Thoughts on Interpreting Scripture

The process of reading, interpreting and ultimately understanding what the Bible says ought to be the greatest priority of the follower of Jesus.

I am reading through some material that has been sitting on my desk (and floor, for that matter) and interacting with it. I will be doing this more often over the next few weeks. This will give me a way of putting this information on the site and providing a way to search through a lot of material quickly.

I came across this article by R. C. Sproul, Sr., in Tabletalk Magazine. In it Dr. Sproul is looking at how do we interact and interpret the Bible. The following reflections and quotation page numbers are taken from the January 2011 magazine.

Two Principles to Govern Interpretation

1. The Analogy of Faith: This is the idea that scripture is its own interpreter. What this means on a practical level is that a through investigation of what the Bible has to say on a subject should be done before any exploration of other sources.

2. “Sensus literalis“: This does not mean that “every text in the Scriptures is given a “woodenly literal” interpretation, but rather that we must interpret the Bible in the sense in which it is written” (6). What this means is that we do not violate the laws of grammar or genre in order to arrive at an understanding of what the text says. Sproul makes this plainly clear.

“Though the Bible is not like any other book in that is carries with it the authority of divine inspiration, nevertheless, the inspiration of the Holy Spirit over a written text does not turn verbs into nouns or nouns into verbs. No special, secret, arcane, esoteric meaning is pourted into a text simply because it’s divinely inspiried. … No, the Bible is to be interpreted according to the ordinary rules of language.” (6-7)

At the heart of this principle is the idea that we start with what we know and understand and then trying to make sense of those areas that are not as clear. In order to treat the Bible as a cohesive text we have to maintain that sense as we engage it. To do otherwise is to violate the integrity of the message that the bible contains. Sproul provided this clarifying thought. “Though we affirm the basic clarity of the sacred Scripture, we do not at the same time say that all passage are equally clear” (7).

The process of reading, interpreting and ultimately understanding what the Bible says ought to be the greatest priority of the follower of Jesus. These two principles are helpful guides as you study.

Let me know if you agree with Dr. Sproul or not…

How Keeping The Speed Limit Keeps Me Sane

About one month ago I attended a men’s conference at one of my favorite outdoor camps, Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters. There are some good folks up there.

I am writing this because my wife noticed that I had started keeping the speed limit when I drove. When she asked I did not have a good answer for her. I still do not, but I have been thinking about it and wanted to share with her and with you some of my thoughts.

As I spent time away, reflecting and praying on a couple of decisions I had to make, something happened that I do not have a good explanation for. Nothing was said to make me think about the fact that most people speed when they drive. We talk about being good men, good fathers, good husbands. We talked about our devotional life with God. We talked about life and we ate good food. But, there was nothing said about the fact that most people in this country break the law every day. There was not any reference to this kind of behavior, but when I left the camp I was not speeding.

I like said, I am not sure why I am driving the speed limit consistently. I can not explain it, but what I know is the effect that it has had on my mind and heart. By obeying the speed limit I notice how many people are in a terrible hurry to get to the next place. I have noticed that people look at me like I’m the one that is strange. “Doesn’t he know that I have some place to be!” My fellow drivers just do not appear to understand why someone would NOT be in as big a hurry as them. It has been one of the most rewarding realities of my life. I was living a hurried life. And now, I do not have too.

Leaving five or ten minutes earlier is a better choice than trying to make up that five or ten minutes by driving recklessly. Most of our time on the road is less than an hour long. Driving five, ten or even fifteen miles an hour faster for that short a distance does not really improve driving time. What driving faster does is amplify the affects should (God forbid) an accident occur. This is a great website from Australia that helps validate this by providing stats on the effects of speeding on a possible accident. (I am pretty sure Australians have the same tendencies as we do. They are humans too.)

Here are some of the findings that they discovered. Driving over the speed limit:

increases your chances of being involved in a crash
means you have less time to react to avoid a crash
takes longer to stop the vehicle to avoid a crash
increases the severity of injury in a crash.

