I have started a new study habit, something Keith came up with when he first started preaching full time.  He had seen too many of his young preaching brothers be led off the deep end by spending more time in commentaries than in the Word.  Every day he read one hour in the Old Testament and one hour in the New.  On Sunday mornings he rose early enough to read through the Timothys and Titus—Paul’s instructions to young evangelists—before stepping into the pulpit to speak as the oracle of God.  All this in addition to his regular studies for classes, sermons, and in-home Bible studies with members and non-members alike.  All in all he spent nearly forty hours a week with the Word of God, then he got on with what congregations think is a preacher’s job.

            He had another habit as well, and this is the one I am trying to develop.  The book of Proverbs has 31 chapters, a very handy number when you think about it.  Seven months of the year have 31 days, and all but one of the others have 30.  Whatever day of the month it is, that is the chapter in Proverbs I read.  I will get through the entire book seven times in a year, and most of it 12 times.  In shorter months I could double up on those ending chapters, but honestly, after a couple dozen proverbs my brain is like an old wet sponge—it gets saturated much too easily.  The second chapter’s worth just seeps out into a stagnant pool around me.  Besides I have studied chapter 31 in depth so many times, reading it every other month or so is enough to renew my interest.

            Speaking of proverbs, you probably grew up hearing the old saws like I did, and despite the fact that you rolled your eyes at them like most young people did, you have found yourself repeating them—they are true after all.  When I was a child someone came up with the fun notion to rephrase them using ten dollar words, leaving everyone to guess the original adage.  The only one I can remember is “Never calculate the juvenile poultry before the proper process of incubation has fully materialized.”  It’s easy enough now, but it took a few minutes for a ten year old to come up with the solution.  I don’t know why someone did this, but for a few minutes, people were once again pondering those wise sayings, and I know that I learned more of them than I would have otherwise.

            I have always been amazed by people who can come up with quotes to suit any situation—Shakespeare, poetry, the works of the great philosophers.  It would be so much more beneficial to quote the words of God.

            Tomorrow is the first day of a thirty-one day month, so why not start this habit with me?  I read through the chapter slowly twice, once in my good old 1901 ASV, then in the NIV.  I make note of 1 or 2 proverbs that really strike me at the time.  You see, reading is not enough.  You have to go through “the proper process of incubation” for the effects of your study to “fully materialize.”  You may find some of these materializations in future articles.

            Come on.  This will be easy.  Even if you backslide you can pick it up and start again at any time, even in the middle of the book since there is no plot to worry about.  And as long as you have a calendar you won’t even need a bookmark.

The proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, the king of Israel:  to know wisdom and instruction; to discern the words of understanding; to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, in justice, and in equity; to give prudence to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion; that the wise man may hear, and increase in learning; and that the man of understanding may attain unto sound counsels; to understand a proverb and a figure, the words of the wise and their dark sayings, Prov 1:1-6.

Dene Ward

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The psalms are poetry.  By definition poetry is full of figurative language.  The psalms, therefore, must be full of figurative language.

Simile:  As the deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God, 42:1.

Metaphor:  The Lord is my rock, 18:2.  The Lord is my shepherd, 23:1.

Personification:  When the waters saw you they were afraid, 77:16.

Hyperbole:  God looks down on the children of men to see if there are any…who seek after God. They have all fallen away…there is none who does good, not even one, 53:2,3.

            We all use figurative language every day of our lives:  “He’ll give you the shirt off his back.”  “I need a new set of wheels.”  “If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a thousand times.”  But for some reason we don’t get it when we find it in the scriptures.  We make up some weird gate in Jerusalem that archaeologists have never found, nor that the disciples had ever heard of, instead of understanding that Jesus was using hyperbole when he said, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of Heaven.”  We are not any better than our religious friends who want every item in the book of Revelation to be literal.  Maybe we should take the log out of our own eyes before we talk about them.

