Copyright © 2011 For It Is Written Ministries. All rights reserved.
The book covers a variety of topics including:
• The "Rules" of Interpretation
• Meaning vs. Significance
• Presuppositions vs. Pre-
• Basic Genres in the Scriptures
• Interpreting Biblical Symbols & Symbolism
• The History of Interpretation (i.e. how we got where we are today)
• Different Theological Approaches Including Problems and Pitfalls
• How to do Research and Use a Variety of Biblical Resources
to truly “Study” your Bible
• And, How to Quickly Identify False Teachings
In 2003, while dancing and praising the Lord to my favorite worship music with my then 2 year old (now the oldest of two girls), the Lord spoke to my heart and impressed on me that He wanted me to write a book for Him. At the time, I was not sure exactly what the details of the book would be, but I knew generally that the book would deal with how the Lord was going to direct His people in order for them to overcome many of the problems I was seeing in the Christian community. While I thought I was ready to get started writing that day, or within a few months at least, it would take seven years before the Lord finally gave me the specifics about the book and I began to write.
During these “silent years,” it was as though the Lord took me into the “Desert” so to speak. And just as He did with the ancient Israelites after redeeming them from Egypt; my soul was sifted through trials and tribulations and a period of testing and spiritual maturation. During this time, the Lord would not only refine my understanding of His Word and take me to a deeper level of faith and obedience; He would educate me about the importance of His Torah in my life while at the same time, stripping away all the false religious teachings I had inherited from Christian history that were inhibiting my spiritual growth and keeping me in bondage to certain previously unidentified sin in my life as well as redeem me from the bondage always associated with man’s religion. In addition, the Lord was gracious to me in that He began to empower me with the knowledge of His Truth as foundational in His Torah and implanted an overwhelming desire in my heart to educate His people regarding how to understand His Word and truly walk in His ways so that their children would no longer be lost to the world, but come to a saving faith in Messiah.
I had finished a commitment at a non-
As it turns out, we never did go back to the typical “system,” and God did show me
what was wrong and why He was in the process of calling His children out of religious-
For the previous few years before I had left our church in Phoenix, AZ, I had felt drawn to the Feasts of the Lord, but did not understand that these were something we are commanded by God to observe. The SPIRIT of God in me who was writing God’s Torah on my heart, DID know this fact, even if my religious training had taught me otherwise.
I had begun to study the Feasts from a typological perspective, but every time they would come up, I would strongly desire to observe them. Since my husband was less enthusiastic at this point, if he was not interested, I usually let it go. But in 2003 I had ordered something from a Messianic website about the Feasts, and received an advertisement about First Fruits of Zion’s (FFOZ’s) Torah club study program. Immediately my heart began to race as I looked through the brochure. I thought to myself, “Yes! This is it, I need to study the Torah!” I had never really studied it in depth from a perspective of it actually applying to my life. (The Torah being the first five books of the Bible; Gen, Ex, Lev, Num, Deut.)
I had read through the Bible, but I had never “studied it” as though it ALL “applied to me.” FFOZ had five different Torah Club year long studies that you could do; each with a different emphasis. I jumped right into Torah Club Vol. 5, which focused on showing you how the rabbinic traditional 613 commandments were derived from the text along with an in depth commentary for each Torah Portion (i.e. The Torah portion is the weekly section of Scripture that you read each week such that you read through the entire Torah each year on an annual reading cycle along with selections from the prophets, and for Believers, various readings from the Apostolic Scriptures).
In any case, I jumped right into the study and my “eyes began to open!” Light bulbs began to flash in my head with each reading, and things that never made complete logical sense or were outright conflicts FINALLY made sense from Genesis to Revelation. I can only describe the experience like being “born again, again.” Within weeks the Holy Spirit connected us with the actual publishers of FFOZ whose President and his wife amazingly enough lived within 10 miles of us in Phoenix, AZ (although at that time their ministry team was spread out across America and Israel). The couple invited us to their Torah community for their weekly Sabbath service. Thus began our journey back to the Torah and THE WAY of The Master.
The first thing we learned was about the Lord’s Sabbath. We learned to LOVE the Lord and expressed that love through the simple act of obedience in His Sabbath. As our flesh died (i.e. Our self will died through submission to His will), we became more alive and freed from the bondage of other areas of sin in our life and the influences of the world we had to contend with everyday. The process helped us grow exceedingly closer as a family, enabled us to bring the Gospel of Messiah alive to our children in its restored context, and it strengthened our marriage against the onslaught of financial and business success that soon paralleled our transition back to the roots of our faith (i.e. Financial or Business success is a natural blessing/benefit that often accompanies those who walk in obedience to the Master just as it accompanied our spiritual forefather Abraham).
