Are you familiar with the story of my disciples being rebuked for plucking grains and eating them on the Sabbath while we were walking on our way? This is a lesser known passage of scripture because modern believers are less concerned about keeping the Sabbath and don’t harvest grain to eat while they walk from one place to another. But there is a larger underlying theme emerging from the details of this story. Can you see it? Can you see the principle and apply it to actual situations that you face in your own life? What other Bible stories have lessons that apply to your real life?

You know that you are saved by grace through faith, not by works lest any man should boast. But is that the end of the story? By this reasoning in some circles good works have a bad name. Do these concepts really work in opposition to each other? Rather than thinking faith or works you should think faith and works. James makes this clear. Faith without works is dead. How strong is a faith that leads to no changes in behavior? He proposes a profound challenge: show me your faith without your works and I will show you my faith by my works. Can you raise any objection to that?  

Do you value every learning experience? If you love learning you will seek it everywhere it is offered and will have encountered a wide variety of teachers. What type of teachers do you like best? Those who have studied their subject or those who have lived it? Who is better able to communicate enthusiasm and passion? Even in the academic world experience matters. What about instruction in your faith? Do you look only for academic credentials? If there is more to teaching than line upon line and precept upon precept, what would it be? What type of teacher are you?

Do you take your dreams seriously? What is your basis for deciding one way or the other? Have you noticed that there are many dreams in the Bible, and in every case they are considered to be full of real meaning? This principle holds up from Pharaoh to the wife of Pontius Pilate. Neither of these were covenant people in the way you understand it, and further they were separated by gender, time, language, and culture. They could hardly have been more different. Do you wonder how they knew their dreams had meaning? You won’t get the right answers by asking the wrong questions.