            We do the same thing with our hymns.  Granted there are lines in some hymns that we probably should not sing.  They teach religious dogma that is not found in the New Testament.  But far more often I have picky brethren who ignore the authority the book of Psalms gives us to use poetry, the hallmark of which is figurative language.  We follow the examples of our neighbors and make it all literal, then ban it from our assemblies. Hymns are poetry set to music just as the psalms were.  We should treat them as such.

            It would be helpful if we recognize that a figure of speech is meant to address only one specific point and stop trying to carry it beyond reason.  “A sower went forth to sow,” Jesus taught.  The point of the parable was how the seed grew based on the ground it fell on.  Who would be so silly as to ask what the bag in which the sower carried seed represented?  The same ones who wonder about camels and needles.  The same ones who want a literal thousand year kingdom on the earth instead of an eternal kingdom in Heaven.  The reason one group didn’t fall for the other fallacy was not their understanding of how to use figurative language, i.e., the same way we use it every day of lives.  The reason they stayed “sound” on one and not the other is they were indoctrinated otherwise.  It’s time we fixed that problem.

            Even denominational preachers understand the uses and abuses of figurative language when it comes down to brass tacks.  Just read Dungan’s Hermeneutics.  He has a great list of exactly how to interpret figurative language (Chapter 8).  If you follow it, you won’t fall for the strange gate OR the millennium.

            So let’s stop being ridiculous with our hymns, too.  We would not stand for anyone interpreting the things we say the way we interpret those poets. “Whatsoever you would that men should do unto you, do you also unto them.”

            And, more to the point, if we banned poetic language, we would miss a whole lot of wonderful teaching that reaches the heart in ways that straight prose never could.  Funny how God knew that so many thousands of years ago.

Jehovah, I have called upon you; make haste unto me:
Give ear unto my voice, when I call unto thee.
Let my prayer be set forth as incense before you;
The lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.
Set a watch, O Jehovah, before my mouth;
Keep the door of my lips.
Incline not my heart to any evil thing,
To practice deeds of wickedness
with men that work iniquity:
And let me not eat of their dainties.
Let the righteous smite me, it shall be a kindness;
And let him reprove me, it shall be as oil upon the head;
Let not my head refuse it:
For even in their wickedness shall my prayer continue.
Their judges are thrown down by the sides of the rock;
And they shall hear my words; For they are sweet.
As when one plows and cleaves the earth,
Our bones are scattered at the mouth of Sheol.
For my eyes are unto you, O Jehovah the Lord:
In you do I take refuge; leave not my soul destitute.
Keep me from the snare which they have laid for me,
And from the gins of the workers of iniquity.
Let the wicked fall into their own nets,
While I escape.
Psalms 141:1-10

Dene Ward

The last entry in the series.
I have had some wonderful comments come up in my classes.  Women who were not too embarrassed to share a moment of vulnerability, a mistake in judgment, or a light bulb moment have all had great impacts on their listeners.  I have come to love these women who have faced adversity in many ways and kept their faith, who have handled doubt and come out stronger.  Without these students, my classes would have been ho-hum at best.

            I haven’t much to add to this after the last subject we discussed.  Comments can be motivated by practically all the things that questions can be, both good and bad.  As we said last week, we won’t discuss the negative attitudes.  No one who cares enough to read these things is likely to have bad attitudes.  The same guideline goes for this topic as that one:  think of your classmates when you make your comments.  I honestly believe that love is what has made my best students so willing to share—to keep others from the same painful mistakes or help them through similar experiences.

            I especially appreciate a student who sees that I have not communicated well and has a simpler way to say what she has understood.  More than once it has instantly cleared confusion from the other faces.  When you do this, though, please make it brief.  Too many times we spoil what would have been wonderful by adding too many unnecessary words, words that dilute the effect of the simple explanation and make it once again muddled. 

            “Muddled” is the perfect word.  When you put fresh mint, for example, in the bottom of the pitcher and pound on it with a wooden spoon, you are “muddling” the drink you are making.  Instead of being plain tea, it will now be mint tea, or peach, or raspberry, or whatever else you “muddled.”  It will no longer be plain and simple tea.  In fact, you might not be able to tell what the initial beverage was before you “muddled” all those flavors in it.  The simpler the comment, the fewer the words, the better.

