Treasuring God, Experiencing Life (TG-EL) is the name for an interactive learning environment that the Holy Spirit has been directing me to develop over the last 15 years. TG-EL encapsulates my passionate desire to encourage true believers to embrace as their personal perspective that:
Exclusively treasure God—the sole Source of true LIFE—is the fullest experience of life... as a spiritual, eternal, purposeful, intimate relational connection with the God of the universe!
As a diagram below illustrates, the 5 Steps form a systematic progression: where the Steps are sequential, and where each Step serves as the foundation for most accurately understanding the subsequent Steps.
OVERVIEW OF THIS 5-STEP PROGRESSION
What follows are brief summaries of each of the Steps in this progression.
STEP 1 - Embracing the Perspective of God
Seeing our circumstances... from God's perspective
This is the initial Step in the 5-Step progression of treasuring God—as the exclusive Source of true LIFE—which is, in itsel, the fullest experience of true LIFE through a spiritual, eternal, purposeful, intimate relational connection with Him.
This Step exposes the drastic difference in our experience of what we understand "life" to be... when our perspective is focused on our external circumstances, rather than on Who our God truly is. The foundational truth behind this Step is that our perspective absolutely controls what we experience as "life."
Because of this fundamental truth, this Step also exposes the errors of pastors and teachers who—week after week—focus on "teaching" specific details of Scripture... yet, never getting around to actually addressing how those details fit within the larger context of the perspective that God wants us to have: about Him, about His eternal intentions, about us, and about what is really meant by the concept of true LIFE.
Challenge Question 1
Actually, let me challenge you at this point to list as many specific, detailed answers to the question, "Who is God?" See how many answers you can provide in a 3-minute period of time. My guess is that most people will struggle to identify more than a handful of specific detailed answers about Who God is.
This Step opens by asking what I've labeled as a "universal question" that virtually everyone asks at some point in their lives, "How can a good God allow horribly bad things to happen?" However, after stating the question, I challenge the implications behind it to expose the worldly perspective of God that people have and of their erroneous beliefs of the "life" that He should be providing.
In contrast, I share the real, deepest-level question that leads us to see the most accurate, biggest picture of God... and of what true LIFE is. That question isn't "How can a good God..." but instead, "Who is our God?"
In the largest Section of this Step—"The Biblical Perspective of Who God Truly Is"—I provide an extensive series of Biblical passages covering nine core aspects of accurately knowing Him. That content includes numerous illustrations to help readers recognize the truth that I mentioned above: that it's our perspective of God that ultimately determines what we experience as "life."
Status: Completed
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STEP 2 - Discovering the Knowledge of God
Learning specific techniques for understanding God's Word
In Step 1, I provided elaborate descriptions about Who our God is. In Step 2, I provide intricately detailed instructions for you to be able to personally identify the innumerable truths of Who our God is—as revealed in His Word—on your own... in order to prepare you to be able to teach these truths to others... in ways that allows them to teach others as well!
This Step addresses a incredibly incapacitating oversight of Christian "teaching:" that there's such a woeful absence of instruction on how Christians can read, understand and apply the truths of God's Word... without resorting to commentaries or Chatbot inquiries.
Challenge Question 2
Actually, let me challenge you at this point to list as many specific Bible Study techniques—that you've been taught—for how to read God's Word... within a three-minute period of time. My guess is that most people will struggle to identify more than a handful of specific techniques.
As a young Christian I was discipled by my spiritual mentor—Marvin Robbins—who taught me the Inducted Bible Study method. That study method was so obviously superior to any other Bible Study method, that I've not only adopted that as my preferred study method, but I've spent over 40 years enhancing that method into what I'm now calling the Advanced Inductive Bible Study method.
I seriously doubt anyone reading Step 2 has ever been exposed to the level of specific detail provided as instruction for how to accurately read, understand, and apply God's Word. This Step is seriously like a graduate level course and spans significantly more than 400 pages. Also included are an expansive number of example illustrations, as well as numerous challenge questions for readers to practice applying the techniques presented in this Step.
In Step 1—described above—I was teaching you truths in Scripture that you've possibly never been taught before. in Step 2, my desire is to equip you to be able to confidently teach others those truths you've learned: Who our God is and what His intentions are for His children in experiencing true LIFE.
Status: 80% Completed
Target Publication Date: December 2026
STEP 3 - Reciprocating the Love of God
Loving God because of seeing His love for all His children
Step 3 of the 5-step progression came about because of a meditation God led me to doin His Word. This meditation was actually related to an assignment Marvin gave me at the beginning of our discipleship program, "What are the characteristics of a godly man?" As an extension and refinement of Marvin's assignment, this meditation focused on the question, "What is the most effective motivation to ensure that a Christian continues to mature throughout their life on earth?"
The answer to this question about the most effective motivation actually came to me rather quickly because of the Holy Spirit reminding me of something that I had previously been studying in the Step of John.
John 14:15
If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
In other words, a sincere love for Jesus ensures a consistent focus on submitting to and following what's defined in the Bible as LIFE itself.
However, after that answer came to me, this follow-up question also immediately came to me, "How is it that we can develop this kind of love for Jesus?" Again, the answer to this question also came almost immediately from the book of 1 John.
1 John 4:19
We love, because He first loved us.
Based on this insight, my wife, Fitri, and I began a months-long Bible Study through the entire New Testament specifically looking for references that indicated God taking the initiative to do things on our behalf, to demonstrate His unbelievable love and care for those who would become His children.
This activity very literally changed both of our lives in terms of the depth of reciprocal love that we felt for God.
Step 3 culminates with workbook activities that will lead each reader to compile their own specific list of the acts of God in demonstrating His love for all believers. Though I can't literally guarantee the same result for you that my wife and I experienced, I can promise this: those same results are absolutely what the Holy Spirit intends for you to also experience.
