From the Home Place

March 28, 2026

Today’s weather: 27 headed for 77 with a light breeze of 9 mph, with 30 mph gusts. I’m betting Miss Deb will be anxious for us to work on those flower beds again!

My Uncle Skinny (Ivan was his real name) would have said, “This weather is like one of those up and downy things (a yo-yo). He had a very unique vocabulary, most of which required interpretation to understand. On several occasions I was blessed to get to help him do some kind of building project. Usually, he would measure and I would cut. His measurements would be recounted to me as such: “It needs to be 32 inches and three of those little notches.” It took some time for me to come to understanding his tape measure, but I finally did: “Little notches” were 1/8″; while “shortest marks” were 1/16″, “taller marks” were 1/4″, and the “middle marks” were “1/2”. Usually, I would just sneak in and get my own measurement. But regardless, between the two of us we could get most anything built, at least according to his standards.

You see my friend, all of those different marks on his tape measure were quite common to both of us, we just both read the same marks in different ways. You know, much like reading the Bible. To most folks Romans 3:23 is read and understood in a very similar way. Yet, I have been around folks who understand that verse in different ways.

Here’s the point, often the way we have gained our knowledge, the time in which we have lived, the place where we have lived and usually, if we have learned more form experience rather than from education, all of these factors will often color how we see life. Especially our spiritual life.

Another way of saying all of that is this, “Our life experiences often determine how we see life, including our spiritual life.” That is why many folks think they are going to get into heaven, because “I’m not as bad as most other folks.” Their experience has helped them to come to this conclusion, and often, it is an accurate conclusion. That is, their lifestyle is not as sinful as the lifestyle of many of the people who live around them.

However, such an interpretation of Romans 3:23 is very inaccurate. You see, we have to understand every verse of the Bible within the context of the rest of the Bible. We can’t pull one verse out of a chapter of the Bible and give that verse our own understanding based upon our experience.

That is why Jesus said, “I will ask the Father to give you a Helper.” We need the “help” of the Holy Spirit to rightfully keep a verse of the Bible within its proper context with the rest of the Bible. Picking verses here and there and interpreting them according to my individual life experiences and preferences is how most of the cultish religions have begun. That is to say, they may read the same Bible you read, they have just taken certain verses out of context and given them their interpretation.

So, for you and me, we must be careful to allow the Bible to speak for itself. We need the help of the Holy Spirit to understand God’s holy word, not the help of personal life preferences. One of the laws of properly understanding the Bible states this as, “the best method to understand any text is to read it in the context of the rest of the Bible.” Using commonly understood methods of interpretation as we read our Bible is how we prevent trying to understand “32 and three little notches” in the Bible.

We must each allow the Bible to speak its own truth, keeping all within the context of the rest of Scripture and depending upon the Holy Spirt to help us rightly interpret all Scripture. Another law of reading the Bible sates, “There is only one proper interpretation, but perhaps many different applications.” Once I under stood Uncle Skinny’s method of interpretation, I then knew how to apply what he was telling me. Very much like properly understand my Bible.

It’s kind of like reading some of the blogs I write, you need to understand where I am coming from to understand where I am trying to get to. Otherwise, you will read and respond, “I don’t understand.” To understand some of the things I say, you need to know me. To understand some of the things God has written in the Bible, you have to know God – He will never say anything that is contrary to His nature. You see, usually understanding has more to do with a proper relationship than it has to do with knowledge.

Getting to know God better with you, Neal