A Sculpture Worth Admiring
Hello! Welcome to Salt and Light. My name is Kaylin Arnold, and I’m praying that this blog will be a blessing and an encouragement to you as you go about your life. Fellowship and accountability are a must when it comes to surviving as Christians in a fallen world, and that is just what I hope you’ll find here.
The first thing I want to make clear is that I am not a Bible scholar. I am not a pastor’s wife (yet, if ever) or even someone who I’d consider as being Biblically well-read. I am, however, in a position of longing to learn more and to grow in my walk with God, and I’d like to take you with me.
I’m what you’d call a jack-of-all-trades, master of none. I have so many hobbies, that it’s hard to keep track of them all! As a creative, one of my toxic traits is I tend to believe I can do anything! I’ll see some kind of artwork somewhere and two things happen: I fall in love with it, and then I believe that I can produce something of similar or greater quality. That applies to most things-painting, drawing, sewing, mixed-media, jewelry making, home renovation, carpentry, landscaping, etc., etc. I let very little stop me.
However, the one craft that I look at and find myself paralyzed by, is sculpture. I cannot fathom how an artist can look at a block of marble, see the woman trapped inside, and then somehow pull her out. It’s absolutely mind-blowing to me. The detail these artists can etch into solid rock that breathes life into these statues is something short of miraculous. I will forever be in awe of it.
God is our sculptor. We began as blocks of marble, inert, inanimate, and unbreathing; waiting for The Artist to set his chisel to our hearts. The Bible refers to unbelievers as having hearts of stone (Ezekiel 11:19). Imagine with me, if you will, that as God chips away the marble on our hearts, He’s not just sculpting us into his beautiful, refined creation, imbued with purpose and given commission. He’s breathing life into the stone to give us those hearts of flesh that Ezekiel 11:19 finishes with.
The purpose of a statue is to provide a likeness. In this case, we are in the likeness of our Creator.
The purpose of a heart of flesh is to be able to react and respond to the commission of our Creator
The Church is NOT Bible School!
In the last few years, I’ve experienced something of a religious upheaval. I discovered that much of my faith was propped up by other people’s faith. Even the church I attended was dynamic enough that when I went home, I felt like I was one of the most righteous and holy people in my bubble. I spoke about the Bible with confidence, and I felt like I was well on my way to becoming one of those inspiring, magnetic, powerhouse women of Christ that leaves people feeling like they’ve just gotten a glimpse of God’s grace–much like Moses’s glowing face after leaving the Tent of Meeting.
Then I met my husband.
It was humbling to realize that I knew practically nothing about the faith I clung to, as Titus gently and lovingly asked me questions about my foundational beliefs; questions, I realized with growing horror, I did not know the answers to.
I had a handful of stories and verses under my belt, but much of what I knew–of what I still think I know–wasn’t accurate. In fact, the entire basis of my faith had been built on someone else’s faith. I had followed along blindly as a convenient way to avoid the work that it took to make my faith my own.
Church had been the place I went to learn the Bible. If that’s the way you’re viewing your church, I urge you to pray that God will change your heart to long to seek him on your own time. Church exists to hold you accountable. It exists to create a fellowship of believers and to create a force that can better serve out The Great Commission than setting out on your own. “A cord of three strands is not easily broken” Ecclesiastes 4:12b
If we only learn the Bible from Church, we’re not really learning the Bible. We’re learning the pastor’s interpretation of the Bible. Now, our pastors can be very wise. They can be incredibly knowledgeable, they can hold degrees and they can have years of experience under their belts. Their wisdom and leadership are very important, and I am by no means telling you to go rogue and ignore what your pastor teaches. But if we do not know the truth of the Bible itself, we won’t recognize when we’re being hoodwinked.
We need to put in the work. By spending time in the Word, we’re not only learning God’s story, but we’re reading the instruction manual to life. I’ve heard so many people lament that God doesn’t speak to us in an audible voice-but He doesn’t have to! He literally wrote a book, so that we can know Him and know His will for our lives. How cool is that? God wrote a book! All we have to do is read it!
To be extra clear, I’ve not arrived yet. Not even close. Not even a little bit. This blog is largely here to invite you along on my journey as we all seek God on our own time and with our own skills. What this journey should look like is fervent Bible reading, study, prayer, conversation and fellowship, and an exchange of resources to provide as much information as possible. Think of it like a dialogue between friends so we can learn and grow together. I hope to learn and receive as much from you as you do from me. Remember, my words should not replace God’s!
