Paul and Silas in Berea
And the people of Berea were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, and they listened eagerly to Paul’s message. They searched the Scriptures day after day to see if Paul and Silas were teaching the truth.
Acts 17:11
I had a couple of readers write to me and query my comments in the last Gem:
How could you have not seen the link before you wrote it Ian? Come on. When you wrote the title you would have seen the link – Bible Gem 1711 – The Quality of the Bereans in Focus (Acts 17:11)
Yes that is my point. My habit is to take the previous Gem, clip it and then “forward” it and work on editing the previous Gems to make sure I pick up on all the questions and comments I had made previously. So Gem 1711 started out as Bible Gem 1710 – The Chronology of Paul and Silas in Berea (Acts 17:1-15). I even made a mistake in the previous Gem and left it as Acts 17:1-15 when it should have been Acts 17:10-15. When I had finished Gems 1711 and went to post it I had to change the title to Bible Gems 1711 – The Quality of the Bereans in Focus (Acts 17:11) and then realized how awesome it was. Again, Thanks God.
The significance of these passage to me is huge. Acts 17:11 has been a passage which has stood out to me for years. It has been the basis of the approach that I have taken to the Word of God for years. When I was first became a Christian I was discipled initially by Reg Ackland who took me through the Navigator Discipleship series “New Life In Christ”. I had a thirst and deep desire to learn about the Bible that I had found out about for the first time at 23 years of age. So Reg gave me the first book and told me to take it home and work my way through the book: read the questions, look up the Bible passages and consider my answers. I finished the first book that first night and gave him my answers the next day. I stayed up until 2.00 am finishing it, such was my desire to learn. He reluctantly gave me the second book which I finished the next night and returned to him the next day while asking for the third book. He gave me the third book but even more reluctantly. When I took the third book to him finished on the fourth day he told me,
“Stop Ian. You are only gaining head knowledge. It must go drop down 18 inches from your head to your heart. That takes time. I am not giving you any more books until I see that process happening.”
Wise input.
When I first read Acts 17:11 I decided to model my approach to Bible truth in that way. To be like the Bereans I realized I needed to search the Search Scriptures daily and learn all I could of this new life I had stepped out into. But then I encounter God in an even stronger way. One morning I was in the midst of my Navigator way of searching the Scriptures.
1. Read the chapter three times in different versions of the Bible. Pray for understanding.
2. List all your questions about the passage and use the methods below to answer as many of them as you can:
- ▶ Look up all the words you want to understand better.
- ▶ Look up cross references to understand what the rest of Scripture has to say about the verse.
- ▶ Use your own words to explain illustrations or descriptions.
3. Pick one key verse that sums up the chapter for you. Memorize it.
4. Is there anything I don’t understand?
5. How can I apply this verse to my life?
- ▶ Is there a command to obey?
- ▶ Is there an example to follow?
- ▶ Is there a sin to forsake?
- ▶ Is there are promise to claim?
I had just read
You search the Scriptures daily thinking that they testify of me and so they do but you fail to come to Me.
John 5:39
That verse impacted me and I sat there in my study thinking about it. I had been going through my daily routine outlined above and then taking my prayer list and praying through the people on it. I had it laid out on graph paper with the days of the weeks along the top and the names of the people for whom I was praying down the side. I would tick the box when I had prayed for them. There were too many to fit into a morning and so I would work through them in the week to make sure they were all prayed for. In the midst of all that I heard an audible voice say “Ian, what are you doing?” I turned around to see who was in the room. No one was there! I settled back into my routine again, and once again I heard the voice say the same words but with different intonation – “Ian, what ARE you doing?” I then realized the enormity of the significance of John 5:39 to me personally and how I had let this time with God become a rote process with His Holy Spirit sidelined in the process. That changed my life. After learning Hebrew and Greek and joining Wycliffe Bible Translators my ability to examine the Scriptures expanded significantly.
I had been asked to write an article for Jakarta Praise Community Church (JPCC) magazine in mid 2006 called Nuggets from the Word. I was led to start the Bible Gems and Deeper Bible in 2009 after being invited to Twitter by Lilly Wanandi and initially rejecting the idea because I had no desire to tell me people I was having coffee with “so and so” at Starbucks. Then Kenny Goh told me that I was perfect for Twitter with all the pithy things I had to say about the Bible. Around the same time Jeffrey Rachmat asked me if I could design a training package to teach leaders to how to go deeper into the Word of God layer by layer. It struck me that Berean Insights was the obvious thing to call it. The insights that come to you, when like the Bereans you examine [anakrino] the Scriptures thoroughly each day:- up and down, back and forth. making a careful and exact examination of what is written.
That’s when and how it was all started. Now I have written close to 1900 Gems covering the following books of the Bible:
- John – Gems 1 – 130
- Romans – Gems 131 – 301
- 1 Corinthians – Gems 302 – 499
- 2 Corinthians – Gems 500 – 591
- Ephesians – Gems 592 – 725
- Luke – Gems 726 – 1327
- Acts – Gems 1328 – 1898
To get Bible Gems sent by email you will be able to subscribe online from the new website, soon to be released. I had hoped it would be launched today on my 70th birthday but it will be launched within the next weeks, before Christmas. So I won’t be able to give it to you as my Birthday present to you, but it will be ready as Christmas present to you. I have been working feverishly behind the scenes to get it all ready. It has not been the fault of Duo Plus that this has taken so long. They have been fantastic, the fact is I underestimated how long it would take me to tailor-make all the features. They are not all finished yet and some text editing is still to do but I am ready to release it. Once the new Berean Insights website goes live I will begin gemming Paul’s letter to the Philippians (live and interactive).
The Gems have gone all over the world to so many people I have lost count. They are used in Bible Colleges as the course material for classes in exegesis, used by pastors for sermon material, used on university campuses for discussion groups. I am simply grateful to God for the way that He has put all this together and how He is using it in everyone’s lives. Completing the previous Gem when i first wrote it and realizing it was Gem 1711 when I was gemming Acts 17:11 made me feel all goosey because only God could organize it to match in the way He did. I certainly had nothing to do with it; it caught me completely by surprise.
I am currently teaching Deeper Bible 301 here in New Zealand for the fourth time, enabling all participants to work on each of the four sense units for the first time. New year we will start Deeper Bible 401 in Manukau City Baptist for the third time and will complete the full set of seven levels of Deeper Bible by the end of the year for the second time. I am hoping to begin Deeper Bible 101 online for anyone who wants to do it. But be patient it is going to take a while. I am grateful for all the way the Lord has led me.
Happy to love and serve God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength. I count it a privilege to have learnt from the best first hand and to have the opportunity to share the insights I have gained after all these years digging into the Word of God with others. God’s Awesome Book, Digging In / Digging for Hidden Treasure, Bible Gems, Permata Alkitab, Nuggets and now Deeper Bible have all come from this process – following the lead of the Bereans to gain Berean Insights.
The most difficult lie I have ever contended with is this: Life is a story about me.
Donald Millar
Never assume God is on your side. Instead make every effort to be certain you’re on God’s side.
Ian Vail
God isn’t making up history as He goes, He isn’t flying by the seat of His pants. It’s all going according to His plan.
Ian Vail
Your life goes according to His plan as long as you get off the throne and yield control to Him.
Ian Vail
As long as He gives you breath God asks for your obedience.
Ian Vail
Who have you given the steering wheel of your life to?
Ian Vail