Day6 live idea

An important part of BSF Leadership is passage discovery/homiletics. It's my favorite take-away from BSF that gives me freedom to explore scripture and learn more after doing the day-by-day lesson. Often times we don't get into Day 6 of the lesson before the discussion time is over and many non-leaders in BSF don't know what homiletics is. So I thought about creating a space to share Day6 as an above and beyond option for people who are really into it or new leaders who are just getting starting and my be feeling overwhelmed. So I got the day6.live domain as I was contemplating these things. 

 "Day 6" in the Bible points in two directions — the sixth day of creation in Genesis 1, and the broader symbolism the number six picks up elsewhere. Here's both.

The sixth day itself (Genesis 1:24–31)

• Land animals — livestock, creeping things, and wild beasts, each "according to its kind," sharing the day with humanity. Humans are grouped with the land creatures, then sharply distinguished from them.
• The image of God — "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." The deliberative plural, and the fact that God speaks about humanity rather than simply commanding it into being, sets this act apart from the previous five days.
• Male and female — both bear the image; the text gives no hierarchy in the bearing of it.
• Blessing and mandate — be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue it (kabash), have dominion (radah). Often called the creation mandate or cultural mandate.
• Vegetarian provision — seed-bearing plants given as food to humans and animals alike, with no killing in view before Genesis 9.
• "Very good" — the only day that gets the intensified verdict (tov me'od) rather than plain "good." The sixth day completes and crowns the sequence.
• Genesis 2 then retells the same day up close: dust, the breath of life, the garden, the naming of animals, the woman drawn from the man's side.

Six as a symbolic number

• Labor before rest — six days of work, then Sabbath (Exodus 20:9–11); six years of service, freedom in the seventh (Exodus 21:2); six years of sowing, then the land's rest (Leviticus 25).
• Preparation day — the sixth day is when Israel gathers double manna for the coming Sabbath (Exodus 16:22–26). It's the day of getting ready.
• Falling short of seven — since seven signals completeness, six often carries a sense of the not-quite. Goliath stands six cubits with six pieces of armor; Nebuchadnezzar's image is sixty cubits by six; Revelation 13:18 gives 666 as "the number of a man."
• New-creation typology — many readers connect the crucifixion, which John places on the preparation day (the sixth), to the sixth day of creation: Pilate's "Behold the man," Jesus' "It is finished" echoing the finishing of Genesis 2:1, then rest in the tomb through the Sabbath. Paul's "last Adam" (1 Corinthians 15:45) and "the image of the invisible God" (Colossians 1:15) run along the same line.

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Pure desire - pilgrims progress into the kingdom of heaven

Enjoyed breakfast with my friend who has been inspired by Pure Desire. We talked about freedom we have in Christ to follow a new way of living that fills us rather than destroys our well being and distracts us from our purpose. The devil comes to kill steal and destroy but Jesus comes to give life to the full. We talked about Young Washington and Brink of War. Wholesome entertainment that edifies rather than terrifies. Stories that you want to talk about rather than shame and guilt you hope nobody finds out about. I'm looking forward to leading Rooted in Faith Bible study with my church, helping men come out of Babylon into the kingdom of heaven. 

Reminds me of this part of Pilgrims Progress - interpreter bringing light where there are shadows - giving light to the rest of our journey (Passion vs Patience,  Hopelessness vs Hope). Look don't just see, listen don't just hear... Eyes that see, ears that hear and heart that understands

Gift from my mom for graduation decades after I graduated

We talked about the Thyatira — the fourth of the seven churches, addressed in Revelation 2:18–29. I was thinking about Thyatira, biblical love and sinful tolerance within the church just a month ago in Colorado. 

The letter actually opens with praise: Christ commends their love, faith, service, and endurance, noting their latter works exceed the first. The charge is that they "tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess," teaching believers to commit porneia and eat food sacrificed to idols (2:20). She's given time to repent and refuses, and the judgment language is severe — a sickbed for her, tribulation for her followers, death for "her children."

