Bible Q&A • Episode 58

Hi, everyone. We're back again with some more of your Bible questions. I'm Pastor Paul. I'm here with my wife, Sue. And these are the questions you've sent in, and we're going to tackle a few of them today. What do we have first?

Alright. Let's start with Joy from UK. As a mom of teenage girls, I'm trying to disciple my daughters through the everyday challenges of adolescence. They often experience intense emotions around friendships, identity, conflict, and self-worth. Are there particular biblical principles, passages, or practical discipleship approaches you would recommend for parents seeking to shepherd teenagers through all the challenges they face?

I think we could probably both speak to this, having, you know, parented four kids. My personal feeling is that the two most important things to do with your kids is—well, I'm even going to go more than two, but let's start here—making sure that they're hearing the Word of God regularly, okay, in a way that they're going to be able to understand, embrace, and apply to their lives. Secondly, protecting your kids from influences in the world. That is getting incredibly difficult, but parents have to really pray and figure out how to creatively keep the kids from all of the ideologies that can so easily seep in and really spoil their hearts. Thirdly, and I believe this is a very important one, as parents we need to make sure that our kids see our faith in Christ as a real faith. And what I mean by that is, I feel like as a dad, one of the most important things that I did as a father was to apologize to my kids when I made a mistake because that taught them that this Christianity thing that dad follows is real. It's not for perfect people. It's for flawed people who recognize their flaws and come to Jesus, walk in forgiveness for their sins, and do their best day by day to live for Him and to follow His lead, but not perfectly. And if kids think that this is for perfect people, they're going to come to a place eventually where they're going to say, well, that's not me. So that's obviously not for me. But if they realize from the very beginning that this is for normal, flawed people who make mistakes every day, say things they shouldn't, do things they shouldn't, and so forth, they're going to realize, yeah, this is for me. This applies to me. I think those three things are important. I'm going to let you speak to that as well.

She asked for principles, passages, or practical discipleship approaches. And that's good, but I would probably just say, you know, as far as, like, this is just full time. This is all the time. And I'm not a big proponent of principles. I guess I'm a big proponent of, like, a yielded life. And like you're saying, you know, for parents who just yield their lives to Christ on a regular day-to-day basis, that is the principle. And you know, sometimes when kids are in middle school and in high school, you might not get a lot of feedback from them. Well, let's just say you're not going to get feedback from them in an admiration of how you're living your life. But always a decade later, they come back and say, well, one thing I remember is that you only said, and you're just mystified. Like, seriously, you were listening. But, you know, I guess I would just echo the same things that you said, plus adding that as parents, this is a woman, so as moms, our own peer group is also important. It helps us and it inspires us when we're rubbing shoulders with others who are like-minded and are trying to achieve the same things in their family. And so find your people, find a peer group. This might be impossible, depending on where you live, but pray about it and see what God might do. She brought up also, you know, all of the emotions and drama that can go along with teenage girls. She's a mother of girls. And, you know, boys obviously have, you know, emotions that are flying in their teenage years as well. But I think it's important to communicate to our kids that this is not the most important thing in your life. Your emotions are at an all-time high when you're a teenager because of all the hormones, but we need to train kids to learn that their heart is deceitful and that it's going to lie to them and they can't—that emotions are not a good and stable way of leading your life, you know. There's not a reliability to your emotions. There is a reliability to the truth of the Word of God, but emotions are going to run you down a rabbit trail most of the time. And I think kids need to be made aware of that. And I think that's where a mom has a particular advantage and ministry to her daughters because she also is a woman and shares that same emotional package. And so to be able to speak into that and say, okay, I understand how you're feeling here and you and I can talk this out, but when we're done, what we're going to do is take those thoughts and those emotions captive and we are going to compartmentalize them in the way that they need—where they need to be so that we can continue to live with the purpose that God has given us to do. And that's maybe not something a dad can do quite as easily. So that's a role of a mom.

