Tag: scripture

Lent 2022 | Day 27: Write

“Write the vision;
make it plain on tablets,
so he may run who reads it.”

Habakkuk 2:2 ESV

In the verse above found in the book of the prophet Habakkuk, there is a moment when God instructs the prophet to write the vision he has given to him.

The purpose of the instruction has two parts. The first is to make the meaning of the vision plain. God did not desire for those who read what the prophet wrote to be confused about what he intended for them to do. Even though the mind of God is beyond our ability to apprehend God has chosen to speak and reveal himself to us. And he has chosen to do so in ways we can understand. This gracious act by God is one we oftentimes take for granted.

The Scriptures serve as a clear example of God’s desire for us to know what God wants us to know. When we do not avail ourselves to this revelation from God we do so to our own detriment. This does not mean the Scriptures are easy to understand. There are challenges to reading it and understanding it properly. But these challenges are the same that can be found in any book in the rest of the world. Not because the Bible was written BY men. But because the Bible was written FOR men. Therefore God used the same means of producing the Scriptures as any other book would need in order to be interacted with by other men.

The second part of asking the prophet to write the vision was to ensure the correct response was elicited by those who read it. When God speaks it is not merely the transfer of information from his mind to ours. God has taken the time to codify his word in such a way that we can return to it again and again. And as we return we see with new eyes what has been there from the beginning. This is one of the most remarkable attributes of the Scriptures. It is one of the characteristics that sets it apart from any other written book in the history of humanity.

This very practical admonition by God to the prophet can serve as instruction for us today. We too often think we can remember everything God has shown to us through his word. But that is not the case. The human mind is not designed to hold all that information at one time. But God has given us a way of recording our thoughts so that we may return back to them and consider them over and over again. If you do not have a habit of making notes as you read Scripture I would encourage you to do so whether it is with pen and paper or in a digital app on an electronic device. I would encourage you to begin to do so.

We would do well to remember God’s love toward us in giving us his word in written form. But God went one step further. That step was to send the living word to the world in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. When Jesus walked upon the earth it was the very word of God walking and talking among men and women. This fact is so mind-blowing in its implications that it is difficult to even begin to describe it adequately.

In a little over a week, we will celebrate again the glorious resurrection of Jesus from the grave. One of the reasons we can celebrate is because we have a written record that we can return to. I thank God for his wisdom in providing us a written record to consult and engage with. It is one of God’s greatest gifts to us as his people.

Lent 2022 | Day 12: Words

One of the first lessons my father taught me as I was growing up is that words have meaning and that we should therefore make sure to know what those words mean.

This simple axiom has served me well. In many ways, it has protected me from being deceived by those who were ill-informed or had ulterior motives. And it has given me the patience I need to know that I don’t know everything.

In this time in history when almost every person on the planet has the potential access to information, it becomes more important to make sure you know what people are saying. Communication is not a static exchange. It is very dynamic and the nuance and texture of possible meanings can make it difficult to know if we are being effective in our communication.

If we are to take seriously the idea God has spoken, we must then consider that what he has said is the most important thing ever spoken.

This is why when we read Scripture we must take the time to make sure we know and understand, to the best of our ability, what God has chosen to capture on those sacred pages. The fact we have God’s revelation written down means God has chosen to use the medium of human language to communicate his will. So the limitation in our understanding of what God has said is not because God has made it difficult but because we have rushed to reach a conclusion.

Jesus said that the words he spoke were words of life. If we are to take seriously the idea God has spoken, we must then consider that what he has said is the most important thing ever spoken. With this as an underlying assumption and one that would be safe to make, we should engage with the Scripture in a different way. Not merely as the work of human agency, but as the work of God through human agency.

Words have meaning. And it is this meaning that makes it possible for us to have confidence we can understand what God desires. As this confidence grows we become more diligent in our obedience. And as our obedience becomes more regular our passion to serve God increases. The relationship described between desire and obedience and passion is so close as to be the same thing. But they are distinct enough for us to understand how they should relate to each other.