• "Jezebel" invokes memory of the Phoenician queen of 1 Kings 16–21 who imported Baal worship into Israel. The pairing of sexual immorality with idol-food is the same combination charged against Pergamum's Balaam faction.
• To those who don't hold her teaching — those who haven't known "the deep things of Satan" — the only burden is to hold fast, with the promise of authority over the nations and the morning star.
• Consecration is our obedience in Sanctification, thanking God for this Sabbath day reading Psalm 92
  

Biblical material on this is spread across law, prophecy, wisdom, gospel, and epistle, and the vocabulary itself is worth noticing first. The Hebrew zanah means to "whore" or be unfaithful, and gets used for both literal sexual acts and covenant betrayal. The Greek porneia — the New Testament's umbrella term, usually rendered "sexual immorality" — is left conspicuously undefined, which most scholars take to mean the writers assumed their readers knew the Levitical catalog behind it.

The legal core. Leviticus 18 and 20 give the fullest list: incest, adultery, bestiality, sex during menstruation, male same-sex intercourse, child sacrifice to Molech folded into the same chapter. The framing is striking — these are "the practices of Egypt and Canaan," and the land itself is said to vomit out its inhabitants over them. Deuteronomy 22 adds case law with a heavy emphasis on protecting women from false accusation and coerced sex. Adultery makes the Decalogue; so does coveting a neighbor's wife, which already moves the concern inward.

The prophetic metaphor. This is arguably the dominant thread and the one people miss. Hosea marries a promiscuous woman as a living parable; Jeremiah 2–3, Ezekiel 16 and 23 (shockingly graphic by any standard), and Malachi 2 all cast Israel's idolatry as adultery. The logic runs both directions — sexual unfaithfulness is treated as an icon of covenant unfaithfulness, and idolatry is described in explicitly sexual terms. Revelation closes the canon with the same image: Babylon as the great whore, her porneia bound up with imperial violence and luxury trade.

Jesus radicalizes and interiorizes. Matthew 5:27–30 relocates adultery to the lustful look, with deliberately absurd hyperbole about eyes and hands. His divorce sayings appeal past Mosaic concession back to Genesis 2:24 — "one flesh" as the created norm. Notably, his hardest words fall on men exploiting legal privilege, while his encounters with women accused of sexual sin (John 8, Luke 7, the Samaritan woman) are consistently disarming rather than condemnatory.

Paul gives the most developed argument, in 1 Corinthians 5–7. His case isn't primarily "the rules say so" — it's ontological: sex joins persons, even with a prostitute one becomes "one flesh," so porneia is uniquely a sin against one's own body, which is a temple of the Spirit and no longer self-owned. 1 Thessalonians 4 adds a communal-justice angle (don't wrong a brother in this matter), and the vice lists in Galatians 5, Ephesians 5, and Colossians 3 keep sexual sin in company with greed — which Paul twice calls idolatry.

Themes that recur across all of it:

• Sex is treated as covenantal and body-joining, never as a private, self-contained transaction — the "one flesh" language does most of the theological work.
• Sexual ethics function as a boundary marker, distinguishing Israel and then the church from surrounding cultures. The distinctiveness is part of the point.
• The body is not autonomous — it belongs to God, and within marriage, mutually to the spouse (1 Cor 7 is unusually reciprocal for its era).
• Interiority deepens over time, from act to desire.
• There's a persistent exploitation and justice dimension: protection of the vulnerable, and Ezekiel 16 famously names Sodom's sin as pride and neglect of the poor.
• Sex itself is affirmed as good. Genesis blesses it before any fall, the Song of Songs celebrates erotic love with no reproductive justification offered, and Paul assumes marriage is normal. The prohibitions aren't framed as anti-body.
• Restoration is always available. Hosea buys his wife back; David is confronted and not discarded; Paul tells the Corinthians "such were some of you — but you were washed."

