The Importance of Biblical Literacy | Dr. Cynthia James

[Music] well thank you for watching another episode of the g3 project podcast as always I'm your host Lisa fields the founder of the g3 project and I'm so excited to be joined by a very special guest today dr. Cynthia James welcome dr. James thank you thank you for considering having me I'm so excited to have you I've been watching your ministry for years now years and just you were so gracious to me when we talked a couple weeks ago and so supportive and I really appreciate you willing to come on the podcast for those who don't know who you are can you just give them a little bit of background about you all right I'm pleased to do so I'm currently one of several associate pastors at the potter's house the title is a director of Christian education although admittedly there are a number of people who are involved in Christian ed in this ministry it's a significant concern with five campuses prior to coming here I served just I don't know exactly maybe thirty seven thirty little under forty years as a senior pastor or three different congregations in the Church of God of Anderson Indiana which is a Wesleyan Holiness tradition also consecrated to Episcopal office in the year 2000 my training formal training initially was as a psychologist the psychology professor at a number of East Coast universities the PhD in psychology with the emphasis on interaction analysis subsequently attended seminary obtained did work in the m.div program at Pacific School of religion in Berkeley and but I actually matriculated from United theology Theological Seminary in Dayton Ohio with the d.min and a little bit other dipping in a few other coursework on the side awesome and on the wife and that's my true joy in three Oh awesome well you've done a lot for the kingdom and related to have you on the podcast to talk about something that's near and dear to my heart biblical literacy and so I I could see just from my interactions with people and reading through articles that a lot of people own Bibles but they don't read them why do you think that is well I think it has changed over the years I've obviously been around a couple of decades and to my dismay I think we have moved as a culture a contemporary culture to Balak to devalue or to value the word less I think there are a lot of things that have contributed to it and certainly this is not an exhaustive list one might be liberalism we're living at a time with this increasing liberalism and more distrust of documents some of our distrust as we hear about things like fake news and alternative facts certainly gives us legitimate cause to be suspicious but I think liberalism has caused us not to see the Word of God as bearing truth I think some of it is and this is risky to say but as we look at the Old Testament as one dispensation in the New Testament we sometimes tournament use the terminology that it's another I think there are better ways to look at it we sometimes dismiss major portions of the Bible as being out of date those things are not happening so there are no truths for us to glean there and nothing that's destructive for our present another part I think is the fact that to really engage the Bible as a treasure and to hold it dear we have to work it's not just as though they're pearls that have dropped down from heaven there are some things that we can glean right off the surface and some man and you can just pick up because it's the morning Frost or do but I think what I find in my own life so certainly not judgmental of others is that to the extent that I work and I have to do much work in this area to add historical context and to the extent that I work to add a geographical geographical knowledge that the two of them bear and weigh very heavily on the word and so as we good scripture and we can put it in context then we find out it's not a dead document but it is very much alive I'm not a biblical scholar scholar but I am passionate in terms of being a lover of the word so then it becomes an adventure becomes a journey so there's a certain amount of effort that we want to use we want to not be stymied by terminology that would cause us to dismiss what's in the Bible is being out of date we want to be aware of a kind of liberalism that would cause us to be suspect of what's in the scripture and there probably some other things I need to think of to go along with that and I'll probably think of much as we go through this and I think I love what you said because it goes into my next question about why is the Bible where I still relevant and 2017 and I'm going to continue answering your old ways the other question is it kinda but I think when we because that was the same way when we look at historical background when we look at geographical information the relevance becomes clear because what we find is that the Bible is not giving us a a fictitional ideal world it is symbolic and when we understand that symbols give us kind of a largely agreed upon this very naive language but handles and ways to approach ideas and activities then we find that the symbols in the Bible are the symbolism it's something that's readily transferable to today so no I'm not living in a day where there are concubines but I am living in a day where there are people who have second-class citizenship I'm not living in a day or two put it even differently think of nehemiah and a wonderful book that we like to use in church about how to build and how to construct and bring people together and be one mind and of unasyn but nehemiah's a book is full of a prejudice against intermarriage and just those who are on the outside and that is so readily transferable the issues of the day of how we think about immigrants and how we think about who's in and who's not and how we do redistricting and how we set up both political and economic decisions so the symbolism of the kind of thought that existed in people