In any case, had my husband’s career taken off as it did and we had not submitted our lives to the Father by keeping His Sabbath, we likely could have been divorced today. The reason is not that we did not love each other, but that his job responsibilities could have come between and before his family very easily; HOWEVER, because we set the LORD’s Boundaries for our marriage and family by keeping the Sabbath, no matter how “busy” each of us ever became, we always took time to stop and nurture our family relationships and our relationship with the Lord for a FULL 24 hours each week. Thus, we not only kept the literal 4th commandment, but in keeping the literal commandment we finally for the first time in our lives obeyed the Spirit of that commandment too. Without the literal application of the commandment, the Spirit behind the commandment cannot be attained either.
Time progressed, and over the next three years we began to mature in our faith as we learned about all of God’s instructions and how to keep all of the Feasts of the Lord while diligently studying the Torah from a perspective of actually keeping those commandments today. We learned that each commandment forms the basis for establishing God’s DEFINITION of LOVE. Studying the commandments teaches you God’s perspective on every type of human situation and how HE would respond and expects us to respond such that the summary phrase, “love your neighbor as yourself” actually has TANGIBLE MEANING in the world according to God’s perspective, not mans.
Meanwhile, I had long confessed that “I’ll never...” (famous last word’s right? LOL) “move back to Albuquerque, NM” (the town where I grew up). But, in 2006 my father had a third heart attack, only this time it was a serious tear from which he really should have died and it is a TOTAL MIRACLE that he is alive today. After this experience, the Lord changed my heart and I wanted to move back home to be near family. Although it would be hard to leave the “dream home” we had only build a little over two years prior, the girls were anxious to live near both sets of grandparents. So we prayed about moving home, our hearts were open, but there was only one job in the entire state that would “fit” my husband. We knew the door to move home had opened when my husband not only got the job, but he was the only one they even interviewed!
So back home we went, and surprisingly we did not even take the financial hit we anticipated. In the meantime, a strange illness came upon me, and I was in and out of the hospital three times. Finally, we traveled up to National Jewish, the number one lung hospital in the country and they were able to diagnose me with a unique form of asthma. Needless to say, I went through a new level of trusting God as I struggled for each breath I took over an 8 to 10 month period. Finally, I seemed to recover and things progressed.
During this time my husband had advised me to go back to school and get my Master’s degree because when we first arrived home in Albuquerque, our entire family pretty much thought we had “lost it” since we were keeping the Sabbath and the Feasts of the Lord, eating biblically clean, wearing tzitziyot etc. and were no longer keeping typical Christian holidays etc. He said and I quote, “Honey, your family right now looks at you like you are a crazy “Bible hack,” even though you know what you’re talking about, the world today will only put any weight on your words when you have a degree after your name. You just watch, once you get your degree, your family will be much more apt to listen to you.”
To be honest, I thought I would get kicked out of school the first week, or month or at least after a few classes due to my new understanding of the Scriptures. However, to my surprise and delight I not only didn’t get kicked out, but without compromising the truth of Torah ever, and at times even being quite firm on the matter, the Lord covered my time in Seminary and I was blessed to graduate Summa Cum Laude from Liberty University with a Master of Divinity (one of the most conservative Seminaries in America).
During this time I learned so much, not only about the history of how the Christian faith got completely off course to where it is today, but I learned how to most effectively communicate the truth and the importance of Torah obedience in the life of the believer to “church folks” in a way that people could most readily receive it.
Up until about 2009, I had always had a really hard time finding resources to share
the importance of God’s Torah with people that were not also heavily communicated
with a lot of “Hebrew-
The message and all its implications itself was hard enough for them to digest when
it is first delivered, much less adding a completely foreign language and culture
to the mix. Non-
All of these events and time in the “desert” were training me in many areas and preparing me for ministry, but I yearned to get out of the “desert” (silent years) and get started toward the “promise” land (i.e. Start the book and start teaching). I knew God had my number, He knew where to find me, but toward the end of Seminary and shortly afterward, I began to suffer from serious “Spiritual Constipation!” In other words, too much input, not enough output! I was studying so much and had so much to share that it was nearly bursting out of me. The problem was, I had to stay focused on my children (who were still very young at that time) and I knew it. So I mustered every ounce of patience I could find within myself and resigned myself to wait. As time passed; however, like Joseph waiting in the dungeon, I began to wonder if maybe I had misread God’s word to me and I wasn’t actually destined by Him to write and teach, but I knew he had given me two beautiful girls to invest my wisdom and energy toward. As I was completing graduate school I began to write a few children’s and family resources because there did not seem to be much out in the market that was both Torah Observant AND Messiah Centered. This also gave me some practical practice and developed within me the skills to self publish; something I knew might come in handy if God ever decided to give me that call and fill me in on what specifically I should write about that He had mentioned all those years ago in 2003.
