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Bible.04: But Men Spoke from God

A parent leaves a kid at home with a note that reads “Clean your room!”  The kid respects the parent’s authority and so obeys the command, but if he interprets the note how he wants by stuffing toys out-of-sight in the closet or clean clothing under the bed, is he truly pleasing to his parent?  No, of course not!  Yet, even if we all can agree that God’s Word is authoritative over our lives but interpret it however we would would like, can we be pleasing to God?

I. 2 Peter 1:19-21.  Authority came from the Father to the Son to men inspired to write God’s Word for us to obey.  Just as a cop cannot interpret the law however he wants, we cannot make God’s Word mean whatever we would like it to or best suits our lifestyle.  Rather, we must discover what God intended for us to understand and obey.

II. 1 Corinthians 11:17-29.  Good Bible study techniques must be applied.  Who’s speaking?  To whom is the passage being spoken?  What is the type of literature and language being used?  What testament and book does it appear in?  What’s the general, specific, and historical context?  Is there a clear command?  For an example, take the issue of when to take the Lord’s Supper.  Is there an approved example (Acts 20:7)?  Is there an inference about how often Christians met (1 Corinthians 16:1-2)?

III.  Ephesians 5:19.  We must treat biblical silence as prohibitive rather than permissive.  We can get into much trouble when we say, “God didn’t say we couldn’t ….”  Once we open a door, where does it end?  If I order coffee at a restaurant, I expect the waitress to bring me a mug of black coffee.  If she puts in several packs of sugar and whitens it with cream, I would not be pleased.  Those things are innovations (something new introduced) rather than an expedient (a means to get to the command).  Thus, the mug is an expedient for me to have coffee in the same way that a songbook or pitchpipe would aid us in singing.  An addition of a guitar or choir in worship, however, would be an innovation.

So, to please the parent, the kid should ask himself, “How would mom want me to clean my room?  What would she want me to do with these toys and clean clothes?”  God’s inspired Word, just as the parent’s note, can never mean what it never meant.

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Lord, Teach Us to Pray

As a teacher, I am amazed at how Jesus was a master teacher.  Without any training or degree from a university to know how to do so, He employed so many techniques to bring about the greatest retention of essential Kingdom concepts, such as prayer:

Luke 11:1-13 (NIV)
1 One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”
2 He said to them, “When you pray, say: “‘Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come.
3 Give us each day our daily bread.
4 Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation.'”
5 Then he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread,
6 because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.’
7 “Then the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’
8 I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man’s boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs.
9 “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
10 For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
11 “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead?
12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?
13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

I. Prayer, Jesus had previously taught, was a private thing between the person praying and God.  It was not to be done as a show, but this is not what Jesus was doing.  A master teacher will model his teaching through his life.  His disciples either saw Him praying or just knew that He had been, but Jesus, though without sin and despite being God in the flesh, allowed them to see His example of constant interaction with our Father.  If He needed to pray in this way, how much more do we?

II. Knowing that Jesus prayed prompted the request from a disciple that Jesus teach them to pray.  Next, Jesus laid down the principles of good prayer, a mixture of ACTS: Adoration, Contrition, Thanksgiving, and Supplication.  Notice that Luke’s version is different than Matthew’s as it is not a rote recitation of specific words that tend to become meaningless babble after a while.  But, we and the disciples need to understand the types of concepts that should be included in prayer.

III. Finally, Jesus as the master teacher illustrates the concepts of prayer and the relationship between us and our Father.  There is no need to be timid when approaching God’s throne in prayer.  Because God is a good Father, we can be bold in our asking, seeking and knocking.  So pray!

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In the Way He Should Go

My grandfather used to say, “You don’t wait until a tree is full grown until you prune it.”  When kids are bad, we blame the world, coaches, teachers, “failing schools” … or even the kids themselves.  But, rarely do we blame bad parenting.  Far too often parenting is negligent, permissive, or authoritarian, but biblical parenting is the way that our heavenly Father parents us–authoritatively, a process that, out of love, outlines the consequences for our choices but allows us to make our own choices.

I. Genesis 2:20-24.  God created parenting.  In the verses, we often use to show how marriage is between a man and a woman, the concepts of “father” and “mother” are mentioned.  How strange they must have sounded to Adam and Eve who had neither!  But, here God institutes not only marriage but the concept of family and parental roles.

