Applying the Bible to My Life - a podcast by Lewis Marsh

Upon This Rock, #5

Applying the Bible to My Life

By Louie Marsh, 2-21-2021

Intro:

 

A gray-haired old lady, long a member of her community and church, shook hands with the minister after the service one Sunday morning. "That was a wonderful sermon," she told him, "-- just wonderful. Everything you said applies to someone I know."

It is not what men eat but what they digest that makes them strong; not what we gain but what we save that makes us rich; not what we read but what we remember that makes us learned; not what we preach but what we practice that makes us Christians.  - Francis Bacon.

Unused truth becomes as useless as an unused muscle. - A.W. Tozer

Booker’s Law: An ounce of application is worth a pound of abstraction.

 

Once I gain God’s perspective, internalize the Scripture and begin to think Biblically it’s time to begin seriously applying God’s Word to my life.

 

1) Application begins with ENGAGING the text.

 

“18But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 3:18, ASV 1901)

 

Only here in the New Testament. The verb in the active voice means to shew in a mirror; to cause to be reflected. In the middle voice, to look at or behold one’s self in a mirror. - Vincent, M. R. (1887). Word studies in the New Testament (Vol. 3, p. 309).

 

Reflecting as in a mirror (κατοπτριζομενοι [katoptrizomenoi]). Present middle participle of κατοπτριζω [katoptrizō], late verb from κατοπτρον [katoptron], mirror (κατα, ὀπτρον [kata, optron], a thing to see with). In Philo (Legis Alleg. iii. 33) the word means beholding as in a mirror and that idea suits also the figure in 1 Cor. 13:12. There is an inscription of third century B.C. with ἐγκατοπτρισασθαι εἰς το ὑδωρ [egkatoptrisasthai eis to hudōr], to look at one’s reflection in the water. Plutarch uses the active for mirroring or reflecting and Chrysostom takes it so here. Either makes good sense.

 

Robertson, A. T. (1933). Word Pictures in the New Testament (2 Co 3:18).

 

2) What Is the Mirror? – THE BIBLE

 

“4In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” (2 Corinthians 4:4, ESV)

 

• What are the results of this engagement? CHRIST-LIKENESS

 

“18As all of us reflect the Lord’s glory with faces that are not covered with veils, we are being changed into his image with ever-increasing glory. This comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 3:18, GW)

 

3) How To Apply God’s Word

 

“24For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 25But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.” (James 1:24–25, ESV)

 

 

• LOOK at it.

 

 

• REMEMBER

 

 

• DO

 

 

4) How does this life-change happen?  APPLICATION!

• What is application? ACTING on God’s Word.

 

“11so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:11, ESV)

 

“32men of Issachar, who understood the times and knew what Israel should do—200 chiefs, with all their relatives under their command;” (1 Chronicles 12:32, NIV84)

 

• To do this I must become a BRIDGE-BUILDER.

 

                                          

 

 

 

Bible text----------------------->APPLICATION <-------------------People’s needs

THE WORD                                                                THE WORLD

Past Revelation              where lives change                      Current Situation

           THEN                                                                         NOW 

          What was                                                                   What is          

          INTERPRETATION             IMPLICATION          PERSONALIZATION

          Commentators                             Communicators

          like to live here                                                          like to live here

 

“24“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”” (Matthew 7:24–27, NIV84)

 

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