I have heard this song before but, this time I found myself really listening. Have you ever done that? Something just hits you differently than it had before. When this happens to me, I realize that there is truth unheard that I am now ready to receive.
It can be so easy to forget who HE is and who that, in turn, makes us. I need as many reminders of who I am as I can get.
I hope you find it as much a blessing as I did.
As I was driving home from a revival service last night a thought crossed my mind. It was connected to this verse found in 1 Corinthians 10:13.
13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
I have often heard people pray and ask God to make a way for them. “Lord, make a way.” As I thought about this I realized that many times we are not asking God to provide for us HIS way. We are asking God to provide a way to suites OUR desires. The gulf between these two points of view is staggering.
As I was driving home I was astonished at how easily we are seduced into thinking that God’s favor and love and grace gives us permission to ask anything we want from God. We come to him as spoiled children, rather than grateful debtors. Our adoption into the family does not mean we now become prideful regarding our new position. We should remain humbled and appreciative of God’s kindness toward us.
When we ask God to make a way we need to be ready to take the way HE provides. When we ask God to make a way we must understand that we are surrendering our “right” to complain about the path to freedom. God will provide a way that leads to him. He is not interested in leading you to any other destination. My relationship with God is more important to him than my bank account, my health, my status, my titles, my accomplishments. The way of escape will always lead to Him.
Asking God for a way of escape is a dangerous request. If we are unwilling to take the avenue provided, then we are praying in vain. If we are unwilling to accept the road to God’s deliverance, then we are not really interested in getting out of where we are. If what we want is have it our way, then go to Burger King because God does not and will do anything to accommodate our whims and worldly aspirations.
Over the last several months God has been teaching me about my journey of faith. There are many things to consider when we talk about faith. We have to define it. We have to understand what it is and how we use it. To often I have found that when the church people talk about faith we do not really know how to make sense of it for ourselves. What ends up happening is we recycle the phrases and ideas that have been taught to us. In the end, we have not really made any advancement in our own journey. We can end up feeling stuck.
I totally understand this. When we think about faith what exactly are we thinking about? Is it something that can even be understood? Can it be quantified? Too often I feel that we talk about faith in esoteric language because (1) we do not know what we really want to say, but (2) we are afraid if someone gives an answer that is more concrete than we are comfortable with we will have to change the way we live our lives. Now, I may be the only who thinks like this, but I can’t help and think that others have had similar thoughts.
I am not trying to question anyone’s motives, I am just reflecting on my own experience on this journey with God. The clearer we get on what it means to walk by faith the hard it is to live any other way. Any and every time we are confronted with truth and we know it is truth we become accountable to what we now know.
How would you describe your journey of faith to someone else?
In the first part of Reading as Conversation, we talked about the two pivotal events that propelled me into changing the way I read the Bible. I also talked about how the Bible is a game-changer. What that means is if we want to see the Bible do what God intended for it to do in our lives we have to stop “telling” the Bible what it is. We have to allow God’s word to work as God designed it to work in our lives. Too often we come to the Bible with all kinds of preconceptions and then are pleasantly surprised when we find what we were “looking for.”
Let’s take a moment and review the six basic realities we must understand and believe regarding the Bible. There may be more, however, I believe that if we are going to learn to read the Bible better we have to start with some ground rules about what we are dealing with.
Do you believe these things to be true of God’s word? If you do not, you will have a difficult time hearing from God and discerning what he is trying to do in the world and, more importantly, in your life.
We will now discuss three principles that govern how I read the Bible. These principles are what transform the Bible from a reading exercise or a chore into a pleasure. If we can wrap our minds around these simple ideas, I believe, everyone’s reading of the Bible will be radically changed.
When we read books we generally engage several of our senses in the process. The reason for this is it enhances our reading and actually increases our investment in what we are reading. Books that leave an impression are those books that “get under our skin.” There is something about the characters or the setting; the twists and turns of the plot that causes us to want to keep reading. To get to the end and find out how the puzzle gets solved.
The Bible is no different. There are all kinds of characters, plot twists, settings and more to keep us engrossed. I find that what has happened is that we have characterized the Bible as a manual rather than what it is–God’s story played out through the human drama. I could have said along-side the human drama, but this is not correct. The Bible is the only religious text that reveals the main character through the lives, events, and circumstances of the other minor characters. We see God for who he is because we see how the other players respond and interact with God.
