How To Read The Bible October 1, 2009

Read a great post today by Kem Meyer. She lists her suggestions for the top five places to start reading the Bible.

~Acts … to learn about the Church
~James … essential wisdom for daily living
~Ecclesiastes … an expose of the arrogant and ignorant expectations we fall victim to
~Proverbs … practical quotes, sayings and images for the here and now

I thought it was great, concise advice. What do you think?

Read Kem’s entire post here.

Blessed Assurance April 17, 2009

One last walk this morning….

….

Contemplating my ‘take home’ from these blessed five days, surrounded by brilliant blue seas, white sand and glorious sunshine, I kept chanting, “Glorious.  Glorious.  You make everything glorious.  Thank you, Jesus.”

As a worship leader, I have noticed one of my habits is this:  During a gathering, overwhelmed by the privilege, the harmony, the rhythm, the Presence, the fellowship, I stop singing any scripted lyric and simply begin to say, “Thank you, Jesus.  Thank you, Jesus.”  Not necessarily tearful, not rendered mute – just so overwhelmed, with nothing to say with any deeper meaning than “thank you.”

Gratitude flowed from my mouth this morning, the crazy lady walking on the beach talking to herself.

After turning around and heading back, I found myself grateful for the real-ness of Jesus to me, the authenticity of relationship that reveals itself almost daily.  Since making a decision to follow Christ publicly some 20 years ago, since jumping headfirst into church life, I’ve always heard this bit about a “personal relationship”.  Coupled with what I read in the Bible, I internalized so many things that were “for me.”  Real.  Unquestioned.  Unquestionable.

“My grace is sufficient for you.”

“Go, then, and sin no more.”

“I will never leave you or forsake you.”

“God so loved the world…”

“In all things God works for the good of those who love him…”

“Consider it pure joy when you face trials…”

“Wives, submit to your husbands…”

Et cetera.

(I forge ahead now without any certainty that this makes sense, but I have come to understand a subtle shift in the axis of my understanding that has, I believe, powerfully impacted my faith and the way in which I live my life.  Let’s see if I can articulate it.)

In the past, much of my Bible instruction took every statement as fact.  Emphasis was on the inerrancy of the word, and so every statement meant just what it said.  Period.  To examine the context or the culture was frowned upon- it meant what it said, and it said what it meant.  Memorize it.  Paint it on your walls in your dining room.  Buy keychains and greeting cards emblazed with the words.  Believe it.  Don’t dig around in the external factors.  Ignore the human part.  Learn the words.

To some degree, there is truth and power in this.  I have internalized so much of the Bible that it sometimes surprises me.  I have found comfort, peace, encouragement, wisdom, strength.

And yet…

In the past several years, I have been encouraged – and self-motivated – to read the Bible in context.  To ask questions.  To dig deeper into the discrepancies.  To consider the audience, the culture, the context.

To actually say, “This doesn’t seem to make sense.”

At the risk of sounding like I’ve discovered something rare and unusual that most of the world looks at and says, “Duh!”, I’ll just marvel at this for a minute.

Because I think that’s the key to my joy, my wonder, my gratitude, my primitive conviction that this is true, real, personal.  That Jesus is, as the old hymn says, “mine”.

Here’s what occurs to me:   The context is humanity.  Our humanity.  To read without a clear understanding of the culture, of the underlying lessons, of the motivations, the larger issues at play is to accept words strung together as moral imperatives, catchy sayings, legalistic commands.  And, in the end, words strung together leave a hollow place in one’s soul.

Without context, there’s no grasp of the humanity that Jesus inhabited.  The context is us.

The context is me.

Maybe this is so much uneducated, I’ve-been-alone-too-long drivel.  But it meant something to me this morning as I walked.  

Still processing.

“God, you make everything glorious.  What does that make me?”

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine

Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine

Heir of salvation, purchased of God

Born of his spirit, washed in his blood.

God’s About To Move February 6, 2009

I’m plowing through the Breaking Free study and really soaking in the truth I’m finding.  Today I read something so powerful:

“According to 2 Chronicles 32.1, we can be faithful to God and centered in His will, yet still be attacked by the enemy.  Sometimes our enemy attacks the weak and wandering believers because they are easy prey.  Other times he attacks competent, fully-surrendered servants of God for the challgenge and the possible contagious effect of a fall….We are wise never to consider ourselves invulnerable, so that we stay alert and aware at all times…”

The Biblical example of Hezekiah and the other kings of Israel are fascinating bits of history – but the moral and spiritual lessons seen in their humanity stick with me much more than the facts.  Going through this part of the Bible again brings back memories of different places and times where I’ve studied this before – but these days, it’s fresh.