Victoria says,

Well, you know, one of Satan's great hallmarks, of course, is that he counterfeits things and he can attempt to make things appear as we want them to see them, but they're actually something different. It's deception. And deception, you know, Satan is all about deception. However, a demonic spirit is all about stealing, killing, and destroying. And ultimately they're not going to be able to get away from that nature. That nature is inbred in them and now in such a way that, you know, eventually it's got to come out. Demons are not going to help you live a good life. They're not going to help you live what appears to be a good Christian life. They can deceive for a period of time, but ultimately they must destroy. And that will be seen eventually. It has to be. You know, the fruit of the rotten fruit of a demonic spirit will be seen ultimately.

Lana says,

I don't think correcting people is ever fruitful unless the Holy Spirit has opened a door for that to take place in a productive way. I really don't. You know, people believe what they want to believe until they're faced with failure in that area of belief. You know, when you're talking to Mormons or Jehovah's Witnesses or something like that, I can sit and talk about what the Bible says all day long until I'm blue in the face. But until they've come up against something in their religious experience or belief system that just doesn't make sense and it has created a crack in the door, what I say isn't going to really have any effect. It's the same thing with people who are involved in gender ideologies or something like that. Until they've been brought up short, they're really not going to be open to any kind of a discussion because they've created this bulwark or fortress around their beliefs to justify what they believe. So the short answer I could have given at the beginning, pray. Just pray. Pray that God opens a door. Pray that God cracks this false armor. that is around this ideology they've embraced, and then you'll be able to get in there and make a difference.

And I think it's important, too, not to just only have two buckets. Either I correct him or I walk in agreement with what he's.

Oh, yeah, for sure.

We can walk in disagreement with what a person is, with a delusion that they have.

Without necessarily.

Without necessarily verbally.

Confronting them.

Confronting them or correcting them, and I always like to think in these situations, I always like to look 10 years out and say, okay, when somehow he has returned to his senses and I want him to look back, if I was this woman, I would want him to look back and say, you know, everybody was going along with me except Aunt Rosie. She was the one. She held her ground.

She held her ground and she was kind to me, but she did not agree with my delusion.

Yeah, right.

You know?

Right.

But again, like I say, until there's a crack in the door, you're not gonna get, you're not gonna make any headway until the Lord, and that's why we pray and we say, Lord, show me. When that crack takes place, show me so that I can be diligent to speak truth into that open area.

Right. Jennifer has a very short question. "Is hellfire real or symbolic?"

Good question. A very good question. I tend to believe that it is real, and here's why. Jesus in the book of Luke tells a story about a beggar by the name of Lazarus and a rich man who found themselves in different places after death, and that story is not a parable. Parables are often very symbolic, but that's not a parable, and we know it's not a parable because proper names are used. The name of the diseased beggar, the name of Abraham, and so it is, Jesus is telling something that actually took place, and one of the things the rich man says to Abraham is, I'm in agony in these flames, and so I tend to believe because of that passage, particularly, that hellfire is real.

Yeah, okay. Ray says,

No, there's not. There's not, and people believe those things because they want to believe those things, and they are comforted by their own created beliefs, but it's a false comfort because there's nothing in the Bible to support that idea. When people die, they either go to be with the Lord or they go into a place awaiting judgment, and so, yeah, there's nothing whatsoever in the Bible to suggest that we can communicate with departed loved ones or that they are present with us or looking down on us or have any impact on our lives here on earth.

Okay. Next question is from either Kate or Kat from Kenya. "In the Old Testament, you mentioned that verses such as Jeremiah 29, 11 and Isaiah 60, 22 do not apply to us as New Testament believers. Does that mean we shouldn't quote them when we pray? And if we do, does it mean it wouldn't be helpful since they weren't meant for us? Also, how do we differentiate verses in the Old Testament that apply to us and those verses that don't?"