My Top 8 Bible Apps
To get us started, I thought I’d share a list of the phone applications I’ve downloaded to help keep me accountable and provide valuable knowledge resources. I use an iPhone, but I’m fairly confident that in the year 2024, most companies release applications for the majority of smart device companies.
- The YouVersion Bible app is my go-to Bible in my pocket. It’s a wonderful resource for reading the Bible, reading through Bible-in-a-year programs, devotionals, and curating knowledge. With features like the read-aloud function, the ability to select your preferred Bible translation, highlighting, note-taking, and more, it’s essentially your one-stop shop for all of your Bible-reading needs.
- The Logos Bible app is hands down the best resource for study. It has the ability to compare translations side by side along with commentary, textbooks, reading plans, courses, audio options, word study, reference scanner, note taking, media (pictures, videos, etc.), atlas, and so much more. If you truly want to do a deep dive into studying the Bible, Logos is the way to go.
- GenesisApologetics is an app devoted solely to providing evidence and context to creation. The argument is that science (done and interpreted correctly) actually supports the Bible. I was blessed with a full and rigorous education, but I went through the public school system. I was not taught the same history and science curriculum that my husband was at his Christian private school. For years, I have been struggling to merge what I learned in school with what I know to be true in the Bible. Genesis Apologetics helps to start shedding some light on these areas.
- Echo – Ever have someone ask you to pray for them, but you forget almost as soon as the conversation ends? With the Echo app, you can keep track of prayer requests easily. It will send you reminders to pray throughout the day and it will keep track of how long the prayer has been on your prayer list. If a prayer has been answered, you can switch the prayer request to praise, and the app will stop reminding you to pray for that request. This app is especially handy for Bible studies and Life Groups, as you can create public prayer lists for the group, similar to a forum. Everyone can see when a request has been added or removed to the “answered prayers” section in real time. It’s a cool app to see how God is moving in your and your friends and loved ones’ lives.
- The Pray.com app is similar to the Echo app in that it helps you to keep track of prayer requests and reminds you to pray for them. However, Pray.com also provides guided prayers, prayer sessions, and the ability to submit prayer requests to the Pray.com prayer team. So, if you don’t have a Bible study or Life Group that you’re a part of, you can still have a team of God-fearing individuals praying over you. Additionally, Pray.com provides a digital Bible, podcasts, reading plans, Bible-based sleep relaxation, and more. This app is great for relaxing, meditating, and just spending quiet time with God.
- The Glorify app has a little bit of everything. They provide a digital Bible, audio options, meditations, kids’ stories, a prayer room, and a spiritual journal. It also provides courses on multiple topics–everything from self-help to apologetics. One of my favorite courses is Learning Greek Words. Any time I can gain better clarity and context from the Bible, I get really excited. Reading the Bible is hard. It’s not just an ordinary book. It takes patience, wisdom, curiosity, and determination. If we’re really going to understand what the Bible is telling us, we have to dig deep. Learning the languages that the Bible was written in is a great place to start. The Lord says that the Bible is a sword. It is our greatest weapon against spiritual warfare. It’s our compass, our lifeline, and the truth. The more scripture we memorize, the more equipped we are to battle our demons. We can use scripture to teach others as well. We can start having those important conversations with people that get them thinking. Scripture memorization helps us to carry out The Great Commission.
- The Verses app is designed specifically to help us learn scripture. It tracks your progress, provides visual aids, creates reminders so that you won’t forget to study your memorization each day, and keeps a log of all the scripture you HAVE memorized. You can also study scripture with your friends or Life Group, which can be a fun way to hold each other accountable and help each other memorize! The free mode only provides King James Version. However, if you pay for the subscription, you will have access to all translations. It’s a pretty reasonable price too!
- Bible TriviaMania is a fun app to test everything that you’ve been studying so hard to learn. It’s essentially just a trivia game app, but it focuses on Bible facts. There’s a range of question difficulties, and I like to throw in the added challenge of trying to guess which book of the Bible the character, event, or quote took place in.
I hope you find these applications to be useful, and that they help you to grow in your faith. Being a Christ follower is not an easy journey, but it is the most important one we can go on. I’m so glad you’ve decided to stick around this long. That means that you’re, at the very least, interested in pursuing a closer walk with God. I’m so excited to see where the Lord takes us and just how much we grow in the years to come.
A very good start. God bless you on this journey.
I’d say you’re off to a great start. Keep reading the Word, studying and sharing what you e learned!