To illustrate this, let’s return to the passage we originally looked at to showcase observational skills – John 2:1-5. The story of the Water turned into wine marks the first recorded miracle Jesus did in the Gospels. As the forerunner, it teaches us much about his approaching public ministry.

1 On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there,2 and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding.3 When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”4 “Woman  why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.” 5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

Because this paragraph is telling a story, we can discern the train of thought without much effort. John’s idea flow goes something like this:

1. A wedding
2. Jesus mom attends
3. Jesus and his disciples attend
4. They run out of wine
5. His mother tells Jesus they are out of wine.
6. He tells her about his mission.
7. She tells them to do what he says.

That’s all there is to it. So what is the purpose to laying out the passage in this design? It is impossible to interpret meaning until you can take random ideas and string them into something you recognize. For many people, the writing of the Scriptures are treated like ancient heiroglyphics, dutifully read but little understood. When we have to restate simply the stream of ideas, then our mind engages the truth. It is at this point we can then take the observations and tie them into the train of thought.

If you re-examine the list above, one of the points stands out from the rest. Most of these ideas are straight-forward, mundane details of life in a village. The real point of the passage is the point that jumps out. Can you see it? It is the statement of Jesus about his mission. It is this statement that colors all the other elements of the story. Next time, we’ll determine how you can merge your inductive observations with this discovered Train of Thought.

When you are observing anything, you often do two things. First, you use your senses to determine what is happening. In this case, the writers of the Bible have already done that. They have used their senses to record what was happening, where and when it happened and who said what (including God). The second thing you do when you observe is to ask questions: who, what, where, when and how. (Why is also a question, but that doesn’t come in until you are ready to interpret what you’ve found). This is exactly what a scientist does in an experiment. They observe before they interpret.

In the first lesson, we saw how you can use your basic observation skills and the “reporter’s questions” to milk meaning out of the Bible section you are studying. But sometimes, just looking at the words will not give you enough of the meaning to build an interpretation. There are four special observations that also need to be made and in this lesson we’ll go through all four using a parable from Luke chapter 11:5–8:  The parable of the Friend at Night.

 ⁵ Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; ⁶ a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ ⁷ And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ ⁸ I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity^e]’>[e] he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.

From this passage, let’s see the four special observations that we need to make while studying a passage.

1. Contrasts: The easiest way to begin building meaning and interpretation out of any story or teaching is to look at the elements that contrast. There are easy contrasts to spot that use language (eg. “Not this…but that” and “He said…but she said”). However, sometimes the contrasts are not all that easy to spot at first glance. In this passage, there are several contrasts:

• A friend has come…I have no food
• Don’t bother me…I can’t get up
• Lend me three loaves…a friend of mine has come on a journey (a contrast of roles: one supplies food, the other is traveling)
• My children and I are in bed…you go to him at midnight
• even though…yet because of the shameless audacity he will get up

The purpose of the contrast is to show the flow of ideas, action, character and plot. If you can spot where there is a contrast, you will know where the critical points of meaning are found.

2. Conflict: Conflict is a contrast where two things are actively ( or in some cases, passively) opposing one another. In this scene, there is the conflict between the friend at the door and the man in the bed. There is the conflict between the friendship and the audacity. There is the conflict between the need to eat and the need to stay in bed and sleep. Conflict often tells us what we are supposed to be watching for. They are like beacons telling us that something needs to be changed, or needs to be addressed, or needs to be heeded.

3. Repetitive Words: Often this is an observation made more easily in a longer passage of Scripture. For instance, it is often necessary when studying an entire book of the Bible inductively to see the key words that flow all through the book. But in this passage, we see a couple of words that repeat. Obviously the word “friend” is mentioned numerous times. When we come back to interpretation keys later in our lessons, we’ll return to this passage and we’ll see the word “friend” is the key to a proper interpretation of this parable. “Bread” is mentioned a couple of times, as is the phrase “get up”. These are also key ideas that will come out in the interpretation.

