Serve, Specialize, Then What?

2 Timothy 2:15 - Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. (NKJV)

The Activation Insight

One thing I’ve realized over the years: the fastest way to get new believers activated and growing in their faith is surprisingly not to put them on some long-term Bible study track or equipping plan, but to get them plugged into a small group AND serving at church in some capacity.

Ushering, taking a slot to look after babies while their parents attend service, packing visitor gift packs, or even arranging chairs before and after the service; all these are easy, low-commitment ways to get people started in church involvement. Especially in a smaller church.

You know me by now: I’m an introvert. If you put me into anything involving study by myself, I’ll stay there forever.

But there’s something profound about what happens when someone shows up weekly to arrange chairs or hold babies. They’re not just “helping out”, they’re becoming someone who belongs to this community. They start seeing themselves as “a person who serves at this church.” That identity shift does discipleship work that a 12-week course can’t touch.

The small group piece compounds this because it provides the relational glue and learning context. They’re not serving in isolation; they’re connected to people who can answer questions, model faith, and reinforce what they’re learning.

When Specialized Ministry Enters the Picture

Where I start to pay attention, however, is when newer believers start getting involved in the more specialized stuff.

The most obvious is my wheelhouse: music ministry. The new babes in Christ might come already with music instrument skills from real music lessons, or singing ability. Meanwhile, your worship team volunteers may be self-taught or started lessons at those cell-musician factories we have in Singapore. We're talking about a possibly large gap, a large difference, in ability.

The temptation is real: someone shows up with guitar skills or a great voice, and suddenly there’s this pull to fill the roster need rather than consider their spiritual readiness. Especially in smaller churches where volunteer pools are limited. And then affirming them (“you’re so important, you’re making such a difference!”) can inadvertently lock them into that role identity before they’ve had time to develop the spiritual foundation underneath.

It reminds me of 1 Timothy 3:6: "... not a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit.” Paul’s talking about elders there, but the principle applies: premature positioning can actually harm someone’s spiritual development.

There’s a crucial difference between stacking chairs and leading worship, isn’t there? With chairs, ushering, and baby care, the spiritual stakes are relatively low. They can learn on the job. Mistakes don’t ripple outward much. But music ministry? They're now in a spiritually formative role, shaping how people encounter God, modeling what worship looks like, potentially even teaching theology through song selection.

Now worship ministry is not the only potentially tricky role. If new believers attend prayer meetings, feel an affinity to that, and suddenly they start signing up for spiritual warfare classes outside your church, or looking into inner healing or deliverance ministries, you ought to start paying attention. And checking in with them a bit more often.

If you’ve been in church long enough, you’d have enough horror stories about things gone wrong from there. (And if you haven’t, buy your pastor a coffee and ask him for his experiences.) Besides a lot of obvious ways things have gone wrong, there is the danger of the noob thinking being trained in a specialized ministry makes them feel superior to those who aren't.

The Seminary Parallel: Knowledge Without Reality

Let’s not single out the obvious charismatic practices here, shall we? Spiritual pride transcends denominations and theology.

Let’s look at theological training. At its core, theological training is essentially a time-compression tool. Instead of spending 40 years slowly accumulating biblical familiarity through repeated reading, you get a curated, accelerated path through church history, systematic theology, biblical languages, hermeneutics. That’s genuinely valuable, why should each generation of pastors and ministers have to reinvent the wheel repeatedly to be effective?

But here’s the trap: the graduates can mistake having been given a map of the territory for having actually walked the territory. They have the knowledge framework, but maybe not the lived reality of the Word that comes from decades of actually walking with God through it. And if they don’t continue that personal, ongoing engagement with Scripture post-graduation, they end up operating on borrowed capital; they're teaching from notes rather than from wells.

Speaking plainly: we are counting on the graduates of such training to continue their own study of the Word, in order to have the reality of the Word feeding their effectiveness.

