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Vision Check Techniques: Fresh Eyes On Jesus' Parables

CHAPTER 1: HELLO, TURKEY

TECHNIQUE CATEGORIES
MG - Magnifying Glass
CL - Corrective Lenses
VR - Virtual Reality Goggles

Checking for Warrants  (CL)

You should always ask police to identify themselves and show a warrant before you let them in to search your home. So don’t study a Bible passage without making every assumption identify itself and show you its warrant before you allow it into your mind. Identify every assumption you’re starting with as you study a familiar passage. Write it down. Look at it and ask (maybe even out loud) Do you have a warrant to enter my mind? Refuse the ones that are questionable.
CHAPTER 2: ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER DENARIUS

MG - Magnifying Glass
CL - Corrective Lenses
VR - Virtual Reality Goggles

Extend the Trajectory  (VR)

Bible passages often have a trajectory in the action, timing, circumstances or ideas that lead us to wonder what might happen if we go one more step beyond where the story or thought process leaves off. Follow that trajectory to see where your thoughts go.
CHAPTER 3: WHERE SHOULD THE EMPHASIS GO?

MG - Magnifying Glass
CL - Corrective Lenses
VR - Virtual Reality Goggles

Find the Trigger  (MG)
The long-running game show Jeopardy is based on contestants reading an answer and trying to figure out what question triggered that answer. In life every action, thought, emotion and statement has some circumstance that triggers it. The same true of Bible passages and their contents. Look for what triggered everything you read.
CHAPTER 4: WHEN YOUR CUPBOARDS ARE BARE

MG - Magnifying Glass
CL - Corrective Lenses
VR - Virtual Reality Goggles

Insert Antecedents  (CL)
Often we make new discoveries when we put in the effort to make something perfectly clear. Take pronouns for example. Remember that every pronoun must have an antecedent, i.e. a previously stated noun that the pronoun refers to. Sometimes it helps to go to the trouble of replacing every pronoun with its antecedent and reading the passage out loud. It may sound a little odd, but new lights may dawn. 

CHAPTER 5: BEFORE YOU CAST STONES

MG - Magnifying Glass
CL - Corrective Lenses
VR - Virtual Reality Goggles

Fill in the Gaps  (VR)
The narratives in the Bible often condense a story causing us to jump from one scene to the next without thinking about what might have happened between those scenes. There are gaps. Maybe there’s a change in location, or a change of mind, or a change in activity without any explanation. New insights often come when we try to fill in those gaps carefully but with reasonable details consistent with scripture, history, the culture of the time period, and what we know about human beings.
CHAPTER 6: THESE WORDS? WHAT WORDS?

MG - Magnifying Glass
CL - Corrective Lenses
VR - Virtual Reality Goggles

Where’s the Point?  (MG)
A basic rule of grammar is that every pronoun must have an antecedent, which is the noun that is stated prior to when the pronoun is used. However, not all pronouns serve the same purpose. There is a special class called demonstrative pronouns because they perform the act of pointing. The most common ones are “these” and “those,” “this” and “that.” Whenever you see a demonstrative pronoun make sure you know exactly what it is pointing to.
CHAPTER 7: AN OVERDONE AND UNDERDONE "WELL DONE"

MG - Magnifying Glass
CL - Corrective Lenses
VR - Virtual Reality Goggles

Question Clichés  (CL)
A cliché is a phrase or saying that every one says and generally agrees with without thinking. They are easy to spot, because of how often we hear them. Whenever a particular Bible passage has given rise to a cliché or become a quaint saying oft-repeated and printed on calendars, pretty pictures, posters and memorabilia, always pause to examine it. Clichés are not necessarily wrong, but they should always be questioned.
CHAPTER 8: THE TAMING OF THE SHREWD

MG - Magnifying Glass
CL - Corrective Lenses
VR - Virtual Reality Goggles

Listen to Your Gut  (CL)
Our gut instincts are notoriously untrustworthy, especially when compared with the trustworthiness of God’s Word. Yet sometimes your gut makes you wonder whether a widely held understanding or a possible interpretation of some portion of God’s Word is correct. When something doesn’t seem quite right, go ahead and raise questions—humbly!—even when you’re questioning a dominant point of view. Fact is, what we call our “gut reaction” can sometimes be the Holy Spirit trying to cause us to pause, listen, look and see something different.
CHAPTER 9: WHAT "ONE" ARE WE TALKING ABOUT?

MG - Magnifying Glass
CL - Corrective Lenses
VR - Virtual Reality Goggles

Stretching Exercises  (VR)
Scriptural truth is fixed, but its application varies. It’s elastic enough to cover more than the immediate scriptural context. Even though the Bible never dreamed of a world with the incredible forms of communication we have today, you can still take the idea of “conversation seasoned with salt” and ask how that applies to our use of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Ancient truths are supple enough to inform every generation and culture. So move the truth around; try it on in different situations. Just don’t stretch it out!
CHAPTER 10: STREETLIGHTS

MG - Magnifying Glass
CL - Corrective Lenses
VR - Virtual Reality Goggles

Experimental Variations  (VR)
The way scientists learn and make discoveries is by conducting experiments over and over again making one slight change, called a controlled variable, to see what happens differently. A good way to do this with scripture is to ask “What if” questions. What if the father in the prodigal son parable had not been so joyfully expressive? What if Paul and Silas had not been singing in the prison? What if there was trouble among the ninety-nine sheep when the shepherd went out looking for the one lost sheep? In these cases, you’re not looking for facts; you’re looking for fresh interaction with scripture and the Holy Spirit.