Revelation was the first longish book of the Bible I decided to Memorize. I listened to some kids reciting Romans 8 and felt the Holy Spirit call me back into memorizing. I wanted to do a big book, and felt the Holy Spirit leading me to Revelation. I, maybe like you, didn't really like Revelation. I told myself that I would give myself the whole decade, starting at the beginning of 2020 that I would complete it by 2030. It took me about a year and a half. Because I have struggled in the past to keep the books in my head, I decided to to what Andy Davis says in a small book of his about Scripture Memory, to recite Revelation every day for 100 days. That was rough, but the light at the end of the tunnel is that I feel that I actually understand the good news of Revelation, the good news of the Lamb, in a way that I did not before. Not that I understand all of Revelation, but the good news seems to be the missing piece that no one talks about.
The Terrible Lie. That is the title of the chapter about the Fall in The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones. I like that she changed the name from the fall to the terrible lie, not because the fall is a bad name, but because it makes us think of the story anew, maybe it could become a story not just a long time ago in a land that is now lost - but it may be our story.
So I decided to offer another name - The Serpentine Sandwich.
The Serpentine Sandwich describes the serpent's art of deception. The Serpentine Sandwich has three main layers. First, the top piece of bread - this is the truth (twisted). Genesis 3:1 "Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden'?" God said something about not eating from a tree, so the serpent takes this truth and twists it into all the trees. The next layer is the meat (serpent meat) - the lie. Genesis 3:4 "You will not surely die." Adam and Eve died in many ways, maybe one of the most was when their son killed their other son, let along being expelled from the presence of God, let alone their hearts eventually stopping. Bold-faced lie. The next layer is the bottom piece of bread - the truth, spoken in a lying tone of voice. Genesis 3:5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." Their eyes were opened, but to what? They knew good. Genesis 1 was filled with "good." They knew the extreme goodness of God's creation. What they did not know was evil. Having one's eyes opened to evil is spoken of by the serpent as something to be coveted.
There are not only too many examples of Serpentine Sandwiches to add another, but it is a very dangerous thing to spend too much time on the lies of the enemy - they get enough time as it is.
It is better to spend time in what the lies of the enemy are the horrid counterfiet of - the truth of God in the word of God.
God is our DAD. If you balk at this, ask if it because you are yourself believing a lie of the enemy that there cannot be a good dad. D.A.D. is our acronym for our battle against the Serpentine Sandwich.
D. Defense against the Serpentine Sandwich. This fights the first layer of bread, the truth, twisted. When the Serpent come to Eve with the truth twisted, she does something most of us wish we did - she quotes the word of God. But she adds a little part "neither shall you touch it," which is like adding mayo to the serpentine sandwich. The Serpentine Sandwich cannot stand up against the word of God, but your words it can slither all over. Eve could also call out, "Dad!"
A. Antidote for the Serpentine Sandwich. This exposes the inner layer, the meat, the lie. Once someone has swallowed the Serpentine Sandwich the antidote is the Word of God coming as questions. "Where are you?" "What have you done?" Adam and Eve are much more heroic than I am - they answer his questions. Often we just keep hiding or keep running away. May we also, once we swallow the lie, but quick to answer God's questions. We could also call out, "Dad!"
D. Destruction of the Serpentine Sandwich. This deals with the sandwich as a whole - all the layers, including our mayo. The offspring of the woman will bruise the serpent's head, and the serpent with bruise his heel. The serpent bruised Jesus Christ's heel by striking him with death and sin. Christ was wounded by sin and took on the sin of humanity. How is the serpent's head bruised? The head is where the serpent speaks. Christ on the cross is the ultimate display of the love of God - it is impossible for the darkness of the lie that God does not love us to stand up to the light of the love of God on the cross. Does God love us? For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son. . . Picture Christ calling out to his Father, "Dad!" and let the lie that he does not love you finally die.
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Watch this video in the light of who our true Dad is - God Almighty.
