Math and the Bible: An Oxymoron?

I recently told you that I teach a Bible class at a nursing home. An encouraging comment was left asking for more ideas. You asked for it, but know that my brain doesn’t seem to function like the rest of the world. It seems to come up with some of the most unusual relationships and analogies.For example, this week my lesson fit perfectly into a geometry lesson found in W. Michael Kelley’s book, “The Humongous Book of Geometry Problems.”

Michael has a great chapter on conditional statements, which he calls “if-then statements.”  This idea can be expanded to include every curriculum that I can think of, including the Bible. Just think of all the times that the Lord told the Israelites that:

If they would do something, then God would do something. One of my favorite Bible verses is Psalms 37:4 and for me, it is an if-then statement that defines my relationship with God.

“Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart.”

If you delight yourself in the Lord,

THEN God will give you the desires of your heart.

Since I don’t get everything I pray for, I must not be meeting the required condition of delighting myself in the Lord. UMM! Now what does that really mean? How do I delight myself in the Lord?

I know it is not a crash program to get ready for a big–”Give me Prayer”–

I think it is slow process. If you quickly touch a sponge to the surface of water the sponge soaks up some of the liquid. But if you immerse the sponge in the water and allow it to remain there for a time, the water will penetrate every tiny pocket of the sponge. The sponge is said to be saturated with water.

My explanation of delighting in the Lord is to be immersed in God’s Word so that we become totally saturated.

For information about if -then geometry statements, see FUN WITH GEOMETRY.

More Later,

Janice