4. Unusual Concepts: This passage contains a concept which at first glance may not seem obvious. But when you are asking questions of the passage (as we did in lesson #1), you often make observations that raise other questions. For instance, in this passage we read about a man traveling at night. Was this a practice they did a lot in those days? Was it safe to do so? Why did this guy need to be fed in the middle of the night? Asking questions like this will go a long way in solving the meaning of the Scripture you are studying. If you don’t ask those questions, you may find that the Bible is just a collection of sentences that don’t form any real ideas in your mind. Or, you may have wondered why it is significant that they guy can’t get up because of his children. Is he afraid of waking them up? What were the houses like back then? How would the father getting up affect the children? These questions form a great backbone in the future interpretation.

Inductive Bible Study is a method built around the idea of “inducing” something. Inductive reasoning is the process where we observe, interpret and discover something rather than figuring it out before observing. With Inductive Bible Study, you simply observe what is there before drawing any conclusions. So how do you do it?

When you are observing anything, you often do two things. First, you use your senses to determine what is happening. In this case, the writers of the Bible have already done that. They have used their senses to record what was happening, where and when it happened and who said what (including God). The second thing you do when you observe is to ask questions: who, what, where, when and how. (Why is also a question, but that doesn’t come in until you are ready to interpret what you’ve found). This is exactly what a scientist does in an experiment. They observe before they interpret.

Let’s give an example of how you might observe something from the Bible. It is often good to start with a section of Scripture that is narrative (meaning that someone is telling a story or relating an historical event). In this case, let’s start at John 2:1–5. This tells the beginning of the story where Jesus turned water into wine (every wine lover just had their interest piqued).

Let’s make a few observations using the five questions:

1. Who: make a list of all the “whos” in these five verses:

• Jesus’ mother
• Jesus
• His disciples
• the servants.

2. What: This lists all the nouns in the passage:

• third day
• wedding
• wine
• “my time”
• “whatever he tells you”

3. Where:

• Cana in Galilee
• “there”
• “to the wedding” (note: sometimes a place is implied..the wedding is both a thing and a place)

4 When:

• On the third day
• “when the wine was gone”
• “my time” (this is both a what and a when)

5. How: (this will be a list of all the verbs and action ideas)

• wedding took place
• mother was there
• had been invited
• wine was gone
• mother said to him
• they have no more
• why…involve me?
• my time…not come.

As you’re making the list, you are building the stones together to form your interpretation. The more thorough and clear your observation is, the more opportunity you have to get the interpretation correct. If you skip over the observations you will make glaring errors of assumption and application that will be regrettable.

I have mentioned my writing mentor, Jim, in a few articles in the past. Let me feature him here. Jim is 97 years old and has accomplished more than most people with those decades of writing. He has written thousands of articles, interviewed hundreds of celebrities and been involved with the production of 26 books. Several of those books have been published in multiple languages and several more have exceeded 100,000 copies in print.

Jim has weathered several health problems in the past few years, and this temporarily left him in hospital this winter. I visited with him one Tuesday morning, and we talked well through lunch into the afternoon. I had come there expecting to find a man looking back over his life. Indeed, we did spend time reviewing many of his former writing projects. At one point, our conversation wandered to focus on a gentleman Jim had met while in the care facility. He noted this man was just biding his time, waiting to die. Jim assured me he had no intention of doing the same. Jim loves to talk about the books he has already written, but he also focuses on his current writing project. Yes, Jim is actively marketing another book, one that is essentially finished except for its publishing. Jim has lived all the seasons of passion. When pressed, he admits that the most enjoyable, and necessary, experience is being able to look back and focus on what has been done for God and for his family.

