Take a Closer Look for Women: Uncommon & Unexpected Insights to Inspire Every Area of Your Life - Softcover

Kern, Jan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1416542159 ISBN 13: 9781416542155

Publisher: Howard Books, 2007

Synopsis

Take a closer look at the Bible you thought you knew

Have you noticed that the more you look at something, the less you see it? The same thing can happen with Scripture. You've seen a story or a passage so many times that you overlook its significance: "Our Father, who art in heaven..." "The Lord is my shepherd..." "For God so love the world..." You may know these passages, you may love them, but maybe you've stopped expecting much from them. Take a Closer Look for Women leads you to pause along the familiar (and less well-known) paths of the Bible and say, "I've never noticed this! I've never thought of it this way before!" When you take a closer look at Scripture, you see how rich and deep and multifaceted it is. And you will be inspired - mind, heart, and soul - to apply the beauty of these truths to every area of your life.

About this title

About the Author:

"Go deeper with Christ" - that's the call from Jan Kern's heart for women today. As a wife and mother who has worked for twenty-five years alongside her husband at a ranch for troubled teens, she's had her share of challenges. In speaking to women's groups, she assures them they are not alone in their struggles and concerns and insists that the key to contentment is to stay close to the God who cares. "Life with God is quite an adventure," Jan says. "Yet, when you look closer, you catch a glimpse of His perfect plan." When she's not writing or teaching, Jan enjoys life in the country with her family and friends.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

I Really Want to Know

The Spirit said to Philip, "Go over and join this chariot." So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, "Do you understand what you are reading?" And he said, "How can I, unless someone guides me?" And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

- Acts 8:29-31 ESV

Picture those places where you might chat with someone about God: a garden path or a coffee shop, places that are comfortable and away from distractions. But sometimes God has other plans -- like the plan for Philip to go to the desert to talk to a man who was riding in a chariot.

In the book of Acts, Philip was one of seven selected to help Jesus' apostles. A Greek-speaking Jew, he at first focused his work on the care of the Greek widows and the poor people who were part of the Christian church in Jerusalem. This new church was blossoming. Those who witnessed Jesus' powerful life, death, and resurrection shared their message of hope about Jesus the Messiah. Many responded. But during that time the religious leaders intensified their persecution of Christians. As more friends and family were killed or scattered, Philip's duties shifted to that of an evangelist. He spoke boldly about Jesus, and many listened.

Philip had been speaking in the villages of Samaria, north of Jerusalem. When he returned, he received a very specific order from one of God's angels:

"Go south along the desert road that goes fromJerusalemto Gaza." Philip had no idea why he was to go, but the Bible says he arose and went.

Traveling through the parched land, Philip saw a man riding in a chariot. He was a eunuch in office, highly respected and trusted in his position as treasurer for the queen of Ethiopia. He had gone to worship in Jerusalem and was on his way home. While he rode in the chariot, he puzzled over the words in the Bible of Isaiah the prophet.

Philip, directed by God's Spirit, ran alongside the chariot. "Do you understand what you're reading?" he asked the Ethiopian man.

The man looked up. "How can I without an explanation?" So urgent was his desire to understand, he invited Philip to join him and tell him what it meant.

While the chariot moved along, Philip and the man pored over the ancient words that foretold Jesus' life and death. God's Spirit worked to bring understanding to the Ethiopian. When the chariot came to a river, the man was so thoroughly convinced of Jesus' identity that he asked to be baptized.

Philip was in the right place at the right time, ready to help someone understand the truth about Jesus.

The Ethiopian man really wanted to know the truth about Jesus. Look closely and you see that his searching had begun before God's angel directed Philip to the Gaza desert to meet him.

Ethiopia was, and still is, about fifteen hundred miles away from Jerusalem. Those are a lot of bumpy miles along dusty desert roads to get to Jerusalem to worship. Why all that way? It's possible that centuries before, Judaism had spread to Ethiopia after royalty from that country visited Jerusalem. The Ethiopian man might have had Jewish roots and desired to travel to Jerusalem to attend an important feast.

Regardless, it's clear that the man's trip was more than mere duty. On his way home, he had questions and didn't mind asking for answers. He hungered to understand. That day in the chariot, his interest focused on a few sentences that Isaiah had written. These spoke about someone's unjust humiliation and death. The Ethiopian knew it was a prophecy and considered the source reliable. He questioned who it could be that was led like a "lamb to the slaughter." Philip told him it was Jesus. The Ethiopian, who really wanted to know the truth, was ready to believe.

Picture Philip and the Ethiopian traveling along in the chariot -- heads bent down in intense discussion over the words of Isaiah while the horses trotted down the road. God was there too. He orchestrated the whole event. He does that.

He knew the Ethiopian's hunger to accurately know the truth about him. He knew of his persistence -- that he was willing to go whatever distance it took and that he was willing to ask the questions that plagued his heart.

Picture yourself with a friend chatting at your kitchen table over a favorite cup of tea, discussing the questions that plague your heart. God is just as present in your conversation as he was in Philip's and the Ethiopian's. And like the eunuch, your questions about the words you read in the Bible will be answered.

Take advantage of the richness of the wisdom of other women who have gone before you in asking the deeper questions about God, those who have studied the words of the Bible longer. You won't ever understand it all, but know as you and your friend sit with your heads bent together, searching, that God is there also. He will help you find the answers you long for.

The Ethiopian man is a wonderful example of someone who was grateful for those who could help him understand the Bible. John Gill, in John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible, said:

"Instead of charging Philip with impertinence and insolence in interrupting himwhilst reading, and putting such a question to him, he expresses himself with great and uncommonmodesty, with a sense and confession of his ignorance and incapacity and of the necessity and usefulness of the instructions of men, appointed of God to open and explain the Scriptures."

David Guzik encouraged people to welcome the teaching of others. In his Enduring Word Commentary series, he said:

"It was good for the Ethiopian to be reading the Bible, but unless understanding was brought to him, there would be little benefit from his reading. But God had brought someone (Philip) to bring understanding.... How can I, unless someone guides me? This is the proper question of anyone who wants to understand the Bible. We should never feel bad if we need to be taught before we understand many things."

Take a Closer Look for Women © 2007 by GRQ, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Howard Books
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 1416542159
• ISBN 13: 9781416542155
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320