Loose End – Part 3

Yesterday we continued to think through the issue that Wilberforce and Osborne both wrote about 206 years apart.  An issue that persisted throughout those 206 years and seems to persist today.  That is the seeming apathy to the Lord’s exhortation to abide in His Word.

Yesterday I shared the idea that reading books about the Bible, listening to messages about the Bible, watching programs, going to classes about the Bible, is not the same as being in the Bible.  I have done and still do all those things.  I have a ThM, which was 128 hours of class and untold hours outside of class, and that does not count the courses I took in Greek and Hebrew before I got to seminary.  I’m sitting in an office that has every available wall lined with full bookcases and there are 20 or so boxes of books in storage.  All of those things, books, programs, classes are helpful, but they cannot and are not supposed to be the major input of our Biblical lives.

All of those, as good as they are, are filtered through the study and experience of others.  As good as those others are, their work is not inspired.  We need to be in the Word of God ourselves, before we pick up a book – say we are studying Ephesians.  We need to do an overview, analyze each section, and then summarize what we studied.  Then and only then we are ready to look at some secondary source.  If we engage in the secondary source first, what we see will be channeled toward what the teacher, author, or speaker saw.

There is another challenge though.  For the most part, churches regardless of their tradition, have not done a good job of equipping those in the community with the skills needed to study the Word for themselves.  Ephesians 4:11 – 16 (here @ Bible Gateway), outlines succinctly what the ministry of a local church is to be.  The leaders are tasked to equip those in the church to do the work of the ministry.  Did you catch that?  The leaders are not supposed to do the work they are to equip the saints to do so.

That may be the source of the problem.  Seminaries, at least the ones I am aware of, do not focus on training pastors to equip.  They are focused on exegesis, hermeneutics, exposition, and homiletics.  That is, in a normal person’s words, technical study, interpretation, explanation, and proclamation.  Thus, most pastors do not equip, they proclaim.  Again, that is good.  I have listened to thousands of messages and have benefited from them.  But the primary input, the most help I have gotten, has been from personal study, personal engagement, wrestling with the text of the Bible.

I learned how to do that, not from classes – while there were some classes that helped in the sense that they suggested methods or tools of which I was not familiar.  Rather, it was from individuals who showed me how to do the work and gave me feedback on what I saw and how I explained it.  It is that interaction, that back and forth, what Paul refers to in Ephesians 4:16 (here @ Bible Gateway), as “being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body…”  Classes do not equip.  Practicing what a class teaches, under observation by someone who knows and is mastering or has mastered the content and gives feedback and constructive criticism – that is what equips.

It seems to me that is what we need in our churches.  I have heard there are some that are doing this.  I am working at doing so in my church.

Loose End – Part 2

Yesterday we started to probe the issue that both Wilberforce and Osbourne spoke to around 206 years apart.  Today we will consider some of the implications of what we examined yesterday.

The conclusion yesterday was that if one does not engage in the activity that Christ exhorts, the implications are dire.  That conclusion is driven, in part, by John 8:31 (here @ Bible Gateway).  As we saw, if one is to be a disciple of Christ, one must abide in His Word.  The import of that is if one is not abiding in the Word, then one is not a disciple.  

In an earlier post we examined 1 Peter 2:1 – 3 (here @ Bible Gateway).  The passage is a complex conditional statement.  Essentially it says that if one has tasted the kindness of the Lord, that is has fully experienced His kindness, then that one will long for, hunger for, not be satisfied without the Word of God.  Would it not be the case then that if a person does not have a hunger for the Word of God, if they are not pursuing learning it, studying it, reading it, would it not be reasonable to conclude that they have not tasted the kindness of the Lord?

In Luke 6:46 (here @ Bible Gateway), Jesus asks a rather penetrating question.  “If you call me Lord, why do you not do what I say?”  Isn’t the implication there that if one is not doing what Christ says, He is not their Lord?  

I have been engaged with more than one church’s small group project.  One of the consistent challenges is getting the groups to engage personally, individually in the Word of God.  Many are quick to read “Christian” books, or watch “Christian” videos, or focus on fellowship, but to read secondary sources is not the same as reading the Bible.  

I have been asked to review two study Bibles.  I have done one, and the other is in the que.  Both are chock full of notes and reference material.  When I was new to the faith, the Scofield Reference Bible was the main Bible that people carried.  It too was chock full of notes and reference material.  Full disclosure I have at least four Study Bibles.  I don’t use any of them.  Why?  The notes and reference materials are the work of man.  They are not inspired.  The text of the Bible is inspired.  Hebrews 4:12 (here @ Bible Gateway) does not say, “For books about the Bible and the notes in your study Bible are living and active and sharper than any two edged sword…” you can fill in the rest.

