When I came to the city of Troas to preach the Good News of Christ, the Lord opened a door of opportunity for me. But I had no peace of mind because my dear brother Titus hadn’t yet arrived with a report from you. So I said good-bye and went on to Macedonia to find him.
2 Corinthians 2:12-13
I thought we would do something different today. Here are two seemingly nothing verses in the Bible. They bridge between Paul’s comments on “that man” and the next important section he will start. The text is narrative and yet seemingly nothing special. Merely filler! Is there any such thing as filler in the Bible? You know what I mean. The sort of thing we might say that fills the space between the one main point we want to make and the next. The blah kind of stuff of life. If that is the case, what I propose you do now is to study these two verses and see what you can get out of them.
Give it a go and see what you come up with. We will look at it tomorrow.
Take everything that you have learned from Bible Gems thus far and see if you can put it all together on these two “nothing verses”. It shouldn’t be too onerous and you ought to be able to complete the task quickly. It is like one of those assignments we got at school to write 50 words, 100 words, 500 words, 1500 words. The kind that at whatever stage we are at we all baulk at. “Oh no, not 1500 words.” “How am I ever going to do that? I don’t even think I can manage the 50 words on this one. It’s blah stuff.”
Do you realise what distinguishes the “50 word” composition from the “1500 word” composition? Well time and effort is a factor that is for sure. I would say in this case the difference is about 5 to 6 years. Do you know what I am talking about? No, I am not suggesting it would take you 6 years to write 1500 words. That is sloooooow. That’s less than a word a day spread of that time. No I am inferring it is the difference between a 3rd Form level of study or research and that of perhaps 7th Form at Secondary School (beginning and end of High School) or even 1st Year tertiary study (University or Bible School). Of course to move up the levels to a Masters level Thesis or a PhD dissertation requires more words. More attention to detail and more focused study of the particular detail.
I am not expecting much from you. I am not asking you to pour out blood, sweat and tears over these two verses. Just see what you can do with these two “nothing” verses. It’s not my fault. Don’t blame me; God gave me the idea.
Enough from me for today. I have already used up 429 words on the above. I almost reached 500 words on blah. Your turn! But I hope it won’t be blah. I hope it will inspire you to realise what you hold in your hands when you pick up the Bible.
An elephant, tho larger, is no greater miracle than a mite. To God, it’s no more difficult to make one than the other.
T Paine
A book, tho larger, is no greater miracle than an essay. To God, and even you, it’s no more difficult to make one than the other.
Ian Vail
Run after the thing that scares you the most; God is in the deep end.
Judah Smith