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All That Is Written

While singing with kids, I’d sometimes ask why we used an open hands motion for “Bible” rather than a closed hands one?  Their honest answer was that we should be reading and living it.  Far too often there’s dust on our Bibles.  This was certainly true in Josiah’s time.

I. 2 Chronicles 34:1-13.  Was God’s Word missing or hidden?  After all, for the previous six decades, God’s people had endured Manasseh’s 55-year and then Amon’s 2-year idolatrous reigns.  Would the 8-year old Josiah be any different.  Then, we’re told that at 16 he began to seek God.  At 20 he enacted reforms and at 26 repairs to the temple.  That’s when God’s Word was brought out.

II. 2 Chronicles 34:14-21.  The priest Hilkiah “found” it who gave it to the secretary Shaphan to read to the king who seemed to have a different spirit than what the nation had known.  Josiah’s reaction was to tear his clothes and to take action.  From his repentance, he asked that God be sought and laid their struggles upon their not doing “all that is written in this book.”

III. Psalm 1:1-3.  The same restoration spirit is needed today.  Rather than one copy collecting dust, we live in a time where we are surrounded by physical and digital copies of God’s Word, yet ours have just as much dust upon them.  We need to recognize its usefulness in equipping us (2 Timothy 3:16-17), tear our clothes figuratively and take similar literal actions like Josiah did.

The decision starts with yourself to blow the dust off your Bible and devote yourself to its instruction and rebuke.  Then we will see changes happen in our families and in the Lord’s church.

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His Delight is in the Law

The person who waits until he’s in the midst of a struggle to turn to God is like the one who doesn’t repair his roof when the sun shines because it isn’t raining.  The rain will come; crises hit our lives like storms.  The question is: are you prepared spiritually to meet them (Psalm 1)?

I. 1 John 2:3-6. The righteous don’t go through this life like the wicked do.  They don’t stand up with sinners nor sit with the scoffers.  Rather their delight is in the law of the Lord.  On this they meditate as they seek His commands (Psalm 119:10-16).

II. Galatians 5:18-24.  Just as a willow tree drinks deeply from a nearby water source, so we must drink deeply from God’s Word.  Just as the righteous and wicked are contrasted in Psalm 1, so they are here.  But, like the deep-drinking willow, we can grow the fruits of the spirit.  Those who don’t are like chaff that is gathered only to burn (Matthew 13:27-30).

III. Matthew 25:41-43.  The wicked will not stand with the righteous in the Judgment, but often they don’t realize they are wicked.  “When did we see you in need?” they ask, but they are guilty of not grasping the opportunities to do good that God has given them.  Instead, the righteous seek first the kingdom and righteousness of the Rock of Ages (Matthew 6:31-33).

Psalm 1 serves as wisdom to guide godly people.  It’s no wonder that Psalms is a favorite book of many.  It gives comfort if you’ve made godly choices and warning if you’ve strayed.

 

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Convincing Lies

Lord, keep away convincing lies,
Let truth be guide and guard;
Let wisdom see their winsome guise,
Keep love from being marred.

Make speech and actions always true,
And kindness most sincere;
Your word must wash and clear the view,
And free the heart from fear.

O God of glory, shine your light,
To show reality;
Put all that’s false and wrong to flight,
From sophistry cleanse me.

Watch Forthright Press for the author’s new book of prayers and poem.

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Help Me Flee the Noise

Help me flee the noise to hear your voice,
O Speaker of all wisdom — let suffice
A quiet time and place, with open Book,
When I might find my food, both meat and milk.

The world is starving, and with it I shall starve
Without a Word to go on — how can I live
Unnourished by your bread? Lord, break for me
The simple meal of power without delay.

And bread of work! Amid the busy tasks
Of daily life — your will the follower seeks
To do, to lead the lonely into your presence,
To show yourself benevolent, good, and friendly.

How can I lead another to where I am not?
Secure me in Christ, where you my sins forgot —
And from this place of strength and love may I
Bring many more to grace in full supply.

For thoughts on life, faith, and meaning, follow the author on his personal website. And please share this prayer, if you found it helpful.

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Back to the Bible

I remember reading the assembly instructions as a kid for something my dad was putting together and was told that we didn’t need them.  My protests over a handful of screws when the contraption was built were dismissed with the explanation that companies always put in extras.  The product worked, yes, but not like it should.

