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Gleanings From The Word

Category: Bible Reading

  • Knowing the Bible like the back of my hand

    Knowing the Bible like the back of my hand

    Knowing the bible like the back of your hand

    If I said to you that I know something like the back of my hand, you would understand what I meant. It’s an English language idiom that means “to have very good and detailed knowledge of something.”

    If someone said to you, “I know the bible like the back of my hand,” you would understand them to mean a deep understanding of the Scriptures, likely with large portions memorized, a more-than-average understanding of the various books, their contexts and how they come together. Honestly, it’s a pretty bold claim.

    While the Bible doesn’t use that idiom, it could be said of the Pharisees and teachers of the Law in Jesus day. They knew what we call the Old Testament backward and forward and could likely recite at least the first five books word for word. They also understood all the rabbinical interpretations and applications. I would love to have their knowledge.

    The man we come to know as Paul the Apostle was once known as Saul of Tarsus, a Pharisee of Pharisees. He was highly regarded as a zealot, a teacher and a persecutor of the Christian faith. He stood by and held Stephen’s cloak as Stephen was being stoned to death for his beliefs. No one doubted his sincerity, his knowledge or his passion.

    Despite all that, Saul was missing something. He didn’t yet know Jesus. That would come later in a divine encounter on the Damascus Road.

    Without Christ, all his knowledge, his years of study, the sincerity of his beliefs and his zeal were meaningless. He was doomed to eternal damnation.

    In Acts, Paul says; I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but having been brought up in this city, having been instructed at the feet of Gamaliel according to the strictness of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God just as you all are today. Acts 2:3

    Throughout Paul’s writings, we see that he came to understand that Jesus was the promised Messiah and that we are saved by faith through God’s grace and mercy, bought by the shed blood of Jesus.

    For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works, so that no one may boast. Ephesians 2:8-9

    Paul also teaches that we need to know the Word, to understand what it teaches and apply it to our lives. To be a Christian takes faith, but that doesn’t exclude knowledge.

    All the “head knowledge” in the world, even if you can say you know the Bible, church history and theology like “the back of my hand”, without that moving to your heart and manifesting as faith, it’s useless.

    Faith isn’t a blind leap. You have to have enough knowledge to know you are a sinner and what you need to be reconciled to God. Our walk isn’t a question of faith versus knowledge. It’s faith and knowledge. 

    Faith saves you, and the knowledge and its application deepen your relationship. With Christ. The way to reconciliation with God

    I pray you have the faith to be saved, and the head knowledge to understand. I pray that your love for Jesus and knowledge of what He requires move you to application (works)

    Hallelu Yah (Praise God) 

    Be blessed 

    Kevin 

    Soli Deo Gloria (For the glory of God alone) 

    SUMMARY

    Knowing Scripture deeply is admirable, but even the most profound biblical knowledge is worthless without personal faith in Jesus Christ. True Christian living requires both — faith that saves and knowledge that deepens the relationship.

    KEY POINTS

    Saul of Tarsus had unmatched scriptural knowledge yet was lost without Christ, proving that head knowledge alone cannot save. 

     Salvation comes by grace through faith — not works or intellectual achievement — as Paul himself came to understand after his Damascus Road encounter. 

     Faith and knowledge are not opposites; faith saves us, while growing in the Word deepens our walk with Christ and moves us toward application.

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    All contents, “Gleanings From the Word” and “Experience an Extraordinary God in Ordinary Life,” are © 2001, 2026 K.F. “Kevin” Corbin, “Gleanings From the Word.” All rights reserved.

    Scripture quotations are from the Legacy Standard Bible® (LSB®), Copyright © 2021 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Managed in partnership with Three Sixteen Publishing Inc. 

    From Gleanings From The Word (Kevin Corbin, 2001– ), a Scripture-based devotional work.

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  • Way of Wisdom – Discovering True Enlightenment

    Way of Wisdom – Discovering True Enlightenment

    Oasis secene - theme the way of wisdom - Psalm 1:4

    Wisdom is a prized commodity. People of all faiths and cultures have sought it throughout the ages. Where can it be found? What is the way of wisdom?

    The Bible is full of passages that teach the way of wisdom and righteousness. They both come from the LORD. The psalms open with a clear sample.

    How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the way of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of Yahweh,  And in His law he meditates day and night. And he will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,  Which yields its fruit in its season  And its leaf does not wither;  And in whatever he does, he prospers.  The wicked are not so, But they are like chaff which the wind drives away.  Therefore the wicked will not rise in the judgment,  Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.  For Yahweh knows the way of the righteous,  But the way of the wicked will perish. Psalm 1

    The Bible clearly teaches that both wisdom and righteousness are clearly related.

    Notice how the psalm begins, not with a list of things to do, but with a warning about where not to go. Wisdom starts with avoidance. Don’t walk in the counsel of the wicked. Don’t linger where sinners stand. Don’t settle into the seat of those who mock.

    That progression is worth slowing down for. You walk somewhere first. Then you stand. Then you sit. What begins as a passing influence can become a permanent address.

    We all know how that works. We’ve seen it happen to people we love. Maybe we’ve seen it happen to ourselves.

    But the psalm doesn’t stop at what to avoid. It moves quickly to what the wise person pursues, to delight in the law of Yahweh (the LORD). Not reluctant obedience. Not dutiful compliance. Delight.

    That’s a high bar. And it’s an honest one.

    The word of God is not a rulebook to endure. It is a well to drink from. The person who meditates on it day and night isn’t grinding through an obligation; they are drinking deeply from something that sustains them.

    The image the psalmist reaches for is a tree planted by streams of water. Not a tree that survives on rainfall alone, dependent on the weather, struggling in dry seasons. A tree with its roots in something constant. 

    It yields fruit. Its leaves don’t wither. Whatever it does, it prospers.

    That is the life wisdom builds, not overnight, but over time, with roots going down where no drought can reach.

    The contrast is sharp and final. The wicked are like chaff. Disconnected. Weightless. Driven by whatever wind is blowing today. When judgment comes, there is nothing there to stand.

    The LORD knows the way of the righteous. That phrase carries more than knowledge. It carries an intimate acquaintance. He knows the path because He is the one who laid it out and walks it with you.

    The way of the wicked perishes. Not because God abandons them dramatically. But because a path that leads nowhere simply ends.

    Wisdom is knowing which path you’re on. May you find it.

    Hallelu Yah (Praise God) 

    Be blessed 

    Kevin 

    SUMMARY

    Psalm 1 teaches that wisdom and righteousness begin by rejecting the influence of the wicked and delighting instead in the law of the LORD. The righteous person is compared to a tree planted by streams of water, firmly rooted and fruitful, while the wicked are unstable like chaff that the wind drives away.

    KEY POINTS

    Wisdom begins with guarding where you walk, stand, and sit, because small influences can shape an entire life.

    The person who delights in and meditates on God’s Word is spiritually sustained, fruitful, and steadfast through every season.

    The righteous are known personally by Yahweh (the LORD), while the path of the wicked ultimately leads to destruction.

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