Status: 80% Completed
Target Publication Date: January 2027
STEP 4 - Treasuring the Person of God
Exclusively treasuring God because of His unique love for each believer
Challenge Question 3
Ask yourself this question, which is a question that the Holy Spirit asked me, "Is there something stronger, that's even more effective than love... for motivating Christians to continue to submit to God's work in their lives of transforming them into the image of Jesus?"
What would your answer be... if you're able to think of one.
Step 4 of the 5-step progression came about because of an additional meditation the Holy Spirit led me to do based on this version of the challenge question above: "Is there's something even more powerful than "love," that binds a believer's heart, soul and mind to God in ways that require the use of a different word—a more powerful word—to describe that emotion?"
The explanation of this extensive refining process—of love being transformed into something significantly more powerful—starts with what should be a well-known passage in Matthew 22.
Matthew 22:35-38
One of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, [36] "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" [37] And He said to him, "'You SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.' [38] This is the great and foremost commandment.
The Holy Spirit really used the repeated phrase, "with all your..." to help me see that Jesus is not just describing a sense of love, He's describing an exclusive sense of love that covers all our heart, all our soul, and all our mind.
So, at this point the words that follow are the words that I want to use to hopefully paint an image in your mind of the magnitude and the exclusivity that our love for God should have... when compared to our "love" that we might have for anyone or anything else in this world.
Imagine you have a sheet of paper (may be A4 or letter size) and you have it in a portrait orientation where the long side is up and down. Now, on this page you draw a single vertical line from the top to the bottom. Next, you draw a horizontal line as basically a hashmark on your vertical line down toward the bottom of the page... and you label that as, "hate." Now, on that page toward the top, you draw another horizontal hashmark on your vertical line, and you label that, "love."
Now imagine that you took 19 additional pages taping the bottom of each piece to the top of the prior piece so that you have a total of 20 pages taped together. Then, you extend the vertical line that you had on the bottom page to the top of page 20. And at the very top of that vertical line you draw one more hashmark, and you label that, "love... for the Lord my God with all my heart, and with all my soul, and with all my mind."
Finally, imagine you had a wall high enough that you could tape the top of page 20 to the top of the wall, and the bottom of page one just above the floor. That physical separation—which indicates the "intensity" of those two loves—will help you clearly see that the mark for your "love for God" should most appropriately be labeled as exclusively "treasuring" Him.
Now, to me this is a rhetorical question... though it may not be to you. But, which word would you say best corresponds to Jesus' statement, "You SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND:' the word love, or the word treasure.
In my meditations about this concept of loving God—in the ways described in Matthew 22—the Holy Spirit also pointed a spotlight on the ordering of the three, internal "locations:" Jesus intentionally begins with heart... and then soul... and then mind. In order to emphasize the role of each of these three locations, I'm going to refer to another verse in Matthew 6.
Matthew 6:19-21
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. [20] But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; [21] for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
So, here's how I would summarize the relationship between those three areas described in Matthew 22:
What we treasure most in our heart, absolutely shapes what we believe to be true LIFE in our soul, and what we believe to be true LIFE in our soul absolutely shapes the things that we consistently think about in our minds.
Our love for God being transformed into an exclusively Treasuring Him resulted in this Step ending with a series workbook activities for the creation of a written version of your Christian testimony. (Actually, these workbook activities were activities that the Holy Spirit led me to use with my wife, Fitri, in creating her spiritual testimony around five months before she departed earth and went to be with Jesus in heaven.)
After she died, I was encouraged to take the file that I had created as her testimony, and actually convert that it into a printed book which I then provided to her friends and her family—many of who are still Muslim—which the Holy Spirit used to actually bring a number of those people into true faith in Jesus.
The singular purpose for Step 4 is to provide guidelines for you to compose your own personal testimony... of coming to faith in Jesus and of growing deeper in your walk with Him. And, that creating your personal testimony, it will serve as the "tipping point" to lead you to adopt—and fully embrace—the perspective that exclusively treasuring God as the soul source of true life, is in itself the fullest experience of true life for true Christians.
Again, though I can't literally guarantee the same result for you that my wife and I experienced, I can promise this: those same results of exclusively treasuring God—the fullest experience of true LIFE—are absolutely what the Holy Spirit intends for you!
Status: 75% Completed
Target Publication Date: January 2027
STEP 5 - EXPERIENCING THE LIFE OF GOD
The 5 Fruits of True LIFE
Challenge Question 4
My next challenge question, for you is a question that you probably never comma ever considered before: "What's your definition for the concept of life; what's the essence of life itself?"
Just to clarify, please don't answer with a description of life. For example, don't say something or someone has life if it/they can move. Or, if it/they eat. Or, if it/they reproduce. Those kind of statements are descriptions; they're not definitions. Again, how would you define life itself?
Step 5—the final Step in this progression—came about because of an additional meditation the Holy Spirit led me to do in God's Word. This meditation "focused" on the "ultimate question" considered in Step 1: "How do you describe the essence of life?" (This specific meditation actually started when I was still focused on completing Step 1... which means that this meditation has persisted over a period of close to six years now.)
Here's a brief explanation of how this meditation has progressed during this time period. This passage in Ephesians—and literally the first verse in chapter 2—struck me like a thunderbolt!
Ephesians 2:1,4-7
And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, [4] But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, [5] even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), [6] and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, [7] so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
In the ongoing years of this very extensive meditation, God repeatedly highlighted how His Word details the truth He stated to Adam and Eve: that they're disobedience would bring about their immediate (spiritual) death... and then also that God Himself makes us alive by faith in Jesus as Savior.
This also brought about a very different perspective of the lengthy conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus and John 3. After truly grasping that even people—who appear to have life—are literally dead spiritually to God, that exchange between Jesus and Nicodemus became clear that the focus was our being born "from above" by the work of the Holy Spirit.
And this led to me finalizing the most biblically accurate definition of the essence of true LIFE: that it's a spiritual, eternal, purposeful, intimate relational connection with God Himself. It also led to me recognizing that the expression in my ministry title, "Treasuring God," expressed the literal essence of the fullest experience of true LIFE for man.
