Informed to Transformed: The Art of Understanding God and His Word With Interactive Study Guide

Copyright © 2024 R.E. Franzen, M.Div., BCC.

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Scripture quotations marked (KJV) are taken from the King James Version, public domain.

Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations marked (NKJV) are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scriptures marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (ESV) are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotation marked NRSV are taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, Copyright © 1989, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotation marked as (CJB) are taken from the COMPLETE JEWISH BIBLE, Copyright© 1998 by David H. Stern. Published by Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc. www.messianicjewish.net. Distributed by Messianic Jewish Resources Int’l. www.messianicjewish.net. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

ISBN: 979-8-3850-2755-2 (sc)

ISBN: 979-8-3850-2756-9 (hc)

ISBN: 979-8-3850-2757-6 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2024912085

WestBow Press rev. date: 10/02/2024

Dedicated to the Body of Christ for Discipleship

CONTENTS

Preface

Chapter 1: What Makes You, You?

• The Value of Education

• Transformative Learning

Part Two — Made in the Image of God

• It’s All about You

• In the Image of God

• The Danger of Isolated Ideologies

Study/Discussion Questions for What Makes You, You?

Chapter 2: Engaging God’s Pure Word

• Why Does Faith Need to Be Incorporated?

• Was Scripture Written by Man?

• Prayer in Relation to Scripture Reading

• What Makes Scripture Authoritative?

• The Logos and Rhēma

• How to Hear God’s Voice

Study/Discussion Questions for Encountering God’s Pure Word

Preface

This book consists of two chapters taken from the book entitled, The Narration of Creation: God’s Beautiful Story of Your Beginning, chapters 3 and 4, by this author. These chapters will help you break out of the modern, western thinking patterns and into an ancient Near Eastern mindset, with practices that are extremely important to understand in order to grow in the knowledge of God (Hos 6:6; Col. 1:10; 2 Pet. 3:18) and thereby, increase our faith. The purpose of this is to aid in gaining an understanding of God and His Word in a deeper, more profound way than ever before. The goal is to bring real, godly transformation by knowing how to properly and reverently understand and approach God’s Word. Additionally, these chapters will support you in developing the art of understanding God as Creator and how He communicates, which will transform you into His image and likeness as He desires.

May the Spirit of grace anoint you as you study this work.

Shalom.

Chapter One

What Makes You, You?

Some have asked why a chapter like this is in a book on creation. Some in academia may understand the need. Much of the confusion around the creation account is directly related to what this chapter addresses: presuppositions. We must try to position ourselves to see Scripture through the proper lens—but not my lens, not your lens, not academia’s lens, not a denominational lens, and not anyone’s lens but God’s. Finding God and His lens to His story is what makes this approach to the Creation account and to all of Scripture so revolutionary!

Before we can discover what the Creator of the universe is saying to us, we should recognize that we only hear Him through a spiritual veil. As the apostle Paul said that we are only seeing spiritual truths by looking through something like a cloudy mirror and that it’s only a reflection and not the whole clear, panoramic picture.

For now we see in a mirror dimly. (1 Cor. 13:12 ESV)

Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror. (1 Cor. 13:12 NLT)

Have you experienced getting out of a hot shower and looking in the mirror? The mirror is all foggy, and you can’t see yourself very well. Even if the mirror is clear, you still cannot see the back of your head. This is what this chapter addresses: how to better see yourself, expose blind spots, and thereby, help to see Scripture in a clearer and purer light.

In our humanity, we are not seeing or hearing God directly and face-to-face but indirectly through this separation veil of pure, holy God and a fallen creation. The whole gospel story is about God restoring His creation back into harmony with Himself. By becoming a man, He has provided the only way of redemption for creation and fallen humanity back to His original design and purpose. Within this fallen world, there are tons of interpretation lenses or filters, if you will, which we interpret. We all interpret Scripture and life and hold a worldview through a particular lens. No one escapes this. When approaching the creation message, we find tons of different lenses and ways to interpret the message. If you are not aware of the lens through which you interpret life and are not aware of other lenses, you cannot claim to know truth or have a balanced view. Yet we are not without hope! There are key principles we can exercise to help see spiritual matters more clearly.

On the surface, what makes you, you is that we are all products of our environment. Let’s discuss how this affects us before getting to the real you. We must come to realize that every one of us has presuppositions based on where and how we were raised. It is, therefore, impossible to read and interpret God’s Word free from our conditioned presuppositions. Your upbringing has informed you of certain beliefs, ways to think, and ways to behave. There are many different cultures in the world, and each has its own