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Bits, Bites and Pieces
While growing up in the small community around Bonners Ferry, Idaho, I attended a Lutheran church and learned a lot about God, His word and His kingdom. As a preschooler, I had also attended various other churches with my friends and joined in their Vacation Bible Schools. I loved going with my friends to learn about God and to take part in the craft projects and activities.
During my fourth grade year my family moved from the small village of Moyie Springs into town. My parents bought a home within walking distance of my school and the Lutheran church where I attended Sunday School, Church Services, Vacation Bible Schools and Confirmation classes. For graduation from my confirmation classes—and to be able to participate in communion—I had to go before the church congregation and confess that I loved Jesus and accepted Him as my Lord and Savior. Though I was scared and my whole body was nervous, I stepped out and confessed my love for Jesus. Several others who had attended the confirmation classes also shared before the congregation.
Though I learned about God from these classes, I don’t remember learning much about new birth or being born again. Nor do I remember learning the meaning of baptism, though I knew God commanded us to do it. I didn’t understand that baptism is an outward symbol of the inward heart change that takes place when a person is born again and becomes a new creation in Christ Jesus.
In addition, I learned the phrase “Lord and Savior.” I thought I understood the Savior part, but I didn’t know that the term “Lord” meant Jesus was now the ruler of my life, and He should be in control of it—not me. I didn’t learn that Jesus wanted a personal relationship with me. I pictured Him as a big, impersonal God who lived in heaven instead of a loving God who dwelt in my heart.
The classes taught me about the miracles God did for people in the Bible. Yet, I never really understood God still works miracles for people today; nor did I ever dream God would work miracles for me. Though I learned from the classes, I learned only bits, bites and pieces—and some of those didn’t even make sense to me. I only learned small parts of what I needed to know and mature into a full grown Christian.
As an illustration of the challenge of bits, bites and pieces, imagine or visualize yourself sitting in a chair that’s pulled up to a dining room table. On that table, someone has put out a 5000 piece jigsaw puzzle. You see some written instructions and tips about putting puzzles together next to the puzzle, along with a note asking you to put it together.
As you begin the task, you look closely at each piece, starting with the edge pieces. You look for similar colors and shapes or for pieces to recognizable objects. You continue poking various pieces into others, trying to fit them together. You continue building until you have the edge, a large central mass of pieces, and several small clusters of pieces that look like various objects in the puzzle. Oh, how you struggle to put the puzzle together. Soon someone else comes along and helps you get quite a few more pieces in place. When you’re about finished with the puzzle, someone comes in and informs you that several pieces to the puzzle are missing—making it impossible to complete your task.
Like this puzzle, our teachings can have missing pieces. They can lack pieces that connect the main body to the edges or foundation of the puzzle. Or they can lack pieces that connect the smaller clusters to the main body of the puzzle. Our teachings can even have pieces in the wrong place or pieces that fit into other puzzles. We can even leave out or lose pieces.
When the pieces of our teachings are like some of these pieces in the puzzle illustration, we can make it harder for our students to understand God’s word. And, like the missing puzzle pieces, our teachings can be missing crucial facts and information that our students need to know. Without all of the pieces, and understanding how they go together, it’s nearly impossible for our students to understand how our pieces fit together as God’s message to them.
God’s word gives an example of bits, bites and pieces in Acts 8:26-38. This scripture passage tells us about an Ethiopian Eunuch who was reading a scripture passage of Isaiah. This passage spoke about someone, but the Ethiopian could not understand who the passage was about. Knowing this, the Holy Spirit translated Philip to the Eunuch who was riding in a chariot. The Holy Spirit told Philip to go to that chariot and stay near it. So Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading from Isaiah the prophet.
“Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked.
“How can I,” the Ethiopian said, “unless someone explains it to me?” Then he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.
Philip began with that very passage of scripture and told him the good news about Jesus. As they traveled along the road they came to some water and the Eunuch said, “Look, here is water. Why shouldn’t I be baptized?” and he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then Philip and the Eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him.
In this story, the Ethiopian Eunuch didn’t understand the scripture he was reading; he knew only bits, bites and pieces. Because of this, the Holy Spirit intervened and sent Philip to explain the scripture to him. Thank God the Holy Spirit reveals the missing pieces and plugs the holes in our teachings too. Without the Holy Spirit, we would be lost in darkness.
The classes I went to in the Lutheran church taught me a lot. As I grew and began my own life as an adult, I attended a variety of nondenominational and Baptist churches. Later I went on to First Christian Church and now I’m at Sandpoint Christian Center, which is not far from my birth place in Bonners Ferry, Idaho. Yet God has been faithful and the Holy Spirit has revealed and taught me much more about God. I have been born again, baptized, and have a personal one-on-one relationship with God. Jesus paid the penalty for my sins and made a way for me to be adopted and become a member of God’s people, God’s kingdom and God’s heavenly household.
I believe this challenge of bits, bites and pieces is part of the reason we have so many different denominations and variations in the Christian church today. Many people, at multiple levels of learning, have learned only bits, bites and pieces of God’s word. Others have chosen to only believe certain pieces, and refuse to include the ones they reject in the puzzle, even though they truly belong there. Some may reject pieces because they don’t like certain aspects of them. Some set out to find their own pieces to put in the puzzle, even though they don’t belong.
Because we have learned bits, bites and pieces of God’s word, none of us have all of the pieces needed to complete the whole picture. Yet, the Holy Spirit will teach us what need to know right now.
God’s word tells us, “Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” (1 Corinthians 13:12) There are also places in scripture where men cannot understand what God is talking about but they interpret the Bible according to their own perspective. They may be right; but they may also be wrong. We won’t know until God reveals it to us. In addition, there are places in the book of Revelation where God tells John not to write down what He has shown him. Other places speak about the “mysteries of God.”
As Christian believers, we should be mindful of the challenge of bits, bites and pieces. We should examine our ways of teaching and sharing God’s word with others. We should not assume that the person we are talking with knows or understands what we are talking about. We may think of them as mature when they are only babes in Christ. It’s hard to determine this until we get to know the person fairly well.
As Christian teachers, we need to pray and try our best to thoroughly cover the passages in our lesson plan. We need to also include any relevant information or events that happened right before our lesson and any consequences resulting from the accounts of people in the Bible. Defining large words would also help, as would a short time at the end of class for our students to ask any questions they may have. This may help us to fill in some of those missing puzzle pieces in the minds and hearts of our students.
Thank God the Holy Spirit doesn’t totally depend on our understanding or our ability to fill in the missing pieces of the puzzle. Thank God He is faithful to bring revelation to correct and fill in the holes in our teachings. I look forward to seeing the complete picture of God’s work when I get to go home and be with the Lord.
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