How should
a leader handle waffle?
What is waffle?
Waffle is the froth that might look good or sound good, but basically
possesses no substance or real value. In other words, waffle often is an
unnecessary use of words, or vagueness of expression, that detracts from the
focus of the discussion.
Waffle occurs when people start talking about their historical issues and
feel a need for a post mortem of events that deviates from the theme of the
Bible Study.
Waffle could also be what some relative or friend has done or said, but
has nothing to do with the subject matter at hand. It is raised by a
participant because the person needs to deal with an impending issue which
happens to be on his or her mind. Often these issues reside in the subconscious
and are brought to the surface because of the nature of discussion that is
taking place.
The interesting thing about waffle is that it is a necessary part of
the learning process. Waffle gets out of control when other members of the
group start participating in the waffle and it becomes repetitive. The key word
here is repetition. Once individuals begin to repeat themselves, them waffle
becomes the tool of the enemy.
Waffle needs to be brought to the surface and people need to be purged
of it. Waffle is drivel. Drivel can be equated with the dross that overflows in
the purifying process. Unless a person is purged of waffle, they will not be
able to grasp the concepts that the Holy Spirit is trying to teach them through
the illumination of scriptures which are being discussed.
Enlightenment
comes once illumination of the truths of scripture are able to become building
blocks in our understanding. Waffle, on the other hand, is the gunk that
prevents God’s truth from being cemented into our spirits. Waffle is the
substance that slimes the walls of our spirits with grime. Like a shower or
bath that is never cleaned, it lines the walls and forms a slime that is
slippery. Each one of us needs to have our spirits washed clean by the word of
God in the Holy Spirit[i]
before truths of God can be cemented into our hearts.
We
regurgitate waffle as we participate in the wisdom of the world. Just listening
to Robin Williams misuse his brilliant mind as a standup comic and spew forth debauched
waffle reminds us of the wisdom of the world. The futility of worldliness hits home
when we learn, Robin Williams committed suicide at the age of sixty-three
because he did not know the One Who is the Way, the Truth and the Life—our
blessed Lord Jesus Christ. Robin Williams claimed surgeons had given him a new
heart, but it was not one that had been implanted by the Lord God, because
instead of the joy of salvation, the depression he experienced lead him to
suicide.
When
people are regurgitating waffle at a group Bible Study, it is important that
they be permitted to do so, but only up until it becomes repetitive. The reason
waffle is permitted is that we learn by ingesting concepts from the mind of God
and pushing out the sludge, that is, waffle. As we are processing scriptural
truths, waffle surfaces and we help each other clean up the mess by being
attentive and supportive of one another in the love and fellowship of the Holy
Spirit.
There are a number of effective ways of handling waffle.
In fact, summarization of what people state is one way we cut down on
waffle, because opinionated people begin to realize that waffling on about
their views is the same as blowing in the wind.
When a person has read out the relevant text, the leader of the Bible
Study instead of asking “What is your opinion about that?” asks, “What does
that mean to you?”. The aim is to make the Bible Study produce a devotional attitude
of heart in the participants; rather than a philosophical frame of mind. This
way, opinions are minimized because they are not being requested. Besides, the
book of Proverbs[ii]
informs us only fools are interested in expressing their opinion, whereas a
wise person is more interested in seeking understanding of the text and what it
might mean to other people, as well as its applicability to oneself.
When a person has felt the need to express some waffle and it is
starting to become repetitive, the group leader can interrupt and redirect the
flow of the discussion back to the topic of the text by saying something like
this: “So (name) you obviously feel that this (the text under discussion)
impacts you (along the lines you have mentioned), it will interesting to see
what others have to say.”
When a person is waffling, they are emotionally invested in the waffle,
so it is always best for the leader to acknowledge this by using the word “feel”.
This way, those that waffle feel they are being understood.
