Simply put, exegesis is not about discovering what we think a scripture text means (or what we may want it to mean) but what the biblical author actually meant. It’s all about intentionality.
This will mean you need to dig into the historical context, the original language, and the author's intent in order to let the text speak for itself.
The word comes from the Latin word doctrina, which simply means "teaching." It can be seen as a framework for understanding particular beliefs.
In The Salvation Army (my church), there is a Handbook of Doctrine which can be downloaded and studied. The Handbook details the 11 Articles of Faith which since 1878 have been the basis of The Salvation Army’s witness to the Christian gospel. Such a document equips anyone to distinguish between truth and incorrect teachings.
There's nothing worse that following something blindly. Always question, always struggle to understand, always seek to apply this to your own life.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NIV)
16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Finally, Marvel Comics fans will of course know that cosmic radiation (the leftover energy from the Big Bang) was responsible for the creation of the Fantastic Four.
It's a relatively modern term, dating back to the 1990's. It essentially describes taking steps to counteract someone's efforts to always be in the same place as you (i.e., to stop them from stalking you!)
It's important to respect people's need for privacy.
Perhaps now that I have retired, I'll be able to find a few minutes to complete this challenge for 2026. Didn't quite get this done last year (sorry!). There's a few examples of previous years to be found in my blog history if you feel so inclined to check it out.
The challenge to myself is to blog every day for 26 straight days in August on one particular topic - one for each letter of the alphabet. To make it easy for myself I'm going back to safe territory by coming up a list of terrific words, all of which tells you a little something about me. Remember, it pays to increase your word power!
Enjoy!
Julian was a medieval English Catholic mystic, who lived in the 14th Century. Her writings, now known as Revelations of Divine Love, are the earliest surviving English-language works ever attributed to a woman.
Her birth name isn't known. Her recorded name is taken from St. Julian's Church in Norwich where she lived as an anchoress for most of her life (a woman who locks herself away to be closer to God).
Christian optimism, as Julian expressed it, is the conviction that divine love has the final word. Do you believe that?