II. Ephesians 6:1-4.  Children are to obey their parents in the Lord, but fathers are to instruct their children in the Lord.  Parents must actively train their children in the way they should go (Proverbs 22:6).  The Israelites were told to do this (Deuteronomy 6:4-9) but forgot while they conquered the Promised Land with disasterous consequences (Judges 2:10-13).

III. 1 Timothy 3:4-5.  Even an elder must have parented in the style of our heavenly Father over us, so that he can shepherd Christ’s church in that same parenting style.  A kid that doesn’t accept correction brings grief to his mother (Proverbs 29:15) and breaks his mother’s heart (Proverbs 15:20).  Rather, when a child does not turn from the way he was trained (Proverbs 23:25), he brings joy!

This is a difficult topic as no matter our kids’ ages, we realize we all have made mistakes in parenting that we regret.  Where it is not too late, we can change.  Where it is, we can apologize.  But, there are still kids in our lives (in the church especially) over which God has given us influence.  How’s your example?  How are you training the children in your life?

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Too Good for God

There are certainly many sections of Scripture that most of us would admit we skip or at least skim.  When the unpronounceable names and unfathomable numbers pile-up, we shrug, not knowing these people, and look for the next bit of story.  But, every once in a while a spiritual gem can be mined from these passages.  This week while skimming (I admit it!) such a chapter in Nehemiah that mentioned who was rebuilding the wall next to whom, I found one that made me almost fall out of my chair:

“And next to them the Tekoites repaired, but their nobles would not stoop to serve their Lord.”
Nehemiah 3:5.

First, let’s look at the context.  In successive waves, starting with the best and brightest who had skills or could oppose him, Nebuchadnezzar had brought the inhabitants of Judah into captivity in Babylon, where they would become ‘Jews.’  Seventy years later, Cyrus allowed all those who would want to return to go back and make a life out of the burned rubble of Jerusalem.  They didn’t need to and many chose not to.  Those who did, we would think, would have a pioneer spirit, willing to do whatever was necessary to survive and serve God who, in His mercy, had allowed them to return to the promised land.

But not these nobles!  As the very defense of what little life they and their neighbors had managed to scrape together was at stake, they “would not stoop to serve their Lord.”  It was beneath them.  These nobles would be that friend who you take camping who sips iced tea from a lawn chair while you pitch the tent.  They are Mr. and Mrs. Howell on Gilligan’s Island.  As some who returned were alive when the city and temple were destroyed, it’s hard to imagine that they believed they were coming back to the Golden Age of Israel under Solomon when the Queen of Sheba was so impressed with what she saw that surpassed the reports that she proclaimed, “Behold, the half was not told me.”  No, this Jerusalem required sweat and the rolling up of sleeves.

Sadly, we have those in the church who believe themselves ‘too good for God.’  While many labor around them rebuilding the walls of broken lives, these ‘nobles’ will not stoop to serve the Lord.  Too wrapped up in their own lives to feed the hungry, clothe the needy, or teach the lost, they only warm a pew for an hour on Sundays and gain a smug checkmark on the attendance roster.

But, the way up is down on our knees.  If God is so beneath us that stooping to serve Him is detestable to us, then how can we expect Him to lift us up?  After all, if Jesus, who was God in the flesh, could stoop to wash feet and then die on the cross for us, can’t we follow His example?

 

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Seasoned with Salt

Benevolence springs from who we are in Christ.  Edification is the building up of and teaching truth to everyone around us so that we can get to our third main value as Christians: evangelism.  We can not, however, share the good news with others unless we are the type of people from whom the gospel can be received.  In the close of his letter to the Colossians, Paul gives us great insight into this:

Colossians 4:2-6
2 Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.
3 And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains.
4 Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should.
5 Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity.
6 Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

  1. We are to be devoted to prayer, being watchful and thankful.  Prayer is essential for open doors and for a clear proclaiming of the good news.

  2. We must be wise toward the lost, knowing our audience and making the most of every opportunity that God gives us.  We must also pray that God would open our eyes to recognize them as they come before us and for the wisdom, which God gives to us if we ask, to know what to do with the opportunities when He gives them to us.

  3. Finally, we must watch our words to answer everyone well.  They must be full of grace or, like tasty food that people would want to eat, seasoned with salt.   Salt also creates thirst–in this case spiritual thirst.

How are you prepared to share the gospel?

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Faith Under Trial

“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” Hebrews 11:1.

Faith, by very definition, means that we are trusting in God during a trial of uncertain outcome.