This method of Bible Study is developed from Robert Traina’s Methodical Bible Study, both in the book
itself and from the videos from ThriveU Asbury Theological Seminary, and most
important for my purposes, from his student and co-laborer, David Bauer, who
was my professor during my time at Asbury.While the original steps are:
I.Pray
II.Observe and Ask
III.Answer questions (Interpret)
IV.Evaluate
and Apply
V.Coorrelate
I find these steps to be lacking, not in the content of what
they are – NO!But lacking in my ability
to remember them for myself, and also for helping others to remember them.Although Robert Traina is no longer with us,
but is with the Lord, I believe that he would encourage, in fact, did
encourage, all of us to use and adapt these steps and methods for those whom we
teach and minister to.I also believe,
were my professor David Bauer to read through this P.O.W.E.R. Bible study
method, that though he would certainly find errors and inconsistancies, he would
be pleased at my attempt, or any of his students’ attempts, at teaching people
to study the Bible.
P.O.W.E.R. Bible Study is a Bible study method with 5
steps.This is not copyrighted or owned
by anyone but our Good Lord, so feel free to use this – in fact, I hope that it
could be used over and over again.
1. Pray – come to
the One who inspired the very Scripture that you are reading.Talk to Him.Listen to Him.Ask for help.“Open my eyes to see, Lord.”
2.Observe – try to notice things like a
birdwatcher notices a bird.“It’s flying
south.”“It flies in a bouncy up and
down way.”“It has a thick bill.”Begin to notice things from what you read –
not noticing what others have told you about the text, but from what you
yourself observe.
3. Who? What? When?
Where? Why? – asking these questions turns us into children again.Do not assume you know it all – ask questions.If it is hard to ask these kind of questions,
ask a child for help.“Who is the
Christ?”What does the term Christ mean?”“Why did the Christ have to suffer?”
4.Explain – Begin to try to explain the
answers to these questions from the text itself.This may necessitate more of steps 1-3.“Christ means Anointed One.”The eplanations may lead to more
questions.“What does Anointed One mean?”Eventually this can lead to being able to
explain the passage – even better, the book as a whole.
5.Relate – Relate the explanations to
life here and now.In what ways to the
explanations relate to our life today?This is truly the hope of Bible Study – that it would be for us the word
of God today, and that it could be our food.
No other gods is the four and centerpiece of the T.R.I.N.I.T.Y. prayer acronym (see earlier posts).
This is the time where we commit to only serving the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We want to purge all other gods. We want to throw them in the trash. It may be my iPhone, pornography, a TV show, financial data, news, a person, my personality, or a thousand other things. What in my life am I paying a lot of attention to? My dogs look to me for their next move, always following me around waiting for me to act. Am I that devoted to Christ, always yearning to see his next move and being in readiness to act with him. What is it that is getting in the way? This could be something bad or something not bad - it might even be something great, like the Bible! Don't be afraid to ask God what is getting in the way of your relationship with Him.
Your idea: make a list of the top ten idols historically in your life, and ask God to purge you from worshiping them, and if need be, destroy them. Write your one idol on a piece of paper and burn the paper. If it fits, burn the idol. Please do not burn the idol if the idol is a person or an animal.
In Between in the third part of the T.R.I.N.I.T.Y. prayer acronym (see earlier posts).
This is the time where you are the In Between for someone and God. You are the one standing in the gap, you are interceding for someone. I always pray for my family, but it is encouraged to not only pray for "your four and no more" but for those you know need prayer, whether that be people going through divorce, experiencing death, being diagnosed with cancer, facing difficult decisions, etc. We also follow Jesus' rule of praying for our enemies. So we want to make sure the people who annoy us or frustrate us the most are at the top of our prayer lists. I also think it is good to write down specific requests and also write the date, and the date that they are answered. This is also the time to pray that God would soften the hearts of people who do not know Jesus Christ, that they would know him.