It is confusing to me why the Lord allows this.  He states that His word will not return void, Isaiah 55:11 (here @ Bible Gateway).  It seems like, many, if not most, of those claiming to be in the Body, have chosen to abandon His Word.  Chosen not to abide instead to depend on proxies to apprehend the Word of God.  This seems to have resulted in an ineffective and anemic Body.  I don’t know why this persists.  But the quotes from Wilberforce and Osborne indicate that it has for the last couple of hundred years.

The Holy Spirit inspired His Word, all of it.  It reflects God’s nature and character, 2 Peter 1:1 – 4 (here @ Bible Gateway).  Peter in 2 Peter 1:16 – 21 (here @ Bible Gateway) compares having the Word of God to his experience seeing Jesus transformed on the Mount of Transfiguration.  But, we have trouble getting believers to engage personally in it?  Why?

I have some thoughts on that I will share in the next post.

Loose End

In June of last year, I shared two quotes, one by William Wilberforce, the other by Grant Osbourne.  As noted in the post, the quotes were 206ish years apart and yet essentially dealt with the same issue.  In that post I said I would share my thoughts on those two quotes.  In reviewing my journal and the blog just now, I realize I never did.  So here goes…

If I were to synthesize the two quotes the common issue seems to be that there is a tendency in the community of faith to not take the need to work at understanding or studying the Bible as necessary for every believer.  There seems to be a prevailing sentiment that after I come to Christ, I’m done with work in terms of knowing Him.  Sure, I will listen to the occasional message and may read the occasional Christian book, but actually dive into the Word of God for myself?  I wouldn’t know where to start.  Anyway, that is the job of the pastor and teachers.  They need to study and tell me what to think.

In the previous paragraph I referred to the community of faith.  Why?  This issue prevails from Genesis to Revelation.  The people of Israel abandoned the Word of God.  There were times of renewal.  Each time the Word was found and read to the people and the people tore their clothes and repented.  But abandoned the Word again in short order.

In Jeremiah 23 (here @ Bible Gateway) the Lord reveals His attitude toward this type of behavior.  The prophets were not sharing the Word of God with the nation.  Rather, they were sharing their own dreams and ideas.  God did not like that.  It is worth your time to read the chapter.

In the New Testament over and over the importance of the Word of God is emphasized.  Perhaps the section of Scripture that is most telling is John 15:1 – 16 (here @ Bible Gateway).  In that passage John repeats the Greek word μένω (meno) 11 times in those 16 verses.  The word is variously translated abide, remain, continue, dwell.  We are exhorted by the Lord to abide in Him and have His Words abide in us.  In John 8:31 (here @ Bible Gateway) the exhortation is to abide in His Word to be His disciple.  Both statements in John 8:31 (here @ Bible Gateway) and John 15:7 (here @ Bible Gateway) are conditional.  The construction of the sentences indicate that it is not certain that those who heard or read will actually fulfill the condition of having the Words abide in them or abide in His Word.  The implications of not doing what Christ exhorted are dire.

This is getting longer than I intended when I started.  So I will finish it in the next post or so.  Stay tuned.

Work and Grace

These are the two quotes to which I referred four days ago.  The first is by William Wilberforce.  You may remember that he was the British Lord who led the fight against the institution of slavery.  His life is worth getting to know.  One of several things about him that challenges me was his habit of quoting Psalm 119 (here @ Bible Gateway) from memory on his walk home from the house of Lords each evening.

The second quote is from Grant Osborne.  He was professor of New Testament focused on hermeneutics, or the science of interpretation, at Trinity.  His book The Hermenutical Spiral is a standard work on the subject.

Wilberforce
And why, it may be asked, are we in this pursuit alone to expect knowledge without inquiry, and success without endeavour?  The whole analogy of nature inculcates on us a different lesson, and our own judgments in matters of temporal interests and worldly policy confirm the truth of her suggestions.  Bountiful as is the hand of Providence, its gifts are not so bestowed as to seduce us into indolence, but to rouse us to exertion; and no one expects to attain to the height of learning, or arts, or power, or wealth, or military glory, without vigorous resolution, and strenuous diligence, and steady perseverance.  Yet we expect to be Christians without labour, study, or inquiry.  This is the more preposterous, because Christianity, being a revelation from God, and not the invention of man, discovering to us new relations, with their correspondent duties; containing also doctrines, and motives, and practical principles, and rules, peculiar to itself, and almost as new in their nature as supreme in their excellence, we cannot reasonably expect to become proficient in it by the accidental intercourses of life, as one might learn insensibly the maxims of worldly policy, or a scheme of mere morals.
Wilberforce, William. A Practical View of the Prevailing Religious System of Professed Christians, in the Middle and Higher Classes in this Country, Contrasted with Real Christianity. (pp. 10-11). Kindle Edition.