If we are going to maximize the impact of the Bible in our reading we have to do a better job of becoming engrossed in the reading of the Bible. We must allow our imagination to pull us into the stories and characters we encounter. We should be able to feel the dirt or road or grass beneath our feet. To smell the aromas wafting in around us, whether they be intoxicating or revolting. The sensation of a rock in our hands, the sling on our fingertips, the water over our heads. This and so much more must be experienced, not merely known as bits of data.
When you read about Lazarus dying, can you hear the wailing of his sisters and friends? When Peter faltered after walking on the water could you feel the weight of your body sinking into the sea? When Jesus fed the five thousand did you wonder how the fish would taste?
God has given to us the ability to imagine, not so we can conjure up any whim or fancy as we read the Bible. It is not a time to ask the “what if” questions that draw us away from the story rather than draw us in. Our holy imagination should help us to step into the world of the Bible. It should help us to better sense the human element of the story. We have to understand that the human element is what bridges us to the God of the Bible.
We must engage as many of our senses as possible when we read. This will get us closer to understanding what was truly taking place as we flip the pages from one chapter to the next.
The second principle for reading the Bible is thinking of the time we spend reading as a conversation with God. Many people have suggested this before, but I do not think we know how to follow through with this idea. So, let me explain what I mean. I get the feeling that we just don’t know how to do it anymore. We have become so inundated with tweets and soundbites that we no longer know how to sustain a conversation for more than a few minutes.
Conversations typically have at least two participants. However, how many times do we read with the idea that there is only one person involved in the process? When we do not enter into the reading event with the idea of God being present as we read, then there is no conversation. We have to change how we think about reading and who we think is present. When I read the Bible God is right there with me. He is there waiting for me to engage Him as I investigate, ponder, and meditate on what I find on each page.
The reality of this idea is that conversations are more stimulating and have longer lasting effects than we give them credit. How many times have we had a conversation with someone and could not stop thinking about the subject? How many times have we found ourselves without a response in the heat of the moment only to come with a comeback we promise ourselves we will use the next time? This is what we want to create when we read the Bible. We want to interact with God’s word as if God were right there speaking to us because He is.
Here is the most shocking realization I had about reading the Bible, the part of the conversation that is missing is my part. God’s part has already been put down on paper. God has already given us His half of the conversation. Our job is to come to the scriptures ready to ask questions, interact with the ideas, and to engage in the challenges that are issued to us. As we do this we will begin to see that what we are looking for will happen with far less effort.
You may be asking yourself, “What are we looking for?” That is the topic of our next principle.
What needs to take place is a shift in our expectations when reading the Bible. What does this mean? Too often we read the Bible and we are looking for a windfall of revelation. We are hoping to find the one truth/idea/concept that will change our lives in an instant. The problem with coming to the Bible with this expectation is that that is not the way the Bible works.
Let me make this simple. When we read the bible for information we miss the author. When we read the Bible for transformation we miss the relationship. But when we read the Bible for conversation we get both.
The easiest way to describe what I am saying is this: spend more time looking for what God is saying to you than what he is said to them (the original hearers). Yes, the Bible needs to be understood within its original context. Yes, we have to know what the Bible meant to the original recipients. I do not deny any of these things. What I would like to encourage you to do is to do these things while consciously and intentionally thinking about what would it mean if I was an original hearer of the words I am reading.
This concept is so important to me I have written a short booklet that will help you read the Bible better. It’s short and is how I teach people to read the Bible as I disciple them.
The Bible is vitally important for the faith and life of every follower of Christ. We will not become who God has purposed if we jettison the Bible from our lives. The better we get at engaging with God in Scripture-centered conversation, the better prepared we will be to receive what God expects for us to do in our daily lives.
Start reading the Bible and thinking about the Bible as a way of having a conversation with God. If you don’t know where to start get my book. You will spend more on a cup a coffee but, reading the Bible in a new way will give you a longer-lasting jolt!
(UPDATE: This post has been edited for spelling, grammar, and ease of reading.)
First Corinthians 13 has been called the chapter of love. It contains beautiful and poetic language regarding the nature of love. As I have read it this week, I found myself struck by the opening verses of that passage. There is something in the way that Paul instructs the Corinthian church that deeds without proper motive are vacuous and utterly worthless efforts.
At first it is difficult to understand why Paul takes such a hard stance on our need to love in all we do. Sure, it makes sense that we should be kind and generous to others. We should not see to do harm to those who have wronged us. But, there is something else at work in Paul’s examples. He reminds us that we must take care not to get lost in our own spiritual endeavors that we forget our companions on the way.