Okay, so there's kind of two things going on. When I say that certain Bible passages don't apply to us, that's not exactly what I'm saying. What I'm saying is they were originally given contextually to either someone else or to the nation of Israel or something like that, and they're not necessarily general promises, but they were promises that applied themselves to a specific time period, a specific people, okay? That's what I'm saying. Now, I have made it also very clear, God can apply those promises to anybody he wants. Sure. He can take Jeremiah 29, 11 and he can say, this is a promise to you. It may not be a promise that we can all just quote and say, this is for all of us, but God can apply it. Okay, so I wanted to make that point. So there are a lot of promises in the Bible that are unique. They were unique to the time period and the circumstances of what was going on at the time. Jeremiah 29, 11 is one of them. There are many others. She asks first, is it wrong to quote them in our prayers? Well, yeah, if the Lord hasn't applied that specifically to you and given you that promise to hold onto, then I would say then you're kind of overstepping a little bit in your prayers. But the other thing that she asks, which is a very important question, is how do we differentiate? Well, you have to read your Bible in such a way as to understand the context. When you see a promise in the Bible, and a lot of people know about Jeremiah 29, 11, but they don't know what is happening in Jeremiah 29 or what the book of Jeremiah may be even all about. So knowing the Bible, knowing what is the context, who is God talking to here? What were the circumstances surrounding this promise? Why was it given? Knowing that is getting to moving toward understanding whether this is a promise that's for you or for all people to be able to embrace. That's how you differentiate. You don't just take a verse that somebody happens to quote and say, wow, what a great promise. No, you dig into it. You read the book, read the chapter where that promise is given. Understand what are the circumstances? Who was this given to? And then ask yourself the question, can I embrace this as a general promise in God's word? Or was this given specifically? And I know this is challenging for people. They don't like to hear it. I taught this message once and it didn't go over well with some people. When I said, yeah, that necessarily isn't something you can embrace or claim. People didn't like that because they've quoted it lots of times. And now they don't wanna hear somebody saying, that may not be for you, but it's important that we understand where those promises come from and whether or not they are general or specific.

A little bit of the problem, I think, comes from the fact that we have lived in an age in the last few decades of merchandising.

Yeah, you do the same thing with the word.

Yeah, and I will admit that I saw Jeremiah 29, 11 on a wall plaque before I'd ever read the book of Jeremiah.

Sure, sure.

And I think that happens to a lot of people.

That happens with a lot of verses.

And so there are a lot of verses that we sort of like fall in love with because of merchandising. And they make us feel good, but we've never even read the context of it. And if you can just understand that in your head, it's like, okay, that's a great verse. Now, let me go and read the history. Let me find out what it means.

I'm embarrassed to say that when I was a fairly new believer and I was asked to teach on a Sunday morning, I took some verses from the book of Haggai and I built a message around them that had nothing to do with the book of Haggai, nothing to do with current events and people's lives. And I passed those along as a promise in God's word. And I didn't even know what that book was about. I was that new and I am embarrassed now to think back. Now that was 40 years ago. And I'm glad that I don't do that anymore. But I think it happens. I think it happens with a lot of people. We find something that just kind of gives us a little boost from the word of God. And we don't really care where it came from or what the context was or who God was originally speaking to. It just sounds good. And I'm gonna lay hold of it.

I call them vitamins. And in a lot of my women's ministry things, these little phrases and things, they're vitamins and they may be helpful, but you cannot live on vitamins alone.

Yeah, that's a good point.

You must have your meat and your vegetables and that sort of thing. So don't call them bad, but they're not gonna get you through.

Yeah, yeah, amen.

