HOW TO GET A DEEPER UNDERSTANDING OF A BIBLE SCRIPTURE

HOW TO GET A DEEPER UNDERSTANDING OF A BIBLE SCRIPTURE

When the English translators read the Hebrew/Aramaic text of the Old Testament or the Greek version of the New Testament, they chose English words that would best express their understanding of the original languages. A good concordance lets us do that too. We can look up the etymology of any word used in the Bible and see the intricacies of its definition. It’s easy now with an online concordance like Strong’s (https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h3427/kjv/wlc/0-1/). As we read the definition of a word, the Holy Spirit teaches us how it applies to our lives. We get a deeper understanding of the holy scriptures by doing this simple research.

 

As an example, I’ll show you how to do this, using two verses from Psalm 91. First, I’ll show you how to look up the meanings of the words, then make them personal without compromising the integrity or how the scripture fits with the rest of the Bible.

 

Psalm 91:1: “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.”

 

The word “dwelleth” is the Hebrew yashab defined as sitting down with, remaining, settling down with, continuing with, marrying, being still with.

 

“Secret” is cether, a place where you’re covered, a hiding place, a place of protection.

 

“The most High” is El Elyon, the Highest, Supreme, uppermost. There is no one and nothing higher.

 

“Abide” is the Hebrew lyin which means to stop (usually overnight), implying to stay permanently, remaining, continuing.

 

“The Almighty” is El Shaddai. Young’s Concordance defines this as the God of overflow, constant supply, and source of all sufficiency.

 

Take a minute or two to think about those definitions and mull them over. What is God saying to you in that scripture? Put it in your own words without changing the meaning.

 

For example, this is how I would say to myself: “Carolyn, sit down a few minutes and relax. Settle down, be still, and picture yourself snuggled up in the protected hiding place of God, up next to the One Who is the Highest Being ever to exist. He wants you there. You can stay overnight, and then in the morning, you’ll be right by His side and go wherever He goes. You’re close enough that His shadow is on you, and you experience a constant overflow from Him. God is your continuing source of everything you need.”

 

The next verse I want to look at is Psalm 91:4: “He shall cover thee with His feathers, and under His wings shalt thou trust: His truth shall be thy shield and buckler.”

 

The word “cover” is sakak which means to join together and shut up, entwining as a screen, to fence in or hedge in for protection and defense.

 

“Feathers” are from the root word abar which means to soar or fly.

 

“Truth” is emeth meaning stable, certain, sure, faithful, established and right.

 

“Shield” is a word for pointed hook, prickly like thorns or a cactus hedge. It is a large shield that guards by prickliness. It also carries the definition of being piercingly cold.

 

“Buckler” is translated from cochera, a shield that completely surrounds a person.

 

Again, take a few minutes to think about these definitions and see what God is saying to you.

 

The God of the Bible is our God, and He’s protected His Word all these thousands of years so that when we read a verse, He can speak personally to each of us. It’s great to have people who preach and teach us the Word, but God loves us individually and has made it so that each of us can read the Bible and hear from Him ourselves. God tells us in 2 Timothy 2:15: “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”  

 

When we study a verse or section of scripture by looking up the meanings of the words, we’ll get a deeper understanding of what our Heavenly Father is saying to us.

 

“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened (Matt. 7:7-8).

 

Love, Carolyn

 

My new book, BIBLE LESSONS FROM NATURE, will be out soon. I’m excited for you to be able to read it. The last time I published a paperback, it had to be in black and white, but this time they could do it in color! Yay! I know you’re going to love it. https://www.amazon.com/Carolyn-Molica/e/B007GZO1HA?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_15&qid=1651431514&sr=8-15

 

WHEN SOMEONE DOESN'T ASK FOR YOUR HELP, IS THERE ANYTHING YOU CAN DO?

WHEN SOMEONE DOESN’T ASK FOR YOUR HELP, IS THERE ANYTHING YOU CAN DO?

