Here is a great post! At least I learned a few things.
Here is an example. Salvageable explained Matthew 22:11-13, and I got it. The light bulb went on.
One of the odd things about Jesus’ parables is that the meaning of a parable was often designed to be obscure. Jesus apparently did not want those who were unwilling to make the effort to see Him and to hear Him, that is, to understand His teachings.
So, when I understand a parable, I do so with some relief. I want to know God.
Of course, there are other reasons we might not understand a parable. It has been two thousand years since Jesus’ death and resurrection. Jesus spoke a different language, and He lived in a different culture. So, we often have to work to understand the cultural references.
It seems God wants us to work to understand Him. Fortunately, that work is easier when we share what we have learned.
My thanks to Salvageable for sharing.
Philip Jacob Spener was a pastor and theologian in the seventeenth century (the 1600s). He was born and raised during the Thirty Years War, when his homeland of Germany was devastated by fighting between Protestants and Roman Catholics following the Protestant Reformation of the Church that began with Martin Luther in the sixteenth century. Spener believed that the Church needed a second Reformation, turning away from so-called “dead orthodoxy” and focused on Christ-like living. Like many preachers from other times and other places, Spener said that Christian faith should be a matter of the heart and not a matter of the head.
Here is a quote from Spener’s “Pia Desideria”: Let us remember that in the last judgment we shall not be asked how learned we were and whether we displayed our learning before the world; to what extent we enjoyed the favor of men and knew how to keep…
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Citizen Tom 
Tom,
I linked your post to mine after reading an article in the Chicago Tribune
Regards and goodwill blogging.
Tom, Salvageable
I sometimes wonder if on judgement day, how the our Lord will judge our “learned” leaders who prevented children from being taught or introduced to His teachings in order to obtain campaign funding from teaching unions.
Regards and goodwill blogging.
There is something in the Bible about a millstone tied around the neck and being thrown into the sea.
Luke and Matthew have this line.
“It is better for him if a millstone is hung around his neck and he is thrown into the sea, than that he should cause one of these little ones to stumble.”
Tom.
Perhaps, anyway I had a good light at your comment.
Regard sand goodwill blogging.