Live the Word Bible Studies

Welcome to Live the Word

I am happy you have visited this site, where my goal since 2001 has been to help people all over the world understand and then apply the word of God in their lives. If you look on the right hand side of this blog site, you will see the name of each book in the New Testament, where you will find what I call a devotional commentary for every verse in those books. My goal was not to do a technical study, but rather a practical one that presented not only insights, but also questions and recommendations to help you apply or live the word. I have now published those studies in book form, but it's time to expand my work with something new (pictured here are two of my commentary covers, and they are all available in paper or Kindle format from Amazon).

For several years, I have had the idea to develop a Purpose Study Bible, similar to others on the market like The Spirit-Filled Bible, The Leadership Bible, The African Bible, and The Student Bible. Each one of those incorporates insights about a particular topic right in the Bible itself, like an easy-to-use commentary. I have been teaching on the topics of purpose, creativity, goal setting, time management, and faith since 1991, and have gained insight and often taught about or written about those topics from a biblical perspective. For the remainder of my days, I want to share what I have learned with my readers on these five topics I have labeled the five Gold Mine Principles, and this format seems like an economical way to do so (since I am not ready to undertake publishing a Bible). This particular study will begin in Genesis and move on in an orderly fashion through the rest of the Old Testament. Should God prolong my days, I will then move into the New Testament.

I also want to learn from my readers, so I invite you to post comments to supplement, adjust, or augment what I have written. My goal, however, is not to make us all experts on what the Bible has to say about purpose or creativity, but rather to help us become people of purpose, for as Jesus said, "Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them" (John 13:17). That is why my commentaries are called Live the Word, for that is what we are expected to do.

I hope you enjoy reading these studies as much as I enjoy writing them, and I hope you will be an active participant by sharing your own insight and testimonies. Thank you, and may the Lord bless the study and reading of His word!

Purpose Study Bible 136: No Grapes

After the initial census from which the book derives its name, Numbers moves on to describe what needed to happen to cleanse people who sinned until chapter six when the rules for something called a Nazirite vow were established:

The Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘If a man or woman wants to make a special vow, a vow of dedication to the Lord as a Nazirite, they must abstain from wine and other fermented drink and must not drink vinegar made from wine or other fermented drink. They must not drink grape juice or eat grapes or raisins. As long as they remain under their Nazirite vow, they must not eat anything that comes from the grapevine, not even the seeds or skins" (Numbers 6:1-4).

The most famous Nazirite was Samson, who was one for life, and it seems that the Apostle Paul also took the vow in Acts 21. Why would a Nazirite have to abstain from grape products for the duration of the vow? Commentators' opinions and reasons vary and include to avoid drunkenness, to abstain from the foods of the land (the spies brought back a giant cluster of fruit from the Promised Land), to stay away from the fertility rites of the locals (grapes represent fruitfulness), and to obey God for no special reason except that He said to abstain.

My own sense is that the grapes, which are a fruit rich in natural sugar, could be used to sustain someone and give them natural energy or that wine could dull their senses. A doctor who treated patients through a regime of natural means and fasting once reported he could sustain patients who were ill and could not eat other foods by simply having them eat grapes. Since this is a study about purpose and creativity, let me give you my opinion.

The man or woman who has dedicated themselves to God's purpose has to rely solely on the power of God's presence for the energy they need to complete their work. They are totally dedicated to God's purpose in their lives. They are neither to deaden their senses through entertainment or other distractions nor supplement or dissipate the Spirit's energy through frivolous activities. The joy of expressing God's will through their purpose and creative gifts is enough to strengthen them for the task.

Are you a Nazirite? Have you devoted yourself to God's purpose or are you a part-time purpose of person? Have you dedicated your creative abilities to God, making them available to Him, or do you rent them out to the highest bidder—or ignore their development? In the next few studies, we will look at other things the Nazirite had to do to separate themselves for God's exclusive use, but for now, consider how completely you have set yourself apart to God's will for your life.

Purpose Study Bible 135: Organized

Last week, we looked at the population of the nation as they were going through the Wilderness. God was able to care for them all in desert conditions but there still had to be order and discipline for the people to survive and thrive:

"The Israelites are to set up their tents by divisions, each of them in their own camp under their standard. The Levites, however, are to set up their tents around the tabernacle of the covenant law so that my wrath will not fall on the Israelite community. The Levites are to be responsible for the care of the tabernacle of the covenant law" (Numbers 1:54-56).

No matter how creative you are or what your purpose is, you will eventually have to pay attention to how you are going to organize your work so you can keep track of what you have and create more. Notice that the Levites, who had no land inheritance, were to camp around the tabernacle where God's presence was manifest, making that the priority for them. The others were given their directions of how to camp and set up their tents in Numbers 2, but the Lord was to be at the center of their very existence.