Osborne
The big problem with Bible study today is that we think it should be easier than other things we do. We study recipes for quality meals, how-to books for all kinds of things—carpentry, plumbing, automobile maintenance and so on—and read vociferously for our hobbies. Why do we think the Bible is the only subject we should not have to study?! Let me challenge you—make the Bible your hobby. At one level I do not like the analogy; the Bible must be so much more than a hobby! But at another level, what if we spent as much time and money on Bible study as we do our hobbies? What if we took the same amount we spend on golf clubs and courses or on skiing equipment and skiing trips, and put it into Bible study? Yes, encyclopedias, commentaries and other reference materials are expensive. But so is everything we do. The question is about priorities: what is important enough for our time and money?
Grant R. Osborne, The Hermeneutical Spiral: A Comprehensive Introduction to Biblical Interpretation, Rev. and expanded, 2nd ed. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2006), 25.

Did you catch the similarity?  Wilberforce would have said this in the early 1800’s.  Osborne’s quote is from the 2nd edition of his work, published in 2006.  They were speaking to similar issues 206 years apart.

What would you consider to be the key implications of the reality that two men, strong believers, are concerned about the same issue 206 years apart?  In a later (I’ve given up on trying to do this daily) post, I will share my thoughts on this.

Worship of the Giver

Have you ever admired someone’s skill?  Looked at something that they have created and was amazed at their work?  There are a number of artists for which I have great regard.  Some of them work in the medium of drawing or painting.  Many in music.  Some in the written word both in fiction and non-fiction.  Some as actors.  Some as carpenters.  Some as designers of buildings, bridges, or other structures.

There are others though who many would not consider artists, plumbers, electricians, welders, etc.  Artists, however, they are.

Exodus 31:6 (here @ Bible Gateway), the last part especially, tells us that any skill that we have was put there by God.  So when you admire someone’s work, you are in reality giving thanks to the One who gifted their skill.

Perhaps a new source of worship.

Problem Solving 101

Problems are a fact of life.  Either in our personal life, our business, or our communities of faith.  In 1 Chronicles 19:8, 10, 13, the writer outlines how David dealt with a significant problem.  David’s approach seems to set for us a good example of how to deal with difficult problems.

There seem to be three steps to David’s plan.

1. David sent his best people to deal with the issue – he sent his best general, Joab, and his mighty men.


2. David did not micro manage the problem – he let his best people deal with the issue based on their experience and gifts.  They dealt with the problem by:
1. Subdividing the issue into manageable or rational parcels.
2. Assigning the best people to deal with that subset.


3. All, David, Joab, and the mighty men were strong and courageous in dealing with the challenge.
1. They were not focused on getting glory for themselves.
2. They were focused on:
1. Getting glory for the Lord
2. Protecting the People

This seems like an approach that will work for many of the problems we face in our personal, business, and communities of faith.

Passive Christianity

I have sat on this for about three weeks but it won’t go away.  It seems to me that many in our communities are passive Christians.  In this context a passive Christian would be one who is continually taking in information.  Continually perhaps, even regularly listening to messages, reading Christian literature, and attending Christian events.  In other words high levels of preprocessed input.

However, a passive Christian is not personally engaged in self-feeding on the Word of God.  They are committed to what the writer of Hebrews refers to as milk, Hebrews 5:11 – 14.

What is milk?  Predigested and processed protein.  Someone else has done the eating of the meat.  There are all kinds of Christian milk available.  Books about the Bible, fill in the blank studies, messages on mp3, blogs, studies on disk, all of which I have used and from which I have derived benefit.  However, that, according to Hebrews 5:11 – 14, should not be our primary or continual input.  We are supposed to grow past that.  We are supposed to graduate to meat.  (By the way this is repeated in 1 Corinthians 3:1 - 3.)

How?

Practice.  We are to engage in the Word personally.  We move.  The word train here, is the Greek word from which we derive gymnasium.  We should be working out in the word.

But those in the Christian communities have to be equipped, they – well all of us – need personal trainers.  At the gym we need help to understand how to exercise properly.  We need that so we do not injure ourselves.  In our walk with God, we need people to equip us in how to study the Word for ourselves, that seems to be what Paul is suggesting in Ephesians 4:11 - 16.  In the New Testament we read that is exactly what the disciples did they showed people how.  They did not just tell them what.