So next, the question became, "What is it about our lives that literally proves that we are experiencing true LIFE in relationship with God? Again, through this 6-year meditation, the Holy Spirit helped me identify five unique "fruits" that are naturally produced from the true LIFE that we experience... as we're exclusively treasuring God.
Jesus' comments in John 15 that our abiding in Him—and His words abiding in us—naturally generates fruit in our lives which are analogous to the way the branches attached to the roots of grapevines naturally produce grapes. These fruits of true LIFE in relationship with God are explained in great detail in this final Step of the progression.
Status: 25% Completed
Target Publication Date: August 2027
If you follow and complete the progression above, it will naturally lead to your adopting and embracing the perspective that exclusively treasuring God, is—in itself—the fullest experience of true LIFE.
IDENTIFYING, ORGANIZING AND TEACHING THE CONTENT
The identification of the material contained on this site came about through specific questions from the Holy Spirit that have guided a 15-year period of study and meditation. During this period, I created literally thousands of audio recordings, email messages and ChatGPT conversations which have served as notes for the ideas in this study series.
Also during this period, the Holy Spirit guided me in the organization of the content into the systematic progression—as described above—where each Step serves as a foundational prerequisite for most fully understanding the subsequent step.
A secondary guide for this content resulted from a lengthy series of observations and meditations about the methodologies—the common ways—that teachers instruct.
I came to label a significant number of these ways as "pervasive problems"—in what are mistakenly understood to be effective Christian "teaching." I very intentionally label these kind of problems as pervasive, because they may actually represent a world-wide problem. I also intentionally use the word "teaching" within quotes... because it's really teaching that produces inaccurate beliefs about the purpose of the Bible, about Who our God is, about the essence of true LIFE and—specifically—about the concepts of teaching and learning.
However, what I also need to say is that my perspective of these "problems" has been formed over a 50+ year period of being a Christian. I also need to confess that my tendency is often to "throw rocks" at people who exhibit these kinds of perspective problems... as though they should know better—which the Holy Spirit has convicted me of a presumptuous sin... thinking that I can know what motivates these people.
These problems are truly serious problems. However, I also need to keep in mind—that in all probability—people exhibiting these problems were never effectively taught the biblically correct way of seeing the things that they're teaching, as well as being instructed on more effective ways of teaching those things.
So, please hear me that I absolutely want to be gracious to people who teach things contrary to God's Word and who teach in ways that are inappropriate and lead to inaccurate understanding of God's Word. And it's my deep prayer that any pastor and teachers who recognize themselves in these descriptions of the pervasive problems, that the Holy Spirit would help them recognize the correct things and more effective ways of teaching
(Anyone who's interested can read a much more thorough explanation of these pervasive problems in Christian "teaching" in this document.)
What follows are 5 categories of topics for contrasting "common" Christian "teaching"... from my teaching.
1. The Perspective of the Bible
This initial category focuses on the perspectives held of God's Word, using two distinctly different analogies for understanding the purpose of the Bible.
Challenge Question 5
What analogy might you use to describe the Bible. For example, how would you finish this sentence, "The Bible is like...." Please stop reading for a minute and consider what you might say to someone—who was interested in maybe becoming a Christian—to help them understand what God's Word actually represents to believers.
The Common—But Inappropriate—Analogy of the Bible
I’m an old fart now having been a Christian—and a teacher—for over 50 years. And, in my experience, I’ve attended or visited a large number of different churches... and all but one have taught using what I've labeled as the "owner's manual" analogy. Seeing the Bible as an owner's manual causes the "teachers" to focus on Biblical guidelines for a small selection of topics, which—if followed—provide for the best "operation" of our lives.
However, this represents the initial "pervasive problem" which I want to discuss: teaching the Bible as though it's an owner's manual. Seeing the Bible in this way, causes him to teach guidelines for individual topics which have no tangible connections with the guidelines for other topics. Following the guidelines for one topic doesn't necessarily bring any additional benefits for a different topic.
When it comes time to “teach,” the pastor—who prepared by selecting a specific topic about the Christian life—then spends 45 minutes discussing that topic. Examples of his selection might be thankfulness, or prayer, or devotion times, or dealing with anger or bitterness. Because the teaching focuses on a specific topical "detail" in the Bible, that teaching tends to be applied to discreet circumstances that may have happened or be happening in the members' lives.
Now, while the details of these topics being described aren't random pieces from the pastor's perspective, they may as well be from the normal church members' perspectives... because the pastor rarely—if ever—shows how that piece connects with other pieces that were previously taught in prior weeks.
Challenge Question 6
See if you can think back in the past month or two, and even remember the topics that were taught in those prior weeks. If you're able to remember any specific sermon topics, try also to remember if the pastor ever made any specific connections between those individual topics. Were any of those topics, the result of a prior topic? Were any of those topics parts of a progressive series that were presented together in the Bible?
What this disconnected, owner's-manual teaching does for the regular church member is literally “indoctrinate” them (and I'm intentionally using that word), that what they’ve experienced in that “sermon" or "Bible study” is how they should see God's Word as well: just an innumerable series of individual, disconnected pieces that they're quickly exposed to, and therefore believe they now understand.
The Common—Totally Unexplained—Exhortation for Reading the Bible
Probably every Christian pastor and teacher at some point has told their church members—and generally, emphatically so—that they need to read their Bibles. However, what's almost universally absent is a detailed series of explanations for how their members can read their Bibles... so that they can understand it on their own.
Challenge Question 7
For this challenge question, try to think back as far as you can about the sermons that have been given at your church and answer this question: "How many specific suggestions have been offered by your pastor or your teachers or specific techniques that you can use to help you read and understand God's word on your own?"