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From envy and bitterness to clarity of purpose (Psalm 73:24)

I was captivated by this short video. Joni Eareckson Tada explains how unexpected influence became a responsibility to serve. After her autobiography and film generated thousands of letters from people with disabilities struggling with depression, healing, loneliness, and isolation, she sought God’s guidance. That discernment led her to establish Joni and Friends, turning individual responses into a scalable ministry providing spiritual hope and practical assistance. The central message: influence should be intentionally stewarded for the benefit of people who need it most.

Then I realized that my heart was bitter,

    and I was all torn up inside.

I was so foolish and ignorant—

    I must have seemed like a senseless animal to you.

Yet I still belong to you;

    you hold my right hand.

You guide me with your counsel,

    leading me to a glorious destiny.

Whom have I in heaven but you?

    I desire you more than anything on earth.

My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak,

    but God remains the strength of my heart;

    he is mine forever.

Those who desert him will perish,

    for you destroy those who abandon you.

But as for me, how good it is to be near God!

    I have made the Sovereign Lord my shelter,

    and I will tell everyone about the wonderful things you do.

Influence becomes meaningful when it is converted from visibility into a repeatable system that serves a clearly defined community.

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Encounter and Testimony: ordinary, low-status people trusted with news they then can't keep to themselves.

I’m excited that BSF will launch a new Equip series this year on BSFOnline.org called Finding Hope.

BSF has also released a companion booklet, Finding the Hope of the Gospel. Rooted in Scripture, this clear and simple guide explores who Jesus is, what He has done for us, and how we can respond to Him. Our theme this year is Romans 1:16 ("For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believes"). 

As I was thinking about this verse I was reminded of how God's word changes people and what they do with their testimony after an encounter with God, hope you enjoy this little research. I've underlined and italicized the parts that we can also see in ourselves.  

The man from whom the demons had gone out begged to go with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, “Return home and tell how much God has done for you.” So the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus had done for him. - Luke 8:38-39

Luke 8:26–39 tells of the man from Gerasa possessed by many demons, living naked among the tombs, whom Jesus frees with a word. When the man begs to go with Jesus, Jesus refuses him and gives a different instruction instead: "Go back home, and tell everyone how much God has done for you" (Luke 8:39, NLT). The man obeys, and Luke adds that he "went all through the town proclaiming the great things Jesus had done for him."

That verse establishes a three-beat pattern that recurs throughout Scripture: a person meets God in a way that changes them, God (or the moment itself) redirects them toward their own community rather than away from ordinary life, and the person becomes a witness — often an unlikely or socially marginal one — whose testimony precedes and provokes belief in others. What follows traces that pattern across the biblical narrative, grouped roughly by era.

Old Testament Encounters

Hagar (Genesis 16:7–13) meets the angel of the Lord in the wilderness after fleeing Sarai's harshness. She responds by naming God "El Roi" — "the God who sees me" — which functions as her testimony: a permanent, spoken acknowledgment of what happened to her, later reinforced by the naming of the well Beer-lahai-roi.

Jacob (Genesis 28:10–17; 32:22–32) has two God-encounters that bracket his life: the ladder vision at Bethel and the night wrestling at Peniel. Both leave him renamed or reoriented — Bethel becomes a memorial pillar and vow, and Peniel gives him the name Israel, which he carries and which becomes the name of a nation. His testimony is less a spoken sermon than a life reshaped into a monument others could see.

Moses (Exodus 3:1–4:17) meets God at the burning bush and is the clearest Old Testament parallel to the Luke 8:39 pattern: an encounter followed by an explicit commission to go and tell — first Israel, then Pharaoh. Moses's initial reluctance ("who am I?") mirrors the very human hesitancy that shows up again and again in these accounts before the telling actually happens.

Gideon (Judges 6:11–24) encounters the angel of the Lord at the winepress, builds an altar he names "The Lord Is Peace," and the encounter goes public almost immediately when he tears down his father's altar to Baal in front of the town.