This is not the only interesting effect of keeping the speed limit. Keeping the speed limit has given me something to pray about as I drive. I find myself praying more as I drive. I just keep thinking of all the people who genuinely believe that if they do not speed all their plans will fall apart. I have realized that I do not want this to be my life.

I have learned that keeping the speed limit not only makes good practical sense, it makes good spiritual sense. I want to live a consistent life before God. I am not where I need to be, but I hope that I am making progress.

You Are A Missionary: Calvin Miller’s “A Letter to the Church”

Dr. Calvin Miller passed away this last week from complications of a surgery. He was a renowned pastor, writer, professor and poet. I remember encountering his thoughts on worship and the devotional life with God as I read Into the Depths of God. I think that book had more highlights per page than any other book I have ever read. I have since loaned it out and have not gotten it back. (It may be time to get another copy!)

Dr. Ed Stetzer has written a wonderful tribute for Dr. Miller and has also shared an essay that Dr. Miller wrote for a study bible. Take a few minutes this morning and be reminded of what God has called us to as the church. Here is a just a sample of what Dr. Miller wrote:

But be not proud! In redeeming the world all arrogance is precluded. There are no good, arrogant missionaries (2Co 12:5). Christ’s ambassadors (2Co 5:20) are men and women made humble by the immense size of the message given to them by Earth’s Lover. They feed on the bread they give away. They remember who they were when they met Christ, and just that little act of memory causes them to weep that that they once stumbled into grace, before they were ever called to dispense it. Now they are driven by the joy of God’s call, they are the cleansed unclean, the forgiven forgivers, the wounded healers.

Growing Pains, Pt. 5 | “Discipleship”

Being Stretched

One of the most difficult things that we as Christians must face is ourselves. For the most part there is no greater barrier to spiritual growth than our own preconceived and long standing beliefs–or misbeliefs. It is hard to get rid of those ideas and thoughts that have guided us throughout our lives. This is more the case for adults than for children because when a child comes to Christ they have not lived too much life. They have not experienced as much or seen as much. A child comes in innocence and through the love and structure of a church and family can learn the faith without having to replace or undo other ideas and feelings and thoughts from outside sources. The child asks this question, “Is what I have been taught the truth?” The adult on the other hand asks a different question. An adult’s question is, “Why should I change what I already believe and hold to be true?” This fundamental difference is what causes the stretching in people’s lives.

For the child it is a struggle to hold on to what he or she has been taught. For the adult it is the process of replacing already held beliefs for Christian ones. And it is through the process of discipleship that the stretching occurs. It is through the struggle of finding the truth and learning to exercise faith that we become more and more like Jesus. Continue reading “Growing Pains, Pt. 5 | “Discipleship””

Growing Pains, Pt. 3 | “Service”

Prove It!

Caring for our neighbor is not something that can be passed by and overlooked as unimportant. Of all the things that Jesus said, the love of God and the love of neighbor are the most important. Jesus went so far as to say that upon these two commandments hang, hinge, stand, all of the law and the prophets (Matthew 22:34-40, NKJV). Everything that we, as Christians, believe and hold to be true can be summarized with these two statements. That is significant and should be treated in a way that reflects this.

While other religions in the world want to add more and more things to do, God says, “Here, just try these two.” In Christianity there is a shrinking of the requirements. And yet, the struggles that come from trying to do these two simple commandments are incredible.

As we go through this process of growing in faith we come to a very sharp and unyielding challenge. What are you doing WITH your faith? James, the brother of Jesus, tells us that faith without works is dead. We say you have faith! “Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works” (James 1:18, NKJV). If nothing has happened since we have professed, confessed and have been baptized, we should be some concern. Our faith was not meant for ourselves, but for those around us. That’s why God gave it to you.