During the holidays, we may have seen hurting family members or friends. We try to help the best we can, but sometimes it seems they just can’t receive it from us. Maybe they “know” the old us too well. It’s like Jesus when he went to Nazareth, where he grew up: “He did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief” (Matt. 13:58). They only knew him as the carpenter’s son, as a regular guy, not the spiritually tapped-in empowered guy he was now! God, in His foreknowledge, already anticipated this scenario and provided a solution. There is always something we can do.

 

Jesus explains it in Matthew 9:33-10:1. In verse 33, we see Jesus casting out a demon. In verse 35, we’re told he was “healing every sickness and every disease among the people.” Verse 36 tells us when he saw the multitudes, his heart went out to them. We all have these feelings of compassion and love toward friends and relatives, especially during the holidays it seems. But we can’t help them all. Jesus said: “The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few” (v.37).

 

He told his disciples to pray that God would send other laborers into His harvest. “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest” (v.38).

 

Then Jesus showed them how it would be done: He sent out other laborers besides himself (chpt.10, verse 1). He didn’t say: “Schedule more meetings for me.” He didn’t say: “I have to do it all myself.” The Savior of the world, when he was here in the flesh, didn’t rely on himself to deliver and heal everyone. What an amazing concept and a really important one for us to understand.

 

As wonderful and powerful as Jesus was when he looked with love and compassion at the hurting people right there in front of him, he couldn’t help them all. When we see the people we love and they are hurting, our hearts go out to them too. But we can’t help everyone, and there’s no need to feel bad about not being able to help someone close to us. Sometimes I just have to tell myself: “I’m not their savior.”  If Jesus couldn’t heal everyone close to him, why do we think we can?

 

But Jesus showed us a way to help them anyway.  

 

He showed us we are to pray for another Christ-inspired person to step in. What a wonderful and powerful thing to know, and what a comfort and assurance. There’s never any guilt when it comes to love. We can always help in some way. In Matthew 9:38, Jesus told us that God is the Lord of His harvest, and we are to pray that He will send the laborers into His harvest. Being the Lord of His harvest, He knows which of His laborers will be best suited for each and every one of His harvest of believers. He knows exactly who they will respond to and when.

 

People respond favorably to different people. You don’t respond to everyone the same way, nor do your loved ones. They’ll connect to someone who says the same thing you say, but when it comes from someone else, it sounds much better. That’s just the way life is; we’re all that way.

 

We can offer help, but if it’s not taken, we can still be very effective by praying for someone else to help them.

 

And what will that other laborer do? Much! Matthew 10:1 says they will have “power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease.” That’s spectacular!

 

So don’t be discouraged if you’ve felt snubbed or somewhat helpless. Instead, be encouraged; there’s power in prayer for another laborer to come in to help when you can’t. And if you’re not being anxious about someone you care about, then you free yourself up for God to bless you with even more satisfying situations where you minister in even more amazing ways for Him.  

 

Love, Carolyn 

 

I just sent for my second proof of BIBLE LESSONS FROM NATURE . Once I make any needed corrections, it should be out in less than 2 weeks! YAY! I’m very excited.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Carolyn-Molica/e/B007GZO1HA?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_15&qid=1651431514&sr=8-15

 

 

MAKING DECISIONS

MAKING DECISIONS

Two friends told me similar stories of being on the operating table and knowing they were dying. Both came to a very serious crossroad: “Do I stay or leave?” Fortunately for me and many others, they both chose to stay.  But was this the only crossroad or life-changing decision they’ve faced in life? I don’t think so.

 

They say cats have nine lives. But I think we have several lives too, here on earth, as we come to those crossroads, those precipice points where we have to make the hard choices that alter the future: career choices, marriage, divorce, where to live, children, medical choices, religion, and so many other choices that may or may seem to be life changers. Not every choice may be a life-altering one, but we don’t know till later which ones were gigantic. Only as we look back on our lives can we see the ones that really did make a big difference.

 

One of the biggest ones for me happened when I was in college.

 

Carbondale University of Illinois May 1970. I stood in the crowd of protesters chanting, “Ho Ho Ho Chi Minh, NLF is going to win.” I picked up a rock and threw it as hard as I could. The minute it flew from my hand I was jolted! “What am I doing?” I’d gone too far.

