Creating Application Statements or How do I make a circle and spokes for Q3?

I want to expand the description for developing application statements given in Q3 of the study guide for Session 8 of Tales of the Sea. The basic idea is that once we've developed a biblical principle from the text, we need to consider practical ways to apply that principle to our life.

Application implies doing, even when that doing may involve our mental or emotional capacities instead of or in addition to actions we might take. For example, suppose developed a principle from Jonah's prayer in the fish such as "In all circumstances I can remember Who God is and praise Him." The doing for this principle might include a re-examination of my current circumstances in light of this fresh perspective. It might include a decision to start every morning reading a psalm, or singing a song. In this case, I've identified some mental processing, and a physical action as part of the application of the principle.

Sometimes it's a pretty straightforward process to move from a principle to application. If I'm reminded of the value God places on forgiveness and there's a situation in my life that requires my forgiveness, then extending forgiveness in the situation is exactly what I need to do. Having said that, it might still be difficult to forgive in this situation, so my application might involve actions that prepare me to do so -- praying for a forgiving spirit, talking to someone who can help talk me through it, considering the forgiveness I've received, etc. Application is generally not a one-time, there I did it, activity.

What about the situation where I'm not quite sure how the principle applies to my life, or I'm pretty sure I'm not considering the principle as thoroughly as I might. That's where the concept of the circle and spokes can be useful. The idea behind this technique is to take the principle and examine it in light of all areas of my life. The principle is written in the circle, and the spokes define different areas of my life. The most important consideration after developing the principle is figuring out "What are the areas of my life?"

In the study guide, I've given you three lists that are someone's approach to dividing up a life into areas and activities that cover the bases. This would be their idea of what the spokes should be. OK, so the first set is not just "someone's" approach, but Jesus' way of looking at the aspects of our being -- heart, soul, mind, and strength. Let's use that approach to work through the process of developing personal application steps from a principle we've discovered in the book of Jonah.

In the picture above, I've drawn a circle and spoke approach for the principle (1) Go where and when God calls me. The spokes (2) for heart, soul, mind, and strength have been added to the drawing. Now, I just have to do some serious thinking about all of this.

I understand strength to be about my resources - physical strength, health, financial assets, skills, etc. (Remember this is my list and yours may differ.) One of my conclusions is that I'm out of shape -- physically and financially -- to be able to easily drop what I'm doing to go a long distance from where I am, say to Nineveh. This doesn't mean I should just avoid answering a true call, but it does mean that there is work I should be doing with an understanding of the potential call to a really big life change. I can also see that I don't always fully engage my strength in my going now. (This blog entry could have been written on Monday, not this morning.)

Hopefully, you can see how moving around the spokes will surface related, but different application steps to consider for this principle.

And that is what the circle and spokes are all about. While you can use one of the lists of spokes from Q3, you may want to develop your own list. Or maybe you already have one that you gleaned somewhere else or have already developed. Just make sure the list is thorough when it comes to thinking about how, and where, you live your life.

Three Reads - What in the world is Jim asking us to do this week?

What in the world is Jim asking us to do this week?

That's a great question. As part of this study on Jonah, I wanted to make sure that we spent a little time brushing up on our bible study skills. The tricky part of doing that inside a short study of a book like Jonah is that there's no time to do the setup work for the work you'll do between sessions, unless we take one session to review the elements of studying the bible. That would take an extra week, and I really wanted us to keep up the pace we've set in our look at Tales of the Sea.

I also know that for many of you, most of what we'll be doing is something you have practiced in the past, or practice all the time.

So, I thought we'd do things a little differently this time when studying Jonah and I wouldn't burden you with a lot of "instruction" on technique, but just have you jump into the text. I also hope you can enjoy the text as the text, and let it speak directly to you.

These few blog entries will provide a means to give you just a bit more direction if you'd like to have it.

Case in point.
One way to look at bible study that resonates with me is describe in David L. Thompson's book, Bible Study that Works. He reduces the suggestions for bible study down to two questions: 1) "What, as a matter of fact, did the authors intend to say to their first readers?" 2) "What does that have to do with us and our world?"

In answering the first question we have to look carefully at the text. In doing that we'll look at both content and structure.

This week we're looking at the content. And that's the short answer to the question "what are we doing this week?"

The literary read.
Estimates are that somewhere between 40% and 60% of the bible is narrative/history. What this means to us is that narrative is a major approach God has used to reveal himself to us. One of the skills that I hope we are building during our Tales of the Sea study is the ability to get great value of the narratives we're reading.

This is why one of your readings this week should include looking at the story of Jonah from a literary point of view. I had a question from one of our group members about what are we looking for when looking at "narration". Narration is a term that basically means the recounting of the series of facts and events in a story. When we look at the narration we're discovering who the narrator is, what the point of view of the narrator is, and other elements such as the pace of the telling.

Here's a link to an assignment for students to write a literary analysis. It includes a brief introduction to many of the literary elements in a story. Pay attention to the information contained in Step 1.

Still confused?
Send me an email, or add comment to this post. We'll be reviewing this in context as we meet together this week.

And, really, enjoy the book of Jonah this week.

Translations

In the study guide for our first session on Jonah, the fifth session of Tales of the Sea, there's a chart that contains instructions for each reading of the book. In that chart there's an encouragement to read from more than one translation. The idea behind that suggestion is that you will read from translations that are representative of the "translation spectrum".

When translators set out on their task, whether it's translating the bible, or any other text, they have to make decisions about how they will proceed. There are a lot of decisions. The one we read about, and often debate about, is the decision on how closely the text in the target language will match the text in the source language. At one end of the translation spectrum, called formal equivalence, the goal is to preserve as much as possible the original words and wording of the source text. For non-translators, we call this word-for-word. At the other end of the translation spectrum, called functional equivalence, the goal is ensure that the translation provides the same level of immediate comprehension in the target language that a reader of the source language would have. For non-translators, we often call this thought-for-thought.

As the word spectrum implies, all "translations" (as distinguished from paraphrases) fall somewhere between completely formal, and completely functional. In our reading last week, a word for word translation of Exodus 26:22 would have had instructions for the tabernacle that oriented the rear of the tabernacle to the sea, not to the west. This is a simple example of making target language choice for better understanding -- to the original hearers and readers of this verse in Hebrew, seaward meant the west.

So, in this study I want to encourage you to read translations across the spectrum as a part of the study. In their excellent book on translations, How to Choose a Translation for All Its Worth, Gordon Fee and Mark Strauss make this comment early on.

And while we think that everyone should have a primary translation of choice, we hope also, in light of the richness of available options, to encourage the frequent use of more than one translation as an enriching form of Bible study.

With all this in mind, here's a diagram that places many translations on the spectrum. You should be able to match the abbreviations for the translations to the suggestions in the study guide.

Translations:
NASB: New American Standard Bible                    KJV: King James Version
ESV: English Standard Version                               NKJV: New King James Version
RSV: Revised Standard Version                              HCSB: Holman Christian Standard Bible
NET: New English Translation                                NIV: New International Version
NEB: New English Bible                                         GW: God's Word
NCV: New Century Version                                    NLT: New Living Translation
CEV: Contemporary English Version                      MSG: The Message (a paraphrase)

Enjoy your reading this week.