Whether it’s the worship leader who’s been to Bethel conferences, the intercessor trained in spiritual mapping, or the seminary graduate with their MDiv, the knowledge asymmetry creates a temptation toward spiritual elitism. “I know things you don’t know. I’ve been trained. I have access to insights/experiences/frameworks you lack.”

The parallel with the new believer taking specialized ministry training is striking: both can end up with expertise without maturity. The new believer learns deliverance protocols or prophetic activation exercises; the seminary grad learns covenant theology or Greek verb tenses. Both can become proficient in their specialty while remaining spiritually shallow in foundation.

The Path I’d Recommend

I’ll be the first to say:

1. Yes, serve
2. Pursue your areas of interest
3. Get effective by specializing

After all, that’s what I did.

But after that:

1. Stay humble
2. Grow beyond your specialty

If not, I can tell you where you’ll end up. You’ll end up a powerful speaker and preacher with a lousy family life. You’ll be the best church musician and end up in adultery. Or you could be the best teacher in children’s church but unable to handle your own kids.

It’s the selective maturity problem. Such people have grown deep in one dimension while remaining stunted in others. And because the specialized ministry produces visible fruit and affirmation, it becomes easy to ignore (or rationalize away) the areas of unhealth.

The worship leader whose anointing on stage is real, whose gift moves people into God’s presence... but who’s also nursing a secret porn addiction or emotional affair with another team member. The children’s ministry champion whose kids feel like they’re competing with “church kids” for mom’s attention and affection. The powerful preacher whose spouse is lonely and whose kids are bitter.

Specialization creates capability, but it doesn’t automatically create character. And the scary part is that the very success in your specialized area can mask (or even enable) the brokenness everywhere else.

Why Deliverance/Inner Healing/Spiritual Warfare Deserve Special Attention

Why did I single out inner healing, deliverance ministry and spiritual warfare at the beginning of this? Because, unlike the other ministries I detailed so far, those have an added problem no one talks about. They give the practitioners filters through which they can view and excuse their own weaknesses and failings.

The worship leader who falls into adultery has no framework to spiritualize it away. Sin is sin, full stop. The preacher with the broken family can’t really blame demonic attack for his neglect. He didn’t prioritize well.

But someone steeped in deliverance/inner healing/spiritual warfare? They have a whole explanatory system that can reframe their issues:

- “I’m struggling with anger because of generational curses”

- “I can’t maintain healthy relationships because of unhealed inner wounds from childhood”

- “The enemy is attacking me because I’m so effective in this ministry”

- “This sin pattern is actually a demonic stronghold, not a character issue”

The practitioner becomes simultaneously the expert and the perpetual patient. “I know more about spiritual warfare than you, but also I’m under more attack than you, so my struggles are different/more complex/more justified than yours.”

It’s not that these frameworks are always wrong; sometimes there are genuinely deep wounds, sometimes there is real spiritual opposition. But the danger is using these lenses to externalize responsibility for what might actually be good old-fashioned flesh patterns that need repentance and discipline.

The new believer who’s genuinely hungry and sensitive might be exactly the person who gets drawn into unhealthy streams because they don’t yet have enough biblical familiarity to discern well. They can get stuck in a perpetual cycle of “working through issues”- always discovering new layers, new roots, new traumas to address - rather than at some point being able to say “I’ve been healed, now I need to walk in obedience and maturity.”

The one attracted to spiritual warfare can interpret every relational conflict, every moral failure, every struggle as demonic attack rather than recognizing patterns of their own sin nature that need to be crucified.

And because they’re developing expertise in the ministry, they have spiritual authority and vocabulary that makes it harder for others to challenge them. “You just don’t understand spiritual warfare like I do. You haven’t been trained in this.”

And as for inner healing?

Here’s something nobody tells the new Christians who get pulled into those ministries: a huge part of the method is simply getting you into a light trance and then guiding you to imagine Jesus saying certain things to you.