Please don't misunderstand what this question is asking for. I'm not asking how many times you pastor has encouraged you to read your Bible. What I'm asking is how many specific techniques has your pastor shared with you—which hopefully you've been able to use—to help you read and understand God's word on your own... without having to do a Google search or rely on Bible commentaries... or to engage the services of a Chatbot to help you understand what a particular passage means.
That challenge question was meant to highlight another aspect of this problem of so many pastors having such an inaccurate perspective of the Bible. While they may strongly exhort their members to "Read your Bibles" they virtually never offer specific instructions on how their members can read and understand God's Word on their own!
The focus of the vast majority of Christian pastors and teachers is strictly on holding up the detailed "pieces" that they consider at that moment to be important. And they do this hoping that their members will be more obedient in honoring the commands and the prohibitions in God's Word.
My—More Biblically Accurate—Analogy of the Bible
I believe a vastly superior analogy for the Bible is the example of a picture puzzle. In this "picture-puzzle analogy, the box itself represents the Bible. Anyone who understands what a picture puzzle actually is, also absolutely understands the purpose of all of those pieces: to be assembled by connecting related pieces into common "regions." And then, to assemble all of those regions into that biggest image on the "box top."
Based on the following two related passages from 2 Corinthians, we can understand that connecting the common details forms the bigger pictures of the Biblical themes and doctrines, so that we can then view the connected themes and doctrines as forming the biggest picture image: the face of Jesus, through Who we're able to perceive the glory of God.
2 Corinthians 3:18
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.
2 Corinthians 4:6
For God, who said, "Light shall shine out of darkness," is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
What we should see in every single Christian church throughout the entire world, is systematic teaching from God’s Word that helps members understand the details within the bigger picture context of what those details reveal about the themes and doctrine. But, most importantly, we need to understand what those connected themes and doctrines reveal about the biggest picture of the Bible... Who our God.
In every teaching offered from God's Words—using the much more appropriate "picture puzzle analogy"—what every single Christian should see is not that we shouldn't get drunk, or that we should tithe on regular basis, or that we should never cease praying. What we should see is the image on the box top: the glory of God in the face of Jesus!
My Methodology for Understanding the Bible
In the 5 Steps for the systematic progression diagrammed above, "Step 2 - Discovering the Knowledge of God" is a 500+ page, graduate-level textbook that teaches my Advanced Inductive Bible Study method.
My focus is holding up the entire assembled collection of details in God's Word in order that those I'm teaching will more clearly perceive the nature, character, sovereignty, names, titles, purpose, plans, ways, and works of the amazing grace of Jesus... through which I hope they'll exalt the glory of God. I do this that my students will embrace the perspective of exclusively Treasuring God—the sole Source of true LIFE—that they might most fully experience the literal LIFE of God in their human bodies.
I absolutely guarantee you—even if you're a Christian pastor or teacher—if you use even a handful of the suggestions and techniques that I describe in this book, you'll have a drastically improved ability to read and accurately understand the true teaching of God's Word. And, you'll be much more effectively equipped to be used by God to help others read and understand God's word on their own!
2. The Perspective of God
This category focuses on the perspective held of Who our God is—which is the absolute biggest picture the Bible paints for us. And, our perspective of Who our God is... absolutely... positively... affects every aspect of our experience of life!
However, there is a problem here and this is another one of those pervasive problems.This particular problem is actually a direct result of an initial pervasive problem of having an inappropriate focus on the specific details of the Bible... and of not seeing the bigger—and the biggest—pictures of the Bible.
Challenge Question 8
Before proceeding, please take this test. Stop reading now, and consider what specifics you would offer as your answers to the question, “Who is our God?”
Write—or dictate—your answers as a text note, a text message, an email, or a dictated voice memo. Then... continue reading.
The Common—But Disconnected—Teaching for Knowing God
Pastors generally understand that they’re supposed to teach of God goodness, of Him being all-powerful, of God listening to and answering prayers. They refer to the titles of God, such as protector, provider, healer.
But, if and when they do mention any of the attributes of God, the handful of attributes they do mention are generally spoken of as details. As in, "Our God is this... plus this... plus this...."
And, any specific names or titles or roles they teach—by default—overlooks dozens of other aspects of Who our God is, which has the effect of presenting a severely distorted view of God. They forget—or possibly, are totally ignorant of—the "Shema" as presented in the Old Testament.
Deuteronomy 6:4
Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the Lord is One!
This single verse teaches that God should never be understood as having "components." Of having "ingredients." Because God is infinite, we should never think that at any point in time one attribute—by itself—accurately describes Who our God is.
The infinitely sad reality is that most pastors and teachers—whenever they do teach something about God Himself—present an image of a very small, fragmented God.
My—Biblically Integrated—Teaching for Knowing God
Now, you might be thinking, "Well, can we as humans presume to accurately know Who our God truly is?" my answer is, "Absolutely!"
Take a look at these verses from Proverbs 2:
Proverbs 2:1-6
My son, if you will receive my words And treasure my commandments within you, [2] Make your ear attentive to wisdom, Incline your heart to understanding; [3] For if you cry for discernment, Lift your voice for understanding; [4] If you seek her as silver And search for her as for hidden treasures; [5] Then you will discern the fear of the LORD and discover the knowledge of God. [6] For the LORD gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding.
Verse 5 promises that we can discover the knowledge of God, and verse 6 indicates how that promise comes about: by being immersed in God's Word allows us to both know and understand Who He is.
So, in terms of knowing who God is, let's rewind just a bit and return to the second Challenge Question in this section. You should be very happy if you ended up listing more than 20 specific attributes or aspects of God in your answer.
My partial answer—which is provided in "Step 1 - How Can a Good God Allow Horribly Bad Things to Happen"—actually lists more than 365 attributes and aspects of our God!
Referring back to Deuteronomy 6, and also referring to an attribute of God's nature which is called His "impassibility"—meaning that God cannot be divided into components or ingredients—we should "see" our God as being perfectly integrated. He's everything at once and forever!
