Our goal should be to understand the plain sense of the Scripture.
Paraphrasing Scripture, or writing the Scripture in one's own words, is an effective way to discover the plain sense of the scripture. The idea is to take a verse, or passage of Scripture, and write it in such a way that it would make sense to five-year old. The time that it takes to ponder the plain sense of the verse or passage and to wrestle with the simplest way of rewriting it, is essential in allowing God to "teach you all things," "guide you into all truth," and to "take the things of mine (Christ) and shown them unto you."
After determining the plain sense of the scripture, it is then very helpful to search for sins to avoid or confess (1Timothy 3:16-17), Promises to claim (2 Peter 1:3-4), Examples to follow (1 Corinthians 11:1), Commands to heed (John 14:21), and the Knowledge of God (2 Peter 1:2-3).
As you find promises to claim, you will notice that some of these promises are unconditional and some of them will be conditional. The following verses contain, among other things, some very clear conditional promises. We highly recommend that you take each of the following six verses and examine them using the following method:
There are two types of promises given in the Bible: conditional and unconditional. The following verses contain conditional promises. Please take time to write them in your own words, and find the promise and condition. Also, you might look up any words you might not understand in a concordance.
Whoever has my Word and is obedient to it is the one who truly loves me. And to these obedient ones my Father will love, I will love, and I will reveal more of myself to them.
Through an increased knowledge of God, who called us to His own glory and excellence, we have at our disposal everything we need to live and to live godly by His almighty power. We can be delivered from the world's corrupting influence through our lustful passions and we can be partakers of God's very nature as we believe the wonderful precious promises given to us in God's word.
But all of us, with open minds and tender hearts, looking in the Bible at the goodness of the Lord are being changed into the same image we see in the Bible, gradually by the Holy Spirit.
Do not let my word cease to be in your conversation, think about it all throughout the day and the night until you are a doer of all that is written in my word, in response I will make your way prosperous and give you good success.
Any man who delights in my Word and thinks about it throughout both day and night will be blessed. Spiritually, I will make him like a well-watered tree that always bears fruit and whose leaf never withers, and in whatever he does he will prosper.
Be obedient to the Word of God! Don't deceive yourself by hearing and not doing. If you hear and don't do, you'll be like someone who looks at himself in a mirror, sees himself, and yet when he turns away he can't remember what he look like. But if you look, into the Bible, called the perfect law of liberty, and continue looking till God enlightens, and don't forget, but instead be a doer of the ways of God revealed there, you will be blessed in what you do.
Promises:
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Conditions:
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If this is true, what are you going to do in your life in an attempt to meet those conditions so that you may receive those promises?
See Word Intake for some practical suggestions.
