Purified By the Word

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Living Hope SDA Church

How to Study the Bible in Your Personal Devotions

David Shin

How to Study the Bible in Your Personal Devotions Part 1

Why is it that today in American politics, you can look at the same data and arrive at different conclusions?

Now we don't want to go there because I don't want people to stone me But but there there needs to be a recognition that there is another entity that is playing a role when it comes to how we interpret something.

Now for the first part of this seminar, we want to talk about this thing that we have here that it's in the background.

It's the idea that you bring to the table before you engage a topic.

Now, typically when we come to data, scientists approach it from an empiricist standpoint, assuming that we are like film and we just absorb the information.

If you ever heard someone say, let's just be objective.

So you just follow a certain principle of interpretation and you will arrive at objective truth.

And IQ is slated to be something that is sought after.

In other words, the higher the IQ, the more data you can arrive at.

Now this is a picture of Michael Kearney.

Michael Kearney spoke his first words at 4 months.

At the age of 6 months, he said to his pediatrician, I have a left ear infection.

Now look, he knows what left and right are, he knows what an infection is, and he's made a diagnosis at 6 months.

He learned to read at the age of 10 months.

When Michael was 4, he was given a multiple choice diagnostic test for Johns Hopkins Precocious Math Program without having studied specifically for the exam, Michael achieved a perfect score.

He graduated college at the age of 10, received a bachelor's degree in anthropology from the University of South Alabama in 1994.

In 1994, Kearney and his parents were on the Tonight Show.

He received his master's degree in biochemistry at the age of 14.

His 118-page thesis was entitled Kinetic Isotope Effects of...

Now from the modernistic standpoint, IQ determines the rate of data.

So, the smarter you are, the more interpretive power, the engine, it's kind of like the processor that you have.

And this is the paradigm that people naturally assume when it comes to biblical interpretation.

The smarter you are or interpretation for that matter of any scientific data.

IQ, IQ 140 and above, genius, you can know the data.

But when it comes to scripture, it doesn't work the same way, i.e., the Pharisees.

They had memorized large portions of Scripture.

In order to be a part of the Sanhedrin, you had to be a genius.

So they come face to face with Jesus, and they kill him, which shows you there's something more than IQ.

In other words, when it comes to the processing of spiritual information, not only is the data projecting onto you, but you are projecting onto the data presuppositions.

Presuppositions are powerful, And we need to acknowledge the presence of presuppositions when it comes to Scripture.

Presuppositions are deep, Unstated beliefs, fundamental assumptions upon which all other concepts and ideas are interpreted.

So a lot of us, we don't even recognize that we do have presuppositions.

Well, the way that knowledge works, it takes knowledge to acquire knowledge.

All knowledge is interpreted in the context of pre-knowledge.

So what I'm going to do is I'm going to plant a presupposition in your head.

Now, don't worry, this is not neuro-linguistic programming or anything like that.

So I'm going to plant a presupposition in your head.

And I think all of you saw the slides, so I just messed you up.

But anyways, OK, so how many of you were born from June?

So those that were born between January and June, please close your eyes.

Everyone else, keep your eyes open, and I'll show you the next slide.

Everyone that has their eyes open, See that slide?

Those that were born between July and December, now close your eyes.

Now, I planted a presupposition in your head.

Okay, now does anyone here see a young woman?

How to Study the Bible in Your Personal Devotions Part 2

Are most of you from this area, Virginia, or did you drive in from somewhere else?

Well, let's start today with a word of prayer.

Father in heaven, thank you for another day of life.

Pray that you'd bless us now with your presence as we look at practical ways to enhance our devotional life.

Pray that you'd grant us a special measure of your spirit in Jesus' name, amen.

As a segue into our topic, I invite you to open your Bibles to the book of Daniel, Daniel chapter 6.

And this will be a nice introduction for our seminar on how to enhance our devotional life.

Now, this isn't Daniel class, but this is free.

But Daniel is the 1 book that Jesus recommends that we read in Matthew chapter 24.

Matthew 24, verse 15, he says, whoever reads and understands the book of Daniel will be blessed, especially in the end of time.

There's 12, okay, so 123456789, 10, 11, 12.

By the way, Daniel means, there's the L there, means literally God is my judge.

People think it's lukewarm, but that's a characteristic.

Leodesia literally means a people judged.