How are you organizational skills? Are you spending a lot of time looking for things you can't find? Do you have a system to capture creative ideas? How are you managing your time? Do you have clear priorities that guide you through your days and weeks? Do you pray for wisdom so you can expand your world and do more of what you were created to do? What can you do to improve?

God is ready to give you plenty of insight into how to structure your world but only if you are interested. Otherwise, much of your creativity will go to waste and the endless possibilities of your effectiveness will be lost.

Purpose Study Bible 134: BIG

It's time we move into the book of Numbers in this series, and we begin by taking a look at the census the Lord directed Moses and Aaron to take. When it was finished, we read

"All the Israelites twenty years old or more who were able to serve in Israel’s army were counted according to their families. The total number was 603,550" (Numbers 1:45-46).

Therefore, the total number of people had to number into the millions when accounting for children and spouses. Keep in mind that the nation had not moved into the Promised Land yet; they were still in the Wilderness. God was able to care for that many people who were living in tents and on the move whenever He ordered them to go.

The point is that God is a good administrator and provider. He knows how to organize and manage. What's more, God doesn't need to keep something small but can oversee something BIG and use you to help Him do so. In fact, God may want you to fulfill your purpose and creativity by establishing something significant that is beyond your ability to conceive or handle right now. When you face that possibility, the answer isn't to work to keep your world small but to increase your capacity to do and be more than you are today.

Proverbs 14:28 states, "A large population is a king’s glory, but without subjects a prince is ruined." Are you afraid of BIG? Are you willing for God to use you to do something bigger than you had first imagined? To see how you feel about BIG, add a zero to what you are now doing. If you have written 10 books, what would it take to write 100? If you oversee ten sales people in your company, what would it take to have 100? If you have painted 15 pictures, could you do 150?

All those are BIG steps, but God is a BIG God, and while BIG may intimidate you, BIG is no different than small for Him. Perhaps it's time to face the size of your God-assigned potential and learn to trust Him for the BIG deal He has in mind for you.

Purpose Study Bible 133: Vows

Leviticus describes many mandatory offerings, regulating their exact execution. The last chapter, however, shifts from compulsory worship to the concept of freewill vows:

"The Lord said to Moses, ^'Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘If anyone makes a special vow to dedicate a person to the Lord by giving the equivalent value . . .'" (Leviticus 27:1-2).

The chapter then goes on to talk about vows that involved animals, houses, inheritance, and non-family land, and then concludes with illicit vows—things people had no right to vow because the Lord already owned those things (or people). A vow was and is sort of like worship on credit, promising God that the vow-er will do something in the future if God will do something now. You've probably said something like, "God, if You get me out of this mess, I promise to serve You forever." You meant it when you said it, but sometimes when the pressure's off, you can relax and not be as zealous as you were when you made the promise.

This Purpose Study Bible series specifically focuses on purpose and creativity, so what can Leviticus 27 teach us about those? First, we all tend to promise beyond what we can deliver, so we should be careful about what we promise God we will do. Second, He's not a bill collector who's going to show up and demand payment of your promise, but He does expect you to follow through in some way on your commitment. If your promise eyes were bigger than your fulfillment stomach and you made a commitment you can't keep, you shouldn't just ignore it but seek to renegotiate the terms. In other words, don't treat God like a forgetful fool, but revisit the matter with Him and do what you can with what you have.

Finally, realize that God welcomes freewill offerings of what you will do for Him, using the gifts and calling He bestowed on you. You aren't only God's servant but also His partner and friend, and partners and friends do things willingly, not just because they are commanded to do so.

Have you ever vowed to do God's will no matter what? Have you sought your purpose, promising to fulfill it, only to now be bogged down with life and thus unable to follow through? Is the extent of your service to God only what He tells you to do and not something that's in your heart to freely give Him? The answer is not to ever vow or to refuse to acknowledge you did make one, but to be mindful that you are God's partner. God is listening when we vow, so we need to keep in mind what we said, even if we only deliver on a part of it in the long run.

Purpose Study Bible 132: The Favor of God

As Leviticus comes to a close, the Lord summarized the blessings if the people obeyed but also the problems if they did not. Let's examine some of the blessings in this study:

“I will look on you with favor and make you fruitful and increase your numbers, and I will keep my covenant with you. You will still be eating last year’s harvest when you will have to move it out to make room for the new. I will put my dwelling place among you, and I will not abhor you. I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians; I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to walk with heads held high" (Leviticus 26:9-13).