It might feel spiritual, but the mechanics are practically identical to NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) reframing, a psychological technique where a facilitator helps you reinterpret memories by changing the emotional lens.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth:

If a ministry works exactly the same even when you remove Jesus from the process, then the power isn’t from Jesus; it’s from the method.

And if the power is from the method, then stop calling it “inner healing.” It is just a psychological technique with a Christian wallpaper pasted on.

The Epistemological Problem

And, if that was not enough, these specialities primarily deal with info and concepts that are NOT stated or elaborated upon in the Bible.

As a comparison, I can talk with theologically trained people. I may not be proficient in their jargon and buzzwords, but they can recognize that I’ve read my entire Bible through as often (or more often) as they have. If we disagree on stuff, they understand my thought processes, so there’s a chance I’d learn from them or they from me.

With theological training, even when there are disagreements, you’re at least operating from the same source material. You can point to texts, compare interpretations, trace arguments through Scripture. There’s a shared foundation and a common court of appeal. “Show me in the Bible” is a move both parties recognize as legitimate.

But the spiritual warfare/deliverance folk who already are used to thinking on stuff not explicitly covered by the Bible? That’s a different story. Do I have to outtalk them on principalities and threshold guardians just to convince them that the book of Proverbs is still applicable to them?

When authority shifts to personal revelations and visions, experiential knowledge (“I’ve seen this in ministry”), teachings passed down through specialized training lineages, spiritual discernment that can’t be verified by others, and elaborate demonologies and spiritual hierarchies extrapolated from a handful of verses, suddenly you’re not having a conversation about what Scripture says. You’re having a conversation about territorial spirits over cities, specific demon names and their functions, protocols for breaking soul ties, the spiritual significance of objects in someone’s home... whole elaborate systems built on minimal biblical foundation.

Don’t cosign loans, work diligently, guard your heart, seek wise counsel? This is straightforward biblical wisdom from Proverbs. But if someone’s worldview is dominated by “which demons are operating here,” those practical imperatives can seem quaint, unspiritual, not addressing the “real” (spiritual) issue.

A Word to Small Group Leaders and Ministry Coordinators

You’re the ones in the trenches with new believers weekly. You’re making decisions about who joins worship teams or gets invited to prayer meetings. You’re the ones who notice when someone starts attending outside training. You’re close enough to “check in” regularly.

Here’s what I’d encourage:

- Have clear guidelines about specialized ministry onboarding, especially the spiritually “hotter” ones

- Know which outside ministries and trainings your people are attending and vet them

- Don’t be so desperate for volunteers that you fast-track people into influence roles

- When someone’s expertise becomes their identity AND their excuse, you’ve lost them unless you intervene

Buy your pastor a coffee and make sure you’re aligned on this. Ask for their horror stories. Learn from them.

A Word to the Happily Specialized Noob

I get it. You’ve found something that resonates. You feel effective. People are being helped. This feels more real than stacking chairs.

But let me ask you some uncomfortable questions, not accusations, just questions:

• Can you explain what you’re learning using just Scripture, or do you need the framework from your training to make sense of it?
  
  
• Are your relationships healthier? Your character more Christ-like? Or just your ministry more active?
  
  
• If someone challenged your approach from the Bible, could you defend it? Or would you have to appeal to “you haven’t been trained in this”?
  
  
• When was the last time you read Proverbs and just… applied it? Without filtering it through spiritual warfare?

Specialize all you want, but don’t let your specialty become your whole diet. Read the whole counsel of God. Stay accountable to people who aren’t in your specialized bubble. And for the love of God, don’t use your training as a way to avoid basic obedience and character formation.

Here’s the gut-check: Five years from now, will your life show the fruit of the Spirit, or just the activity of the gifting?

Conclusion: Diligent Workers

Back in 2010, I wrote about 2 Timothy 2:15 and the importance of being diligent workers who don’t need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. That verse is still relevant here.

https://jvworship.blogspot.com/2010/08/teachers-of-pet-topics.html

Serving is good. Specializing is good. Getting effective in your area is good.