But again, for church members to accurately know Who the God of the Bible truly is—on their own—requires that pastors and teachers teach their members how to properly read and understand the Bible.
3. The Perspective of Life
This category focuses on the perspective held of the essence of life itself.
The Common—But Worldly—Definition of Life
As I said above in the category on "The Perspective of the Bible," the common way of Christian "teaching" is to focus on a particular topic in a series of related passages... where that topic is seen in isolation from any other topics that have been previously taught on. Each "teaching time" focuses the attention of the church members to be on that particular topic and how it relates to their lives. And that "relating to their lives," causes them to think of those discreet topics as being life itself. Or, stated a different way, that "life" it's just the collective experience of the circumstances that Christians face.
As I mentioned in more detail in "How Can a Good God Allow Horribly Bad Things to Happen," I asked several Christian friends—including someone who I considered to be a mature Christian—what their definition of life was. And they all provided "descriptions" of life, but no one offered a specific definition.... that effectively identified the essence of life itself.
Again, a tragically sad reality is that pastors and teachers commonly overlooked the need for defining biblical terms... and the definition of life itself is one of the more significant oversights. Because of this, the very, very vast majority of humanity has the unbiblical understanding that if we can breathe, if we can move, if we can perceive, if we can procreate... that we have life.
Challenge Question 9
So, how about you? How would you truly define the essence of true life? Again, please understand I'm not asking for a description of life. I'm asking for a definition.
I suspect that you'll also have a difficult time considering this question, in part because it's probably never been a question that you've been asked before.
They also have a very unbiblical understanding that the quality of their life is directly connected with the comfort level of their personal circumstances. However, for Christians, a tragedy of this unbiblical understanding is that it's focused on the here and now, completely obscuring the eternal aspect of true LIFE.
In the garden of Eden, when Satan intervened and perverted Adam and Eve's thinking about God and about life, he "implanted" the deception that God was withholding something they needed to fully experience life. He further implanted the related deception that they could have what they were missing in life, by simply abandoning their attachment to God and chasing the things of the world... like the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Once they ate, their sin-twisted mindset, and spiritually devoid soul was passed on to every human that came after them... including you and me! This explains why Ephesians 2—previously quoted in Step 5 above—refers to people who from all appearances look alive, but who from God's perspective, are dead!
However, because we as humans lost our true spiritual LIFE in connection with God, and because Satan has so thoroughly deceived us that "life" is found in the things of the world... this absolutely explains why we constantly chase "life" apart from God. But make no mistake, it's true LIFE that we're all chasing... because that's what we lost in the garden of Eden!
My—More Biblically Accurate—Definition of Life
Again, as I stated above, a tragically sad reality is that pastors and teachers commonly overlooked the need for defining biblical terms... and the definition of life itself is one of the more significant oversights. You may be asking, "Why do you say that the definition of life itself is one of the most significant biblical terms that needs to be explicitly defined by Christian pastors and teachers?"
It's because the deepest need of man ... is to have the greatest experience of true LIFE... in relationship with God! After all, this was what we were created to enjoy!!
When the Holy Spirit directed me to consider how I would define the essence of life, I immediately went back to the book of Genesis and did an intensive study on the first three chapters. From that study, I came up with this definition for the essence of true LIFE... as God created it to be:
DEFITNITION OF LIFE
True LIFE is a spiritual, eternal, purposeful, intimate relational connection with the God of the universe."
Each of those aspects in my definition can be literally observed in the creation account for Adam and Eve. And expanding on the ending statement in Genesis 2:25... that "the man and woman were both naked and not ashamed," I believe it's totally accurate to say that they were not only not ashamed... they were delirious with joy in the life that God had created for them in relationship with Himself. In that spiritual, eternal, purposeful, intimate relational connection with God, they clearly understood—though it was a "short-lived" understanding—the Source of their life... was God.
My teaching—and in fact, the title of my ministry, "Treasuring God Experiencing Life"—fully attest to the fact that God is the exclusive Source of true LIFE as is explained again in Ephesians:
Ephesians 2:4-7
But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, [5] even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), [6] and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, [7] so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
I'm going to use one of the 30 specific observational techniques included in my Advanced Inducted Bible Study method:
To help you focus on the main ideas in a passage, state the passage by dropping out—and if helpful, rearranging—all but the most important words.
Applying this technique to the Ephesians 2 passage above, I would summarize one of the main points as this:
"Even when we were dead in our transgressions, God made us alive together with Christ..." or, as Romans says... we're alive "in Christ."
Romans 6:11
Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Notice an implication of these two passages in Ephesians and Romans: true LIFE can only be experienced by true Christians, and that experience of true LIFE is from God in Christ.
Again, while this explicit definition of what constitutes true LIFE is almost totally absent in most churches around the world, it's absolutely at the forefront of the teaching that I offer and promote... that exclusively Treasuring God—as the Only true Treasure and as the only true Source of LIFE—is in itself, the ultimate experience of true LIFE... in Him. And, it's this experience of true LIFE—that we lost in the garden of Eden—which now given to us again in Christ, and that true LIFE provides us with an eternal meaning and significance... to God!
4. The Perspective of Teaching
This category focuses on the perspective held of the nature—and specifically the purpose—of teaching.
I'll actually start with discussing the purpose... which should be obvious: someone teaches in order for someone else to learn. Unfortunately, a great many pastors and teachers have ill-informed understandings of both teaching and learning!
The Common—But Ineffective—"Methodology" of Teaching
An initial—erroneous and ineffective—way of thinking about what passes as common Christian "teaching" is pastors and teachers who simply believe that by their uni-directional statements of certain truth of Scripture, those truths will automatically be understood and embraced by their members. That this one-way preaching will lead to those members not only learning new truths, but also experiencing real life change—of them being more completely transformed into the image of Jesus.
It's as though these pastors and teachers have a horribly mistaken belief that simply by their speaking truth—which may in fact be biblical truth—that they're literally "making disciples" by that process!