because the Bible is not just a record of facts and knowledge but there are persons to be engaged there are situations to be immersed in and those situations and circumstances are the metaphors and the symbols of them are readily transferable to now so I think the Bible sets up a symbolic world that is applicable now if we don't get locked into structures because our structures and titles and names for things have changed but often the sentiments and what we would call the spirit of the letter is directly applicable and I love what you said about that too as far as people to be engaged throughout scripture because we are looking at human behaviors and in your experience as a psychiatrist I know that you can see the repetitive nature of people of throughout Scripture and just today as well so I have to make sure I don't take credit I was psychologist but not a psychiatrist okay because there's an extra level of study there that I have not done so I want to make sure I don't take credit for that but I agree and what you're saying looking at how people think looking at life as a system of interaction those family dynamics of Lazarus Martha and Mary and mine did not Jesus come if you love us so much the triangles of looking at doubt Ruth and Naomi and all what happened with loss and grief in the family those are people they're there they're real and I'm not talking about their body materially but their sentiments their passions I always say oh I just had this is a little extreme but I'll say things like well I I've just been sitting at tea all day with Ruth or I've just been walking down the street know what and what I really mean is that I I feel as though if if I can dismiss my prejudices and open my eyes and heart that the characters will engage me and I will engage them so that I really gain some perceptions that fit my everyday decision-making the Bible is relevant I definitely agree how do you think we can promote biblical literacy in the church because we live in a day where people we have the apps on our home we have Bibles that are everywhere and we get scriptures through YouVersion or apps and usually we read a verse a day but we're not engaging the Bible as a whole so you know if you read a sentence out of a book you're gonna you're not gonna have a really good assessment about what the book is about because you only got a portion and things to have snapshots of Scripture but not seeing it as a whole how do you think we better engage people as a church well just some suggestions not a definitive or authoritative response where I like to lay much of the responsibility is at the doorstep of those of us who had the privilege to be in pulpits and on platforms because I think it's an it is akin to what you're saying about having apps and other ways to access just the splice or a soundbite from Scripture but I think those of us who have accessed the platform's have to be careful that if we have audiences that we think are deserving or desirous of entertainment that we don't lean so heavily on the packaging until we lose much of the substance so I think it's incumbent upon us as we teach classes as we share in workshops as we have 10 conferences as we deliver sermons or whatever the format is that we make sure the core is about price doesn't always have to come that way in terms of labeling but that has to be to me everything has to be wrapped around who God is in his son and how he's working through his son and not be apologetic or timid about naming the name of Jesus that's the impetus for what we do and who we are so I actually think there are a lot of all of our sermons that are only finger pointing that we could make sure that we're intentional and deliberate about incorporating more Scripture not just here's my verse and then go off and do something that's interesting the text interesting to the extent that we're able to in other words sometimes I think scripture is decoration and and what we're doing and that legitimizes what we're doing but it may not be the core what we're doing so that's one thing and I like to talk to ministers and ministerial groups about how in designing their worship service how the liturgy needs to be based around the scripture and sometimes we do that we have a Samana Kim or selection that kind of page the way for the word but how important it is even smaller modest sized congregations to try to have as much as possible the greetings that the color the everything that's happening in the service to Center and focus and build to the Word of God that's being presented so I think it's not just in the message but throughout our services we can highlight this is what draws us together this is what we explore define themes and ideas and that we can't find in just the one line that we're going to draw from to help us make decisions about how to walk through life and if I only know one little bit from just the quaint it was one tiny little passage do I really know that passage what wasn't intended to say who was it talking to is it applicable in my circumstance and we all know people that just grab scriptures out and say well the Bible says this then the Bible says that and I can't say I'm not guilty of that because we grow in our understanding and I hope to be growing on that journey I won't forget the question in a minute but we do need to read more pick it up more but I'm big on integrating it more Scripture more into the service itself and not being too sidetracked with other things I think the dance is a theology advanced I'm very big on liturgical dance and service the drama has to make sure it's scriptural and it doesn't conflict with them message of Scripture and it incorporates scriptures because the more people hear it the more it's a part of our everyday life and the other things help you know that prayer is on our iPhone and those you know individual things and putting affirmations up with scriptures all of those help but we want it to