The Manufacturer of mankind has left us a manual, God’s Word, the Bible.  So, it would make sense, for maximum effectiveness, to follow the guidelines set forth by the One who designed you, created every cell, breathed life into you, and then “beforehand” planned works for you to do (Ephesians 2:10).  This is why Jesus, the Word made flesh, came—to give us life abundantly (John 10:10).  Underscoring its importance, every time Jesus said a version of “Have you not read …?” He was bringing His listeners back to the Bible.

Now I know that each of us can point to neighbors, coworkers, and friends who have never followed the Bible or perhaps live its precepts in a randomized way, picking and choosing tasty tidbits like dishes on a buffet, and they all seem to have pretty good and functional lives.  This can be particularly hard on preacher’s kids (PKs) in small churches in the Northeast as they see their friends in public school seemingly having life more together than the handful of kids in their Bible classes and VBS.

But, do they really?  Even though I ministered to others from the Bible, I realized pretty quickly that I had a compromised version of my Christianity early in my wife’s ongoing eight-year battle with cancer—but especially in the past six months.  My foundation of faith was not as solid as it needed to be to endure the trials that forced us to live separately since January and unable to help each other with the other’s battle front.

Just as Moses was told to build everything according to the pattern shown to him on the mountain (Hebrews 8:5), I dug deep to return back-to-the-Bible to build up my prayer life and trust in Him.  Reasoning that God, who loved us unconditionally and was working for our good (Romans 8), knew what was best for my life and was entirely in control of the circumstances, I have flourished in my faith where many believed I should have floundered.

‘Back to the Bible’ is more than just an academic exercise or pithy saying.  It is a deep and determined commitment to delve into doctrine that saves and enriches your life.  It fortifies the foundation of your faith so that you may function well in the best of times and are prepared to fight during the worst.

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Teaching Them

The Christian Walk has been described as one beggar showing another beggar where to find food.  This illustrates wonderfully how one of our primary missions on this earth is to instruct others in the way of salvation.

I. Matthew 28:18-20.  Animals know how to live by instinct, but human beings need to be taught (Genesis 3:5-22).  God has given us the Bible to instruct us in the way of salvation (2 Timothy 3:16-17) and displayed His power in creation to know that He is God (Romans 1:18-22).  So, it is no wonder that Jesus seeks and saves the lost (Luke 19:10) today by equipping us to make disciples through teaching others the gospel.

II. Ephesians 4:11-16.  But, the teaching does not stop there.  After making disciples, we are to teach them to obey all of Jesus’ commands.  To do that, Jesus established His church (Matthew 16:18) as a center of learning, where the lost can hear the gospel, yes, but where the church, speaking the truth in love, can build itself up in love.  Our teaching should not be confined within the walls of buildings, however, but the church, attaining unity and maturity in Jesus, should go forth and teach.

III. John 13:13-34.  We glimpse Jesus’ great love that motivated Him to live a number of years in the flesh to instruct us in the way of salvation before going to the cross for us in love.  In Matthew 23:37, He laments that Jerusalem persisted in sin while so many prophets had come to teach the city and the nation throughout the centuries.  That same love is our motivation as we take up Jesus’ mission to teach others by word and by deed, by our very lives, the way back to God.

By learning do we now understand our world, and so God, in His infinite wisdom, taught us who He is and how to return to Him.  Then, having come to know Him, we are, in turn, told to teach others.

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Pull off all the knobs!

A man bought a new radio, took it home, and placed it on the refrigerator. He plugged it in, tuned to WSM in Nashville (home of the Grand Ole Opry) and proceeded to do the most unusual thing. He pulled all the knobs off!

He had already tuned in all he ever wanted or expected to hear, so he chose to limit his radio reception to one station.

Perhaps if more people would do this with the word of God we would have a lot less religious confusion in the world. Too many are turning to every “channel” of doctrine. Paul warns,

“Be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive” (Eph. 4:14).

We must tune only into God’s channel — His holy word — for our direction. This is why Jeremiah declared,

“O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps” (Jer. 10:23).

—Tom Moore, revised, taken from “The Sower“

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Bible.12: Rightly Handling the Word of Truth

I was in sixth grade when Atari came out with the first game system.  I never owned one until my kids got a Wii.  Even now if someone hands me a controller I spaz out-of-control because I have no idea what I’m doing.  Some are like that in their relationship with God.  Something goes wrong in life and they are like me playing Mario Karts.

It’s not enough to know the Word of Truth; you have to know how to use it!