            And may I say this as kindly as I know how?  Class is not the place to show everyone how much you know.  I have been in Bible classes where people in the class practically took over and taught it from their seats.  I call these “preacher comments.”  I’m sorry, dear brothers.  I have the utmost respect for what you do, but you are definitely the worst offenders.  Then there are the ones who seem to think no one can say it as well as they can.  As in the first instance, comments should be brief and to the point.

            Comments should also be on the subject.  Any time I hear, “I know this is off topic, but...” I groan inwardly.  We are supposed to be learning what the teacher is supposed to be teaching us, not some other lesson someone in the pew decided on.  The elders have a reason for the classes they choose—at least they should—and no one else should decide what needs to be taught.  The shepherds are feeding the flock the things the flock needs, from careful observation and thought.  The man in the pew may be feeding them what he thinks they need, and in reality, what he wants them to hear, usurping authority in the process.

            And we should make this clear too—just because a class was full of comments does not mean it was a good class.  It may very well mean the teacher completely lost control.  If you remember nothing else, remember this:  anything anyone can come up with off the cuff is far less beneficial than the things the teacher has spent hours preparing—at least it had better be.

            So, comments?  Yes, please.  Brief, on topic, clear and helpful.  Always think before you speak—but then that is perfect advice any time.

            My students excel in all the areas we have discussed.  They are excited learners who work hard and consider one another before themselves.  Together we make a safe place to discuss the things we have all wondered about or that trouble us, without having to worry about anyone judging us or spreading our comments and private experiences beyond the classroom doors.  What is said in class, stays in class—that is our rule.  If every Bible class followed their examples, the church would be more knowledgeable and more loving, just as they are becoming week after week.

Let each one of us please his neighbor for that which is good, unto edifying. For Christ also pleased not himself; but, as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell upon me, Rom 15:2,3.

Dene Ward

I love students who ask questions, and most of mine do.   Please ask your questions.  Many times when one of my students asks a question, someone speaks up and says, “I was wondering that too.”  A teacher who doesn’t welcome questions ought to have a seat and stay there.  Questions show you have been listening, and even better, thinking about what you have heard, the answer to every good teacher’s prayer. 

            My classes are peppered with questions.  I am thrilled that these ladies are not too embarrassed to ask, and confident in how I will accept those questions.  Yes, there are unwelcome questions, but the difference between them and the good questions should be obvious to anyone. 

            This guideline takes care of almost everything: don’t be selfish in your questions.  Consider the effects on the other class members.  Consider who might be listening to you, including babes in Christ and outsiders from the community.  Remember that there may be visitors passing through or people moving in, “shopping” for a new church home.  Consideration for others should be the main characteristic of a Christian, even in Bible classes.  I seldom have a problem with questions like that, unlike my brothers who teach auditorium classes, and my wonderful students deserve all the credit for that.  Here are some other guidelines, most of which I have never had to deal with.

            Questions that are so far off the subject they give everyone mental whiplash are not appropriate.  One wonders, in fact, if the student has been listening and considering the class material at all, or simply letting his mind wander.  A good teacher arrives with a goal and a plan to reach it.  When you dig a pothole in the road with an unrelated question, you can seriously hinder progress in the journey to that goal. 

            Recently a teacher I know was asked, “Would you please comment on…” and because the subject was totally removed from the point of the lesson and not one he could have intelligently answered without study, he simply said, “No, that’s not something I am prepared to talk about.”  Some might criticize him, but I won’t.  He had the best interests of the class at heart.  As their leader, it was up to him to reach the goal of the lesson, not be sidetracked by something that didn’t even have a black and white answer in the scriptures.  It’s time we supported our teachers and the risks they take to their reputation, when anything they say can be misconstrued and often is, instead of sitting back taking the easy, judgmental way out and joining the bandwagon in criticizing them.  If you have one of those questions, please save it for private conversations with the teacher.  Do not disrupt the learning of others because you have a private problem. 