be life for us we want it to be this is God in the flesh Jesus is God in the flesh and that when we read the word we are engaging that same Jesus who was made flesh so he wasn't just back there in the days of or as it were but he comes alive he is this word made flesh this is God's action and agency through his son so when I opened the word whether is Genesis Exodus Leviticus numbers Deuteronomy I'm looking to encounter the Messiah not just in the New Testament it's an appointment that I have that I don't want to be late for I'm summoned to it I'm going off on something else but just more of my love for the work so certainly in service we need to do more we don't have the avenues we once had in school systems and in curriculums but I think we can take the principles and others have done this excellently principles of honesty and truth and Fairplay from Scripture and incorporate them in our whole world as much as we can whether it's training policemen whether it's training teachers whether it's preparing the cross crossing guard wherever it is we need to take content from here and however we can work it in I think we we need it because whether it's in the legal system whether it's in giving the news we have to have some boundary sets and principles to operate by and if we can get common principles it a communication so much and I think that's so helpful especially the piece about I'm incorporating your shirt assuming they're not just leaving it for school I'm because people learn in different ways it's not dressing its what draws us together this is our meal and not just a Sunday meal this is this is what we live visibly we eat this is what we breathe and that's not fanaticism I mean the word is so I'm a romantic so I'm very passionate but it is poetry it is long it is it invites us to its best understood when we're using some philosophy we talked about history and geography when we bring in some psychology in my opinion mathematics there are mathematical type concepts of absolutism and and that we find that are parallel I think two mathematical paradigms I think we'd find every science every truth it's somewhere in the word and we don't have to become someone else we can take our glasses our lens and look at the word and encounter Christ mmm yes that's so true what would be some helpful tips for studying God's word that you can clean through the years you know I don't like people speak on things and they have to be confessional first so let me just say I should proceed it with a confession because I think the best methods are not probably not the ones I use I I think unless you fall in love of something we're not gonna stick with it we're not going to be converted to it if we haven't internalized it so just speaking for me personally I am passionate and any book I pick up I'm gonna Brisa the whole thing then I'm gonna go read the sections that I that really grabbed me and then I need first and then I go back maybe and read the whole thing I usually read a book will cover cover but I've already digested the parts I like so I admire those who are able to read through the whole Bible once a year that's not me I have family members that do that and that is just great and I love them for it I but I do think the more systematic we are the better so it may not be a system if I'm going to go through from beginning in once a year there are to do that to make it easier but if you're one of those people like me and you're feeling a certain way and you need a reading to go with that feeling and you're stuck in numbers right now you're missing the beauty of numbers cuz you need to be over and whatever Timothy so a lot of us have limited time I encourage people to be to familiarize themselves as much as possible with the stories of the Old Testament I encourage everyone to read through the Gospels systematically the synoptic Gospels Matthew Mark and Luke and and the evangelists John read through though know those not because the Old Testament is not relevant but but at least know the New Covenant and as much as possible the writings of Paul these what is it 27 books in the mixed-up 26 books of New Testament but this whole 66 books all of them are displaying and saying something that is cohesive and coherent about the anointed one the promises of God as realize and actualized in Jesus Christ so I read some things systematically the New Testament I'll read through systematically sometimes when we I like stories so I might read personal second kings or first the second Samuels but that's my joy so I feed those those cravings for the stories and the narratives then I like poetry so I'll enjoy reading the poetic literature it doesn't mind but it's music to my soul my law is as poetic as poetry I like the sound of words so I enjoy reading the laws from Bible then there are times I'll meet topically like now I'm focusing on miracles wherever they're found old and new Testament previously a couple years ago I was just focusing on the parables and really went in depth and 40 parables so there are it's like a house with multiple entry ways and everyone doesn't have to come through the front door but whatever gets us inside so we can get to the table and eat I encourage it frequency system matically and probably unfortunately because if you consume too much and get inundated too soon one might just give up and say I can't I'm just not getting there and I think they're portions of the Bible that I read but I don't try to share them because I don't feel equipped to and I think I'm growing in that so I don't think one has to say I read the whole thing and I have an understanding of the whole thing and I have all the wisdom of the Bible that's not too likely but we can expose ourselves to portions of it that we may not feel we have insights and the Bible is not prepared as something to be kept secret it's not a what are these rooms they have these escape rooms have you heard of that yeah I've