh. I am a beautiful, powerful creation. I am a godly wife, desperately in love with her husband. I am raising beautiful, intelligent, bi-lingual Christ-followers. For a few years now I have had this or something like this written out for myself to remind me of who I am and in whom I find my identity. It seemed to be a blessing to the ladies in my Bible study and I wanted to pass it on to others. To make something like this for yourself can remind you that your identity isn't as the world perceives it -- the world often associates a person's job with their identity. Rather, we are children of God, forgiven and given life through the death of Jesus, our job is just what we do.  In college, I remember sitting down with a friend one morning and she asked me to make a list of good things about myself. That moment, all I could come up wit...

You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.” -Matthew 15:7-9 As I was listening to this chapter of Matthew while driving, this particular prophecy recounted by Jesus stuck out to me. I thought to myself, do I do this? Of course, I’m sure I do, but do I simply not see in what ways I am being hypocritical and talking the talk, yet not walking the walk? I’ve written posts in the past about looking back on your day and asking yourself if people would be able to recognize that you are Christian, but today I had a thought that may make this type of self-reflection easier for some, or at least more productive for recognizing areas that need growth – a list. Maybe it’s a girl thing, but I love lists. Whether it’s a wish list, a pros and cons list, or a packing list, they help a person recognize needs, wants, can...

Back in college I had early morning softball practice. It was a lot of lifting and other exercise for the most part to get us in shape for the upcoming season. Well, at some point later in the year, I remember one of the girls commenting on how I was always really happy and awake at these practices. Let me tell you how much I hate mornings. I still don't like getting out of bed before 10 o'clock. These practices were at like 6:00 or 6:30 am, not a fun time for me, and probably not a fun time for most of the other girls either. I would actually get up close to an hour before these workouts because I also have a sensitive stomach that does not appreciate me not supplying it with food on a regular basis, so I had usually gotten my cranky out by the time I got down to the field house for workouts. Nonetheless, I was taken aback when my bubbly, happy demeanor in the mornings was what one of my teammates remembered about me from the year. Now, my husband is impressed with how I seem...

“We have learned that ‘politics is downstream from culture, not the other way around . . . . Real change has to start with the culture.’” (page 18 of Total Truth by Nancy Pearcey) I have been reading about apologetics a lot recently. Thinking about its usefulness both inside and outside the church. After all, we are called to make disciples of all nations (Mt 28:19) and while the truth of God is evident in nature (Rom 1:20), I believe sound apologetics within the church can help people walk through their doubt more easily. With Easter season just recently behind us, I had a memory brought to mind frequently in the last few weeks. When I was a Freshman at Pacific Lutheran University, I attended the Easter Chapel service. One of my friends was in the choir group that was singing at this service, so I was especially excited for some Easter selections sung by the ensemble she was a part of. The homily was to be delivered by a professor rather than one of our campus pastors. The music...

Jesus endured the greatest testing any human will ever endure when He spent 40 days in the wilderness without food or drink, and He was tried and tempted (Mt 4:1-11; Mk 1:12-13; Lk 4:1-13. While Jesus walked on this earth He was fully God, yet also fully man. By allowing Himself to become man He was able to truly be tempted by Satan's lies. He was alone during this time, alone in the sense that there was no other human with Him. However, this does not require that we should do spiritual battle alone. Indeed, Jesus shortly before being arrested asks His disciples to pray for Him in Gethsemane, a time when He knew His time to die was drawing near and the temptation to not die must have been brutal (Mt 26:36-45; Mk 14:32-41; Lk 22:39-46).  Paul instructs us to keep watch over ourselves to avoid temptation and to "[b]ear one another's burdens" (Gal 6:2). Bearing one another up helps us, as Paul says, to not begin to think to highly of ourselves, and just like a yoke,...

Did you know that Zondervan has an online offering known as Textbookplus+? It's pretty neat. I realized this when I was looking at the back of my copy of Grasping God's Word. So, I went to the site ( https://zondervanacademic.com/textbookplus ), created my free account, and found that the resources are actually pretty useful. For Grasping God's Word, they offer study guides, flashcards, quizzes, and a guide to plus a sample of an exegetical paper. Even if you don't have this particular book, the materials offered for free here could be useful to you, particularly if you are new to theological vocabulary. Just in the Chapter 1 flashcards you will get introduced to some basic vocabulary that is pretty specific to theological studies or other specific academic areas, such as: autograph, formal translation, and textual criticism. Also identified are major translations of the Bible, such as the Vulgate, the Authorized Version of 1611, and Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia. If...

Psalm 137 is one of my favorite Psalms despite how dark it is. I guarantee that has largely to do with two different arrangements of it into a song, one by Boney M and one by Sinead O'Connor. Look them up if you are interested, it helps you memorize a portion of the Psalm. What follows is an exegesis I did for a hermeneutics course, I hope it blesses you and helps you wrestle with this particular Psalm.  Psalm 137 [1] 1 By the rivers of Babylon, There we sat down and wept, When we remembered Zion. 2 Upon the willows in the midst of it We hung our harps. 3 For there our captors demanded of us songs, And our tormentors mirth, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion.” 4 How can we sing the Lord’s song In a foreign land? 5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem, May my right hand forget her skill . 6 May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth If I do not remember you, If I do not exalt Jerusalem Above my chief joy. 7 Remember, O Lord, against the sons o...