            This is especially true in the Sunday morning adult class where you never know who may be there.  A smaller class with a defined sub-purpose of encouragement may stop for a moment if someone is in need.  Many of my women’s classes have done exactly that, but even then, we were conscious of who was present.  If I deemed it inappropriate at that particular moment, I gently suggested a private moment after class.  Usually several others, mature women who made it a point to be aware of what was going on, stayed with me and the one in need received the attention she required.  I learned this the hard way, after allowing classes to continue on a distracting course, which ultimately led to damaged relationships because I was too afraid of hurting feelings.  Tell me which is worse, a permanently injured bond between sisters in the Lord or a momentarily bruised ego that was soothed as soon as possible?  We have said this before—teachers must sometimes make hard, spur-of-the-moment decisions.  If you can’t, then you shouldn’t teach.

            Then there are those who seek to mask an agenda with their questions, or who have a major hobby they wish to broach at every opportunity, or who have a vendetta against the teacher.  I would assume that none of those even care to be reading this, so we won’t deal with them here.  Let me just add this:  I have seen young teachers in adult classes discouraged to the point of never teaching again because no one but him was brave enough to take on a sinner.  Shame on the leadership of a church when that happens.

            As I said, the wrong questions are usually obvious.  Sometimes, though, an honest person simply needs a little direction.  It is easy when you are in the middle of a personal problem, to forget one’s obligations to others. 

            A class full of questioners is a teacher’s dream, a dream I have fulfilled every week by some wonderful women.  Don’t be embarrassed to ask the questions that need asking.

After three days they found [Jesus] sitting in the Temple, listening to them and asking them questions, Luke 2:46.

Dene Ward

These days I don’t do a lot of reading for pleasure.  By the time I do my Bible study and the necessities of life, like balancing the checkbook, paying bills, and making menus and grocery lists, all with the help of a magnifier or two, or three, my eyes are tired, and a headache is not far away.  So Keith has started bringing home books on CD from the library.

            For awhile I was carting my big boom box from room to room, which got old in a hurry, especially after the doctor said I had to be careful not to carry anything too heavy.  So Lucas picked up a portable CD player for me, with earphones and a belt to carry it.  Now I can go anywhere and listen to my books, while washing dishes, making beds, folding clothes, sorting coupons, sweeping the carport, or fixing dinner. 

            There are disadvantages.  If you walk into the laundry room while the washer is running, you miss a sentence amid the roar.  If the phone rings, you must quickly unzip your holder to get to the pause button before the answering machine picks up on the ringing phone.  If the earphone cord is hanging too freely, it will invariably snag on something and be yanked out, leaving you in total silence while the CD plays on.  Then there is what happened the other day.

            I was washing dishes and had to reach high up to hang a wet Ziploc bag from a shelf to drip dry into the sink so I could use it again another day.  I heard a beep, but thought nothing of it.  In another minute, the story mentioned something totally out of the blue.  A minute or so later a character I had never heard of spoke.  I took out the CD player and looked at the window.  I had been on track 3 only five minutes before and now I was on 12.  That could not possibly be right.  I hit the “next track” button and instead of going to 13 it went backwards to 8.  Again and it went ahead to 16, then backwards to 5, and then ahead to 10.

            Suddenly my slow brain caught on.  When I had bumped the countertop with my midsection, I had bumped the “shuffle”: button through the belt material, and the player was playing the tracks randomly instead of in order.  What a mess!  No wonder the story made no sense.

            You know what?  Sometimes we do that with the Bible.  It’s not just that it must be read in some sort of order.  It must be comprehended in order.  How many times have you tried to set up a Bible study with someone and the first thing he wants to study is the book of Revelation?  You cannot understand the book of Revelation without a working knowledge of prophetic language and an understanding of Old Testament prophecy.  When I hear some of the strange interpretations of that marvelous book going around, I immediately know someone is totally ignorant of those things.  The book itself is sandwiched by the promise that the things contained in it “must shortly come to pass,” 1:1; 22:6.  John expected those early Christians to understand it and be comforted by it in the tribulation which he “shared in,” 1:9.  Obviously, they knew how to interpret it correctly because they knew their scriptures, with less access to it than we have, I might add.