been to one you know you go I've been in one you go and you gotta find this clue it's almost like they don't want you to find the things sometimes the Bible is not written as a tease document to keep us locked out I when I find a passage and I'm tempted to say what does it say I don't know what this means is makes no sense to me I try to look at it as if God wants to communicate to me and so I'm gonna pray so that my miss hearing and my miss reading my my perceptions can come to a place where I'm open to hear what he wants to say to me rather than see this is just too hard these names are obscure in these places I've never been and I can't pronounce them but help me to get beyond my mind miss reading I miss hearing my misperceptions because I believe God wants this to be a guide for me and that that helps us I think to read something that we know someone wants to communicate and we're not angry at them we're laying the blame on them but we're getting ourselves prepared to receive what's there for us so as church in some ways to approach systemic if you can but have not find your passion because it all points to Jesus what funny tools would you recommend commentaries and I think that's the question I'm asked most often I'm not your ideal participant and exercise here I recommend reading the Bible in different translations before going to commentaries I think you know we're told what is it NS v or NS r be our closest translations in the Greek I suggest people I like King James because it's flowering so I read that knowing that I may get a better understanding sometimes from another translation but I probably keep about 9 or 10 translations on my desk I don't keep commentaries on my desk I keep different translations some I disagree with sometimes I'm enthralled with Eugene Peterson's work in the message other times I'm like really come on you know it doesn't make it right or wrong doesn't make him right or wrong or me right or wrong it's just that's not a that's not a pavement that I can walk down and that's not helping me so it's just great to get a read amplify I regret I've never had Hebrew or Greek and people go you're kidding I don't know I was fortunate or meant to my misfortune I was able to use languages for the PhD to stand for language requirements and going through seminary so I but there are enough aids one has merely to go to the library where there are accurate translations of the Greek and Hebrew it's good if you know it I don't think you can beat anything you know for yourself but that's not an excuse for it's not the study so I like to read some of the CDs the contemporary English versions I'll read always an NS Rd if I can and amplify I read an NIV but I don't really like NIV very much I'll read message to bring a smile to my face and a chuckle because it's so human and I start with King James because I grew up on it and I can relate it to that there are some others we've discovered I don't even remember I don't want to get the acronym wrong there's some good news Bibles that I think are wonderful for young people and I enjoy those as well so I think those are the primary ones but I don't and then and there just what I recommend for everyone have a annotated bible do not have a Bible without footnotes please because it opens up so much so first thing I noticed when someone brings some of the Mansingh releasing your Bible because if you read the lines you read the scripture and you don't care enough to check the footnotes but where the writer has start enough to give you extra information its self-sabotage so there are some books about the Bible or secular books I read the endnotes before I read the books because there's so much buried there that's important so always an annotated Bible should be among the list I think I started studying on a Thompson chain and at the time I thought oh this is it no not necessarily because I don't always like the Bible's that take me to a conclusion I just want them to give me other references and like scriptures and kind of pray through I think commentaries are the last resort because I think once we read a commentary it's very hard to be imaginative in Scripture and to see different see scripture from a different angle and we hear things preached the same way over and over and over so it must be like Rahab just must have been a harlot you know she was a harder fight but then anti-v puts in the footnote that this work almost every NIV I think says we have cook that there's some debate about the word translation of it she could have been a harlot or an innkeeper well my goodness there's miles of difference between being a harlot and the woman could have been an entrepreneur living on the wall taking people into her in or she could have been a lady from the red-light district and so the stereotype that's cast so now just to know that they're not sure which what the word really meant and we preached it for decades only from the perspective of she was the harlot on the wall is a great disservice to ourselves so read the footnotes read various translations and then I look at commentaries later because that's someone who's locked into a view those are nice after I after I feel like I prayed and and have a feeling about it it's got time for an example yeah I was working with the UM I remember where it's found now in Kings the woman who was the wife of a prophet and he was deceased when the sons of the prophets called and the creditors are at her door and he lashes the prophet that she goes to for help and the more I spent time in that text I kept feeling like yes she was married to a son of the Prophet but she was as much a prophet as he was I was I was just feeling that she was you know she's identifying it's a derived identity but she's in this thing this is hard to this is you know maybe the culture had him designated just like we know there were women who were dear followers and close disciples but maybe not at the Twelve