If you are one of those people who feels that a group Bible Study
should not be allowed to be sidetracked as a person waffles, then you are not
being attentive to how the Holy Spirit works. You probably need to be delivered
from your own insensitivity and hardness of heart. A group Bible Study in the
fellowship of the Holy Spirit is about people being set free from sin, not a
lecture about a subject, where you learn to regurgitate what you heard. A group
Bible Study in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit is about working with the Lord
God to help each other discover deliverance from sin and how to be fortified in
the Word of God. A group Bible Study is about growing in God towards maturity
as a child of the Almighty; it is not about being a show pony. A group Bible
Study is about personal development under the guidance of the Holy Spirit;
therefore leaders have to learn how to work with what the Lord is doing. This
is why we let people waffle (froth a little at the mouth) so the dross can be
scooped off from what God is refining within. If no refining is taking place in
our hearts, then we are building with straw, hay and wood and will have nothing
of value in the Kingdom of Heaven. We will be like silhouettes. To quote the
Apostle Paul:
For we are God’s fellow workers. You are
God’s farming, God’s building. According to the grace of God which was given to
me, as a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another builds on it. But
let each man be careful how he builds on it. For no one can lay any other
foundation than that which has been laid, which is Jesus Christ. But if anyone
builds on the foundation with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or
stubble; each man’s work will be revealed. For the Day will declare it, because
it is revealed in fire; and the fire itself will test what sort of work each
man’s work is. If any man’s work remains which he built on it, he will receive
a reward. If any man’s work is burned, he will suffer loss, but he himself will
be saved, but as through fire (1
Corinthians 3:9-15).
Each
person has had different experiences in his or her life and this means every
person has a different background. This is the case even when a person is born
into the same culture, or even the same family. Our individual experiences mean
we live in different universes. While we might think that two people have the
same mother and father, even if they are twins, even they can be entirely
different. This is evidenced in the Bible in the case of Esau and Jacob. The
text states:
When her days to be delivered were fulfilled,
behold, there were twins in her womb. The first came out red all over, like a
hairy garment. They named him Esau. After that, his brother came out, and his
hand had hold on Esau’s heel. He was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old
when she bore them. The boys grew. Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the
field. Jacob was a quiet man, living in tents. Now Isaac loved Esau, because he
ate his venison. Rebekah loved Jacob. (Genesis 25:24-28).
As you can
see differences can occur in the same family. Even identical twins are
different when you get to know them. This is because one will be more assertive
or dominant over the other, who will tend to be the more considerate and co-operative
of the two. Identical twins confuse people by their appearance. However, of the
identical twins that I have personally known, neither of them have been truly
identical; their personalities have always been distinctive. Indeed, everybody
is different. Everybody is unique. This is the case even among identical twins.
Regardless
of the fact that everybody is different, there is still a need for us to be
culturally the same. Culture is different to individuality. Culture is the
behavior of a group of people who are individually different but adhere to the
same overall expression that is representative of their underlying ethos or
reason for being. This is why humans are not baboons and fish are not birds.
This is why Christians are not Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, Jews, Muslims,
atheists, or anarchists. This is also
why Christians are not Baptists, Methodists, Pentecostals, Evangelicals,
Protestants, Catholics, or the like. These people might like to distinguish
themselves by their distinctiveness and claim to be Christians, but the truth
is only Christians are saved. In fact, in the book of Peter we are informed
that under the name “Christian” we are to glorify God.[iii]
There is a
joke about a number of people who died, and were asked by Saint Peter upon what
basis did they think they had the right to enter Heaven, rather than go to
Hell. The first man was pleased to learn that Saint Peter was going to
interview him for his inclusion among the saints who have been admitted into
Paradise. This individual, as far as he was concerned, was under no illusions
about what being a Roman Catholic meant and that the Roman Catholic Church was
founded upon the rock of Saint Peter himself. This man claimed he was as good a
Roman Catholic as one would expect a Roman Catholic to be. In fact, he
confessed, he always prayed to Saint Peter, before any of the other saints or
even the Queen of Heaven herself.
Saint Peter said to him, “I am flattered that
you thought of me when you were on Earth, but I am very sorry there are no Roman
Catholics in Heaven.”
The man
behind him thought he knew why there were no Roman Catholics in Heaven, and
this is the reason the Eastern Church split from the Western Church to form the
Orthodox Church. The Orthodox have the right teachings and the Roman Catholics
do not. He proudly told Saint Peter, “I am an Orthodox.”
Saint
Peter said, “I am sorry there are no Orthodox in Heaven.”
Upon
seeing this, the next man began to get excited. He told St Peter, “I don’t
believe in all that nonsense about praying to saints and bowing before statutes
like those Roman Catholics and Orthodox do, because I am a Protestant.
