Cheryl

Don,
Thanks, I appreciate that thought.

For me, I see something more than general principles. As an apologist I am trained in looking for the details especially those details that others gloss over. I am amazed at what God has revealed. Much of the detail in Genesis 1 & 2 are details that would not be available to us without revelation. No one was there when God created the heavens and the earth. Without his revelation of the details, we would not know what happened. But God chose to pull back the curtain of time and reveal his work of creation with us. Is his revelation helpful to us? I definitely believe it is. I believe it reveals God’s pattern. It allows us to dispel the myth that if one only saw God’s works or his miracles that this person would believe and would act on that belief. Adam had the privilege of seeing parts of God’s creation as God formed the animals and brought them to him, but Adam did not let this knowledge change him.

In my own ministry work, I have found that paying attention to the details has helped me immensely. For example, many claim that God chose not to talk to Eve and give her the prohibition directly. By paying attention to the details in the creation account, one can dispel this myth and free a person from thinking that God favors men and talks to them alone.

I do not want this to mean that I don’t think that the big picture is important. I appreciate those who have a real gift of painting the big picture for me and who keep reminding me of that big picture. My gift is not so much in the big, but in the little. I am a detail person and a logical person. I work at issues until they can make sense to me in all of the detail in the passage. Then I pray and ask God to help me to “paint” the detail for others so that they can “get it” too. This is why I so often use graphics to express my thoughts.

Right now I am witnessing to two Jehovah’s Witnesses and we are going through the “time line” of Jesus on paper. I have come up with a visual way of expressing the details of the events in time that point to who Jesus is and how this differs with who the JW’s say that Jesus is. It is so amazing! The JW’s can view my timeline and see things that they have never before considered. I am thinking that when these JW’s come free in Christ, I would like to put this teaching onto DVD to show others how they can effectively witness to Jehovah’s Witnesses in a gentle, respectful and visual way. I have used this method for years when I led a support group for ex-JW’s. It is what kept them coming back time and time again to learn. It is non-threatening, visual and helps people to think outside the box.