I will open my mouth with a parable;
    I will utter hidden things, things from of old—
things we have heard and known,
    things our ancestors have told us.
We will not hide them from their descendants;
    we will tell the next generation
the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord,
    his power, and the wonders he has done.

• Psalm 78:2-4

Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable.

• Matthew 13:34

They triumphed over him
    by the blood of the Lamb
    and by the word of their testimony;
they did not love their lives so much
    as to shrink from death.

• Revelation 12:11

For two weeks, we have had fill in the blank quizzes.  There were five verses per week.  This week, seven of those same ten verses, combining the two weeks, are presented again.  Three of the verses were rather short and did not fit the format this week.

I have done this before, but a long time ago.  I will give you the beginning of ten verses in Biblical order.  In the next column there will be the middle of those verses in alphabetical order.  In the third column, there will be the ending of those verses in alphabetical order.  Your job is to match the beginning, middle, and ending to reconstruct the ten Bible verses.

The first three verses are from the Old Testament.

The Questions:

	Beginning	Middle	End
1	Have I not commanded you?	because great is your reward in heaven,	and lean not on your own understanding;
2	Trust in the Lord	be strong and courageous.	and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
3	So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God.	but in every situation, by prayer	do it all for the glory of God.
4	Rejoice and be glad,	give thanks in all circumstances;	do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”
5	For God so loved the world	If anyone hears my voice and opens the door,	for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
6	And we know that in all things God works for the good	I will strengthen you and help you;	for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
7	So whether you eat or drink	that he gave his one and only Son,	I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.
8	Do not be anxious about anything,	of those who love him,	I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
9	Rejoice always, pray continually,	or whatever you do,	that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
10	Here I am! I stand at the door and knock.	with all your heart	who have been called according to his purpose.

If you have ever written a story, you need a beginning, a middle, and an ending of the story.

If you wrote:  Once upon a time, they lived happily ever after.

People will not hesitate to ask where the real story is.

And depending on whether this is a short story or a long novel, the beginning may be fairly short or rather long.  I was given a Tom Clancy book to read on the airplane back 20-30 years ago.  My friend said that you won’t see any action until the second half of the thousand-page book, but don’t skip all the set-up information or you will be ever-loving lost.

I thoroughly loved one author’s female detective novels, but you could easily skip the first 150 pages and not lose any of the story.  Those pages were setting the scene and creating conflict within the female detective’s life so that the mystery was either a break from the insanity or the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Other authors start out with “Uncle Fred was murdered.”  And then the middle contained all the red herrings (false leads) and personal conflicts that make the job of solving Uncle Fred’s murder difficult.

And all those conflicts usually remain unresolved, so they can be rehashed in the next novel.  So, expect the primary plot to be the only thing resolved in the ending.

Bible References:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	Have I not commanded you?	Joshua 1:9
2	Trust in the Lord	Proverbs 3:5
3	So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God.	Isaiah 41:10
4	Rejoice and be glad,	Matthew 5:123
5	For God so loved the world	John 3:16
6	And we know that in all things God works for the good	Romans 8:28
7	So whether you eat or drink	1 Corinthians 10:31
8	Do not be anxious about anything,	Philippians 4:6
9	Rejoice always, pray continually, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.	1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
10	Here I am! I stand at the door and knock.	Revelation 3:20

I cut these verses into three parts, and I populated all three tables.

But then, I realized that some people might write down the notes, as in B-1, M-5, E-8.  This solution is incorrect.  The beginning #1 does not match the middle #5 nor the ending #8.

So, I thought, I know these verses.  I can easily piece them together.

Some are very easy, but others seem to read so well with two or three of the endings.  Only one answer is correct.

But that got me to thinking that sometimes we think we know a Bible verse, but when faced with a jumble of two or three alternatives, all the options may seem reasonable.  I think that is one problem that we have in understanding the Bible.  We sometimes read what we want to read, and we do not finish the verse.

It’s kind of like my friend’s suggestion about the thousand-page Tom Clancy novel.  We want to skip the details and start reading in the middle of the book.  We read the action, but none of it makes sense, because the ending depends on the middle and beginning of the book to make sense.  And throughout the middle, the characters are developed in the beginning.

As an example in our Bible reading, we want God to give us what we desire, but we gloss over the fact that we should desire heavenly things and not things of this fallen world.

That does not mean that God will not give you more than what you need on earth, but we need to read the entire verse, the entire paragraph, the entire Bible.

   …

   …

   …

The Answers:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	Have I not commanded you? B -1, M-2, E-4	Joshua 1:9	Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”
2	Trust in the Lord B -2, M-10, E-1	Proverbs 3:5	Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;
3	So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. B -3, M-6, E-8	Isaiah 41:10	So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
4	Rejoice and be glad, B -4, M-1, E-5	Matthew 5:123	Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
5	For God so loved the world B -5, M-7, E-9	John 3:16	For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
6	And we know that in all things God works for the good B -6, M-8, E-10	Romans 8:28	And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
7	So whether you eat or drink B -7, M-9, E-3	1 Corinthians 10:31	So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.
8	Do not be anxious about anything, B -8, M-3, E-2	Philippians 4:6	Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
9	Rejoice always, pray continually, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. B -9, M-4, E-6	1 Thessalonians 5:16-18	Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
10	Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. B -10, M-5, E-7	Revelation 3:20	Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.

Whether you did well on this quiz or, ummm, not so well, for the first video, here is I Love to Tell the Story from Chris Rupp.

Here is Evesham Community Church with Blessed Assurance.

Here are Charlotte Ritchie and Ivan Hunter, singing Tell Me the Story of Jesus.

The Story of Jesus made seem to have an ending, but that was just the beginning.

If you like these Saturday morning Bible quizzes, but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Saturday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.