Apostles and I was feeling this so I went to a lecture somewhere I can't give you the details on it but a wonderful scholar that I envy in terms of their knowledge was explaining how much of the language indicated that this woman was of equal status in terms of her husband and I'm like I felt that thing I knew she was I couldn't prove it but I knew it and I think because the spirit of the lair is not conditioned on whether or not we know Greek or whether or not we know Hebrew that if we get into the Word of God and pray about it open our mind in our heart to it we will discern things that we go to the commentaries of a phone ringing so hope it's not disturbing that we go to the to the commentaries about maybe to either find further confirmation or to to tell us okay we've gone a far field here we need to come back and I felt that way about many characters particularly women in Scripture who whose character's personality and character may not be as developed we're given some of the story about them but not as much information and I think there are hints in the original language that I am NOT studying then it's good to go the commentary and say well what else can I find out if I hold it that's not really brought out in the scripture so I think those are last resorts good to use but last resort round which ones um I think expositors is good I don't even know their names all the ones that I am I only have two and then partial sets but when I go to the library I worked on the whole world so I'm not necessarily there's an ancient Christianity that I tend to use but when I go when I when I'm gonna use a commentary i may use ten I don't want to take them on that lease like that doesn't sound very nice I'm not crazy about Matthew Henry but that's my personal opinion so I try to get some better more rabbinic tradition akin to that if I'm doing an Old Testament text but I'll go through a good eight nine or ten commentaries after I've developed my thoughts kind of like sprinkles on the icing otherwise it's like canned you know at some other lawyers can get a can brief I think it's like you go the or the Cliff Notes version and we don't want to do that because we're cheating ourselves and our audience yeah that's true and that's helpful I know you mentioned you say you spend a lot of time in the library so I visit my office buy them because I want every resource available so I can go this shelf and pull down 15 commentaries I don't even know the name of all of them but I know what the section is and so when I've done my work then I want to read what others say I'm gonna read their illustrations the examples a lot of them they don't get me right it doesn't stick they're not wrong but they just don't but right somewhere in there I'll usually find some little small nut nugget and go that opens this up like nothing it's not a big treatise just a little something that slots in and fits and all of a sudden you go I got it so when Ruth wakes up on the threshing floor or she wakes Boaz up and she talks to him and she leaves the script Naomi is given and she says I am loose and I go here is a woman in the Old Testament give me an I am statement you know I mean it hears she's declaring her identity long before Jesus gives as I am you know we you start finding these parallel you don't find that in the commentary but as I'm reading other writings it helps to open up what was already in the scripture so I commend them I don't buy a lot of them and you can get them online so there's a plug for online you don't have to go to the library mmm that's helpful and I admire your your detail in study and to spend that much time to go through all those commentaries I think is helpful in your compliment but that's all part of being old school because we still work with the books I've worked better with the paper and the pen Muslim says I'm the only one that world still has a pencil and a major I call this my pencil sharpener excuse no one else as a pencil sharpener but I like handling the paper as well for me that's part of my learning seeing it touching it it engages more of my senses but if I had a choice I do it all online I have logos and I represent I recommend it to people I think you have to be careful to get the right level because if you're not as technically savvy as I am if you're not technically savvy and as I am NOT then it's easy to get a level that's just overwhelming because they have many levels of it it can almost get too much information so when I'm handling the books I can control when I'm ready for more a little better but that's that's a weakness not a strength but I do think people should not abandon paper and books someone yeah I learned better I have some books on Kindle and I actually learn better with the regular books I had to stop buying books on Kindle because I wasn't retaining as much that's the thing I think it's memory because senses have more to engage I remember the pages I remember but I can't think of a scripture is I know about how far back in the book it is I know what column it's in even if I can't remember where the text is I know it's at the top of the page or the left side because this is what I work with it's the tool so that helps me for retention and memory it's gonna say something else about that but that's not at all to resist the wealth of information because one can cover so much more if they can use both methods and I desire to be more adept than I am what what do you think why do you think this issue of biblical literacy and apologetic defense where the faiths are so intertwined part of it is when I think of defending our faith we're talking about what we believe and why we believe it the scope of it and the meaning of it when I think biblical literacy I don't just think of 6 or 6 books but I think of how it relates and I said this earlier the philosophy in psychology and social systems and that they can't be distinct that to maximize our engaging of