But we’re called to be diligent workers approved by God, not just skilled practitioners in our niche. That requires staying humble, growing beyond our specialty, and maintaining a foundation in the whole counsel of God rather than just our favorite frameworks.

Whether you’re stacking chairs or leading worship, whether you’re trained in deliverance or systematic theology, the question remains: are you rightly dividing the word of truth? Or have you settled for being an expert in your corner while remaining immature everywhere else?

The approval we’re after isn’t from our specialized community. It’s from God. And He sees the whole picture, not just the stage, not just the ministry, but the family life, the character, the hidden places where no one else looks.

Be diligent. Stay humble. Grow beyond.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

2013 Bible Group

Hi, everyone!

 

I mentioned a few months back that I would start a Facebook group for those of us who want to be held accountable for our feeding and study of the Bible. OK, I FINALLY got it done. I call it 2 Tim 2:15 group...

 

2 Timothy 2:15 (ESV) - Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

and you can find it here at https://www.facebook.com/groups/approved.workmen/ (copy and paste the url if you can't click it via your email).

 

So head over to that Facebook Group and join in. Start posting up the passages and chapters of the Bible you have read that day, and let us spur each other on!

 

Again, the group is at https://www.facebook.com/groups/approved.workmen/

Hope to see you there!

The Missing Piece

(This is Part 03 of my story. If you missed it, you can read Part 01 and Part 02 now)

Back to the story…

So there I was in my Christian life, enjoying results and fruit in my worship ministry, knowing that as long as I can play the guitar I can successfully lead worship almost all the time. I had some interesting experiences because of that ability. There was once I visited a friend’s church’s prayer meeting and was asked to lead worship with just one song. OK, I took up the guitar, asked if they knew the only song I could think of (the group was almost entirely made up of strangers), and then not only led them in worship, but also flowed from there into prayer and intercession as well.

Hey, it was a prayer meeting, right?

But what was missing? Imparting that ability to others, so other people can successfully do what I do.

2 Timothy 2:2 (NIV) - And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.

You see, I had invested hours and hours of time into my personal devotions, music practice and all that in order to do what I did. And that was fine when people are younger and have less demands on their time. Try telling a harried mother of 2-4 kids that in order to fulfill God’s calling upon her life she has to spend an hour a day on the Bible & prayer, and yet another on a musical instrument.

That’s NOT going to work!

So if I wanted to have people able to do what I did, I had to distill everything I did down to its barest form, the most essential elements. I had to show them principles that could guide their decisions and choices, and those principles had to work even without people having to put in the same kind of time and effort I had already put in.

Then One Fateful Day…

As I shared before in my book Invisible Worship Musician, I was engaged by a music school to teach a course on playing the piano for worship. It was during the lesson on playing intros for worship songs that I suddenly realized the purpose of worship music: to unify the praises of the people.

2 Chronicles 5:12-14 (NIV) - All the Levites who were musicians—Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun and their sons and relatives—stood on the east side of the altar, dressed in fine linen and playing cymbals, harps and lyres. They were accompanied by 120 priests sounding trumpets. The trumpeters and singers joined in unison, as with one voice, to give praise and thanks to the LORD. Accompanied by trumpets, cymbals and other instruments, they raised their voices in praise to the LORD and sang: “He is good; his love endures forever.” Then the temple of the LORD was filled with a cloud, and the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled the temple of God.

So I shared this passage with the very first class taking that very lesson. And from there I showed them how to create song intros that start to do exactly that. It worked very well for the class, they were happy that they got something simple that they could use after 3-4 lessons.

As for me, I continued to meditate on the implications of that very same passage for many years after that. It explained to me why what I did worked, and allowed me to give good reasons for why I would lead worship and play for worship the way I did.

If you do NOT have this understanding…

You end up with one of two extremes.

