Hi ~

In my email yesterday, I mentioned two ways you can get started with cross referencing to help you in your Bible study. (So if you haven’t read that one yet, you might want to read it before reading this one.)

Today I’m talking about the third way.

It is simply to be paying attention.

When you listen to a talk (sermon, podcast, etc.) or read a book, pay attention to any cross referencing the speaker or writer uses, and follow up on it.

Every once in a while, what you find will blow your mind. These are the moments of cross-referencing serendipity.

Now, to say “pay attention when others cross reference” may sound so obvious as to be utterly mundane, but I have such a great story behind it, and I need to tell it.

In late 2014—when I was fairly new to the world of abuse but sure did know a lot about cross referencing—I heard a particular sermon at the church we were attending at the time.

The pastor made a reference to “bitterness” and mentioned something in Deuteronomy about a “bitter root.”

I was electrified.

You see, I’d been aware for about 2 or 3 years that the accusation of “you’re just bitter” was being used to shut down those who had legitimate complaints about abuse, those who wanted to warn others of abuses going on in the churches and other Christian organizations, those who wanted to help others, and those who wanted to call leaders to account.

People like me, who hadn’t even experienced abuse, were being accused of being bitter. That accusation was then used to justify the determination that the no good Christian should listen to anything I had to say. I had seen it before my very eyes.

For 2 or 3 years I had been slogging through horrific stories that others confided in me.

I knew that the “you’re bitter and you’re going to defile others with your bitterness” accusation was ungodly. I was sure it was unbiblical.

But I hadn’t yet undertaken a full-blown study of Hebrews 12:15, the verse that says,

See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled. . .

I was so sure it didn’t mean what it was ubiquitously being applied to mean.

So you would be hard pressed to find someone who was more ready than I was for a moment of cross-referencing serendipity.

I tell you, as soon as I heard there was a passage in Deuteronomy that might shed some light, I was on it, my friend.

I can’t even describe how excited I was to see how very parallel the passage in Deuteronomy ran with the passage in Hebrews.

I talk about it all in detail in my first Untwisting Scriptures book, but you can also see the parallel-ness laid out in the corresponding talk on YouTube.

In 2015 and 2016 I undertook a full-blown study of the concept of bitterness throughout the Bible. This study eventually resulted in the book, but the opening began with that serendipitous moment listening to that sermon.

With you for moments of Holy Spirit connections,

Rebecca

Untwisting Scriptures at heresthejoy.com

See my Untwisting Scriptures series

P.S. When I wrote to the pastor to ask for more information about the connection with the Deuteronomy passage about the bitter root, he referred me to this article by John Piper. I read it and thought, “I think John Piper has missed what this means. This is about abuse.”

P.P.S. Do you have a cross-referencing serendipity story? Let’s geek out together!

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