I don’t typically post on Wednesdays, but as part of Kelly Langston’s Authenticity Challenge, here we are. Each day I’m discussing what I believe is a key component to authentic faith and how I’m working on that in my own life.

On Wednesday mornings, I’m privileged to lead a ladies Bible study group and this week we looked at Psalm 78. The psalm details God’s interventions on behalf of Israel and their sins against Him in spite of it. In the middle of the Psalm are the words “For He remembered that they were but flesh”.

Frailty. It is common to all of humanity, but accepting it, even embracing it is unique among believers. I struggle with depression and have all of my adult life. It wasn’t until I admitted that this was something I couldn’t solve myself, that healing began. Grace and mercy in time of need became a daily reality rather than an abstract theological concept. I got real with my friends, and they’ve walked this road with me. It’s been bumpy at times. I’ve taken medication for 5 years and I’ve seen a psychiatrist and a therapist for close to 4 years now. Last week, my psychiatrist cut me loose. I’m managing well enough to go off medication. I still have quite a bit of work left with my therapist, but that’s another story for another day.

On Monday I mentioned that there is no place for shame in my life any longer, so frailty is nothing to be ashamed of. My weaknesses are just avenues for God to display His power and His strength. The more I acknowledge those weaknesses, the more He can work through them. However if I hide them, deny them or try to fix them myself, I tie His hands.

Frailty isn’t a justification for inaction. It’s a determination to persevere anyway. Just because I’ve owned one frailty doesn’t mean this is easy or even natural. I still fight it every chance I get. I don’t want to be “frail”. I do want to bring glory and honor to God. And frailty does just that. 2 Corinthians 4:7 explains “we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not us.”

My son starts school today. (Yuck… And yes I was one of the bad parents at Wal-Mart last night trying to buy school supplies, but that’s another story.) In honor of- or maybe in mourning for- the start of school, for today’s tip, I’m going back to one of the basics. Good Bible study always begins with a simple examination of what the text says. (The ‘observation’ part of inductive study.) This is the information-gathering stage, the fact-finding mission. So start with the simplest question- Who?

As you read the passage, answer as many ‘who’ questions as practically possible. Who is the speaker? Who is being addressed? Who is being discussed? Check the antecedents for the pronouns. (You know, the noun the pronoun stands for. Feels like school already.)

For example, Job 18:7 says, “The steps of his strength are shortened, and his own counsel casts him down.” Who is speaking? Job’s friend Bildad. Who is being addressed? Job. Who is being discussed, the ‘him’? We have to go back a few verses, to verse 5 to see it’s ‘the wicked’ that Bildad is discussing, but by implication, he’s talking about Job.

When you read the New Testament letters, it’s helpful to watch the pronouns and keep them straight. In 2 Corinthians 5:21 Paul writes, “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” Him who? Sometimes it’s God the Father and sometimes it’s Christ the Son.

Another place where the ‘who’ can be revealing is Acts 16. Verse 8 says “…they came down to Troas…” Then in verse 10, it says, “…we sought to go to Macedonia…” That’s the tipoff that the author of Acts, Luke, had joined the group and the next section of the book is a firsthand account.

Sometimes, even a simple thing like this can give a new insight on a familiar passage.

I posted Tuesday and nine o’clock or so last night, I realized Tuesday… should’ve been a Study Tip Tuesday! So… Here it is on Thursday (still starts with a ‘T’- that counts for something, right?)

The previous tip dealt with how chapter breaks sometimes interrupt the flow. Today we’ll consider the fact that occasionally the verse ends before the sentence does. In 2 Corinthians 1:3, we read “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,”. The verse ends with a comma telling us the thought isn’t complete even though it may sound that way.

If we consider verse 4 alone, it’s even more obvious that something is missing. “who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” Not only does the verse start with a lowercase letter, but reading it, we know we’re in the middle of something.

Taken all together, we get the complete thought-
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

Another example is in Ephesians 1:3-6.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.

Paul writes a sentence/paragraph that is divided into 4 verses in our Bible. Granted the sentence is packed, and the verse divisions may help us digest it, but they also may cause us to lose the interconnectedness of the ideas.

Watch for this especially in the New Testament epistles. (And especially in Ephesians!)