All this brought the image above to mind.  In the movie Wall-E the people never moved.  They never ate solid food.  They were addicted to milk.  It was the robots that moved.  It was the robots that served.  The people didn’t even turn their heads to speak to one another, they used their media.

Perhaps it is time for some meat eating practice.

The Closely Girded Word

Romans 15:4 tells us that what we read in the Old Testament was written both to instruct us and to give us hope.  Many of us do not spend a great deal of time studying or reading through those 39 books.  We spend most of our time in the New Testament…  Remember, though, for the writers of the New Testament, the Scriptures were those 39 books.  So we should be instructed.  We do need do so with care.  We need to make sure that we do not take ideas out of context nor should we allegorize what we read.

That being said, and attempting to follow my own advice, look at Psalm 149:6.  I was stunned by this passage.  The combination of high praise and a two-edged sword was striking.  When we imagine worship, at least when I imagine worship, I think more in terms of guitars than swords.

That terminology reoccurs in Hebrews 4:12.  There the Word of God is referred to as a two edged sword.  In Nehemiah 4:17, those building the wall with Nehemiah are portrayed as carrying their work out with one hand while holding a sword in the other.  In Ephesians 6:10 – 20, where we read about the full armor of God, we read that the Word of God is the Sword of the Spirit.

It makes me wonder if the writer of Hebrews and Paul had Psalm 149:6 and Nehemiah 4:17 in mind when they penned those passages.  What it does bring to mind is the centrality of the Word of God in all aspects of our experience as believers.  Whether in worship, work, or ministry, the Word should be in one hand while we are doing worship, work, or ministry with the other.

Starting Well, Ending Poorly

What do you think of when you think of King Saul?  First image I get is him begging his armor bearer to kill him, and when that did not work falling on his sword.  He did not end well.  But he started really well.

Look at these passages:
1 Samuel 9:21
1 Samuel 10:16
1 Samuel 10:23
1 Samuel 10:27
1 Samuel 11:13

The picture painted is one of a humble man who is surprised and resistant to the attention.  He does not seek attention or acclaim.  Rather he hid from it.  What happened?  How did he get off track?

He did so quickly.

Now look at:
1 Samuel 13:8 – 9, 11
1 Samuel 13:14
1 Samuel 15:7 – 21

Saul either forgot or never realized the purpose of authority (more on that tomorrow).  He became more interested in what people thought of him, whether they esteemed him and followed him, rather than doing what the Lord had commanded him to do.

That is a subtle trap.  A couple of weeks ago I was working with a group of people in another country.  The first day the conversation, although in a language I do not speak, was spirited and the feedback from the interpreter was encouraging.  The next day the energy in the room was significantly less.  I could not tell how they were responding to the passages we were discussing.

My initial reaction was to wonder what was going wrong.  I wrote about that in my journal – by the way, that is one of the best ways for the Lord to get my attention.  It slows me down and I am able to hear His prompting much better.  The key for me is to be honest about what I am thinking and with what I am struggling – the Lord reminded me that it was not about their reaction.  It was about my obedience to Him.  My doing what He had laid on my heart to do.  The result was not my responsibility, it was His.

That is partially what Saul forgot.  It is a trap for any leader.  It is easy to get focused on the result of what we are doing rather than whether we are doing what God had directed us to do.  Sometimes we can get so focused on doing, that we forget to ask what it is He wants.

It is then that we are beginning to walk in Saul’s path.

Not a good direction.

So You Want To Be Important?

All or most of us have been in situations where there was a group of people who were the movers and shakers and we were not either.  There were meetings going on at work or at church or some other organization that was where the best information was shared and decisions were made.

You may have experienced at your work something that was decided at some meeting that made absolutely no operational sense. As a consultant from time to time I saw clients make decisions that did more harm than good.  I have made some of those myself.

Most of us then have, at one time or another, wished we could have been in the meeting so it would have gone better.

Look at Numbers 13:2 – 32.  Moses assembled an elite team to go and research the land God had promised and make recommendations.

All but 2 of the 12 blew it.  The elite team completely mislead the nation.  With the result that for the next 40 years the nation did laps around the wilderness, until all of those who followed the advice of the 10 that were wrong and those 10 were beneath the sand, and the nation was right back at the same place they decided to trust the 10 rather than God.

The elite group, the brain trust, the leaders, sometimes get it wrong.

Out of Your Soul

You know that our Bibles were first written in Hebrew, Greek, and some Aramaic.  If you have worked with any translation from other languages you know that it is impossible to do a word for word translation from one language to the other, the results make no sense.  The word order and syntax of languages differ greatly.