 

I was throwing a baseball-sized rock into a line of police officers, not even thinking who or what it could hit. I quickly backed out of the crowd of protesters and retreated to the trailer. I waited for my friends. And I was silent as we rode back to the other side of the state, where we all were enrolled at a different Illinois State College. 

 

When I returned to my dorm, I had some real soul-searching. I’d come to one of those crossroads. If I stayed with the friends I had at the time, my whole life would have been a totally different story. I was afraid of the person I’d become. I didn’t recognize her. I had to abandon my protester friends and began to look inward and to the Bible for answers. The next semester at school was awfully lonely.

 

At some point, we all come to crossroads where we honestly have to ask ourselves: “Why am I doing this?” And then we have to answer ourselves just as honestly.

 

Second Kings 7 tells us about four lepers who were in that predicament. The enemy was coming from without the city and there was a great famine within the city. They just sat there. Finally, they woke up and “they said one to another, ‘Why sit we here until we die?’” They realized they were being foolish just sitting there and waiting to die. Instead, they were motivated by a tiny spark of hope.

 

They decided they’d move toward the enemy camp, and just maybe, there was a very slight chance something good would happen. As it turned out, their hope was rewarded. As the lepers went out, the enemy thought they heard a great army coming against them, and they fled.

 

“And when these lepers came to the uttermost part of the camp, they went into one tent, and did eat and drink, and carried thence silver, and gold, and raiment” (2 Kgs. 7:7). There was so much food and wealth, the whole city was able to prosper from it.

 

The lepers’ action was motivated by hope, and they were rewarded.

 

Hope is a great attitude to have.  Psalm 146: 5 tells us a person can stay happy if he stays in hope. “Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord.”

 

Even if we don’t always make the right decisions, we can pray like David did: “Create in me a clean heart, O God” (Ps. 51: 10), because we know that “the Lord looketh [is looking] on the heart (1 Sam. 16:7).

 

When our hearts are right with God, we can be assured that things will work out, no matter what they may look like now. We can smile with hope, “being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:6).

 

And we do like it says in Philippians 2:12: “work out [our] own salvation [wholeness] with fear [reverence] and respect toward trying to do our absolute best for the Lord” for we have to trust it really is, “God which worketh [is working] in [us] both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13).

 

We are loved by God Almighty, the creator of all things, and we can trust Him to help us, especially at those life-changing crossroads.

 

Like me, when I decided to drop my protestor friends, or like the four lepers who made the scary move toward the enemy, if our heart is cleansed and our hope is in the Lord, the future is a very bright and happy one for us.

 

Let’s make sure we present our life choices, great and small, before the Lord Jesus, for his take on them. He was God’s perfect son, and he lived here on earth. He understands all earthly things, including all the choices that would ever confront us. And he knows what are the best choices we could make. When we were born again we confessed that Jesus would be our Lord. Let’s make sure our actions show that this is true.

 

Love, Carolyn

 

Watch for my new book to be out by the end of this month. I should get the proof back this week and be able to make the final adjustments – yay! The book is titled BIBLE LESSONS FROM NATURE .

 

https://www.amazon.com/Carolyn-Molica/e/B007GZO1HA?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_15&qid=1651431514&sr=8-15

 

 

 

MAKING IT RIGHT

MAKING IT RIGHT

When I went into the store, I was distracted, thinking about the drawing I’m working on. I did self-checkout and loaded the items into three bags, put them in the cart, and out I went. It wasn’t until I got home that I realized I never paid for the items! I have no idea why the alarm didn’t go off as I exited the store!

 

As I thought about this crazy incident, I was reminded how easily Satan opens the door for people to sin. He just slips in the opportunities so smoothly. It takes discipline to live honestly by Biblical standards, and of course, I went back the next day with a list of all the items so I could rightfully pay for them.

 

Even though I didn’t know at the time that I did anything wrong, I did, and I admitted it. But making it right takes so much more time and effort! Darn!