Samuel (1 Samuel 3:1–18) is a child when God calls him at Shiloh. His first act of testimony is difficult and small-scale — telling Eli, his mentor, the hard word he's been given — before it grows into a lifelong prophetic voice recognized by all Israel.

Elijah (1 Kings 19:9–18) meets God not in the fire or the wind but in "a gentle whisper" at Horeb. Unlike most figures here, his response is initially private — renewed resolve rather than public proclamation — until he returns to anoint successors and confront kings, carrying the encounter into continued ministry.

Isaiah (Isaiah 6:1–8) sees the Lord on his throne in the temple and responds, "Here I am. Send me." His entire prophetic book is the extended telling: decades of proclaiming what he saw and heard to a nation that largely didn't want to listen.

Jonah (Jonah 1–3) is the most reluctant witness in the Old Testament. His encounter with God — including the ordeal in the fish — eventually produces the exact thing Luke 8:39 describes: he goes and tells Nineveh, and the city believes, even though Jonah resents the outcome.

Daniel (Daniel 7–12) receives visions he doesn't always understand himself, yet is repeatedly told to write them down and, in some cases, seal them for a future audience — testimony deliberately aimed at people not yet born.

Encounters in the Gospels

The shepherds (Luke 2:8–20) receive an angelic announcement at night and go, "spreading the word," so that "all who heard the shepherds' story were astonished." They are the first evangelists of the Gospel narrative and a near-exact structural preview of the Gerasene man forty verses of Luke earlier — ordinary, low-status people trusted with news they then can't keep to themselves.

The man freed at Gerasa (Luke 8:26–39) is the text under study. What makes him distinct is that Jesus actively sends him home rather than letting him follow — testimony among his own people, not celebrity discipleship, is the assignment.

The Samaritan woman at the well (John 4:1–30, 39–42) has an extended personal conversation with Jesus that exposes her history and reveals who he is. She leaves her water jar and goes into the town: "Come and see." John records that "many Samaritans from the village believed in Jesus because of her testimony."

The man born blind (John 9) is healed and then interrogated repeatedly by neighbors and religious authorities. Unlike others on this list, his testimony is forced into a hostile, escalating cross-examination — "I don't know if he is a sinner… all I know is I was blind, and now I can see" — making him a model of a witness who holds to a simple factual claim under pressure rather than theological argument.

The Samaritan leper among the ten healed (Luke 17:11–19) is singled out by Luke for turning back "shouting, 'Praise God!'" and throwing himself at Jesus's feet in gratitude — public, loud testimony in contrast to the nine who simply went on their way healed and silent.

Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1–10) has a shorter, more social encounter — Jesus comes to his house — but the result is a public financial restitution announced to the crowd, a visible testimony rather than a purely verbal one.

Resurrection Witnesses

Mary Magdalene (John 20:11–18) is the first person to see the risen Jesus and is given a direct commission — "Go tell my brothers" — making her, structurally, an apostle to the apostles. Her report, "I have seen the Lord," is the shortest and most direct testimony statement in the resurrection narratives.

The women at the tomb (Matthew 28:1–10; Luke 24:1–11) run from the tomb "with fear and great joy" to tell the disciples, even though the disciples initially dismiss the report as "nonsense" — an early example of testimony being true but not immediately believed.

The two disciples on the Emmaus road (Luke 24:13–35) recognize Jesus only in the breaking of bread, and "got up at once and returned to Jerusalem," unable to wait until morning to tell the Eleven what had happened.

Encounters in Acts

Peter has two major encounters worth noting: Pentecost (Acts 2), after which he preaches to thousands, and the rooftop vision in Joppa (Acts 10:9–23), which he later recounts to the Jerusalem church (Acts 11) to justify preaching to Gentiles — testimony used specifically to defend a controversial theological shift.

Cornelius (Acts 10:1–8, 30–33) receives his own angelic visit instructing him to send for Peter, and he gathers his household and friends to hear Peter's message — his encounter's "telling" takes the form of convening an audience rather than personally preaching.