In the season of Lent, the practice of self-reflection and surrender is a call to a deepening awareness of God’s goodness. This goodness is seen in his willingness to declare and codify his promises and prerogatives on the pages of the Scriptures. By doing this God has bound himself to his own word. He has declared that he is not a liar nor is he one to go back on his promises. When God speaks he offers us the conditions by which he will operate and conduct himself with us. This is not a limitation upon God. It is a declaration of how he has chosen to interact with us. We can therefore have confidence that if God has said it he will fulfill it.

Therefore as we continue our march to Easter morning, we do so with the confidence that is born out of God’s character. Not out of a fear that we must sustain this faith in our own strength.

Series Page

Give Us Ears To Hear Ep. 3 – Jeremiah 29:11

In this conversation we are talking about Jeremiah 29:11, and how we must listen & learn to what God has to say thru a Scripture that may have lost some of its power as its been popularly applied. If you’d like to continue the conversation, leave a comment or send a message. I would love to hear from you!

My hope is not to “rain on anyone’s parade” in how they’ve used the verse or the verse has been shared with them. But to simply reorient ourselves to what God was saying to His people thru it at that time, and then what He could be saying to us. Check out the video:

Give us ears to hear – 2 Chronicles 7:14

This is the first conversation of the Give Us Ears To Hear series.

In this episode we are listening to what God has to say thru 2 Chronicles 7:14 and learning to pay attention to context and to ask questions.

Please comment or message me, and share it with others, to keep the conversation going as we walk thru this series!

Give us ears to hear – An introduction

This will be a video series about listening – both listening to God and others – and learning to think reflectively – both about Scripture and culture. This is meant to be an on-going virtual conversation, so please interact with each video whether it’s through comments or direct messages. Others will likely join me along the way in the videos to have conversations with me, and the goal is really that we might have ears to hear what God is saying to us in our lives and in our world today.

Here is the introduction video:

The Top 5 ways Americans read our culture into Scripture

If you did not know, reading Scripture is a difficult endeavor at times.

Since we do not share our language, culture, or literary nuances with the authors of these writings, at times we read aspects of our American culture into the words of Scripture. And many times it’s not always obvious… Continue reading “The Top 5 ways Americans read our culture into Scripture”

Book Review | “A Peculiar Glory” by John Piper

Only when we change what we see do we change who we will eventually become.

I recently finished reading Dr. John Piper‘s book A Peculiar Glory. It is an amazing book on the subject of the Scriptures. There are basically two questions that Piper seeks to answer. The first one is this: What about the Scriptures, as they are, reveal that they are in fact divine revelation? The second question is related and yet slightly different and it is this: Can a “normal” person interact with the scriptures and come to a knowledge of the truth? When I use the word “normal” I mean to say (as does Piper) someone who does not have training in the Biblical languages or who has an extensive education. At the center of this second question is wondering if people can come to a well-grounded faith just by being exposed to and interacting with the Word of God as it is contained in the Old and New Testaments. Continue reading “Book Review | “A Peculiar Glory” by John Piper”

1 John 1:7 | Walking in his light

Missing by an inch or missing by a mile is still missing the standard that John establishes here.

7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

John returns to the subject of light in verse 7. As he does it augments what he means by the relationship that we have with God. There is a particular characteristic to our journey in the light. That characteristic is that it is, or should be, the same light that God is in, or rather that God produces from himself. In other words, when we say that we are in the light, that we are walking in the light, then what we are saying–or should be saying–is that we are living out and embodying and reflecting God’s love and life in our own. Continue reading “1 John 1:7 | Walking in his light”

Reading as Conversation: Learning to Hear the Voice of God Today (Pt. 2)

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.

  1. The Bible was written by God.
  2. The Bible’s author is not dead.
  3. The Bible is designed to point to who God is and not just tell me what to do.
  4. The Bible reveals God’s character.
  5. The Bible defines what sin is.
  6. The Bible proclaims the good news that Jesus has reconciled sinners to a holy God.

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.

1. Engage as many of the senses as possible as you read

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.

2. Conversations last longer than lectures

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.

3. Reading the Bible is Not about Information or Transformation

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.

Changing the way you read changes what you hear

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.)

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