Paul highlights that the possession and exercise of spiritual gifts does not give us license to do as we wish. The examples Paul uses are spectacular. These are not small or insignificant gifts. She are big, visible, in-your-face gifts, but if it’s about the individual then it is nothing more than a charade. It seems that the temptation to take advantage of spiritual gifts was something that had become common place in that church. The struggle to remain humble had given way to personal gain and influence.
Paul ends the chapter by telling us that of all the gifts that will abide faith, hope, and love will remain forever. These three are given prominence among all of God’s gifts to the saints because they are different from the all the others. All the spiritual gifts discussed in chapter 12 are to be used by the believer for the benefit of those in the church. Faith, hope, and love are not like this. These three are given to the believer as a means of confirming the presence of God within us. The fact that faith, hope, and love will abide forever, is an indication that what God has done was intended to produce these three things from the start.
The question that rolls around in my mind is why love is the greatest. What is it about the nature of love that make it rise above the other two? I think it is greatest because it is a reflection of God’s own character. Love, while it resides within us, must be expressed sacrificially. I can speak in tongues, move mountains, and give everything away and it not really be a burden or a struggle to do so. It makes us feel good to do those thing most of the time. But, when the task required is costly; when it calls for a deeper level of commitment; when there is no inherent benefit to me, love must be present for me to act.
Love is sacrificial. When we love the way God does, it forces us to not consider the ramifications to ourselves. We see the one in need and we are compelled to act. Love is more than just an emotion. A true act of love engages us to the very core of our being.
I think Paul understood this better than most. After all he had done, God loved him and taught him how to love others. As I read this famous chapter, I read it as an acknowledgement by Paul of what he experienced when God loved him and saved him. This is Paul’s description of God’s love toward him, the chief of sinners. A magnificent one at that.
My church will begin a study of the book of Colossians this weekend. We will be working through the book over the next several weeks (something I am looking forward to). Even though I have read the letter many times, we were all encouraged to read the letter again as a way of preparing for the messages and discussion during our LifeGroup meetings.
One of the benefits of reading a book of the bible several times in a short amount of time is the way different ideas, thoughts, and peculiarities seems to come to the forefront. One of these ideas is found in verse 3 of chapter 1. Paul is commending the church Colossae for their hospitality and kindness toward other saints. As he does so he makes this simple statement, identifying who he is giving thanks to. He writes, “We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ…”
While there are many things that we could discuss about this description, the one that came to mind this time around is the relational reality of God’s connection to Jesus. Paul describes God as the Father of Jesus. Is there something that we have missed in the kind of relationship that exists between God and Jesus. We have grown so accustomed to the speaking of Jesus’ divinity we forget that while he walked upon this earth he did not relate to Jesus upon this aspect of who he was.
Jesus was a man in the full meaning and implications of what that means. To dismiss this is to negate a critically important part of who Jesus is. Even though Jesus had and has an eternal relationship with the Father, Jesus lived for himself the kind of life we can experience with the Father. When we were adopted into the family of God we were given access and permission to call God our father as well.
If you believe in God, then you have asked yourself some variation of this question: How can I know what God wants for or from me?
Another way the question has been asked is, “Is it possible for me to hear God’s voice today?” The implication being that God no longer speaks with people like he seemingly did in the Bible. I think the short answer to the question is this, God does speak today. We are just don’t know how to hear him.
One of the issues we have when reading the Bible is that we lose the sense of time. The Bible was written over a period of 1,500 years. God was not “talking” every day. This is one of the misconceptions we have to get rid of if we are going to hear from God in our own lives. God’s use of audible declarations were rare occurrences. The problem is not whether God speaks, it’s figuring out if we are tuning into the right station. Some of the assumptions we have about how God communicates have to change if we are going to gain clarity in discerning his presence and will for our lives.
Continue reading “Reading as Conversation: Learning to Hear the Voice of God Today (Pt. 1)”
Power is something we must steward in much the same way we take care of our monetary resources, gifts and talents.
One of the many qualities coveted in this world is power. If you have ever been picked on because of what you wear, how you look or the way you say things, you understand the feeling of not having power. It has always amazed me how quickly fear, self-doubt and insecurities take root in our hearts and minds when we are made to feel powerless. I do not know how many of you have felt this way. I have and I know that who I have become and how I respond has been shaped by the these experiences.