In the Jewish calendar, a layout initiated and confirmed by God himself, there are seven mandated feasts. If we broke up the year into its four seasons, we notice that there is a great imbalance in the feasts. They are not evenly spread out: four of the seven take place during the Harvest Season, or what we call Autumn. This reveals the framework for Autumn passion: It is to be a time of feasting, celebrating and Thanksgiving. It is no coincidence that most cultures which have a time of Thanksgiving do it during the harvest season. If you want to enjoy Autumn passion, thanksgiving is the key.

We cannot continue to plant, plant, plant and work our plan without stepping back at times to rejoice in what has been accomplished through our efforts. Some people mistakenly think it is wrong to look back at what you’ve done in life with any sense of satisfaction. They may call that pride. Pride is actually the mindset of independence, where one echoes the words of Frank Sinatra: “I did it my way!” The Psalmist says “Bless the Lord O My soul, and forget not all his benefits.” He then spends the rest of the psalm recounting all that God has done in his life and in the covenant people. We face so much opposition just living a life of integrity and moral excellence, that occasionally we feel beaten down. That’s when it is time to step back into thanksgiving.

This summer, I went through a period of feeling sorry for myself. Perhaps it is the universality of social media, but I realized so many of my friends spent a greater part of their weekends enjoying themselves and spending time with others. I work every Sunday and have done so every week for 31 years. Part of my commitment as a pastor is to serve others in the teaching ministry. This, by our cultural tradition, necessitates I work every Sunday. For some reason, I felt resentful as I watched my friends and loved ones enjoying something I can never have. As a result, I moped through July. At one point, I even voiced my frustrations on Facebook. The next day, I received a beautiful email from a young man I had not spoken to in 21 years. He told me the story of how he had lost his job and came to the town I was living in to work in a warehouse. He was a professional and felt like a failure doing manual labor. He remarked about a sermon I preached during that season in his life. It was about living deliberately and choosing how we will spend each day as God moves us on to his goal. He told me how that morning he committed himself to doing the next thing God showed him and would keep doing it the rest of his life. This man is now working at an incredible job and has leveraged it into a unique ministry. He thanked me profusely for the sacrifice I had given to surrender my Sunday to teach him.

I wept. I realized after reading the email that my efforts had been worth it. I was able to thank God and my passion (which had left me during my moping) was renewed with greater vigor than before. Thanksgiving will do that. We absolutely need to look back and see what God has done through us at times. It will be a great moment of reflection and joy.

Embedded in the Autumntime passion is another necessary element. Autumn is a time of releasing. Just as we allow ourselves to rest, we give over the fruit of the harvest to the cooks, canners, juicers and other food preparation professionals to do their work. In the midst of our ministry, there must be a place given over to releasing those we have mentored and partnered with to allow them to branch out on their own.

It can be as simple as letting the kids cook the meal. It can be as simple as encouraging a co-worker to start their own branch office. It can be as simple as a pastor training up an assistant and then releasing them to start their own church. When we started our current church, my overseer had me draw up a five-year vision for where Gateway Fellowship was going. As part of the vision plan, I saw where I thought we would be after five years. In my mind’s eye, I saw us releasing people to go start a new church in another part of town. I do remember that Sunday we had the new church plant team come forward and laid our hands of identification upon them. It was incredibly satisfying to know we had a huge part to play in their existence. Last Sunday, they had almost as many people in church as we did. The joy of Autumn must include that letting go. It is the joy a parent has at the wedding of their children. It is the joy Jesus had when he told them to wait in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit came on them in power.

Don’t you want the Autumn passion? You can have it today if you commit yourself to Thanksgiving and Releasing. Then you’ll be ready for the Wonderful Wintertime Passion.

That feeling I had is what I call Summertime Passion. It is the sense that the initial vision and excitement is now beginning to gel into something substantial and long-lasting. It is the feeling of pride a parent gets when their oldest child graduates from something. It is embodied in that moment when a friend quotes something you have said over and over again, and you realize it is now part of their belief system too. I think this may be the most satisfying season of passion.