In the translations we have the committees use differing philosophies in their approach to their task.  In the NASB, the version I use most frequently, the committee supplies words not in the original to make the flow of the sentence easier to read.  They put those words in italics so that the reader can identify the supplied words.

In some cases the literal translation of a word or phrase is difficult to render smoothly in English, the committee will often attempt to rectify this with an interpretation of what they consider the intent of the author.  In these cases there is often a footnote with the literal translation of the word or phrase.

This is the case with Colossians 3:23.

It is a passage that I memorized and have used as personal challenge and encouragement since the early days of my journey with Christ.  Jenny and I were reading in Colossians earlier this week and I read this passage out loud – by the way I have discovered that reading out loud seems to give me observations that I miss otherwise and this is a case in point.

I noticed in Colossians 3:23 there were two such literal footnotes.  I glanced at them as I read and the content stopped me.

I checked my Greek text and the literal rendering of the text would read, “Whatever you do out of your soul work as to the Lord and not to men.”  The NASB and most of the other versions render “out of your soul” as heartily.  That is good, but it does not seem to have the weight of working from your soul.

As I have considered that for the past few days, I am rebuked and challenged.  There is much that I do that if I am honest is not out of my soul.  I just get it done.  To work out of my soul seems to call for more.  It seems to suggest that I am doing all that I can with all of my being in that task “whatever” it is.  Further, it is not for my employer, my friend, my neighbor, I am doing “whatever” for Him.

That requires me to live in John 15:5.

Quandry of Blindness

The Task Today
Most of today was invested in curriculum development.  As much as I am passionate about getting men into the Word, this has been a slog.  Part of the issue is that I am writing this for someone else to give.  That is a challenge for me for a couple of reasons.  First, and this is probably selfish, I would prefer to do it myself.

The Steep Challenge
Second, I do not know those who will be leading the session for which I am writing.  I do not know their backgrounds, their experience in the Bible, or their views on what I am writing.  Further, part of my assignment is the modules on personal Bible study.  The focus will be a modified synthetic overview of the Gospel of John.  That is a difficult assignment.  Especially if one has never done a synthetic overview of a shorter book.  The men attending will not have.  Pretty sure the men teaching will not have either.

No Experience Necessary?
So my task is to write a lesson for people who have not done what they are teaching so that they can teach what they have never done to men who have never done it either.  Seems a lot like the blind leading the blind.

So I struggle.

I have spent a lot of time praying and writing – not necessarily in that order.

Working as the Owner

Saturday I am doing a “Fathers to Sons” workshop in Borger, Texas.  I have discovered from my dad this week that I have deep roots there, but more on that later, maybe.  Talking to my friend the pastor this morning we determined I needed 30 – 40 more books.  So I went to a printer here in Huntsville to get them printed and bound.  For reference it was 12:30 PM.

When I walked into the printer there were about five people in there, none of which were doing anything but talking to one another.  None of the printers were being used.  So it looked like there would be capacity to get the job done.  No.  I was informed after I explained what I needed that they had three hundred books in front of me, not sure when they were going to start, but they would not have time to do my 30 copies.

So, I trucked on down to the local Office Depot.  I explained to the girl there what I needed and she assured me that she could get it done, but that they would not honor my tax exempt status.  I asked how much, it was quite a bit because they charge a lot for a color copy.  I had decided to bite the bullet on the price when she told me that she would have them tomorrow morning.  I reminded her that I had to have them today.  She said she thought she could get it done.  Thought?  I needed to know if she could.  She supposed so.  Supposed?  Supposed is not good enough, can you do it or not?  Bottom line she would not commit.  I walked out.

I found a printer in Conroe, thirty minutes away.  I called and explained the situation.  They were working on 800 books.  They closed 4 hours earlier than Office Depot.  Their punch for the spiral binder was broken.  But they would do it.

When I got there, it was three people.  All were moving rapidly.  Irene, took my file and converted the pages that had color on them to grey so I wouldn’t be charged for 29 color copies per book.  I don’t know how they got the pages punched.  But I have not 30 but 41 books because their price was about half of Office Depots’

Colossians 3:17, 23 tell us that we are to work hard and well for our Lord in whatever we do.  One way to do that is to do whatever we are asked to do with a whole heart.  All three of the people in Conroe did that.  There was evidence in the shop that they were believers.  They came up with the way to print the books so I did not have to pay for 29 color copies.  It took 15 minutes to fix, and saved me $200.

By their attitude and work ethic they demonstrated Colossians 3:17, 23.  It is no wonder that they have a consistent stream of work.

That is how we should approach all we do, as unto the Lord.  All we do should be excellent.  Because regardless of who our earthly boss may be, or how messed up they are, our ultimate boss is Christ.