 

Nobody wants to be wrong at anything, but the truth is that the last perfect guy got out of here over 2000 years ago, and so all of us are going to do wrong things, no matter how hard we try always to do things right. And we need to fix those things that are wrong, no matter how much time or effort it takes. My small incident is nothing, compared to some of the other things that need to be fixed, that take a lot more time and a lot more diligence.

 

A form of the word “diligent” is used 61 times in the Bible. The results of being diligent to the things that are important to God are told to us in Exodus 15:26:

 

“If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the Lord that healeth thee.”

 

A form of the word “disciple” or “discipline” is used 257 times, and of course, Jesus named his closest followers “disciples.”

 

Job tells us that God helps us toward being disciplined because He knows we will be so much happier with the results:

 

“He openeth also their ear to discipline, and commandeth that they return from iniquity [sins specifically that come to us from our bloodlines].

 

“If they obey and serve him, they shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures” (Job 36:10-11).

 

We all know there are things in our lives that the Lord would prefer if we would change them. In other words, we usually know when we’ve done something that’s not very good. And God knows too—we can’t hide from our Creator! So, if we want to make things right, and God knows we do, then He’ll find a way to let us know.

 

And when God makes us aware of our sin, our bad judgment, or errors, He doesn’t want us to get all mad about it or despondent either. To God, one sin is just as big or small as another. All can be forgiven and all can be changed for the better.

 

King Solomon speaks to his children in Proverbs 3:11-12: “My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord;
neither be weary of his correction: for whom the Lord loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.”

 

And 1 John 3: 2 tells us: “Beloved, now are we the sons [and daughters] of God.” So being disciplined and corrected by God is a good thing. It means He loves us.

 

But as every child who’s been spanked, knows: “No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous.” And as every parent knows: “Nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby” (Heb. 12:11). A good spanking can motivate a child to act right. And a spanking from the Lord can work the same way.

 

Verse 12 goes on to encourage us in how we are to respond to God’s spankings. We are not to get all down in the dumps and pull a pity party for ourselves. We are to get up and act right, so whatever we did doesn’t keep happening.

 

“Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed” (Heb. 12: 12-13).

 

Being wrong can be righted as long as we admit to God that we were wrong, and when we do wrong to someone, we should repent to them as well. Luke 17: 1 tells us that offenses will absolutely come and when they do come, verse 3 tells us: “Take heed to yourselves: if thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him.” Yep, that’s a bit of a tough one in our contemporary culture. We don’t really like having the responsibility of having to tell someone they’re wrong. We’d rather just ignore it or pray that the person will recognize his or her error on their own.

 

But the verse goes on to say: “And if he repent, forgive him.” It doesn’t say that we just randomly forgive everyone who has wronged us. No; We are to tell them they did something wrong, according to the Bible, so that they have the opportunity to repent. THEN, we are to forgive them. Verse 4: “And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him.”

 

When I read that section of scripture recently, I realized it was way different than what I’d been taught previously. I was not used to telling people, especially Bible people, to their face that their actions were wrong. And when I read those scriptures, I saw that I was the one who was wrong by keeping silent! I repent! I probably could have helped a few more people to do God’s will if I’d been bolder in this category. And of course, we are to always remember to utilize the Lord’s wisdom and kindness, rather than snarkiness!

 

But, no crying over the past. God forgives me and will make a way for me to move forward in more victory.

 

We have spiritual ability within us to change into better Christians, because of being born again of Christ’s seed, making it so that we really can get back on track on anything. Romans 12:1-3 tells us how:

 

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

 

“For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.”

 

One thought at a time, we can make our minds new again on any subject. I’m not saying it’s easy, but it is definitely doable, and God promises it’s well worth the effort.

 

I’m looking forward to an amazing year ahead as we forge our way into this 2023. I expect changes in the world and changes in me too.

 

God bless you.

 

Love, Carolyn

 

I’ve got my new book almost ready to go! I only have to design the front and back cover and do some promotional stuff that the publisher is asking for. The book is called BIBLE LESSONS FROM NATURE (including cats and dogs). I think you’re really going to like it 😊