Saul/Paul (Acts 9:1–19; recounted in Acts 22 and 26) is the most extensively repeated conversion testimony in the New Testament. Paul narrates the Damascus road encounter himself, twice, in his own defense speeches, making him the clearest case of someone whose entire subsequent public life becomes the telling.

The Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:26–39) has a brief roadside encounter with Philip that ends in baptism, and though Scripture doesn't record him preaching, it notes he "went on his way rejoicing" — testimony implied by transformed demeanor rather than recorded speech, tradition holding that he carried the faith into Ethiopia.

The Philippian jailer (Acts 16:25–34) encounters God through an earthquake and Paul and Silas's response to it, asks "what must I do to be saved," and is baptized along with his household that same night — encounter and testimony compressed into a single night.

The Pattern Across These Accounts

Read together, these figures show that biblical testimony rarely starts with the powerful or the credentialed: a delivered demoniac, a Samaritan woman with a reputation, a formerly blind beggar, shepherds, a tax collector, women at a tomb whose report was initially disbelieved. The most consistent detail — and the one Luke 8:39 states most plainly — is that the first audience is usually the witness's own household or town, not a distant mission field. The telling is local before it is global, and it is frequently unwelcome or disbelieved at first, which does not stop it from being the thing these encounters produce.

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The Joy of Failure and reason for Bible Study

 Soul are you weary and troubled? Bless the Lord o my soul, worship his holy name. Hymns remind us that we are blessed to remember the Lord and worship our way through difficult times.

Today, I am learning to find joy even in failure. WD-40 earned its name through iteration: 39 unsuccessful attempts before the 40th formula worked.

While tri-bible.ai involves extensive information and requirements analysis, its ultimate purpose remains clear: to make Scripture understandable, doctrinally faithful, and reproducible in every language.

That mission became tangible while I was translating a Bible study into German. I discovered that Psalm 139:14 can read as “terribly and wonderfully made” in contemporary German. It was a bug, but also an important lesson in why careful, context-aware translation matters. The Lord helps me to consider this Pure Joy (James 1:2-4). 

In Bible study we can enjoy learning but the main reason should always be to "get to know God" as John Lennox says in this interview. He recounts an important lesson from his mentor, Professor David Gooding, who challenged him to move beyond studying the Bible simply to prepare talks, teach classes, or fulfill obligations. Instead, he explains that if the Bible is truly the Word of God, the ultimate and most worthwhile purpose for engaging with it is to allow God to reveal Himself to the reader through it.

The distinction between viewing scripture as a vehicle for God's revelation versus dismissing it as "fantasy" largely comes down to the reader's attitude toward metaphors and the nature of language.

• Seeing Fantasy: Professor Lennox explains that many young people today struggle to understand metaphorical language. Because they lack training in the grammar of their own language, they often treat symbols and figures of speech in books like Revelation as literal descriptions. When these descriptions seem impossible or surreal (like a sword coming out of a mouth), they conclude the text is merely "fanciful" or "meaningless."
• Allowing Revelation: Conversely, approaching scripture to "get to know God" involves recognizing that metaphors stand for realities. Lennox notes that just as saying "my heart is broken" refers to a real experience rather than a literal damaged organ, biblical metaphors point toward deep, non-literal spiritual truths.

Ultimately, Lennox argues that reading the Bible as God's Word requires maturity and judgment. It isn't about ignoring intellect, but about accepting that the text uses imaginative language to communicate truths that transcend a purely literal, materialistic interpretation.

I read a book on the Psalms that shows God's wisdom in the Hebrew literary form of poetry that doesn't use rhyme but uses metaphor. "Bless is the person, who meditates on God's word - he is like a tree planted by stream. Producing fruit in every season... they prosper because the Lord watches over the way of the righteous."

Lord help me read the Bible with eyes that see, ears that hear and heart that understands. In Jesus name, amen. Give me confidence that you are watching over the way of righteousness and help me to meditate on your way. Keep me near your heart and guide me into the way of everlasting. 

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