This kind of focus on simply stating the truth of God's Word ignores the fact that learning is a complicated process... and never happens at a deep level by someone speaking and someone else appearing as though they're listening.
Challenge Question 10
So, here's another challenge question for you: "At the majority of your church services, who is it that does all of the speaking during the "teaching" times?"
The almost universal answer to this question is, "The pastor!"
Challenge Question 11
A follow-on challenge question is, "How often does the pastor—in teaching the individual elements that he's currently focused on—connect those "pieces" with "pieces" that he's taught about in the past?"
The almost universal answer to this is "Well, never!"
This common strategy of "teaching" might be labeled as the "deconstructive" method of teaching God's Word. As I've already mentioned in Category 1, this deconstructive methodology—to the individual church member—almost always seems random, because messages from one week to the next are rarely connected with each other to clearly illustrate the relationships between them.
Any pastor or teacher, "teaching" in these disconnected ways only reinforces a sense of legalism and guilt that people feel in not being able to live out all the individual details that are included in God's Word.
Challenge Question 12
Speaking of guilt, a related challenge question is, "If you think about how it is that your pastors or teachers try to motivate you to obey the things that you're supposed to do, and to avoid the things you're not supposed to do, what's the basis of that motivation?" In way too many churches, that motivation is the application of external pressure by the pastors and teachers on the members to simply "Obey.!"
And, if this is something that you've also experienced like me, we both understand how ineffective this external pressure is as a motivator for us to do the things that God, and to avoid doing the things that displayed God. External pressure simply doesn't work!
Challenge Question 13
Another "challenge question" for you is, "How much time does your pastor spend in helping you see the bigger pictures—and in particular, the biggest picture of the "box top" of the Bible... at the endings of his teachings?" I will bet an enormous amount of money here—and actually I hope you understand I don't have any money to bet anyway—however, I bet any enormous amount of money that the answer here is "Well... never!"
It's also important to relate this back to the ignorant way of thinking that "simply speaking" automatically results in "learning and in life change."
My—More Comprehensive—Methodology of Teaching
My teaching isn't simply focused on a uni-directional transfer of information to people who may or may not be listening intently. The methodology I use in teaching is a "multi-directional" exchange of information... that includes a persistent focus on questions, discussions, and assessments... so that I might better understand if my teaching has been effective or not.
Another difference in my teaching is that I've learned what the best motivators are.... so that those I'm teaching pay attention to the instructions in God's Word... and follow those instructions... from their hearts. As I mentioned in the section for the 5-Step Journey of the TG-EL progression, Steps 3 and 4 both came about because of the Holy Spirit helping me see that the most appropriate and effective motivators are a sense of love for God's innumerable demonstrations of His love for us, and a sense of exclusively treasury Him as a soul source of true LIFE.
Also, looking back to the diagram of the 5-Step Journey, I stated that those 5 Steps form a systematic progression: where the Steps are sequential, and where each Step serves as the foundation for most accurately understanding the subsequent Steps. I used that word systematic to intentionally emphasize that each of the elements of my teaching from God's Word are to be understood in an integrated way... just like in the picture puzzle analogy, all the puzzle pieces are supposed to be connected, in order to give that biggest picture perspective of the image on the box top.
Actually, I'm like a watchmaker in my teaching methodology.
I hope you're scratching your head, asking the question, "What does a watchmaker have to do with how you teach... and with this site?" I'll explain....
There's an old saying that goes something like this, "Don't ask Mr. Jenkins what time it is, because—like a watchmaker—he'll not only tell you what time it is, he'll actually explain to you how to make a watch."
And, if someone was to say that about me, they would be speaking very truthfully about who I am. I not only want to help people understand the answers to questions, I want them to understand in such a way that they're then able to teach others the answers to the same questions.
So, I'll admit that I'm a watchmaker and the answers that I give are often at a level of detail that far surpasses answers that other people would give.
I previously mentioned Marvin Robbins, the spiritual mentor I had when I was still a very young Christian. Marvin helped me understand that the job of every Christian is to teach other Christians, encouraging them grow in their faith as disciples... who are also able to make disciples themselves... teaching others to grow in their faith as disciples. This perspective of having a "multiplication" strategy was very clearly shared by Paul with Timothy.
2 Timothy 2:2
The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.
Paul's emphasis to Timothy was that he teach—not in 5-word sound bites which is what seems to pass so frequently as real communication today— but thoroughly... like Paul himself taught. So, if someone is looking on this site for 5-word soundbites they can copy and repost, I'm sorry, but they will not find that kind of writing here... and should look on a totally different site.
5. The Perspective of Learning
This category focuses on the "ultimate-end" of teaching: learning. This category examines processes that effectively lead to learning. An additional element is how is that effective learning can be verified—that actually "documents" the level or scope of the learning thats happened.
The Common—But Mistaken—Understanding of Learning
There are a great many pastors and teachers who truly have a superior grasp on the proper interpretation of Scripture. However, the reality is that just because someone has an accurate, comprehensive understanding of what the Bible teaches, that doesn't automatically qualify them to be good teachers of those truths... so that those truths are effectively learned... bringing about true life change.
The sad reality is that while someone might be an excellent pastor, they may be a truly ineffective and incompetent teacher.
At this point, I need to repeat what I said in category 1: an incredibly common perspective of teaching, is that learning can—and will happen automatically by a pastor's uni-directional statements of what might be totally accurate biblical truths. I also need to repeat that learning is a complicated process and doesn't—automatically—happen because someone may be in an environment where they're in the presence of someone else's "teaching."
Let's compare two different types of learning: secular learning that generally happens in public and private educational institutions... and then spiritual learning that happens in Christian churches.
Challenge Question 14
My next challenge question is this, "Which arena should have the highest level of responsibility and accountability to ensure that learning is actually taking place? And, that evaluates the level of effectiveness of the teaching as well as the actual learning.