Here is a summary of the blessings: 1) fruitfulness and increase; 2) all the promised blessings of the covenant will be in effect; 3) abundance; and 4) God will dwell and walk among His people, accessible to their needs. God also reminds His people that He brought them out of Egypt, walking "with heads held high." In other words, they will draw strength and joy as they reflected on their glorious history of God's acts on their behalf.

When you are obedient to God's assigned purpose, you should have tangible evidence of God's favor. Are you experiencing the favor of God? Can you be specific? Are you experiencing increase in your work or spiritual life? Do you pray with boldness, claiming the promises of the New Covenant? Are the blessings of God overtaking you? Do you sense God's presence? Is He walking "among" you as Jesus is depicted doing in the early chapters of Revelation, evaluating your walk and work? And are you exalting in God's goodness as represented by your history and testimony? Are you reviewing and repeating your history for others so they too can be encouraged by God's faithfulness?

Purpose Study Bible 131: Whose Servant Are You?

In the last study, we examined something called the Year of Jubilee. The Lord laid out many scenarios through which the people and their land could be restored to their original condition for this event that was to occur every 50 years. Just in case there was a scenario He did not cover, He ended the Jubilee regulations with this statement:

“‘Even if someone is not redeemed in any of these ways, they and their children are to be released in the Year of Jubilee, for the Israelites belong to me as servants. They are my servants, whom I brought out of Egypt. I am the Lord your God" (Leviticus 25:54-55).

This simple but profound statement contains several important reminders about God's relationship to His people. Here are a few for you to consider:

1. You are to look for ways to set people free, not to keep them in bondage. You can do that by extending forgiveness and grace, even when the recipients are less than worthy.
2. Ultimately, the people with whom you have relationships belong to God. You are to treat them as He directs, not as you see fit. That includes family members, co-workers, supervisors, clients, customers, and partners.
3. You are first and foremost God's servant. While He may put you in a place where you are serving others, you're doing that for Him, and not for money or convenience.
4. God is the Lord and He directs His creatures as He sees fit. You have no right to hold on to someone because they serve you. Instead, you are to look for ways to serve them, even if it costs you something to do so.

One more thing. God assigned you a purpose and gave you creative gifts, and those are to be used as He directs. You are not at liberty neither to ignore them or use them only in the pursuit of money. Are you clear in what you are now doing that you are God's servant first and foremost? Do you see yourself as the owner of your gifts or their steward? Are you so bound by debt and fear that you sell yourself to the highest bidder (or any bidder who comes along)?

Purpose Study Bible 130: Reboot

In the last study, we looked at the sabbath year, which was to happen every seven years. After the guidelines for the sabbath year, the Lord issued a command for a special sabbath year to occur every 50 years called the year of jubilee:

“‘Count off seven sabbath years—seven times seven years—so that the seven sabbath years amount to a period of forty-nine years. Then have the trumpet sounded everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement sound the trumpet throughout your land. Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each of you is to return to your family property and to your own clan. The fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; do not sow and do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the untended vines. For it is a jubilee and is to be holy for you; eat only what is taken directly from the fields. In this Year of Jubilee everyone is to return to their own property" (Leviticus 25:8-13).

During the jubilee year, all debts were cancelled and all family property that had been mortgaged or lost was to be restored. In a sense, the people nation was starting over, with everyone having a clean slate, so to speak, so they could experience a fresh start. In modern terms, we could say the nation had a reboot of its economic operating system.

Are you in need of a reboot in your life? Maybe you need to start over with your commitment to find and fulfill your purpose? Perhaps you have neglected your creativity but now is a good time forget the past and launch out once again? Or you have a relationship that is fractured, and both parties just need to start over again, cancelling all past trespasses against one another? Paul wrote, "Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:13-14). In what area of your life do you need to reboot and start over?

Purpose Study Bible 129: A Season of Rest

We are finally finished with our study of the bread of the presence and it's time to move on in Leviticus. This week, let's look at Leviticus 25:1-7:

The Lord said to Moses at Mount Sinai, “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you enter the land I am going to give you, the land itself must observe a sabbath to the Lord. For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather their crops. But in the seventh year the land is to have a year of sabbath rest, a sabbath to the Lord. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards. Do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the grapes of your untended vines. The land is to have a year of rest. Whatever the land yields during the sabbath year will be food for you—for yourself, your male and female servants, and the hired worker and temporary resident who live among you, as well as for your livestock and the wild animals in your land. Whatever the land produces may be eaten.