            Then there is the matter of context.  I have heard prooftexts taken out of their immediate context so often that when I actually looked them up and read the entire passage for each one, I had “epiphany” after “epiphany.”  There really is more to them than telling others they are wrong; in fact, many times they speak directly to us.  Take Matthew 15:9 for example: in vain do they worship me teaching for doctrine the commandments of men.  I have heard that applied to man-made creeds all my life, but start at the top of the chapter and see who Jesus is addressing—not pagans, not Samaritans, or even people who simply worshipped God incorrectly, but scribes and Pharisees, those of God’s people who tried their best to obey the Law exactly. In doing so, however, they managed to create traditions--commandments of men--that they treated as more important than the Law. 

            There is also “book context.”  Don’t treat the book of Proverbs like a book of Laws.  Proverbs are sayings that are generally true, not always true.  “Sacrilege!” I hear someone scream.  Look at Proverbs 26:4: Answer not a fool according to his folly lest you be like him.  So?  Now look at the very next verse.  Answer a fool according to his folly lest he be wise in his own conceit.  Now do you see what I mean?  You will definitely treat that book differently than you treat a doctrinal book.

            And that leads us to “Bible context.”  Many people find passages they think excuse them of whatever it is they are doing wrong, and spout them like water out of the blowhole of a whale, ignoring the entire teaching of the Bible.  Never interpret a verse in a way that makes it opposite of a plain teaching in another passage.  The Bible does not contradict itself.  If it does, then why should you care what it says?

            Be careful of that “shuffle” button when you study today.  It will confuse you as badly as reading a mystery story out of order.   

Give diligence to present yourself approved unto God, a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling correctly the Word of truth. 2 Tim 2:15

Dene Ward

I have told my Psalms class several times as we go through these first five introductory lessons, “Yes, you can understand the Psalms without all this specialized knowledge.  You can read a psalm and make sense of it without knowing its genre, without understanding Hebrew poetry, certainly without knowing the difference between a miktam and a maskil.  But guess what?  You will not get as much out of that psalm as you will if you go to the trouble to do the research and learn a little about a foreign culture and its poetry.”

            In the past I approached Psalms the same way I approach poetry, which is seldom.  I am not a poetry person.  I much prefer reading and writing prose.  To me, and to anyone from our culture, poetry is about emotion, about attitude, about the “better felt than told.”  Because of that you are not going to find pure fact in poetry.  Poetry is “feel-good-fluff” to me and I really don’t have much use for it.

            Now re-read that last paragraph and insert the word “Western” ahead of every reference to “poetry.”  You see, our attitude toward poetry is the opposite of the Oriental’s.  Orientals believe that the function of poetry is to instruct.  Did you hear that?  Poetry is a teaching method.  Its very form aids in memorization—short lines of roughly equal length and abbreviated word count.  Their poetry is reserved for subjects of the highest order, especially the Divine. 

            My Western view may say, “This is poetry.  It’s all emotion, very little, if any, fact.  Don’t take it too seriously.”  But the Oriental mind says, “This is poetry.  These are the most important, most profound subjects you will ever read.  Pay attention and think about it.”

            Do you think that hasn’t changed my approach to the Psalms?  And how do you think I learned that?  From taking the time to research a foreign culture.  From going beyond the minimum in my Bible study.  Because of that I now know even more about the Word that is supposed to be guiding my life.

            How much time do you spend in the Word of God?  How much extra effort do you go to?  If the doctor told you that you have a disease, would you spend time looking it up?  Would you care enough to know as much as possible, instead of being satisfied with the doctor’s explanation?  Would you want to have hands-on control of your life, or would you just sit back and be happy with the briefest scan of a medical dictionary?