Abraham could see no clear way that his barren, ninety year-old wife could bear him a son, yet this same chapter says he “considered him faithful who had made the promise.”  Faith, then, depends on how well we trust solely in God’s solid-rock character that does not change despite our circumstance.  Talk about ‘faith under trial’–it is only under trial that we know if we have true faith.

This came home to me in 2012 when my wife, never a smoker, was diagnosed with lung cancer.  Now into our sixth year of various chemotherapy and radiation treatments, even a four-hour surgery last May to remove an egg-sized brain tumor, my faith as a husband and caregiver, elder and evangelist, in particular is still under trial.

If I get a cold, I am reasonably assured that if I take a regimen of medicines over a short window of time, I will be better soon.  Colds come and go, often with no serious life-altering effects.  It is a very low-level of faith indeed (even if at the time I feel like I might die) to believe that I will eventually get well.  But cancer?  We have been living with excruciating uncertainty for six years!  Will she live or die?  Is today a go-to-work or lie-on-the-couch day?  Will she feel too queasy to eat supper tonight or is there a specific craving that I have to run to the store to find?

That kind of trust over that period of time takes incredible faith.  “God’s got this–He always has,” has become our mantra that reminds us, sometimes daily, that He is the only One who has ever been in control anyway.

It was always during the difficult times that Jesus would rebuke his followers for lack of faith.  It is not easy to be a Christian.  When the squall comes up on our Sea of Galilee, we believe God to be asleep and so not in control.  We may even accuse Him of not caring.  But, our lack of faith is showing.

After Jesus’ hard teaching about His body being real food and His blood real drink in John 6, many “turned back and no longer followed him.”  When Jesus asked the Twelve if they too would leave, Peter answered with words that should encourage all to find faith under trial, “Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life.”

There’s no one else.  Our lives depend on us having faith under trial.

 

 

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Cats & Minnows, Dogs & Sows

Just before bed, I sanded the second coat of joint compound on some bedrooms now that we’re empty-nesters.  To keep dust from billowing throughout the house, I stapled a plastic sheet between the dining room and the hallway.  It also had a second purpose: to keep our cat out of the dust.

That was not to be.  When we got out of bed the next morning, we found a very distressed pet covered in white powder meowing on the wrong side of the plastic.  Curious, she had nosed her way under the sheet and then found herself unable to exit–much like a minnow would enter a trap.

We were unhappy with her, but because we love her, we got her out and dusted her off.  Within minutes of setting her down, though, we were dismayed to find her once again on the other side of the plastic!

As I often do, I saw this as a spiritual illustration.  God tries to protect us by giving us clear limits for living our lives, but we rail against the translucent sheet, believing that He is keeping us from worldly ‘fun’ we could be having.  Sometimes, we’re just curious.  Often we believe that we can just nose under the plastic a little, but a little turns into more until we’re trapped.  We cry out for help, and God rescues us, dusts us off, and sets us back to safety.  He’s perhaps a bit disappointed that we went past the limits He has set up for us, but He loves us.

But then we do the unimaginable.  We return to the very sin that we’ve been saved from.  We once more go beyond the plastic and find ourselves covered in white powder.  Sometimes we curse ourselves for once more being deceived and think ourselves unloved or incapable of obedience.  Often we turn against God, believing Him incapable of keeping us from our situation.

Eventually, we can find ourselves in the situation of those spoken of in 2 Peter 2:19-22:

“… a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him. If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud.”

We must not be a washed sow wallowing once again in the mud or a dog returning to its vomit.  Rather, we must submit to our good Father’s limits, knowing they are there for our good.  Then we won’t be a minnow caught in a trap — or a dust-covered cat beyond the plastic.

 

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Who Do You Say I Am?

In our Western culture, we’re used to checklists to remember what items we have to buy at the grocery store or to separate out the tasks we must accomplish at work from who we really are on the weekends!  We have even made our Christian walk a checklist of things to do to be right with God and in doing so have connect our heads without our hearts.  Christianity is a relationship with the Almighty God, and He wants all of us: heart, soul, mind, and strength.

I. Luke 9:18-22.  Peter answered the most essential question.  In Matthew 16:16-18, Jesus adds that upon Peter’s confession of Him as Lord and Christ that He would build His church.  Peter’s confession became a declaration in Acts 2:36-41 and 3000 obeyed and were added to Jesus’ church that day.

II. Philippians 2:9-11.  We all must answer the most essential question.  Atheism is temporary as every knee will bow to Jesus as Lord.  Even those who ignore or avoid the question are answering it in this life.  It is better to confess Him as Lord now while still alive than wait until after death to know the truth.