So Daniel is a type of God's people that are living in the end of time.

The first 1 is kind of a summary of the entire book.

It begins with the Babylonian captivity and ends with Cyrus.

And the interesting thing about the book of Daniel is that it is built on this chiastic structure where Daniel chapter 2 is parallel with Daniel chapter 7.

Daniel chapter 3 is parallel with Daniel chapter 6.

And then you have this parallel here, here, and here.

And as 1 of my seminary professors indicated, I don't know what to make of this, but he said it looks like a double menorah.

Now, I don't know about that, but I'll take it.

And so this is a nice way of looking at the structure of Daniel.

Chapter one's an introduction of the whole book.

Now, there's 2 genres in the book of Daniel.

And 6 of the stories are characteristics that we are to emulate.

2 of them are characteristics that we are to avoid.

The 2 are 4 and 5, Yad Belshazzar, chapter 5, and then Yad Nebuchadnezzar's pride.

The 1 we'll be looking at for our introduction today is chapter 6.

I know it's morning but yes Daniel in the lion's den.

Remember there's a decree to worship the king and if you're not in compliance, then you're food for the lions.

If you don't worship the image, death decree.

So similar themes, both in Daniel chapter 3 and Daniel chapter 6 is the mandate for worship.

And if you don't worship, there's a death penalty.

There's another chapter in the book of Revelation that parallels this.

This Revelation chapter 13 where there's an image and if you don't worship the image there's a death decree.

Now the interesting thing about Daniel chapter 3, who's missing in Daniel chapter 3?

So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are there, but where's Daniel?

Now some people may have said like Daniel was bowing down with the rest of the people, but just so that you can clarify that, Daniel clearly didn't because later on he's given the test.

Some people assume that he was away on the king's business and so forth, but in Daniel chapter 6 he's a senior citizen.

He's no longer this whipper-snapper and there's a change in regimes and then you have this test that comes.

The same test as in Daniel chapter 3 under a new regime, the Medo-Persian Empire.

There's a decree that goes out if you don't worship the king for this period of 30 days, then your food for the lions.

Now Daniel had this ritual and it's important for our devotional life.

So if you go to Daniel chapter 6 and let's see here.

All right, this is our key passage for this morning.

Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home and in his upper room, With his windows open toward Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees 3 times that day and prayed and gave thanks before his God as his custom since early days.

If you remember in the dedicatory prayer of Solomon that he gave when the temple was being inaugurated, he prayed this beautiful prayer.

You can read about it in the book of Chronicles.

And in 1 of the paragraphs in his prayer he says if your people are led away into captivity because of disobedience he says something interesting he and while they're in exile may they pray toward this place ah pray toward this place And so this is what Daniel did and I believe that he did this from from day 1 of his captivity.

Now there's something unique about the way that Daniel went about his prayers.

Regularity, but there was also a ritual to it.

He would open his windows toward Jerusalem and he would pray toward this place.

So there was regularity, ritual, and another R, just for alliteration purposes, routine.

There was regularity, routine, and ritual, which is an important thing for our devotional life.

Now, the thing that we don't want to miss out of this passage is that he knew that that 1 day, if you can imagine it using our imagination, just imagine that day, he knows that if he prays the same way he always has, he's gonna be food for the lions.

Now I had the privilege of going to the Orlando Zoo not long ago, that's what we do nowadays, cuz we have young kids.

So went to the zoo, and you always want to see the big cats.

Series

How to Study the Bible in Your Personal Devotions

How to Study the Bible in Your Personal Devotions Part 2

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Reviving Your Devotional Life

50m

The Excellency of Angels

Mediocrity, Genesis & the Talents

57m

How to Have VIVID Worship Time

32m

The Sanctuary, God's Answer to the Sin Problem

The Sanctuary: A Model for Prayer

1h

The Parables

The Unjust Judge

38m

The Strait Gate

43m

How to Study the Bible and Empower Your Devotional Life- Part 2

58m

Power of the Everlasting Gospel

An Unwanted Guest: Jesus at the Door

1h 25m

Daniel

Daniel Chapter 1: Surviving the Times

58m

Wilderness Wandering

Fiery Serpents

41m

SWYC 2009 Breakout Sessions

How to Study the Bible, Part 1

38m

“Hold Fast”

52m

Sound Doctrine