            You do have a disease—sin.  You do have dangers in your environment, things just as deadly to your soul as secondhand smoke to your lungs.  You need to be aware of every aid, every pitfall, everything that can possibly affect the outcome of your life. 

            Do you care enough to learn the Word of God as completely as possible, or will you trust someone else with your soul and hope a verbal vitamin a day will take care of it?

Blessed is the man that walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
Nor stands in the way of sinners,
Nor sits in the seat of scoffers:
But his delight is in the law of Jehovah;
And on his law doth he meditate day and night.
And he shall be like a tree planted by the streams of water,
That brings forth its fruit in its season,
Whose leaf also doth not wither;
And whatsoever he does shall prosper. Psalms 1:1-3          

Dene Ward              

One thing I seldom have is an unprepared student.  I don’t think it’s because my lessons are so interesting.  I don’t think it’s because they are so much fun to do.  Most of the time they take a good hour, and often more.  Yet my students show up again and again with something written down.  It may not always be what I am after, and usually that is my fault, but at least they tried and I am grateful to them for the effort. 

            Every teacher appreciates a prepared student.  If you are given something to read, then read it.  If you are given an outline, then go over it.  Make a few notes, look up the scriptures cited, and list any questions that might have risen in your mind.  The teacher may answer them in the class, but then again, s/he may not. 

            I usually write my own Bible class material, including scriptures to read and questions to answer.  I try to design questions that will lead the students to their own discoveries.  I know it has worked when they arrive excited, hardly able to contain themselves over the things have learned and the ideas they have unearthed in all that digging.  Usually those ideas are what I am aimed at, but we cannot get there if the preparation wasn’t done beforehand, and these women usually have.  If we had to spend the time on the fundamentals for the unprepared, the excitement would die in those who have done the work.  In fact, I usually continue on for the sake of the prepared.  If someone is left behind because of their own laziness, why should the others suffer?  Maybe they will do better the next time.  Sometimes being a teacher means you must make hard decisions, and sometimes it means a little discipline toward the student.  But I seldom have that problem due to these dedicated students.

            As to those who do prepare but feel like they must have missed something: it may very well be the fault of the person who wrote the material—in this case, me.  Sometimes a question is poorly worded.  I know that despite copious and careful editing, I still cannot see every way that a question might be interpreted.  So answer to the best of your ability—that’s what my ladies do.  Why should you be embarrassed if it’s the questioner’s fault and not yours?  I can guarantee you that even if you missed the point, you still learned something from reading the Word of God and thinking about it.

            But there is an even more important preparation—an open mind.  An openly skeptical student usually thinks he is keeping a teacher humble, or being careful with the truth, either of which excuses his behavior, to him anyway.  What he’s really doing is hurting himself because he is refusing to consider anything he hasn’t already learned.  Certainly a student should “beware of false teachers,” but everyone deserves a fair hearing.  Skepticism has already judged and convicted before hearing a word.  Any teacher who has spent hours preparing and dares to put himself in front of a group deserves better than that.

            Especially in an ongoing class of busy women, teachers understand when preparation time is sometimes impossible.  As a teacher whose lessons are more complicated than most, I understand better than most.  So should the student stay away if she is not prepared?

            Absolutely not.  Many have come on anyway, and for that I thank them.  If you have that open mindset, you can still learn.  They always bring a pen and listen and write.  If you have done this and still find yourself hopelessly lost, rather than delay the rest of the class, ask for a private session.  I have held those more than once, and teachers should be happy to do it.  But don’t ever deprive yourself of an hour of encouragement and exhortation with your sisters because you feel embarrassed.  Have you caught onto this yet?  Embarrassment will get in the way of your being a good student more than practically anything else.  Don’t let the Devil have his way with you.  You can still learn something, even if you have not prepared the lesson.  Your mind will be stimulated to greater understanding and insights. 

            So here is your first lesson, care of my wonderful students:  Prepare your lesson as well as you are able; prepare your mind every time.

…and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace, Eph 6:15.

Dene Ward