III. Colossians 2:6-12.  As we have received Christ Jesus as Lord, so we are to continue to live in Him.  This means that confessing Jesus as Lord is not just words we utter.  It goes beyond loving Him from the head; we must love Him from the heart as well: heart, soul, mind, and strength in a close relationship of obedience to Him.

Christianity is what we are, not what we do.  We ‘do’ from the belief we hold.  We must be ‘all in’ for God, so that our every word and deed shows our answer to the most essential question that Jesus asks each and every one of us: Who do you say I am?

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The Wise Man Built

Having grown up doing a lot of work to cut wood and bring in hay as part of a family, I’ve always been partial to rugged, outdoor clothing–even though now my work is more at a desk rather than stacking brush or throwing bales.  I glance at catalogs and shake my head at models dressed in flannels with waterproof boots, completely free of mud and sweat, who look like they’ve never worked physically a day in their lives.

They are a lot like Christians who love to hear the Word of God preached but don’t apply it.

Most have sung “The Wise Man Built His House Upon the Rock” from Matthew 7:24-27 and at a youth event.  There are several principles from this illustration that are important to understand.

I. Both the wise and foolish men were ‘building.’  Both were sincere in picking up the tools and actively engaged in construction.  They did not just read a book about house building and agree with the techniques used.  They both worked hard and ended up with a place to live.  Everything that we say and do–even if we refuse to say and do–we end up with a life, good or bad, that we have built.

II. The distinction between the two men is whether he puts Jesus’ words into practice.  Both hear Jesus’ words, but only the wise man applies them to the building of his life, right from the first choice, perhaps the most essential choice: which foundation to build upon.  The wise man chose the rock while the foolish one, who probably felt justified and had good excuses, chose sand.

III. The reason we must build well is because the storms of life do come.  Notice that nowhere in Jesus’ illustration does he say if the hard rains, the rising streams, and the terrible winds come.  They will, and only the wise will be prepared for them.  Throughout many years of ministry and in my own life, I have weathered and helped others weather life’s storms.  Some houses have fallen with a crash.

So, in your life are you the outdoor catalog model in new clothing, holding an unused axe?  Or, are your sleeves rolled up in readiness, your knees dirtied from prayer, and calluses lay across cracked and toughed hands?  Are you building?  Are you building on the rock?  Will your house withstand the storm?

 

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Run For Your Life!

If your home was on fire and someone shouted, “Run for your life!” you would not stop to ask questions about things that didn’t matter like what was for dinner.  Nor would you refuse to leave until you found that biology notebook from high school or stroll leisurely past the fridge to check if you needed to buy milk while you were out.  No, “Run for your life!” means that you are singularly focused on the goal of getting to safety.  And, unless it is to warn someone else who has not yet heard of the danger, you would not stop for anything.

Spiritually speaking, you must “run for your life!”

I. 1 Corinthians 6:18-20.  The first running we must do is running away from sin, specifically sexual immorality.  Joseph certainly had opportunity to give in to Potiphar’s wife and reason enough to justify sin: his own brothers had faked his death and sold him into slavery in a foreign land.  But, he determined, “How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?” Then, as she caught him by his cloak, he left it with her and ran out of the house (Genesis 39:6-12).  So we must run for our lives!

II. Galatians 5:7-10.  Distractions come often from people or circumstances in our lives.  A runner may start off well and then discover a rock in his shoe or have someone point him the wrong way.  In the Galatian church(es), some were insisting that they needed to observe the old law and become Jews before they could become Christians.  There are many things that may not be sinful but “cut in” on our good race.  Sometimes it is people or ideas that point us away from God.  Remember that we are running for our lives!

III. Hebrews 12:1-3.  To “run with perseverance the race marked out for us,” we must have the goal of heaven ever before us.  We are told to fix our eyes on Jesus, who kept the joy of eternity with the Father in view in order to endure the cross, so that we “do not grow weary and lose heart.”  Peter had the courage to step out of the boat and walk on the water to Jesus, but as soon as he let his focus slip, he sank (Matthew 14:25-33).  With perseverance and eyes fixed, we must run for our lives!

Many struggle with their Christian walk because they do not take the race as seriously as Satan knows it is.  Instead of a lion seeking to devour, perhaps he is a lot like the gators beside the race marked out for us.  The race is deadly serious.  Run for your life!