1)      You have people blindly copying EVERYTHING from someone who inspires them. At one point of time, as a certain Christian singer inspired many lady worship leaders in Singapore to dress, sing and pose in a certain way (one arm held out at a particular angle). Even though she was supposed to be a worship leader, she was more a lead singer, as she would sometimes pitch songs in keys 180 degrees away from what was suitable for a congregation. And she wasn’t good at leading the congregation…

I sometimes wonder if those Singaporean lady worship leaders ever caught on to the fact that what they were copying didn’t really help their church congregations in worship very much. If they did, did they ever figure out what went wrong? Or did they just blame their church congregations for being lukewarm?

2)      You have NO discipleship whatsoever. There may be one good worship leader in the church, someone who can make things work, but the other worship leaders want to do their own things in their own way. And those things and ways don’t work. After some time, some of the congregation may walk out or skip worship when they see who is scheduled to lead worship that day.

I’m not saying that is the right thing to do, but it is better than these people totally changing church because they are frustrated during your worship time, right? Of course, these days quite a number of believers don’t recognize well-led praise and worship because they have been misled into confusing a song-and-dance routine with true worship. If they leave your church because you are not giving them the show they want but what they really need (a genuine encounter with the living God) that’s understandable.

What is unacceptable is when you know you can give them the real deal but choose not to…

Conclusion:

I’ve now shared with you the core story, why I do and teach what I do. I hope that sharing my journey will help you understand me a little more, and maybe help you on your own journey also. Be blessed!

Teachers of Pet Topics

2 Tim 2:15 - Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. (NKJV)

I love the small group ministry.

Whatever you call it at your church, Cell Group, Carecell, LifeGroup (at my church) or whatever, it's a great way for the people in your church to bond together and build genuine Christian fellowship, as well as to grow in the Word of God.

And growing in the Word of God through a small group ministry is very simple. You don't have to discuss deep stuff or seek out special materials for Bible study; you just need to pay attention during that week's sermon, take good notes, think through the sermon again before the meeting and discuss the sermon with the rest of the people there. That means you'd be exposed to the sermon four times rather than the usual one time. And that helps a lot in retaining the message!

What if you are the one leading the discussion? That's also easy too. If people only talk about what was covered in the sermon, you don't need to do a lot of extra work. And if they ask about stuff that wasn't covered in the sermon or you haven't learned about, you just need to say "I'm not too sure about that. Let me bring it up with the pastor and I'll get back to you?"

You can't get any simpler than that, right?

A problem arises, however, if you are the one leading the discussion, a difficult topic comes up and you feel the need to answer the question even if you don't have enough understanding from the Bible to answer it.

I've seen people doing that. They can't stand saying "I don't know", so they have to squeeze out of themselves some answer somehow or other. And the easiest way to do that is to reduce the question to one of their pet topics, such as love, righteousness, faith, the blood of Christ or something like that, even if it isn’t relevant to the question.

Let me be blunt here: if you can't take saying you don't know and want to give answers to Bible questions in your small group meeting, then put in the necessary work to actually give good answers. And that means beginning that life-long journey of growing in God's Word, to know the whole counsel of God, rather than just your 2-3 favorite pet topics. Become a believer of the Word, rather than just a believer of your favorite parts of the Word!

If you are new to studying the Word of God by yourself, you can start by reading a chapter of the Bible every day. Read it aloud to yourself, and go back to the chapters you have read for the two days before that too. That way you will read three chapters daily, and one will be new to you. If you are involved in the worship ministry, studying the Book of Psalms is a must. Put that as a priority above going for the next overseas worship conference or reading some worship devotional book.

It will be a life-long journey, and it can get frustrating at times.

It takes time and effort to get familiar with a book of the Bible to the point when you can use it, and the reason why some people end up as pet-topic teachers is because they don't feel that they can learn the Bible even if they put in effort. Or they don't want to put in the necessary work.

So what happens? They may look for other teachers and just swallow wholesale the teaching and Bible interpretations of those teachers. That's fine if you have enough understanding of the Bible to discern and evaluate Scripturally the teachings they bring you, whether through online sermons, books, teaching CDs or even commentaries. But if you don't, you are in danger of exchanging your own errors for the errors of others.