Alright, Maggie is from South Africa. She says,

This is so common. What Maggie is expressing here is the Christian life. It's the Christian life. We have, we're told in the Bible, two natures living within us. The sinful nature, which of course is going to be tied to all of the earthly desires that go along with it. And we have the nature of Jesus through the Holy Spirit living in us as well, which is going to give and encourage godly desires. But the Bible tells us that they're in conflict with one another. And this conflict is something every Christian deals with. So the question here is, how do I pray about it? Here's how David prayed about it. Lord, search me and know me. And see if there be any wicked way in me. And of course, the Lord's always able to find something in my heart. And then lead me in the way that is everlasting. David recognized that there were temporal things that his fleshly desires sought after. And there were eternal things, which the desires birthed in us through the Holy Spirit leads us toward. And he knew that one was good and one was bad. But he knew that he needed help to identify those things and the strength to resist the earthly desires and to embrace the eternal and heavenly desires. I don't think you could do any better than that in terms of how you pray about that. Search me, Lord, and know me. See if there's any wicked way in me. And then lead me in the way that you know is right, good, and eternal. It doesn't get any better than that.

Yeah, and I think that contentment is always the antidote to desires. Because we can have a lot of, that's the word she used, my question is about desires. We can have a lot of desires in our life. Some of them the Lord may fulfill. A lot of them he will not fulfill. And so the path forward is contentment.

Yeah, good point.

Rebecca says,

Yes. But we're supposed to be judgmental from the standpoint of judging things right or wrong. When people use the word judgmental, they use it in a way of, am I being overly critical and angry and bitter about things? That's really not what the word judgmental means. The Bible tells us to make right judgments, okay? In fact, Jesus said this, stop judging by mere appearances and make a right judgment for once in your life. I added that last little bit. So we are to make judgments. When you look at somebody who is displaying symbols of death and darkness on their physical body, clothing and so forth. As a believer, I look at that and I make a judgment. And I say, hmm, that's dark, it's disturbing, and it is an obsession with the realm of Satan's being. Well, now, if I were to walk up to that person and wag my finger at them and rebuke them, that's a form of judgmentalism that we shouldn't engage in. But I should be able to make a right judgment and say, that's not the way I want to convey my life or the life of Christ in me. I want to bring out the good, the light, not the dark, and be a blessing to other people. So, you know, I think what she's kind of asking is, how do I go about this? And am I wrong in seeing this as I am? No, you're not. You're seeing it through the eyes of the Holy Spirit. It's the Holy Spirit who's given you the ability to look at that and go, yuck. And that's good. That's a good thing. That proves that the Holy Spirit's actively working in your life. And then just, you know, pray for those people, you know, that they would come to the light of Jesus and so forth. But I think there's a point where we have to recognize that the world is steeped in darkness. And even though those things are upsetting to us, disturbing, those images, those symbols, we should expect nothing less from a world that is captive to darkness. And we recognize, yeah, this is why Jesus came. This is why He suffered on the cross, was to bear all this and to open people's hearts to the light of His presence. And it just reminds us, you know.

Do you want to complicate this conversation?

Sure.

Okay, so I read Greg Laurie's book about famous musicians and Alice Cooper was in there.

Yeah.

Okay, so now we have someone who had the whole goth persona going in his pre-Christ world and continued in that persona, but as a Christian, leading people to Christ. Now, what do we do with that category?

Yeah, I don't know. I personally don't really subscribe to that approach. But you know what? If somebody is bringing people to a saving knowledge of Jesus, I'm not going to criticize them. Who am I to judge another man's service? Well, you know, the Apostle Paul would say, hey, I just rejoice that Christ is being preached.

Right.

You know, and so it's not my way, but I'm not going to deny that it could be the way the Lord uses somebody else to get to places that I couldn't reach.

Right.

I'm okay with that. Alice Cooper is a brother in Christ.

Yeah.

And that's all I'm going to say about that.

Yeah, and that's a whole different category than a teenager who, you know, is just caught up in it. There are multiple categories here.

Yeah, for sure, for sure.

That's it?

That's it.

Our last question.

Those went pretty rapidly.

Yeah, good questions.

Thank you for sending them in. If you have some questions you want to send us, just address your email to questions at lifebibleministry.com. We also now have a feature on the front page of our website where you can ask biblical questions and get an immediate answer drawn from all of my teachings, articles, writings, and so forth. So try that out, too, at lifebibleministry.com. We'll continue to compile the questions you send in, and we'll see you next time. Until then, God bless.

Bye-bye.