Scripture Study – Karen Gamble Writes

Verse Mapping

I am a visual person.

I learn better by looking at something than by just hearing it or reading about it.

Because of this, I like to write down passages of Scripture I am studying.

I also jot down what I’m seeing and learning as well as notes from resources and study books I am using..

i don’t have a particular way to do this.

Sometimes it’s a list.

Other times I spread it out and draw circles and balloons to write the information in.

The circles and balloons approach is called Verse Mapping.

It looks sorta like this:

(Even tho I made a little mistake on one word I kept going. It’s not about a perfect looking paper. It’s about learning God’s Word.)

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Petrify

At one point in my life I felt like I was stuck and unable to move.

I couldn’t pray.

I couldn’t understand any of the Scripture I was reading.

Then the Lord showed me a word:

Petrify.

To make rigid or inert like stone; to make lifeless or inactive (Merriam-Webster Dictionary)

To make someone so frightened they are afraid to move. (Google)

That’s when I realized that silent, subtle doubt and fear had snuck into my life and petrified me.

This is what caused me to be stuck – I was paralyzed by fear.

I knew the remedy was to replace fear with faith.

I cried out to the Lord in prayer and asked Him to help me to break free and to show me what to do.

A phrase came to my mind.

“Perfect love casts out fear.” .

I remembered this is a verse from 1 John 4:18–

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. (NIV)

You can’t have perfect love and fear at the same time.

A few verses earlier in this chapter it tells us that God is love and whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. (verse 16)

The answer was clear.

I had to choose God and His love over my fear.

Both can’t occupy the same place at the same time.

So I chose love.

It wasn’t easy.

Fear still tried to come back.

It took a while before I was able to walk without wobbling.

But, little by little, as I kept choosing to trust Him and to choose to trust in His love instead of allowing fear to guide my thoughts, I began to get stronger and braver.

I memorized .2 Timothy 1:7 and repeated it to myself over and over –

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind (KJV)

I still have moments when the fear tries to come back.

I still have moments when I am tempted to trust myself instead of God.

But, every time I do, I try to fight it

I try to remember what King David said,

3When I am afraid, I put my trust in You. Psalm 56:3 (NIV)

This has helped me so much.

When I do this, I can better focus on the Father and my faith walk.

It isn’t always easy.

Sometimes fear shows up hidden in other things – dread, doubt, uncertainty, anxiety – but if I will look at it for what it is, a stumbling block meant to stop me from trusting the Lord, I can better fight against it when it shows up and head it off.

There will be times when I am afraid.

There will be times when I am unsure of things.

But, if I will remember the truth these Scriptures teach us, I will never have to be petrified again.

What about you? Are there fears getting in the way of your faith walk?

Will you choose to let go of the fear and choose to trust God, no matter what?

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33 (NIV)

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. -Jesus John 14:27 (NIV)

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Praying the Psalms

I recently did a bible study that involved reading and praying through the book of Psalms.

As I was doing it, I began to see that virtually every verse in there is either a promise, a praise, or both.

Praying the book of Psalms is a tall order. It took working on it daily for a little over 4 months to get through it.

I didn’t try to rush.

I didn’t try to cover a lot of territory at one time.

I just paid careful attention to the verse I was on and the various parts of it.

The study started at chapter one so that’s where I started.

As I read each verse, I prayed it in one of several ways.

I either:

-Prayed it as it was written, which worked for a lot of the praise verses;

-Prayed, “help me not to…”,. whatever the verse was warning against doing;

-Prayed, “help me to….”, whatever the verse was saying we should do or be;

-Prayed, “show me when I act this way so I can correct it…”, whenever the verse was warning against certain unhealthy actions and attitudes

Or,

-Prayed, “help me to remember who You are”, whenever the verse declared His majesty or mentioned any of His traits, grace, or goodness.

It really opened my eyes to a lot of things.

I found that the farther along I went, the more aware I became of God’s good will toward us.

I began to feel more open to Him and to His love.

I also began to feel an urge to praise Him, even when I wasn’t reading a Psalm.

The more I read, the more I saw God’s character.

I saw clearly His desire for us as well as the way He wants to protect and bless us.

It took a long time to complete but I learned so much and it changed me in so many good ways.

I plan to try to do it at least once a year.

I’m certain the more I do it, the deeper my understanding and love for Him will become.

If you’ve never prayed the Psalms I highly recommend it.

If you can’t commit to the whole book then pick a chapter and try it.

There’s so much good stuff in there, you’ll be really glad you did!

Let me know if you have other ideas about how to pray the Psalms.

I’d love to try them!

For my post on praying scriptures in general, please see my post, Praying Scriptures

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Proverbs 15:1

A gentle answer turns away wrath,
but a harsh word stirs up anger. Proverbs 15:1 (NIV)

When someone says something harsh to us we have a choice.

We can say something back to them just as harsh.

Or, we can cover over their harshness with a big dose of love.

When we answer softly and kindly it deflects their anger from us and preserves our peace.

If we answer harshly we are accepting their anger and embracing it as our own.

This causes us harm.

As Christians we are called to love our neighbors as ourselves, setting the example and showing Christ’s love to others at every opportunity.

We can’t do that if we are embracing anger instead of kindness.

We don’t always know why someone is angry.

Sometimes their anger has nothing to do with us.

That doesn’t matter.

What matters is how we respond to them.

This world is full of anger and harshness.

Let’s be the ones to respond with kindness and love at every turn.

We might not be able to stop someone’s anger, but we can meet it with soft words and kindness.

In doing so, we begin to heal the hurts we see and to spread the love of the Father to those around us.

That’s a pretty great response.

Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins .1 Peter 4:8 (NIV)

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ ³⁸This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Matthew 22:37-39 (NIV)

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Psalm 46:10

He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.” Psalm 46:10 (NIV)

I’ve always looked at this verse in light of how it helps me.

I’ve even quoted only half the verse, doing so from a selfish perspective.

I’ve often referred to this verse by saying, “if you’re feeling stressed or out of sorts go sit quietly with the Lord and He’ll calm you.”

While that’s true, it’s not quite the point of this verse.

You have to add in the second half of the verse to get the true meaning.

The point of this verse is that because He is God He will be exalted.

Because of this, we should be still/quiet, know/realize He is the Creator, and act accordingly.

Sitting before God is good and it does calm us.

But it only brings us peace if we do it with the right understanding of who He is and how far above us He really is.

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Proverbs 17:9 Sunday School Lesson Outline

He who covers over an offense promotes love;

But whoever repeats the matter separates close friends. Proverbs 17:9 (NIV)

What does it mean cover over an offense?

It means to respond with love, even when someone acts ugly, rude, or hateful.

The second line, whoever repeats the matter, means that it is talking about a specific incident.

So, what this verse is saying is when someone does or says something to offend or hurt us, we should respond with love.

If someone steps on my foot, for example, I have the choice to either say, it’s okay and let it go, or to fuss at them for it.

But, what if it’s something they did on purpose?

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Proverbs 3:5-6 Sunday School Lesson Outline

Today’s verses are pretty well-known but they are good ones.

Turn to Proverbs 3:5-6:

5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart

and lean not on your own understanding;

6 in all your ways submit to Him,

and He will make your paths straight. NIV

We are to trust in the Lord with all our hearts.

What does that mean?

It means completely, in every way, in every situation, with everything we care about

Our kids, our fears, wants, dreams, health, decisions, actions

ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING!

There is nothing in our lives or hearts that we are not supposed to trust Jesus with.

What does it mean to lean not on your own understanding?

It means to put aside how you understand things.

It means to realize that you don’t have it all figured out, but God does.

It’s being wise enough to know that when we trust God we don’t have to even try to understand everything.

It is choosing to lean on His understanding of things instead of ours.

We only have to obey Him and trust He will work it and handle it, no matter what our “it” is.

Trusting the Lord with our whole heart is not easy.

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Proverbs 11:2 Sunday School Lesson Outline

When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom. (NIV)
When pride cometh, then cometh shame; but with the lowly is wisdom. (KJV)

I don’t know about you, but if I’m not very careful, my pride can sometimes trip me up.

Unfortunately, pride is not something that we deal with once and we’re done.

Pride stays with us and is typically an issue in some form or another our whole lives.

Not that we are bad or a failure, but because the flesh is stubborn and wants what it wants.

For this reason…

We have to choose to set our pride aside and humble ourselves on a daily, sometimes moment-by-moment basis.

Now there are 2 kinds of pride. One is good and one is bad.

The good one is like when you take pride in something you are doing.

You want to do a good job and you want to get it right.

You care about your work.

Wanting to do a good job and do the best you can is a good thing.

You enjoy doing a good job instead of a half-baked job.

That kind of pride is okay.

The other kind of pride is the one being addressed in this verse.

It’s the bad kind.

Here’s Google Dictionary’s definition of it:

Pride – over-inflated sense of self-importance.
When you think more of yourself than you should.

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It’s Palm Sunday!

Today is Palm Sunday!

It’s the day we remember and celebrate Jesus’ Triumphant Entry into Jerusalem.

Humbly riding a donkey, He declared Himself King of Israel, in fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy which stated:

Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion!
    Shout, Daughter Jerusalem!
See, your king comes to you,
    righteous and victorious,
lowly and riding on a donkey,
    on a colt, the foal of a donkey. Zechariah 9:9 NIV

He did this not for His own glory, but so that we would all know Who He is in the hopes that we would be reconciled to God and saved from sin.

As Jesus rode into Jerusalem the people expressed their adoration, praise, and joy by crying, “Hosanna!”

We should join them in celebrating and declaring:

“Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!

“Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” Luke-19-38 NIV

Today also marks the beginning of Holy Week as we remember Jesus and the tribulations He suffered as He became our Living Sacrifice.

I hope you will take time this week to prayerfully reflect on Christ and what He did for you..

I invite you to read an in-depth explanation of Palm Sunday by reading my post, What is Palm Sunday?

You might also like to read my post, What is Holy Week? which gives a more in-depth explanation of why this week is so important.

You can read the complete story of Palm Sunday by visiting Matthew 21:1-11, Mark 11:1-16, Luke 19:28-44, and John 12:12-19.

To learn more about the Easter Season, please visit my Easter page, a compilation of previous Easter and Lent posts.

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What Is Good Friday?

Good Friday is the day we remember Jesus and His death on a cross.

Crucifixion was a common way to execute people during the time of the Roman Empire.

It was a very slow and painful way to die, sometimes taking several days.

The person being executed typically died due to exhaustion and asphyxiation.

The night before Jesus died He’d been arrested and taken before the Jewish high priest and elders.

After questioning Him at length, they decided Jesus should die for the sin of blasphemy* because He said He was the Christ, the Son of God.

They took Him to the Roman Governor, Pilate, and asked that he execute Jesus for them – Jewish leaders were not permitted to execute anyone themselves.

Pilate questioned Jesus at length but couldn’t find Him guilty of anything.

When Pilate returned Him to the leaders and elders, stating there was no basis for execution, the leaders told Pilate that Jesus had claimed to be a king and was therefore an enemy of Caesar.

When Pilate asked Jesus if He was the king of the Jews, Jesus said yes.

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