And an error, even if held with all sincerity, is still an error!

I remember one day I was reading a teaching by a popular preacher.

Mark 11:23 (NKJV) - For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.

The preacher claimed that this verse meant that when we face challenges in life, we are to take authority over them and speak to them, commanding them to get out of our lives in the name of Jesus. He also claimed that Jesus appeared to him in a vision and said that NEVER in the New Testament were believers told to pray to God about their problems. They were to exercise their God-given authority over their problems.

How interesting. When I first read that, all it took was a second to remember the Lord's prayer (Matt 6:9-13) where Jesus told us to pray to God to deliver us from the evil one (vs 13). There is also an example from David in Psalm 6, where we find David speaking to his problems (vs 8) as well as praying to the LORD about them (vs 4).

So we can see that what he claimed Jesus spoke to him in a vision was not true. All it took was just a passing familiarity with the Bible to keep this error from sinking its roots into my mind. Not too difficult, was it? Of course, there will be other doctrines which will be more difficult to evaluate. One way to help us evaluate teachings – ask yourself if the teaching is what the Bible actually says or what someone else says it means.

For example, in Exodus 12:32 we read that Pharaoh told Moses and Aaron to take the Israelites and leave Egypt, and also to bless him. That is a direct statement of Scripture. If someone claims that Pharaoh was thus trying to obtain blessings that are not rightfully his, since blessing is only for those with a covenant with God, now that is an interpretation. We evaluate this interpretation by asking:

1. Is this idea directly stated in the Bible? If it is, are there any other verses that balance it out or give another perspective?
   
2. If it is an interpretation, are there other verses that support that interpretation? And, more importantly, are there verses that do not support that interpretation?
   
3. If that interpretation is accurate, how much do you need to re-look other beliefs and opinions that you already hold?

And if you come from a Word-of-Faith background, you need to be especially strict with your Scripture interpretation. Because, speaking frankly, we from the Word-of-Faith movement have more than our fair share of false teachers and sincere Bible teachers with some mistaken interpretations here and there. Because of that, believers from other parts of the Body of Christ sometimes find it hard to take us seriously.

So we have to hold ourselves to an even higher standard of Bible interpretation than the rest of the Body of Christ!

Conclusion:

So whatever part of the Body of Christ you come from, or whatever your denomination or beliefs, if you are heading the Bible discussions or studies in your small group, I urge you to put in the best effort you can to know the Bible. It takes effort, that is why we are commanded to be diligent about it (2 Tim 2:15). But if you find it hard to spur yourself towards the work and diligence necessary for this, just remember, his approval, his "well-done, good and faithful servant!" as your reward!

Bible Regime

“…reject profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise yourself toward godliness.” (1 Tim 4:7, NKJV)

Though you know by now that I am a worship leader and musician, not a Bible teacher, a number of people have commented favorably about my grasp of Scripture. I’ve been asked if I was a seminary student at some time. Flattering!

For those of you who have the New Year’s resolution to have a firmer grasp on God’s word this 2008, I decided to share two of my basic attitudes that have helped me tremendously in this area.

The first is found in 1 Tim 4:7, “…exercise yourself toward godliness.” The NIV has it as “…train yourself to be godly.” This tells me two things: first, that godliness is NOT natural for us. If it was we wouldn’t need to train ourselves for it, right? Second, that godliness can be uncomfortable. We need training to get past the stage of discomfort and godliness becomes a trained reflex, an ingrained reaction.

Applying it to the Bible, it means that if we want to know the Bible, we need to put in sustained consistent effort on a particular aspect of it. Talk with runners and sportsmen, people who are intimately acquainted with the nature of exercise, and they will tell you that you will not get the full benefits of a particular exercise by doing it just once and leaving it alone for a year. They will recommend doing the same exercises daily, or at least 3-4 times a week, for 4-6 weeks. So if we take this idea and apply to studying the Bible, we should have 4-6 weeks of reading the same book, chapters or verses over and over again in order to get intimately familiar with it. 