I. 2 Timothy 2:14-15.  Several times in Scripture, God’s Word is described as a sword.  But, having a sword is not the same thing as knowing how to use it.  All the lessons on the Bible (see the sermonlines archive) leading up to this one gave great information about the uniqueness, inspiration, authority, and development of the Bible.  It is truth (John 17:17), yes, but it must be applied to be of any use (Psalm 119:11).

II. 2 Corinthians 3:12-16.  Knowledge is only the means to the relationship with God that we all strive to have.  A thorough and continual study of His Word, combined with an abiding prayer-life, will lift the veil on truly knowing the word of truth so that a person can truly know God.  As in any relationship, love is the key to intimacy.  God loves us.  It is our love in return that will draw us into intimacy with Him.

III. John 4:23-24.  Being a true worshiper should be our goal.  To be that, we must worship Him in spirit and in truth.  In other words, we must know God in a deep and abiding relationship with Him.  Therefore, we must be honest with the word of truth.  We must approach the study of His Word, not seeking justification for who we’d like God to be, but how He reveals Himself to us out the living and active pages of His Word.  Knowing the context and occasion of the passage helps as well.

Does your study of God found in the pages of His Word draw you into a deeper relationship with Him?  Do you know Him?

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Bible.09: Carefully Investigated Everything

When I had to do research as a kid, I just hoped that the school library had something on my topic or could get it for me on loan in several weeks.  Today with the internet, the problem is access to too much information … yet we tend to be lazy and take the top three searches on Google!  A person may be confused today by all the Bible translations out there, but we have greater access to better research than ever before in history!

I.  Luke 1:1-4.  Starting with Luke, we can see that careful investigation has always been a part of good Bible study.  Before the printing press in 1455 a.d., the problem was not enough access to God’s Word.  But, once Erasmus translated the Latin Vulgate that had reigned supreme for over ten centuries into Greek in 1516 that was mass produced and read by the common man, the Reformation was sparked, and a host of early English translations came about leading to the King James Version (KJV).

II.  1 John 5:6-8 and notes.  Contrary to popular belief, the KJV did not “fall from heaven in 1611.”  It’s called the Authorized Version because King James, not God, commissioned its translation.  Borrowing its phrases and words heavily from Tyndale’s earlier work, the language of the KJV was updated in 1769 to how we know it today.  The KJV does have the distinction of reigning supreme for over 300 years and settled the New World and fueled the Restoration, but there are struggles with it as with any translation (see “Easter” for pascha in Acts 12:4).  With access to thousands of ancient manuscripts, the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the rise of research in the 1900s and now the advent of the internet, many translations and study tools are available that are often based on better study.

III.  Acts 17:11.  So, are you noble-minded like the Bereans who examined the Scriptures daily to see if what Paul was preaching was true?  Do you, like Luke, carefully investigate everything to have an accurate account of what is truth for eternity?

Or, is your salvation based on your top three Google searches?

 

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With Fear and Trembling

With the invention of the printing press in 1455 a.d. there must have been a bunch of unemployed monks who no longer needed to painstakingly copy every jot and tittle of Scripture by candlelight in a dark monastery.  Suddenly, the common man had access to God’s Word.  Okay, it took a while for copies to no longer be smuggled into England in barrels of flour, but there was no quenching the thirst to know God’s will for mankind after fifteen centuries of spiritual starvation.

I.  Once Erasmus translated the Latin Vulgate that had reigned supreme for 1100 years in 1516 back into Greek, Martin Luther the very next year read God’s Word and nailed his 95 challenges to the establishment to a church door in Germany.  The Reformation had begun, and Tyndale published his English translation eight years later in 1525.  This and Erasmus’ work became the backbone of the King James Version in 1611 that reigned supreme for 300 years.

II.  John 4:24.  With greater access to God’s Word came a way to satisfy the spiritual hunger to know and live by the truth.  Contrast that to today with so much availability of God’s Word in stores, our homes, even our phones, and our excused for spiritual laziness fall so short.  Instead of squandering the leisure time that western culture has given us, we must once again recapture a hunger and thirst for God’s Word.

III.  Philippians 2:12-16.  Before this time when only some of the clergy had access to God’s Word, the people had no choice but to accept fallible human mediators for their salvation.  Greater availability to God’s Word meant that people could work out their own eternity with Jesus alone as their go-between.  Spiritual laziness again makes people today desire a return to such a system as they think the preacher is in charge of their salvation.

What a gift to have access to the Creator’s Word to us that tells us what we must do to find salvation through the death and resurrection of Jesus!  How we squander that gift by not studying His Word to work out our salvation with fear and trembling.