Spring is the promise of new life to a farmer. But summer is where the farmer works the hardest; tending the new shoots, feeding the burgeoning crops, watering it all. When we think of the passions of our life, Summertime passion takes the most effort. We all know people who come up with a hundred great schemes and visions, only to leave most of them barely beyond the Spring stage. Their plantings are often stunted for lack of work and continued passion. They only get excited about new things and continue to abandon their new seedlings in search of fallow fields and planting opportunities. One person comes to my mind immediately. This person loves to dream and get others excited about the vision. Yet, there is a persistent pattern of losing passion when the real work starts.

How can we avoid shutting off our passions during the summer season?

There are three things that need to be added to initial vision. Just as the farmer must ensure nutrients, water and sunshine get to his growing crops, so too there are three essential ingredients if one is to enjoy the fruit of their labors during Summertime passion.

1. Adding Maturity to New Growth

I was camp director for a teen camp over an 11 year period. One of the sad realities I faced was watching teenagers make commitments for Christ at the camp and then stop following Jesus afterward. At times, teens were wary of making any commitment during the camp for fear they would simply punk out on that commitment when they got home. One year, a brother/sister pair dedicated themselves to obeying Christ every day. It was more than just a verbal agreement; they had both been heavy drug users and they were tired of all it had done to them. The day before camp ended, they came up to me and asked if I would help them draft a plan on how to live after they went home. Most of all, they wanted to stay off drugs. In addition, both of them felt compassion on their friends who were still wrapped up in dope.

Our plan involved inviting their drug friends over for some meetings. Each time, either the youth pastor or myself would share about the love of God after one of our teens shared their testimony of Jesus’ changing power. Honestly, only two of their friends made any move toward faith in Christ. But, those who did not move toward God also did not approach them any more about using drugs. That was an incredible time of maturing for both of them. For the remaining years I pastored that church they were leaders in the youth group and mentors for others trying to kick bad habits.

In Hebrews 5:12–14, it says:

In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! ¹³ Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness.¹⁴ But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

To be mature means to train oneself to distinguish good from evil. We do that by constant practice and carrying forward of our vision into the realities of life. In agricultural terms, it is so much easier to plant the seeds than to do all the other things that help the growth. When a person enters into the lifestyle that their vision requires, it produces a different kind of passion. This is not just exciting, but gives a sense of firmness and reality to the original vision.

2. Adding Mentoring to New Growth:

In his book, “The Tipping Point”, Malcolm Gladwell identifies one type of person who helps to shape change in our society. He calls this person the “Information Maven”, whose gift is to find wonderful new truths, inventions, trends and ideas and liberally pass them on to others who can make good use of them. This skill set enables the Maven to join together people of vision with people of action. When those two things are mixed together, the results are exciting and quick. The same is true with Summertime passion. Nothing helps us pass along our vision like the process of mentoring someone in that same process. Those we mentor emerge into a new vision for their life –  a springtime passion. For those of us doing the mentoring, the joy is much fuller. We get to have the summertime passion of realizing our vision flowing through another person.

I watch as Jim Harbaugh coaches for the San Francisco 49ers. Harbaugh was a quarterback a long time ago by football years. He won a Super Bowl and had as many good seasons as bad. From there, he went on to successfully coach teams in college and finally this year came back to the pro game. This year, he has taken a quarterback under his wing that most people had given up on. Alex Smith was the first pick in the College Draft and has never had a winning season as starter. Yet, Harbaugh stuck with him and has worked with him many hours each week. He has designed a system to help his team, and his quarterback, be a success. I watched last week as his quarterback threw his third touchdown pass of the game…the second week in a row he has done that. When Smith came off the field, Harbaugh dropped his quiet, determined manner and hugged him fiercely. You can see the Summertime passion all over his face these days. He is not throwing the ball, but it may feel even better to see his protege doing it.