One thing you will discover though, is that once you start getting into the swing of seriously studying one part of the Bible, you take less time to understand other parts. After I spent a lot of time training myself in the book of Psalms, (I tried to memorize about 30 Psalms, spent more than a year on them) I found that I could recall other parts of the Bible (like the Gospels) more easily when I needed them. This did not make sense to me when I first started, but now I realized that, after all, it’s all by the same writer, the Holy Spirit, right?

The second idea that has been useful to me is that of the Scripture being food. In Hebrews 5:12 the truths of God’s word are both milk (for infants) and solid food (for the mature). Here’s something to ponder: Do you honestly think a baby contentedly feeding at his mother’s breast understands or is aware in any way about the immunoglobins, antibodies and the colostrum in his mother’s milk? And is he shortchanged in any way by his lack of understanding or awareness?

I knew that in Matthew 13:19 it says that if we do not understand the word of the Kingdom sown into us, the wicked one snatches the word away. But here’s my question: how then can we get ourselves to the point when we do understand God’s word?

“Think about what I am saying. The Lord will help you to understand all these things.” (2 Tim 2:7, International Standard Version)

And the word for ‘think’ in that passage is noieo, which literally means “to exercise the mind towards” (Strongs #3539). Yes, the idea of exercise again! That suggests to me that the understanding will not always come easily, but that we need to spend time on the Word, thinking about it.

Our job is to think, to meditate, and to exercise our minds towards God’s word. The Lord’s role is to give the understanding. If we do not fulfill our role in this matter, we are making it difficult for the Lord to fulfill his.

The key point of what I am sharing is this. Very often we hear testimonies of people sharing about encountering God in a very real way in his word. They tell us about how the eyes of their understanding were opened on that special occasion and share the powerful insights they receive from the Bible. And we go back home, open up our Bibles, and, like every other day, nothing much happens, at least, nothing that we can see, feel or even articulate in words. And we think that means nothing is happening within us as we feed on God’s word.

Because we want something tangible quickly, it is tempting in this day and age to let other people do the thinking and studying of God’s word for us and then turn up for their Bible study classes. That way we at least have some information that we can share or articulate with other people, and we believe that we have benefited from the time spent exposing ourselves to the Bible.

Also take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (Ephesians 6:17, International Standard Version)

Having spent a significant amount of time training in kenjutsu (Japanese fencing) believe me when I say that you can truly acquire skill in using a sword not by simply watching others swing theirs around, but taking one up yourself and seriously spending time on it.

It takes time to get really familiar with a tool to the point when you can use it not only for its obvious applications, but for others which are not so obvious. There will be seasons of frustration when you think you aren’t making any progress at all. But you have to persevere through these seasons in order to reap the benefits of regular consistent training.

So it is with God’s word. Talk with those who spent years in full-time study of God’s word. You will discover that most of the time it was ho-hum and nothing exciting. And yet through that time God was sharpening their understanding of his word. But it takes faith and patience to persevere to that point they have such a grasp of the scriptures.

Do your best to present yourself to God as an approved worker who has nothing to be ashamed of, handling the word of truth with precision. (2 Tim 2:15, ISV)

During difficult seasons, I faced the upheavals and trials oftentimes using the very same passages that have brought me through previous tough times. When everything is changing and not all the changes are good, facing difficulties with a familiar sword in hand (the crisis Psalms, what else?) is a source of comfort. The more familiar we are with the Scriptures, the better we can adapt to the increasing challenges we face as we mature in Christ.

Well, here are my thoughts on becoming skilled in our handling of God’s word. I am sure there are other viewpoints and ideas that are useful also, but I thought sharing my own ideas on this might be useful to some of you.

So have a great and blessed 2008, and may God’s word come alive to you even more than it has before!