Your idea: since Jesus called 12 disciples, write down on a piece of paper 12 people that you will commit to praying for daily, and pray for them, lifting them up to God, do not forget to have at least one of those 12 who is your chief enemy and who you do not like.
A conservationist in Africa began to be concerned about the
Rhinoceros species. Although there are
approximately 20,000 rhinos today, about 20% of them are in captivity (zoos),
while over 20% of the overall population is being poached each year due to the
value of their horns. At that rate it
appears that the species cannot stand for long except behind the bars of
incarceration.
While this
conservationist was starting a movement called the #rhinoslivesmatter movement,
one of his friends told him that he was offended that he was saying that rhinos
lives matter when in fact all the animals lives matter, including the African buffalo. The conservationist told his friend, “Yes,
the African buffalo is a wonderful animal too, but while there are 900,000 buffalo, the rhinoceros is
endangered, and if something is not done it will go extinct.”
The friend said, “But I always see pictures
of rhinos in my flip calendar, and when I take my kids to the zoo the rhinos
are always there. I think I am going to
start a movement called the #allungulatesmatter movement, proving that all ungulates,
whether buffalo, bison, rhino, zebra, deer, or hippo. It’s not just the rhinos that matter, but the
other ungulates matter too.”
The conservationist replied to his friend, “I am in no way
against other ungulates, but this is a critical point in history for this
species of ungulate. Rhinos are being
murdered and incarcerated at rates beyond other ungulates so that very soon the
only way to see a rhino will be behind the walls of a zoo or it horn that was
cut off. African buffalos are also a
beautiful animal, but they are not being poached or taken captive at near the same rate. The poachers have a great monetary incentive
to kill the rhino, while no such incentive exists with the buffalo. The reason I am saying #rhinoslivesmatter is
because it seems that I am a lone voice in a world bent on the extermination of
the rhino, and rhinos need someone to advocate for them before it is too
late. For you to say #allungulatesmatter
misses the whole point that it is rhinos lives that are being poached in such
numbers that threaten speciesicide.
Friend, would you understand that I need your help. Are you listening? Do you hear my heart?”
#blacklivesmatter in a Christian context is like one body
part hurting and needing the body to respond to the hurt. “If one member suffers, all suffer together”
(1 Corinthians 12:26).
I, as a white male, cannot understand what it is like for a
black man in today’s culture. So I pray
that I will listen more to my black brothers than talk about them or to
them. I pray this as someone who loves
to talk and is bad at listening. “Lord,
give me a listening spirit. Amen.”
Christian idea: listen to my brother
A great book to provide information on the topic of the mass
incarceration of black males is The New
Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander.
Real Life is the second part of the prayer acronym T.R.I.N.I.T.Y. (see previous posts).
Real Life means that there is nothing off limits in prayer. Please feel free to come to God with things that seem too trivial or too weighty, because it is all intended to be brought to God in prayer.
For me real life includes my strained hamstring, my sin, my pride, the insulation in my house, my dogs, my family, my job, my feelings of inadequacy, my feelings of accomplishment, the weight of this world, the weight of my heart.
Our real lives must be brought with all their weight and triviality and mess to God in prayer.
So much of the lament Psalms of the Bible are great for Real Life prayer.
One of the most honest Psalms is Psalm 22 which Jesus quotes, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Psalm 88 is probably the saddest Psalm and yet refreshing in its honesty. Not that all real life prayers have to be sad depressing prayers. Some may be joyful. Some may be confusing. Some may be boring. Real life can be all those.
Idea for you: Read Psalm 22 and then talk to God about your life for 15 minutes.
A conservationist in Africa began to be concerned about the
Rhinoceros species. Although there are
approximately 20,000 rhinos today, about 20% of them are in captivity (zoos),
while over 20% of the overall population is being poached each year due to the
value of their horns. At that rate it
appears that the species cannot stand for long except behind the bars of
incarceration. 