3. Adding Partnerships to New Growth:

The natural outflow of mentoring relationships should lead to a deeper place called a Partnership. With mentoring, the joy is discovered in passing on a set of skills. But the passion released in partnerships is seeing someone take off with a vision in a direction you have not traveled. In the Book of Acts, Barnabas is asked to go pastor a young gentile church in Antioch. The more he spends time with this group, the bigger the task seems to him. To lessen his load, he finds a man named Saul who is now called Paul. The two of them go back to Antioch and co-pastor the church. Years earlier, Barnabas had mentored Paul when no one else was brave enough to be around him. Antioch, however, marked a different stage in their relationship. Barnabas allowed Paul the authority to carry on his ministry without having to be mentored any further. Barnabas worked side-by-side with Paul as equals. A year or so after they started working in that church, God called the two of them to partner in a new venture: A mission to the Gentile towns of Asia minor. Mentoring should eventually lead to partnerships if we do it correctly. Often we don’t allow our mentorees to become partners because we really don’t trust the work we did with them.

It is a different flavor to have people you formerly mentored now serving with you side by side in a project. I find it thrilling to see my trained counselors being sought out by people from other towns because their reputation has gone ahead of them. A few weeks ago, a young lady who has been seeing one of our counselors met me in church for the first time. As we talked, she wanted to know if I did any of the counseling. Ten years before, I did ALL of the counseling. Now, in a given week, I might do a quarter of all the ministry in that area…perhaps less. And it thrills me to know the original vision is now sprouting and taking on a life of its own. That is summertime passion.

What new ideas have you continued to mature in? What mentorees have you brought along with you on your visionary journey? Have you released partners to carry on with you? If you haven’t, then you’re missing out on the joy of Summertime. And once you have seen the summer, the passion of the Fall will amaze you.

Next time.

The first couple in my office were not there for counseling. I asked them to help me with a project I was working on. I wanted to interview two people who had been married for longer than 30  years. I could have interviewed my wife and I, but that seemed to lack objectivity. There are four chairs in my office: My office chair, two arm chairs and a love seat. This couple sat in the two arm chairs. They laughed a lot, corrected each other many times, finished the other’s sentences and by the end weren’t saying too many words. She flashed suggestive glances his way. He sucked in his belly like a freshman walking through the student lounge. I could tell, it was on for those two.

The second couple chose the love seat. They could have chosen one of the arm chairs considering how little space they took up. Married less than a year, their hands were frequently on each other’s faces, hair, hands and necks. They threw out little endearments and nicknames. I was impressed by how much they enjoyed each other.

Now which couple had passion? See: It is not as simple as age, enthusiasm and confidence.

Nature demonstrates clearly the purpose of Spring. Dormant seeds and fertile soil are bathed in sunlight, water and nutrients in adequate amounts. The DNA of the seed says “We’re going topside” and green abounds. Verdant and hungry, Spring exudes the promise of new life. Every life needs and craves these seasons. It is a mistake to think that Spring Passion has anything to do with age. Sometimes you have to rediscover passion after it has lain dormant for awhile. A man entering retirement needs to have a new vision and determination or he will be forever stuck in the Land of No Passion. A woman whose children are all gone from the home needs a Springtime passion again to propel her up from the basement of mediocrity. She has fulfilled the role of custodial parent. Springtime passion will move her into the next role.

Springtime passion can be seen in the life of Zaccheus.  In Luke 19, we are told his story. He was a despised tax collector (a redundant statement if there ever was one). He also was very short. He had spent years cheating most residents of his town out of money. The occupying Roman army gave him that right and enforced it for him. Jesus was the first new thing to come into his sorry existence for a long time. He heard the rumor that this radical Bible teacher, this healing, loving, miracle-working man was coming into town. A spark of passion swept his soul and he made up his mind to see Jesus. But he had an obstacle. The crowds would be there and he had two things working against him: He was short and could easily get swept up in a crowd; and most crowds would gladly sweep him away without a second thought.

