Good morning. It’s Saturday, January 24th, aka National Compliment Day.

Go compliment someone today!

🥳 Congratulations on starting today with God, and thank you for letting us be a part of it.

— Galatians 3:24

Too often we treat Bible verses like fortune cookies.

When you pull one verse out on its own, you can make it mean almost anything you want.

Which reminds me of a famous quote:

“If you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything.”

This isn’t a biblical quote, but what it means still matters.

You can make statistics say whatever you want, and in the same way, people sometimes do that with Bible verses.

But Bible verses aren’t statistics. Scripture isn’t data to manipulate.

As Hebrews 4:12 says,

“For the word of God is alive and active, sharper than any double-edged sword.”

We’re all guilty of it. We’ll read one verse like it’s a fortune cookie, without the context. Sometimes you don’t need the context, and other times you do.

But a lot of verses do need context. It is a book, after all.

That’s why Paul says in 2 Timothy 2:15,

“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.”

And it can go far beyond treating Bible verses like fortune cookies. Some people will use verses out of context on purpose as weapons. They take them out of context intentionally or out of negligence to fit a narrative.

The Bible actually warns about this.

In 2 Peter 3:16, Peter says:

“He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.”

That’s why it matters that we know Scripture as a whole, not just isolated verses.

As Nehemiah 8:8 shows,

“They read from the Book of the Law of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people understood what was being read.”

Jesus actually addresses this directly.

In Matthew 22:29, He says,

“You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.”

So be honest: are you reading Scripture, or just cracking open fortune cookies?

When you’re not sure how to pray, A.C.T.S. gives you a simple path to follow: Adore, Confess, Thank, and Ask.

Adoration: God, thank You for Your Word and for speaking truth to us.

Confession: Forgive us for rushing through Scripture or missing its meaning.

Thanksgiving: Thank You for giving us Your Word to guide and shape us.

Supplication: Help us read Scripture carefully and understand what You’re really saying.

In Jesus name, Amen

“God’s Child” by Abe Parker

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Thanks for letting us be a part of how you start your day with God.

See you tomorrow,

Zach | Start With God