Hopefully, this is a rhetorical question. And... the obvious answer should be spiritual, Christian learning should have a significantly higher level of responsibility and accountability... because it's being done not just for the benefit of the people being taught: it's being done for the benefit of promoting the purpose of God Himself.
Challenge Question 15
The next challenge question should also pretty much be a rhetorical question: "How does teaching happen... In ways that promote the deepest levels of teaching and learning in those secular educational institutions? Another way to state this question would be, "What processes are utilized in secular educational institutions that have been intentionally implemented to ensure that the greatest levels of teaching and learning actually takes place?"
If you look at the educational processes that are utilized in almost every public and private school in the world, none of those institutions would imagine that learning has actually happened without the teacher asking numerous questions of the students, without the students being given opportunities to engage in interactive discussions with each other and with the teacher about the ideas being taught, and without the students being able to ask their own questions of the teacher. Finally, none of those senator educational institutions would ever simply assume that the teaching in the learning were effective... without the teacher offering various forms of assessment that actually measures the effectiveness of the teacher's teaching, and the effectiveness of the students learning.
My—More Accurate—Understanding of Learning
The TG-EL ministry represents an interactive learning environment... which I hope is understood to mean that the interactivity part comes not just from stating truth. It come from me asking challenging questions, encouraging interactive discussions about those questions, and of also encouraging the students themselves to ask questions of me, which is undeniably the most effective way for true learning to take place.
Going back for a minute to the comparison of the instructional processes in secular educational institutions versus those in spiritual education in Christian churches, a final element utilized is some form of assessment... which allows the teacher to understand how effective his teaching has been, and which also allows the students to understand how effective their learning has been.
I think the saddest deficiency in common Christian "teaching" is the almost total absence of assessment. And, I have to confess to being totally baffled why this would ever happen. It would seem as though Christian pastors and teachers simply don't care if learning—and most importantly, life change—actually happens in the members, or not.
I'm absolutely committed to this multi-directional "questioning—discussing—questioning—and assessing" process... that represents truly effective teaching and leads to truly effective learning and life change.
That assessment actually takes many forms:
- Me directly addressing the students with questions while I'm still disseminating the information I wants my students to understand.
- Me encouraging the students to interact in discussions with me, as well as with the other students. (Monitoring these discussions allows me—and my students—to understand where learning is actually happening, and where there are still areas of confusion.)
- Me giving out homework assignments as well as tests, which benefits me in understanding what's being learned well and what's still being misunderstood.
- Another method of assessment—that's not typically utilized in secular, educational institutions or in spiritual teaching in Christian churches—is my paying attention to see if my students subsequently become teachers. As I've quoted before from 2 Timothy 2, Paul encouraged Timothy that the most effective way of ensuring that the "deeper-level" of learning has actually taken place... Is seeing if the truths he's teaching are also able to become teachers of others.
My "bigger-picture," ultimate focus is on my students learning the truths of God's Word... at such a level that they're able to help others understand and learn those truths as well. With this "multiplication" method, my students are given the opportunity of literally teaching what they've learned to other students... then—hopefully—those secondary students can become teachers of others of the things they've learned.
Another very sad reality is that rarely do Christian pastors, and teachers embrace and employ this multiplication strategy of making disciples.
A final, simple way to discern whether or not this “ultimate-end” of teaching and learning have happened... after the details have been explained, and those details have been connected with other, related scriptural details... is whether or not the teaching actually "ends with" the students having a significantly deeper appreciation for Who our God is... that naturally results in genuine, spontaneous worship by them.
True, godly instruction—that results in true godly learning—will always be used by the Holy Spirit to inspire lives and generate spontaneous worship of God.
THE TG-EL INTERACTIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT
It should now be obvious that the sole purpose of my form of "interactive teaching" is to help you learn something new... which allows you to grow into a deeper level of maturity as a disciple of Jesus... which allows you to actually live in new ways... which allows you to most fully experience true LIFE. And, that one of the aspects of that true life is of your being able to share with others what you've learned on this website.
This level of interactivity has been implemented in the TG-EL website by engaging a ChatGPT Agent... who will actually direct your learning experiences on this site... just as though you were interacting with me as your personal mentor.
The past two years have included almost daily, extensive conversations with ChatGPT about the content I've been creating. A seriously important point I need to make is that I never asked ChatGPT to write the content for me that appears in this website. In fact, there were numerous times when ChatGPT offered suggested text that I might include instead of what I had originally submitted for consideration by ChatGPT. And in almost every case, I chose to overlook those suggestions and use my own. Although I will confess to at times taking what ChatGPT provided and modifying that to be in words more consistent with my own writing "voice."
Please check out this specific selection of "example" conversations I've had with ChatGPT to help you understand my commitment that the things you read or listen to on this website are my own thoughts and ideas—and not those of a Chatbot!
Another reason I'm suggesting you examining these conversation is that I believe these examples will encourage you of the level of interaction someone is able to have with ChatGPT—which is much more extensive than asking a question and receiving a simple answer.
In fact, this selection of conversations was specifically identified to illustrate how frequently the back-and-forth interaction that ChatGPT and I have had, has been so incredibly helpful in refining the ideas that I've wanted to share. This ongoing series of refinements has so clearly improved the accuracy and precision of the words I've used in stating these ideas... which I believe will allow others to more easily grasp and appreciate them.
I've also spent numerous hours in conversations with ChatGPT—working in a collaborative fashion—to define the specific instructions for the Agent to be a "virtual version of me, where the Agent will:
- Encourage back-and-forth, collaborative discussions with you about the topics and ideas being discussed
- Respond with detailed explanations for questions that the you've asked them, and—maybe most importantly...
- Challenge you with review questions at the end of each lesson so that you might accurately understand the extent of what you've actually learned through that lesson.
Again, my objective in creating this interactive learning environment—using the ChatGPT Agent—is to much more intentionally engage your mind and hearts in the content I'm hoping you'll learn.