Just last night, I was commisserating with a friend about the malaise I currently feel.  Much of it seems related to church – both the practical, work-related issues and the interpersonal connections.  He pointed out to me that difficult times like these often reflect the work of our enemy, who gets agitated when God’s about to move.

God’s about to move.

I know He’s ever-present, always there, never leaves or forsake us.  I trust His presence.  I live in that.   But I’m sensing some truth here.  God’s about to move.  I believe that perhaps all this angst is more than just my personal junk.

God’s about to move.

I’m on my knees.  

Breaking Free January 31, 2009

I’m currently going through this Beth Moore Bible study called “Breaking Free”, both as a personal exercise and as a way to share with a friend who is looking to grow in her relationship with God.

I’ve been blown away.

(I also must mention that every single time I think about the workbook or the study, my mind instantly goes to High School Musical.  ”Soaring….flying…”  I’m hoping that passes, eventually….)

When I was a younger stay-at-home-mom – and a new Christ-follwer, Bible study groups were my lifeline and primary means of social interaction.  Living in a tiny town in Texas with two, then three, then four babies under the age of five, I didn’t get out much.  The women who were living life as I am now – 15 to 18 years into the parenting thing – seemed like foreign creatures to me.  I couldn’t comprehend a family life that didn’t include diapers and baby food, uninterrupted sleep and a baby firmly rooted to your hip.  But they were there, living around me, and along with the women who’d passed through that stage and moved into the empty nest or grandparent era, they held me up.

Not necessarily through social means – long phone conversations, lunches out, shopping expeditions, etc.  None of that was a reality or even an interest for me.

But these women met for Bible study, weekly.  And they dug in, hard.

And they valued child care.  Somebody else always made arrangements for there to be a child care provider there in the church or the community room or the library – wherever we were meeting.  They took care of that for the moms, so we could have two hours of focus on learning about God.

Not until this season of life do I recognize the gift I was given.

See, here’s a confession:  I try to have the Word of God “hidden in my heart”, as the Bible says.  Not all of it, of course, but I have paid attention for the last 20 years, and I’ve learned some things.  Much of what I learned sunk in and took root during those Bible studies.  That’s a good thing, for sure.  But these days?  Sadly, when you “do church” and ministry, often big chunks of what looks like “Bible study” can be more accurately termed “work prep”.  It’s still the Bible – it’s still powerful and relevant and meaningful, but there’s a difference.  And I can read daily email devotions and journal and all that – but there’s still a definite difference between those activities and a pointed, focused Bible study.

So I’m pounding through Breaking Free and loving it, absolutely loving it – knowing for certain that my knowledge of and relationship with God is growing because of this investment I’m making.

But, as always, I think like a minister or a pastor or a church worker.  I think about my friends who are currently going through Experiencing God with Chauncey Starkey through the iD program at PCC, and I get all excited about what they’re….well, experiencing.  I think about the community Bible study that’s happening here in Powhatan and wonder how many moms of little ones don’t know about it, who might need to be encouraged and invited.

I think about this Breaking Free study and wonder how many of you might want or need to go through the same thing.

I think about our church and wonder when I can organize something to give time and resources and care and energy and a chance to learn about God – like I was given in tiny little Hico, Texas – to moms who need it.

I think about our church and the tremendous excitement we have for God and for one another – and the tremendous need we have to learn the truth.

I’m grateful today.  

And I’m wondering about you:  Are you doing any in-depth Bible study?  What’s it like?  If not, do you want to?  What are you craving?

God Can Do Anything, You Know… January 16, 2009

I had a phone call early (for me, anyway) this morning.  It was a friend who wanted to share something from the Bible that she felt was really pertinent to our church right now.  

It’s a scripture verse I’ve read before, but in light of the week’s events and the undercurrent of electricity and anticipation that I feel about our the future, it spoke powerfully to me today.

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”

My friend emphasized the part about glory in the church and encouraged me to seize that.  

It’s resonated in my head and heart all morning.  I sought out that verse in The Message, knowing that Peterson always gives a slightly different slant to the words of scripture that ALWAYS prompts me to think and often touches me deeply.  Here’s his take:

“God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us.

Glory to God in the church!
Glory to God in the Messiah, in Jesus!
Glory down all the generations!
Glory through all millennia! Oh, yes!”

I’m keeping that close to my heart today, this practical voicing of an immense idea:  God can do anything, you know…

Oh, yeah.

It makes me wonder what’s going on, what he’s working within you, deeply and gently, to create something that you can’t even imagine.  It’s happening in many of us.  It’s happening in our church.

Oh, yeah.  

What’s he doing in you?

Scriptures from Ephesians 3