Saint
Peter said, “Okay. But I am sorry there are no Protestants in Heaven.”
The
fundamentalist was having some difficulty containing himself by this time. He
could smell a reprobate at a hundred paces, and knew a fool before one spoke,
merely by looking at the length of the hair. How often had he hammered away on
his gong that the Bible was the living Word of God and only those who read the
King James Bible could be saved. Saint Peter looked at him and said, “I am
sorry there are no Fundamentalists in Heaven.”
The next
person to appear before Saint Peter was an Evangelical. He had overheard what
Saint Peter had said to the Protestant and the fundamentalist and naturally
understood that a person needed to tell everyone they had to be born again,
because this is what all good Evangelicals do. Saint Peter somewhat cryptically
said to him, “There are those who say they are born again and there are those
who are circumcised of heart, but I am sorry there are no Evangelicals in
Heaven.”
The
Pentecostal understood why these people were not permitted into Heaven; they
did not have the initial evidence of speaking in tongues as a sign of the baptism
of the Holy Spirit. In fact, he was so excited that when he was at the Pearly Gates,
Saint Peter had difficulty understanding what he was saying. Unfortunately for
him, Saint Peter said, “I am sorry there are no Pentecostals in Heaven.”
The next
person felt rather worried. All he had done was support the local pastor at a
community fellowship where they called each other saints, because they believed
Paul addressed his letters to saints. He had faithfully tithed a tenth of his
income, gave to poor, helped out a few widows, visited the sick and testified
about his faith in Jesus to those who would listen. When Saint Peter came to
him and asked him why he should be admitted into Heaven, he said, “I know I was
a sinner but I thought I became a saint when I opened my heart to the Holy
Spirit and trusted in the blood of Jesus to cleanse me from sin and I stopped
sinning. If there is no hope for those others, I suppose there is no hope for
me.”
Saint
Peter said, “There are no hypocrites or sinners permitted in Heaven. Only those
who demonstrate their faith in Jesus by bearing the fruit of the Holy Spirit. You
have been saved because your faith in Jesus has borne fruit unto eternal life.”
A very old
man approached Saint Peter next and gave glory to God. Saint Peter, looked at
him with a twinkle in his eye and asked him why he should be admitted into the
Kingdom of Heaven. The old man said, walking through the gates, “Because it is
no longer I that live, but Jesus Christ who lives in me.”[iv]
The
Apostles did not say that everything was done and dusted by simply making a
profession of faith with our mouth; rather, they said that as the outcome of
our faith we will receive a crown of glory, if we finish the race.[v]
When Jesus said that every tree would be known by its fruit,[vi]
he was not talking about orchards, Our Lord Jesus was talking about attributes
of God being expressed through us on a daily basis. The fruit of the Holy
Spirit is not heard but borne witness as people enjoy the goodness of God in
us.
Some people
may not like the joke about St Peter at the Pearly Gates because it does not
include those making it to Heaven who claim they are “saved by grace alone” or “have
seen people healed and miracles occur in the name of Jesus” or “have been
baptized by full immersion” or “have made a point of observing a particular day
of the week”.
The truth
is faith without works is dead.[vii]
Faith that brings forth the fruit of salvation is the only acceptable kind. Jesus
clearly indicated that reading books or Bibles or good works or studying will
not get people into Heaven, only
having an everlasting relationship with HIM—the very old man knew the secret:
Jesus must increase while the old nature must decrease.[viii]
The
question is then, why should anyone bother to study the Bible if salvation is
obtained only through a relationship with Jesus Christ? And why go to the
trouble of having a group Bible Study?
First of
all, the Bible bears witness to Jesus Christ and because of this it instructs
us how to be saved and how we ought to live our lives, if we are saved.
Secondly,
we are informed in the Bible that we are not to neglect meeting together. In
fact, we are encouraged to pray for one another, to minister to each other’s
needs, and to honor those who are older in the faith who are worthy of respect.
We are also instructed to partake of communion and put aside our financial
offerings on the first day of the week.[ix]
Thirdly, the reason group Bible Study helps us
is that by sharing and confessing to one another our sins, and having
fellowship with one another with honest hearts, we are walking in the light and
the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin.[x]
If we did not believe in Jesus Christ, we would not participate in a group Bible
Study to understand the Milk of the Word, so we can begin to walk in the light
of life. Many people try to avoid such a
group Bible Study because they feel threatened that their sins will be exposed.