Finding A Place To Serve

Service has a way of healing the one that is doing the work. This experience does not come from watching, but from doing. We must put our hands to the plow if we are going to see the fruit of that labor. We live in a society that tells us that we can have it all-at a very reasonable price. Well, the price that God found reasonable was the blood of His Son Jesus. That means that if we are going to have it all, then we must also pay the price that has been set, and that price is our service. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service” (Romans 12:1, NKJV). What God expects is not unreasonable. We must learn to acknowledge this truth whenever we are tempted to say that “God would not…” followed by something we do not want to do.

To serve is to return to where God intended for us to be from the beginning. He commanded Adam to go and tend to the garden. Adam was not created to just recline on the soft grass and eat grapes and do nothing. Adam had a job and it was to see after the creation of God. The older I get the more I realize that it is in doing the simple things of God that I find the most joy.

What Are You Doing?

If there is anything at all that is hard about being a Christian it is this-we have to do something. To sit back and kick our feet up just will not do. I believe that God demands us to be proactive. It just is not good enough to do nothing because we will not be satisfied if we are not serving.

When we look at our lives do we think that God is pleased? This is not a question meant to bring guilt. If we cannot answer this question in a way the leaves a sense of peace in our hearts, then something has to change, someone is going to have to give. I can assure you of this, God will not be the one doing the moving.

It is true that I may not be able to judge the quantity or quality of faith that you have in your life, but there is one thing that the world can do and that is it can see and consider the effect that our professed faith has had or has not had in our lives. What do they see? The better question is what should they see?

The Two Questions That Will Destroy Your Faith

We Become What We Believe In

I was meeting with a friend this morning. As we ate breakfast we were talking about how we become who God wants us to be. We had been reading through Colossians and we came to the end of chapter three. That is where Paul says this.

¹² Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, ¹³ bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. ¹⁴ And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. ¹⁵ And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. ¹⁶ Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. ¹⁷ And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Colossians 3:12-17, ESV)

In verses 12-13 we find the attributes of who we are supposed to be. We cannot just do these things. Something has to change inside of us so that we can become people who live like this. But in the next four verses we find that there are at least four things that can do, that God will use to transform us so we more closely reflect Christ. We have to “put on love,” “be thankful,” “let the word of Christ dwell in [me] richly,” “do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus.” If we do these things, God promises that we will see a change within us. Continue reading “The Two Questions That Will Destroy Your Faith”

Spiritual Starvation: The Reason Many Christian’s Struggle

Ok, so here is the deal. When I get hungry, I eat. When I get tired, I sleep. When I get discouraged, I eat. Just kidding on the last one. I usually go watch a movie or watch my kids play.

On a serious note, though, if hunger is the sign that something needs to be put in our stomach’s, what are we supposed to put in our spiritual belly when we are spiritually hungry? This is a question that I have been trying to get my head and heart around over the last couple of months. I do not have this all figured out, but I think that I am going in the right direction. So, let me share with you what I have been thinking.

There are two places in the Gospel’s were Jesus says something about spiritual food. What makes these two instances interesting is that one has to do with consumption and the other has to do with activity. I am by no means the symbol of fitness or dietary excellence, but I know that if I want to be healthy I have to eat well and exercise or stay active.

This is what Jesus said. The first he said to the devil and the second he said to his disciples.

But he answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” (Matthew 4:4, ESV)

³¹ Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” ³² But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” ³³ So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” ³⁴Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work….” (John 4:31-34, ESV)

Continue reading “Spiritual Starvation: The Reason Many Christian’s Struggle”

Eat your way into heaven!

Over the last several years I have struggled to lose weight. I know that I can’t continue to eat like it will be my last meal and expect to maintain a healthy lifestyle and weight. But, eating is so good. If there were a way to keep eating, but not get full, I think that many of us would probably eat all of the time. Food is a gift from God. We were designed to eat so that we could live and not the other way around.

So let me ask you a question: if food is needed to sustain your physical life, what do you need to “eat” in order to sustain your spiritual life?

It can be so easy to think that the physical and the spiritual are in the same condition, but that would be a mistake. The problem that many of us have is that we are very good at diagnosing where we are spiritually. I would strongly recommend Donald Whitney’s book Ten Questions to Diagnose your Spiritual Health. I can read the questions and some of my thoughts on each here in Part 1 and Part 2.