So, what does power have to do with Lent? I have come to see that power is something we must steward in much the same way we take care of our monetary resources, gifts and talents. The amount of power we have may be determined by many factors, but in the end the issue is what will we do when we have it. However, there is a second issue connected with our possession of this influence. We also have to ask ourselves what will we not do when we have it.
One of my favorite examples of this is in the movie Bruce Almighty. In the movie, Bruce feels that God is picking on him and challenges God to show himself by “smiting” him. God takes up the challenge and gives Bruce his all of his powers. Bruce thinks this is all a joke, as well he should. What happens next, and what can only be illustrated in a movie, is Bruce indulges in his new found abilities. He gives himself everything he wants, and he still does not achieve the satisfaction and happiness he thought would come. Unfortunately for Bruce, his image of power was more like Zeus (lightning bolt in hand) than it was like the God of the bible.
By the end film, Bruce learns that having all-power does not guarantee joy. As a matter of fact having unhindered powers may actually get in the way unless and until there are controls and restraints on the exercise of the power. The irony in Bruce’s experience, and in life outside of the silver screen, is that true power comes through the exercise of restraint and not merely in the unfettered expression of power.
Do you have power? Or does your power have you? If it’s the second, you are not really as powerful as you have let yourself believe.
If there is one word that does not describe me, it would be rhythm. I can walk and chew gum. I can a great variety of activities that require coordination, but I can’t dance or keep the beat of a song. This reality makes for a frustrated guitarist! But, I pick along as best as I can (pun intended!).
One of the lessons that I have learned in the course of my faith journey is that faith has an ebb and flow. There are highs and there lows. The most constant reality is change. How we handle the changes that will come determines the richness of our experiences. It is quite fortunate for us all, that wisdom and age (normally, but not always) grow together. Lent has become one of the harmonies of my life. It is a reminder of the passage of time, but also the possibility for growth.
As in all things, superstition and abuse can take something useful and distort it and even destroy it. I, however, want to see this season of preparation and contemplation for what it is–an opportunity to turn my affections toward God. This does not mean that sin has ceased to creep at the door. Rather, my awareness of sin and its effects is heightened and brought into stark relief against the sacrifice of Christ on Easter. Every year, this time comes and we have another change to take steps toward deeper faithfulness and obedience.
The power of the Christian calendar is in its intentionally drawing our attention to God’s work in the world through the church. Can this calendar become a crutch or even a hindrance? Yes, it can. The task is working toward a balance and a consistency in our faith walk. Rhythm. Finding it and remaining faithful to it is one of the keys to a life lived with God.
The famed G. K. Chesterton found a unique way to describing our problem and our predicament. It has always captured my imagination and I share it with you in the hope that it captures yours.
“Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, “Do it again”; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, “Do it again” to the sun; and every evening, “Do it again” to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.” (emphasis added)
One of the principles my dad taught me about communication is that words have meaning. Therefore, it is important to know the meaning of words.
One of the principles my dad taught me about communication is that words have meaning. Therefore, it is important to know the meaning of words. This principle has been a major part of my development as a person, because I have placed a significant value on words and using them. Over the course of my life and ministry I have seen how misused or even misunderstood words create confusion and hurt.
As we continue our journey through this Lent season, I am reminded of this simple word: RESET. If we break down this word we find that it is a compound of the prefix “re-” and the word “set”. Whenever this prefix is used we are saying that some action will be done again. Examples like repeat, remind, return, relive, etc., come to mind. There was an action and then a repetition follows. When we look at “reset” we are saying that we are taking something back to its set, or original position.
What I have learned in life is it does not come with a reset button. There is no way of undoing what has been done. We are left with one of two choices. We can learn and grow, or we can continue to make the same mistakes. The only guarantee in life is the untiring march of time. We will never begin more time and we don’t know when our time will be up. All we can do is keep moving.
So, why even talk about resetting? Because what can be reset is our mind. The way we think about our lives and circumstances can be altered. The process of resetting our perspective is difficult, but I would argue worth the effort. We can go back to what God had in mind when he created humanity. We were created to have fellowship with God. Our communion with God can be reset when we place our trust in Christ. Putting our confidence in Jesus’ sacrifice is the only means available to us for a hope-filled existence. At that moment, we are back to what God had in mind from the beginning. This return is needed if we are going to see God’s plan the way God planned it. In this season of Lent, take some time and reset your thinking to be more inline with God’s.