The only person who is threatened is the one who is controlling their minds and
hearts; only those who are afraid are not aware of him doing so. As the Apostle
Peter said, grace and peace is multiplied to us as we grow in the knowledge of our
Lord Jesus Christ.[xi]
Psychiatrists
tend to see medication as the easiest means of helping people cope with their
difficulties in life. Psychologists believe that people can confront their
issues and work through them by understanding the underlying reasons that
create their phobias and inabilities to cope with life’s difficulties without
medication. Deliverance ministries
believe that it is simply a matter of casting out demons and often are seen
praying for the same people month after month, year in, year out. Yet, as
strange as it may seem, people have found sin and death are the basis for most
of their problems and by being willing to share their innermost feelings and
thoughts with other Christians in fellowship around the Word of God, they have
been set free by praying for each other, and learning to walk in the footsteps
of Jesus.
Deep down
everyone desires to know the truth about life and what if means to be a human
being born into sin. Once we learn how recognize sin, and how the Evil One uses
cunning to deceive us into habitually committing sin, we are able to let go of
the sin in our lives and release the hold the Devil has over us. When we do
this, we discover freedom to allow the love of the Holy Spirit to flow into us
and provide us with a satisfying purpose in life as our Heavenly Father
originally intended.
In talking
about waffle, one might accuse me of committing the fault here, having wandered
a little from describing the subject matter.
However, one of the reasons the aforementioned has been stated is to
demonstrate good waffle from bad. There is a difference between waffle with a
purpose and waffle that becomes irrelevant to the subject at hand. This is a
distinction that every leader of a group Bible Study needs to learn. Oftentimes,
the Holy Spirit tends to circumvent aspects of a subject as He unravels the
mess in a person’s convoluted thinking. Now this is a good thing and usually
proves to be helpful, so the individual can arrive at the truth of the matter.
The waffle that surfaces during a group Bible
Study is often the latest issue to bear down upon a person. In a study that I
was running with two other people the night before writing this, both of the
other participants had issues of the day, and one from the day before, that
surfaced during the discussion. Essentially, each one needed to raise their
issues and, in some way, incorporate into their own mindset the ideas from the
mind of God contained within the Bible. On at least three occasions with one of
the participants there was a need to tie a knot in the thoughts that were
unraveling, as they got too far away from the subject of the Bible Study.
Nevertheless, by allowing the thoughts in the scrambled brain to unravel, the
person was able to make room for some food for thought from the omniscient mind
of God.
Some
people have a habit of being too descriptive and unnecessarily tend towards creative
writing when they are speaking, because every time they open their mouth, one
gets the impression they are composing a draft for a novel they are working on,
rather than getting to the point of the topic that is being discussed. In fact
it is difficult to forgo thinking such individuals are intent in only giving
the impression that they are trying to sound impressive or big-note themselves.
Such persons are often renowned for using a vocabulary that may be foreign to other
members of the group. Unbeknown to these individuals, they do not realize that
by being arrogant, they are really displaying their ignorance about other
people knowing they suffer from feelings of insecurity and inadequacy.
[i] But when the kindness of God our Savior and his love
toward mankind appeared, not by works of righteousness, which we did ourselves,
but according to his mercy, he saved us, through the washing of regeneration
and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly, through Jesus
Christ our Savior (Titus 3:4-6 WEB)
[ii] A fool has no delight in understanding, but only in
revealing his own opinion. (Proverbs 18:2 WEB)
[iii] 1 Peter 4:16: Yet if one suffers as a Christian, let
him not be ashamed, but under that name let him glorify God (RSV).—Revised
Standard Version. copyright © 1971 the
Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of
Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights
reserved.
[iv] Galatians 2:20: I have been crucified with Christ; it
is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in
the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for
me. (RSV).
[v] 1 Peter 1:9; 2 Timothy 4:6-8
[vi] Matthew 7:15-19
[vii] James 2:17
[viii] John 3:30
[ix] James 5:16; Eph. 4:12; Heb. 13:16-17; Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:2
[x] 1 John 1:7
[xi] 2 Peter 1:2,8;
3:18
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