THE TG-EL WEBSITE IS MULTI-LINGUAL
An incredibly important additional comment is that the TG-EL website is a multilingual website. By utilizing a ChatGPT agent on this website, non-English speakers will be able to benefit just as much from this learning environment as those who are native English speakers.
If there's anything a non-English speaker doesn't understand, they can simply ask the Agent in their native language, and not only receive an answer in their native language that makes sense to them, but the Agent will follow up with additional questions to make sure their understanding is appropriate.
INTERACTIVE SUGGESTIONS FOR YOU
Here are two important suggestions that I'm really hoping you consider... and not just that you consider but that you actually follow:
• Please join as a member
This will allow the ChatGPT Agent to refer back to prior conversations you've had with the Agent. Becoming a member of the site will also allow the Agent to begin learning about you, for example, of your own unique preferences for being taught. The Agent will also be able to remember prior lessons that you've already covered... and therefore suggest subsequent lessons that would fit with what you previously learned.
Interact with the ChatGPT Agent... as you would with me if you were having a voice conversation or a text chat
The type of interaction that will bring the deepest level of understanding and learning is when you're actually engaged in a back-and-forth "conversation" with ChatGPT... just as you would, if you were interacting with me in person.
In the prior section on the "TG-EL Interactive Learning Environment." I encouraged you to check out prior ChatGPT conversations that I've documented. Again, one of the reasons that I'm encouraging you to look at those conversations is so you'll see the drastically expanded level of interaction you can have with ChatGPT... rather than asking simple questions.
I also want to mention how truly "fun," it is to have these kind of back-and-forth conversations... even if these conversations are with ChatGPT.
• Find Christian friends to join you in your studies
Your actual interaction with each other has incredible benefits for the level and quality of the things that you're able to learn. What you learn will be more securely retained in your mind and heart. What you learn will be more easily retrieved by your mind. You'll have a much more expansive understanding of why these things are important. And, you'll absolutely have a much broader grasp of the magnificence of Who our God is.
I—now—want to expand what I mentioned about how truly "fun," it is to have those kind of interactive, back-and-forth conversations. In this case, the fun can actually evolve into a true exhilaration, as you're jointly sharing and refining ideas with the other people who are studying with you.
THE BENEFITS OF EMBRACING THE TG-EL PERSPECTIVE
Adopting this perspective of exclusively Treasuring God as the only true treasure and true source of LIFE naturally produces these spiritual fruit of true LIFE...
- You'll progressively desire to grow in your maturity as a disciples...
- You'll progressively desire to faithfully serve in blessing others...
- You'll progressively desire to joyfully submit to God’s loving discipline...
- You'll progressively desire to spontaneously worship God in spirit and in truth...
- You'll progressively desire to literally be with Jesus... as you're transformed into His image
These "fruit" describe the LIFE that God had eternally determined to share of Himself with us—from before the creation of the world—with a view to our being prepared and qualified to serve and reign with Jesus for all eternity
IF YOU'RE STILL READING...
I'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR YOU!
Let me start this section with a series of comments about the people that I'm absolutely not interested in. I have a very strong suspicion that there's a huge percentage of people who initially visited this site, already left the site because they're not interested in a "watchmaker" kind of teacher. The people that I'm not interested in are people who might have come to this site hoping to find soundbites that they might be able to steal and post as their own. The people that I'm not interested in are people who honestly think that their six word text messages with others that they might chat with... actually qualify as real "conversations." They do not!
The people I hope find, subscribe to, and are incredibly blessed by this site are...
- Serious Christians of any level of maturity who passionately desire to grow in their relationship with Jesus and in being used by God to bless others with their unique spiritual gifts
- Believers who have a sincere and deep sense of thankfulness of God bringing them into relationship with Himself
- Believers who have a speaking spiritual gift: for example pastors and people with the gift of teaching or encouragement
- Believers who love to dive into detailed explanations about the things they're hoping to learn; who aren't simply looking for superficial, "sound bite." five word Cristian slogans.
- In particular, I'm hopeful that Christian seminaries, universities, church organizations, and pastors and teachers find and engage with the information on this site—with a very special focus on Indonesian Christians—so that the Holy Spirit enhances their ability to effectively teach the Word of God... which causes the people they're teaching to more effectively learn and grow in their faith.
By you actually reading this far in the Homepage content, you've absolutely identified yourself as being that kind of person that I'm looking for. You're willingness to wade through the amount of information... you're absolutely a person who wants to learn... and who's willing to read a lot of what may at times seem like extraneous BS information... in order to find those things that are most relevant and significant for you.
My Presence in Bali Indonesia
God used a dating relationship 20 years ago to get me here to Bali. And He used the Holy Spirit to help me understand that had been His intention for me all along.
On my own, I never would have dreamed of leaving California to move to Bali Indonesia in 2007. And, if for some reason I would've dreamed of moving to Indonesia, I probably would never have picked Bali, as there are a vast number of islands which I suspect are far superior to Bali—especially in terms of the traffic jams, the enormous crowds of tourist, along with the nightlife and partying.
And yet—as I said above—I've now been here almost 20 years.
My explanation—even from within the first couple of years that I was here in Bali—is that God directed me here to open new opportunities of ministry for me. Which is why my focus is primarily on helping Indonesian Christians—in particular, pastors, teachers, university faculty members, and religious organization leaders. The reason I have this focus goes back to prior sections in this homepage description where I discussed the "multiplication principle" illustrated in 2 Timothy 2:2. I'm hopeful that any people within this specific group that I'm able to encourage in adopting this perspective that exclusively, Treasuring God as being the fullest experience of true life, will then be able to encourage the people that they minister to to also adopt this perspective.
My Purpose in Bali Indonesia
Wherever you might happen to live in Indonesia, please get in touch with me through this website... or in person if possible. Because in the same way that my mentor Marvin Robbins poured his life into me, it's my intense desire to pour my life into yours... with the singular focus of your adopting and embracing the perspective that