Finally, the call came in, and it came through my husband again...as major decisions in my life often do. It’s funny how the Lord will speak to me through my husband so often! Anyway, my husband was complaining to me, “You’re done with school now, so when are you going to start writing that book!?” I responded that I just wasn’t sure exactly what topic to start with, I wanted more clear direction for the Lord, and I just didn’t feel that I had it. But then my husband said something that just “clicked” in my mind, and right then, I knew what I was supposed to write about.
That evening I began to make some notes and decided to ask my mother, sisters, and
some of my girlfriends if they would be interested in attending a summer Bible Study.
My thought was that I could write each chapter of the book and teach it to the ladies
as I went along so that I could get immediate feedback and shape the book in the
process. So off I went. I had all the studying completed during hours and hours
of Seminary reading and study, so all I had to do was pull my resources together
and start writing. It was so thrilling to FINALLY begin writing, but on the other
hand is was terrifying. My flesh wanted to kick up a bit and scare me out of it
all saying... “Who do you think you are? You’re not as smart as “so-
Of course, then another “test” came. And my health plummeted even worse than the first time. My asthma was so bad and my energy so low that I was bed ridden off and on for weeks. I struggled to do the most basic things like keep myself and my kids fed each day, and ensure the girls did their school lessons. I could hardly take care of housework (my poor husband had to do so much to help me during this time cooking, cleaning and grocery shopping! What a Servant Leader I’m blessed to be married to!). Somehow, by the Grace of God I managed to write on good days and keep up with the women’s Bible study, although it was a serious struggle. I did have to take a few weeks off here and there, but finally we got through it.
I was confused by this turn of events and couldn’t help but second guess myself. Why was God allowing my health to slip away? Didn’t He call me to this work? Was all of the hard work and study for nothing? Was I just going to waste away and die an early death; never seeing my children grow old? Ahh! I was sad and unsure. But I figured in those times of distress that if nothing else, I could at least leave the book for my girls, should I not, in fact, be here for them when they were older. For them alone, it was worth the effort, if it could help ensure they would be able to be taught how to study their Bibles and not be taken away by false doctrines and such if I was not there to guide them.
As it was, I was not going anywhere yet. I began to slowly improve, and although things are not yet perfect, I believe the Lord will give me just the amount of strength I need to do whatever He calls me to do.
Just this past November 2010, I got an email from a friend asking me to help organize a Conference in Albuquerque. I mentioned that I had just finished my book, and I would love for them to read it and give me feedback. They mentioned that they had two hours available for local speakers and they’d be happy to have me speak. I was so excited! The timing could not have been more “perfect” (i.e. God timing). Was God about to take me out of the “silent years?” Out of the “desert”? Was I really about to face the giants!?
I was filled with both a sense of excitement and trepidation because I knew I was not the funniest speaker or best orator, but I knew I was called by God, and He would give me whatever I needed to do whatever He called me to do.
The book is in its final editing stages, and already God has sent me my first opportunity to speak. Then only a few months after getting the call to speak, I get an offer to do a radio show on a Christian radio station. Wow! Isn’t God’s timing amazing! Whenever I try to orchestrate something ahead of God, it seems difficult, but when God orchestrates it, it’s easy. Things just come together. I had not even thought about what I would do after I finished the book but God has brought the opportunities knocking. I wonder where He will take me next?
So this is where I am today, about to embark on what I hope will be many years of ministering to God’s people and helping people learn how to study their Bibles, find and explain the truth to others, and Lord willing, future generations will be saved because more and more people will begin to turn back to God’s Torah so that they can be set free from the bondage of sin in their life, experience their faith on a deeper level then they ever have before, and most importantly know HOW to love God by knowing HOW to walk according to the footsteps of The Master!
I pray this book is a blessing to many. I’d love your feedback!
Your Friend and Fellow Servant in Messiah,
Christy