The issue of rest is highly subjective, for some believe it is spiritual while others see it as practical to be carried out literally. This directive pertains to agriculture, however, but it also involved an element of trust, for the Lord had to provide in year six what the people would need in years six, seven, and eight before the next harvest would be realized. I would imagine it would give their work animals a rest as well and also give the farmer a chance to repair tools. So rest, faith, and preparation for the future seem to the main elements of this practice. How can you extract lessons from this for your own situation?

First, when God gives you a "break" from work through a job transition (for whatever reason), don't be in a hurry to find something else. Don't fret, but instead trust God and seek Him for your future. Second, use the transition time to prepare for the next life chapter. Go visit friends or family, give some time to your hobbies, or just take walks so you can think, reflect, and dream. Don't sit at home in panic mode about your future, but also be prepared that the season of rest may last longer than you anticipated.

Finally, trust the Lord for your provision. God can use a job or company to pay you, but He doesn't need them. He can provide by supernatural means and this may be a season from which you will emerge with a testimony and a new lease on life—a life of faith.

Purpose Study Bible 128: Holy Food

This is the last in our series examining the bread that was in the tabernacle, called the showbread or the bread of the presence. We have looked at 12 points in the previous studies and applied them all to the concept of your life purpose. Let's finish off our list of characteristics with more practical insight for you to consider.

13. It was eaten in the holy place. There is a specific “place” where you fulfill your purpose. It may be among a group of people with a common characteristic or need, in a certain country, or in a certain set of circumstances. My purpose is to create order out of chaos. I'm in my holy place when I'm in chaos creating order. That's where I meet the Lord and where His presence is special for me. Wherever and whatever that is for you, it's a holy place.

14. It was a most holy part of the regular offerings by fire for Aaron. Your purpose is special, holy and set apart for God. There is nothing else like it for you. You eat it along with all that God has done in your life and it sustains you. To not function in your purpose is to cut yourself off from something that will spiritually energize and nourish you.

15. It was located in the inner court, just prior to the entrance to the Holy of Holies, along with the lampstand and the altar of incense. Your purpose brings new light or revelation (Saul found his purpose in the bright light on the Damascus road). It sets you apart for God (see Acts 13:1). It renews your prayer life (symbolized by the incense altar) because when you pray about your purpose and how to achieve it, God listens and responds.

Have you found your holy place of purpose? Have you found what you can do that energizes and doesn't weaken you? Has purpose impacted your prayer life? Are you learning and growing in how to be more effective in the things God has for you to do? Remember, Jesus said to His disciples, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about" (John 4:32) when He was ministering to the lost Samaritan woman at the well. You should be able to say the same thing about your purpose, for it's holy food that others can't understand but you can't do without.

Purpose Study Bible 127: Purpose Food

We are still examining what was called the showbread or the bread of the presence for purpose clues to apply to our lives:

Take fine flour and bake twelve loaves of bread, using two-tenths of an ephah for each loaf. Set them in two rows, six in each row, on the table of pure gold before the Lord. Along each row put some pure incense as a memorial portion to represent the bread and to be an offering made to the Lord by fire. This bread is to be set out before the Lord regularly, Sabbath after Sabbath, on behalf of the Israelites, as a lasting covenant. It belongs to Aaron and his sons, who are to eat it in a holy place, because it is a most holy part of their regular share of the offerings made to the Lord by fire" (Leviticus 24:5-9).

Let's add to the things we've learned in the last few studies:

10. The bread was for all the Israelites. When you find your purpose, it encourages others to find theirs. My purpose is like a down payment to you. If I can find mine, you can find yours and vice versa. Also, purpose is best expressed through service to others which is another community benefit from someone's purpose. The bread of the presence, or the bread of purpose as it is referred to in this study, is there to nourish you in your service to and for God. 

11. The bread belonged to Aaron and his sons. In this gospel age, we are all priests unto the Lord. There is no family of priests who inherit the role through their bloodline. Purpose isn't just for one generation or something special that only happens at certain points in history, but rather it's for every generation. Each person in a family, business, or church must work to know their purpose and to know the purpose of others.

12. The bread was replaced and eaten every Sabbath. It isn’t enough to talk about purpose. If you are to live by it, you must digest it. Your purpose must become part and parcel with who you are. In eating it, there is nourishment and refreshing, things the Sabbath was to give people an opportunity to access. Purpose always gives more than it takes in the way of energy and grace.

The bread of the presence was in the tabernacle where God's presence was made manifest. Life purpose is most meaningful in the same context. Purpose can never be more important than the Lord; it is the practice that sustains and gives meaning to His presence. Is your purpose nourishing you and your family? Do you know the purpose of those closest to you? What are you doing to encourage them in their purpose? Are you keeping your priorities straight in that you serve the Lord and through Him you serve your purpose?