Springtime passion says “I have to see Jesus”. In the biblical account, he climbs a huge sycamore-fig tree to wait in its branches. I can only assume his cadre of Roman guards watched the trunk of the tree. Sycamore-fig trees have 30–50 foot limbs. I can see him straining and wiggling out as far as he could to get the best view. When Jesus walked along he deliberately went right under where Zaccheus was sitting. “Zaccheus, come on down here” he said, “I must stay at your house tonight”. The short guy vaulted out of the tree and invited the Master to come to his house. He must have been pinching himself along the way at this newly found relationship. New love, new job, new school can all be like that. But in his zeal, he also picked up a counter-melody in the crowd. The whisperers along the way were wondering how Jesus could go and spend any time with “that sinner”. Perhaps a part of him wanted to spare himself and Jesus humiliation. He could have just called the dinner off.

Instead, spring-like passion compelled him to shout out: “Listen, here and now. If I have cheated any man out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” Jewish law required that a thief pay back a quarter more of everything he stole. Zaccheus turns that requirement on its head in his passion to cement his relationship with God’s son. You can just see everyone figuring out how much he owed them. This was going to cost him a lot.

Springtime passion says “money is no object”. Springtime passion says “Full speed ahead”. Springtime passion says “Any man who plows a field and looks back is not worthy of the Kingdom of heaven.”

Loren Cunningham, the founder of Youth With A Mission, had a vision many years ago of waves and waves from the ocean coming to shore. The Lord showed him these were thousands upon thousands of young people becoming missionaries and changing the face of the Church forever. At this writing, no other movement in this last century has been as successful at launching missionary careers as YWAM. I personally know several of the early leaders of the movement, and they all tell tales of great vision, moving passion, incredible faith and lasting truth. It was the springtime of their passion and it was good.

When is the last time you had a springtime passion? Jesus once told the “old fogey” Pharisees that a great follower of God is like a man who goes into his treasure house and brings out both old and new treasures. The Pharisees had the old treasures of the Law and the Prophets. But they did not possess a desire nor a stomach for new things that God was doing. Fine aged wine is nice, but so is new ale.

Go to God and ask Him to show you what new things He may be doing right now in your life. I rarely find a time where one or two new things aren’t being born.

But as satisfying and life-giving as Spring is, it may just pale when compared to the majesty of summertime passion.

Next time.

It is now two years later and I have no more pain in my feet. The inserts slowly raised my arches back up to the shape they are supposed to have. Though it was oh so painful to begin with, it has now saved me from headaches, foot cramps and other leg and back problems.

In Romans 12:2 we are told “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this culture, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind”. The word “transform” is the Greek word “metamorphoo” and means to “change the basic shape”. It says we do this by the renewing of the mind. The word “renew” means to take something and give it a completely new use. Our minds need to be renewed, recycled, sent in new directions.

Just as my inserts changed the shape of my feet, giving them a new usage and a new destiny, so too this transformation begins in the mind. And like my feet, the beginning of the process is often painful. The best way to approach it is to allow God to speak to us about our personal problems. We are so used to letting counselors, substances, relationships, pasttimes etc. help us out of our problems and our minds just keep going into collapse.

Recently, one of my kids borrowed our car to go to work. On their way home, they were in a car accident. It was not their fault (they were rear-ended), but they were afraid to call and tell me. After hearing where they were on the Freeway, I had a moment to collect my thoughts. I began to pray and God immediately told me “This is not going to hurt your finances like you fear.” God knows me so well. My first tendency in times of stress is to think of the financial turmoil this will send me in. But as I heard the voice of God tell me this and when I agreed with it, the panic level began to leave. I went to the accident site with a level of peace and security. This helped all those concerned. And, in the days following, things did work out quite well.

God is reshaping my sole…and my soul. He can do that for you too if you allow him to recycle your thinking at those times of difficulty.