Scripture we need them Mary we need them both it's I don't want to misquote the scripture but it says something like mercy and truth are met together and righteousness and peace have kissed each other and it's kind of like we need those that for me that mercy would be that individual approach to the text but truth might be more in the apologetics just to make metaphors there they're met together they need to come together I need a harmony that comes otherwise I think we are left of something that we cannot apply if we hold solely with just apologetics we have something rigid something defensible but it may not be livable if we if we fall purely on biblical literacy and we what I consider biblical literacy is not just familiarity with the text for bringing in all these other ideas and paradigms from different disciplines it's very much a convergent multidisciplinary approach we may lose our core faith because every time we lock into one interpretation versus another we get see the Bible's just religious we lose the inside of the characters we look at as a social system we lose the tenants of the faith we sacrifice something and the Bible is meant to be complex not hard but complex and I think it takes both I hope this is addressing a question for us to get to fully engaged because this is a person this is a word made flesh and the flesh made word I shouldn't say that because that's not true you can't reverse it that way but this is this is the word made flesh and for it is to be for this word to become incarnate to be and fleshed in my spirit I need to have both and say hopefully a little less cops clumsily the word was made flesh okay and dwelt among us from the Gospel of John so that's Jesus but Jesus of Nazareth is obviously not fishing with us anymore so I still need not just the Christ but I need that Jesus I need that reality that material solid tangible I need to be touched I there are things I can't do to myself I need judgment and I say it in a kind way I'm not talking my harshness I there's an embracing that we can we can hold ourselves but that's not adequate I need to be embraced by the word I need to be encouraged and built up and in order for that word to do that for me it has to become an fledged in me has to be the word incarnate and I think if we sacrifice apologetics and just a biblical literacy or the other way around we don't get an Incarnate Word we don't get a balance in us we get all hardened and and no pliable miss or we get that which is pliable but has no no no firm but walls for us and it has it has to be that I don't feel like I'm embracing that very well so that's a powerful question and I since we'd be going that way but I still don't have a good answer for mmm-hmm I we it we compartmentalize the Bible too much if we just defend our faith but if I integrated all these other things and I don't know what my core faith is and why I have it then I'm just fluff and superficial so we missed the complexity of Scripture and we sacrifice the meaning I think if we don't put them together I definitely agree on you answered it perfectly because that's what that's what I'm getting to in this release to apologetics I posted a tweet earlier it says I want us to reimagine apologetics and I think traditionally it has looked very rigid very kind of just providing principles or having knowledge to spew our arguments for people without heart and if we're gonna be effective we need those that both end like you're talking about to really be able to defend our faith on a holistic level because I think about how Peter talks about we ought to give a defense but he says with gentleness and respect yeah it's from you that's what I want to say yes perfectly that's yeah and that it's like Peter does a lot with our behavior and how we are to treat one another then he gets to us defending the faith but it's our behaviors that are helpful in us even engaging with people with information the way we treat people is going to kind of dictate our effectiveness and even giving arguments so and it helps us not to be too hard on ourselves I can handle my feelings better when I look at the Bible both as narrative story as well as as principles in law I need both I need something that's going to bring me up to it but I need something that gives me mercy and grace to get to it I wish I could say it as well as you did that's absolutely right try to think of that text I think it's in Luke I don't want to just call it text while I'd like to turn the looks for look for I think I have my Bible here it's text that says using it when I quote I'm quoting from what I grew up on and King James I don't know the verse but I think it's around looking for it but it says something like I want to say this day or this text is fulfilled today and you're hearing it's talking about the fulfilling of the scripture okay well someone find it when they can but I think it's and look for and we want the Bible to be fulfilled when we read it not fulfilled there or in the future but we want it to be full filled as we engage it as I'm walking through it and it's walking through me as I'm drinking it and I'm being consumed by it and here it is oh thank you Luke form 21 and he began to say unto them this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears so a that was reference back to Isaiah the spear the Lord is upon me but all of the scripture needs to be fulfilled this day in our lives and our ears and as we are engaging the scripture so with apologetics I don't think that happens if you don't have literacy if you don't have something that goes beyond just a printed letter on the page but that puts it and I'm thinking at what the imagery has come to me it's like I can put ground meat on the table and potatoes and beans but when you go the rest of my I mean they got a little mint leaf up here and something else on top of the blue area and an artichoke and that's the big literacy it makes this palatable