Back to my question, what do you have to “eat”? I have found that the only spiritual food that God has provided for us is his word. Listen to what Jesus said to the Devil after forty days of fasting,

³And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” ⁴But he answered, “It is written,

“‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

(Matthew 4:3-4, ESV)

“Every word that come the mouth of God” is what provides the nourishment that we need in order to feed our spirit. One of the things that we have to realize is that we do not truly know how spiritually malnourished we are until we have fed our spirit healthy food. The more junk we take in the weaker we become. I would challenge you to begin reading scripture on a daily basis, three times a day even, and see if your spiritual life does not improve.

There is no way that you can eat too much of the word of God. And, there is an added benefit to eating scripture, you will grow more healthy with each bite!

A Spiritual Gut Check

In this post I will let you in on my plan and my dream! Read on and I hope you join the journey with me!

Yesterday I said that I would be letting you in on something that I will be doing this year. Well, here it is.

One of my “Faith” goals is to make one new disciple of Jesus, for Jesus this year.

Now, while that may not be too earth shattering to some, it is to me. I want to intentional find and lead another soul into a deeper relationship with Jesus. I have to tell you, I am scared and excited about it.

So, let me give you some background and then the plan.

This all begins with a simple question. I gave you a hint yesterday. Do you remember what it is? I asked: What was the last thing that Jesus asked and left for his disciples to do when he went back to heaven? He said it at the end of the Gospel of Matthew. Let’s read it:

¹⁸ And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20, ESV)

Jesus was given authority by his heavenly father, and with that authority Jesus commanded his disciples, both present and future, to go and make more disciples. That appears to be relatively straight forward. One would think that this would be something that the church and her members would spend a lot of time thinking about and doing. To some degree, we do a very good job of talking about discipleship. It is just in the execution of the plan that most of us get bogged down and even stall into failure.

Here is the gut check. In the time that you have been a Christian, have you ever, intentionally made a disciple? Now, before you answer that question, here is the definition of a disciple.

A disciple is someone who makes disciples.

This definition is designed to be both wide and narrow. It is wide because we are not designating “how” this happens. There are a multitude of factors that play into making disciples, and we will discuss some of those in the future. The “how” should never become more important than the “what.” When you claim to be a disciple there is a necessary byproduct to this profession.

Here is the simple truth of it. If we are disciples and we are NOT making disciples, we are misfiring is a very critical way. A brand new car, with no gas, is just as useless as a car with no engine. They both might look the same, but something vital to its work is missing. But, if the gas is added, then the one that has all the necessary components will work as it was designed to do.

The engine of the Christian life is the process of discipleship. Without it the Christian does not have what he or she needs to move towards God’s purposes. The gas that moves the discipleship engine is the Word of God. This is something that we will see.

But, this definition is also narrow because it identifies the expected “what” that should come from the process of discipleship. After a discple has been made, what should they do and what should they be? They should be disciples, followers of Jesus, who go and make more disciples that look like Jesus AND themselves! This is what I call the ELEVENone Principle.

Paul helps the Corinthians understand what it looks like to be disciples and to do what disciples do when they adhere to this one idea. Read if for yourself.

¹Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ. (1 Corinthians 1:1, ESV)

Here is the question that just grabs me and will not let go when I read this erse. Who is Paul asking the Corinthians to imitate?

Now before you go and give me to old, “Well I am not Paul” line. Let me ask this. Are you supposed to be? Whoever said that everybody had to be an apostle in order to make disciples or even say what Paul says here.

“It just sounds so prideful and arrogant.” “Who am I to ask someone else to do what I am doing?” Wow! With that kind of humility why shouldn’t we follow you! (Sorry, but this kind of thinking drives me crazy.) When did it become more faith-filled to avoid doing what the Bible points to us doing? Jesus never promised us a perfect, care-free life. Trials and trouble, sometimes, are what mark the life of a Christ follower.