to me it makes it attractive it makes it desirous and it makes it give off an aroma that draws me to it and I love it I love don't understand a lot of it but I love it anyway because it loves me I was in husband nine years ago we were in Italy and there was a priest giving us a tour through the Vatican and someone in our group asked him what made you convert from a Protestant to a Catholic priest and he said basically I discovered the love letter and from that time on I remembered his phrasing and I've used it often and others have used that subsequently but this is God's love letter to us and I don't get the gift of this I get the word but I don't get God's gift in here his gift is his son I don't get the kiss of his son if I just have a defense the Bible says this yes it does but it also says have you seen my beloved tell me where he is you know your your word is like ointment your name is like ointment poured forth it's it's sweeter than kisses to my lips I mean I was juicy stuff and it does that for whatever age you're in whenever my husband is like a number's analytical man and he's lost in the history of the scripture he loves it but he reads it totally different isn't even see the stuff I see and if I saw what he saw it'd be dry to me but this book is what's so marvelous about it is it's not limited and it's my heart that's limited so I have to open up to become equipped who wouldn't want to read a book like this it's awesome and your love for the word it it comes out in in every time you talk about the word of God and it shows like the passion we can have for the word of God if we get into it if we engage with it how much we will love the word because it is truly a love letter to us yes and we don't have to understand all of it you know it comes pieces it it beckons us this has been my friend when I was a little girl and my mother said lights out I didn't have siblings of course I have my flashlight you know where Easter typically under the blanket and I read the Proverbs because it was short in the song so I understand a lot of them but I read them and even then I knew there was something in there that one day I really wanted I couldn't I could grab little phrases so I'm not going to knock those that just have a little phrase but keep on they get a little more and it is grown over the years it's not a magic book and we don't want to use it like a genies lamp but it has helped and then and others have helped me and we can help each other find what's needed for our lives yeah that's that's awesome and I love how you say you don't have to understand it because I think about as you're talking I'm thinking about if we engage it as like we engage people there are some people we love our core and we for the life of us can't understand why they do certain things yeah we still love them and engage them because we're certain we're trying to understand and we don't you don't have to master it it's not mastered you know I've had some experience in life they were you know just stuff god is so wonderful so glad I'm in love with god oh god loves me none of that then I had some things hit me that knocked me off kilter right I lost all my equilibrium and I thought okay is this my god this is the one I was wrestling with Jacob doesn't watch isn't it this is the one that that caught the poor had to circumcise their husband because God was get ready to kill him that's so sometimes I meet another face and it's still God working in my life it's still his purpose to set out I think I can't think he's just always the one that's gonna bring down fire on head to my enemy sometimes he's bringing down fire on me in a the god zapping fire but he's bringing discipline is what I mean by fire in my own life it was just many sides of it and so we always find another piece that we don't already know that we don't understand her pre knowledge on that's so helpful and usually we ask for our resources at the end of each but I think for this episode we want to recommend the Bible because there's some times I know throughout my seminary journey one of the things that our our professor I remember dr. King used to seller is read the Bible because you can get so lost in studying about the Bible that you neglect the extra Bible absolutely I found myself many times through him during my seminary journey neglecting the very book that I was studying that's the temptation of commentaries too if you're preaching or teaching yeah so we definitely want to encourage you from this episode to read the Bible and fall in love with this so we could talk about scripture like dr. James talks about scripture with a passion and a love for it for those who want to get in contact with you or engagement see you on social media how would they do that I don't even go beyond that but the phone number is that too risky Michael eat nah okay at dr. Cynthia James I'm on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram you know pretty much the same at the potter's house we do Bible study I guess it's appropriate to mention it's live streaming there are a couple ways to access the site but the old way is the easiest to me it just goes well Potter's House gorg watch live or watch online rather and then you can either if it's Wednesday night at 7 o'clock Central Time you can watch live or you can watch a Wednesday replay or you can catch our illustrious pastor watching live on Sunday morning or a replay and I will give an email someone if not a phone number I'm pretty open they see James at TD jakes org see James at TD jakes org and I welcome hearing from you also well thank you so much dr. James I really appreciate it thank you [Music] you [Music]

Channel: Jude 3 Project

Views: 3,471

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Cynthia James, Biblical Literacy, apologetics, Jude 3 Project, Dr. Cynthia James

Id: kgkfFBGmZc8

Length: 49min 31sec (2971 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 08 2017