The level of self-awareness and humble recognition that Paul is calling the Corinthian’s and all believers who read his words to is this, nobody can be for another what Jesus is for us. But that does not remove the responsibility that we have to be and become like Christ to those that God has placed in on our path.

I could go on and on here, but I will save some of this for later. Here is the bottom line. If you are a disciple of Jesus, then you need to be making disciples. No exceptions. No excuses. So, the question that we must as is why are we not intentionally making disciples? What is holding you back? Could it be that we do not know what to do even to get started? I know that this is exactly what the problem was for me and I am in full-time ministry!

So, this is what we are going to do. If you are interested in learning a simple way of growing closer to Jesus and helping others grow closer to Jesus, i.e., make disciples, this is what I want you to do.

Pray. Pray. Pray.

Pray that God would confirm his plan of using you to make one disciple of Jesus, for Jesus this year. Pray that God would start a fire in your heart for the souls of those whom God sends to intersect your path. If this is what you want to see in your life commit yourself to trying something new.

Today will be a time of prayer and reflection. Tomorrow, if you want to be a part of a plan to make one disciple of Jesus, for Jesus this year, I will share with you a simple process that will blow you away. It did for me!

Some Thoughts for a Friend | “Why the Missional Church Will Fail”

I was put onto this article, “Why the Missional Church Will Fail,” by my friend Joel Diaz (@thejoeldiaz) who wanted me to comment (I am sure for the sake of discussion). I will provide my thoughts in list form to reduce my tendency to say too much.

Three Observations

1. I agree in principle with the underlying premise of the post. Mission devoid of discipleship will leave the church looking like a car dealership parking lot with a plethora of options and not a single way of moving them because all of the engines have been removed.

“If you’re good at making disciples, you’ll get more leaders than you’ll know what to do with. If you make disciples like Jesus made them, you’ll see people come to faith who didn’t know Him. If you disciple people well, you will always get the missional thing. Always.”

2. The missional movements passion for doing the work of the kingdom has been and is a needed corrective to what has been perceived as the “dry” and sometimes “stale” orthodoxy of the institutional church. (I don’t believe either of these are true, but perception tends to be reality.)

“God did not design us to do Kingdom mission outside of the scope of intentional, biblical discipleship and if we don’t see that, we’re fooling ourselves. Mission is under the umbrella of discipleship as it is one of the many things that Jesus taught his disciples to do well. But it wasn’t done in a vacuum outside of knowing God and being shaped by that relationship, where a constant refinement of their character was happening alongside of their continued skill development (which included mission).”

3. This next comment is based on this ONE post. I do not know what has been said in other posts or places by the author.

As in most cases when I hear someone start talking about discipleship, and the need to be better at it, there is hardly ever any attempt to provide the pattern, system, methods or whatever that Jesus actually did to form and shape the first disciples. If there is one thing that is undeniably clear about the first disciples it was this: They were completely certain of what Jesus had taught them to do.

The danger with discussions about discipleship is that we base the conversation upon the effects that we see in the Scripture and hope to see in our day because we have no idea about how to create the conditions for those effects.

Final Thoughts

I do not believe that the process or method of forming disciples is something that changes because of context. We have no evidence that the discipleship process of the New Testament was adjusted as the apostles traveled the world. But, we do have Paul’s explicit example that the methods of introducing new areas and converts to Jesus, his Gospel and discipleship changed and were adjusted to the context of ministry (1 Corinthians 9:19-23).

I have come to the place in my faith journey that anytime we have to “start thinking about discipleship again,” we are exposing the failure of the church and her leaders to keep the main thing the main thing. Anything and everything else is a secondary issue to making disciples. Jesus never said anything about buildings, budgets, bands, books, banners, boycotts or branding. Jesus’ final words were to make disciples.

The bottom line is that we are good at advertising the churches mission statement, but have failed in accomplishing the purpose for which the church was created (Colossians 1:28). Until we get this right we will have to continue addressing this issue.

Source Article: Why the Missional Church Will Fail by Mike Breen