Why read the Bible

You know, I've always struggled to get into the Bible. Not that I don’t usually enjoy reading the Bible. I often do…. (though not always) but to get started: to get it open and to be in a mindset to read it and want to learn from it is the challenge. I am a Christian (A Christ follower) and yet the main book that gives us truth about the life of Christ, his ministry, and the plan of salvation from God.....is a hard book to read!!!

A God-sent reminder was given to me this last week about the value of the Bible. Since this has been on my mind, I wanted to share it with you and maybe it can be an encouragement.

The Bible, in 2 Tim 3:16-17 says that, all scripture is given by inspiration of God. First, this is a reference to the Old Testament, not the New Testament. When Paul wrote this, we didn't have a New Testament yet. So, he was talking about the Scriptures that had already been proven to be "God breathed." So, if the Bible is "God breathed" or "inspired by God" then that should make it more important to me, as a Christian. However, that truth alone doesn't always motivate me into the book....so, what are some other things. 

Again, in 2 Tim, the Bible tells us that Scripture (again, the Old testament here) can tell us: what is right, what is not right, how to get right, and how to stay right (Thanks dad C). So, if I am tired of my life, or even just certain parts of it, and I want to know what is right or wrong and how to fix myself and how to stay fixed: I can turn to the Bible. Admittedly, we are best served doing that in light of both the old and new testament because Jesus' willingness to die for me and pay my sin-debt changes everything. So, we don't ignore any portion of Scripture in this. 

So, there is a reason to get into God's word. It helps us see what is right and wrong and make changes. I'll warn you though. It's devious. The Bible won't just  give you answers or help you have the desires of your heart....it isn't that straight forward. The Bible claims that God will give you the desires of your heart and all you have to do is ask and you can have it. The thing you might miss though is that the Bible will change you from the inside out and change your desires too. It's a tricky book! 

The Bible, if we look, will tell us why we should desire to read the bible (1 Peter 2:2), why we should study the Bible (2 Tim 2:15), and why we should memorize the Bible (Psalm 119:11). In fact, the Bible will even claim to help guide your life if you are confused or unsure about what to do (Psalm 119:105).

One last thought I've had going through my head: a reminder. If you expect every single time that you open the Bible you are going to get a jolt of God-tricity or you’ll be somehow transformed each time you read it, then you are crazy. That would be like planning to run a race and every time you practice a run you can visibly see your muscles grow or physically feel your lung capacity improve. That doesn't make sense physically and it wouldn't make sense spiritually to expect the same thing. It’s a process. It’s a discipline. It takes time and patience. Understanding the Bible, having a relationship with someone you can't directly experience with your five senses....that takes a different kind of muscle and that muscle takes working out just like our physical muscles do.   ….but it’s worth it.

Now, hang on. Everything I've said so far (about the Bible) has been from the Bible. So, that's a kind of circular logic, right? Why should I believe the Bible about the Bible???? What sense does it make to base my reality about a book on the claims that very book makes about itself?

My first response to that is: I don't have all the answers. This is an area where I am weakest in argumentation because I struggled with this a lot 5 years or so ago. Bruce H is going to help me with this in a class I'm going to take next year. That's great. I want to be able to articulate my answers for those who ask these questions. 

For me, I believe it to be the inspired Word of God and that settles it for me. I know that many portions of the Bible can be corroborated historically through archaeological records, etc. At some point though, a person still has to say, "I believe that 100% of the Bible is God-breathed" otherwise you disagree with the Bible itself and all spiritual application of it is lost. 

I know how the Bible has changed my life. How it has changed my desires and my heart. That's me though. I truly believe that if you are genuinely searching, God will help you to find him as well, whatever that means for you. 

I know, that was too wishy-washy for some and too strange for others. Get over it. This is my blog not yours. Although, I do welcome any constructive criticism from either side of the fence and if someone gives any that you don't agree with, please let me respond or leave it alone. I'm not trying to set up a forum for religious debate. :o) Thanks!

Also, credit where credit is due. I took some of the outline thoughts from above from "A Way to Joy" as part of the Good Soil material (www.GoodSoil.com)

Contentment

I don't think we truly appreciate what it means to be content. Now, just to be sure I have my words right (Thanks Bruce), contentment is "satisfaction", "ease of mind", or the idea of being pleased, happy, or gratified.

So, now that definitions are out of the way: how am I, as a little Christ, supposed to be content? Lately, when I read the things that Paul wrote in our New Testament, I'm seeing how incredibly radical he had to have seemed to everybody....except his fellow radicals. (Think about it. This guy let himself get beaten so that he could prove a point to a bunch of Romans....then he sang while in prison and in the stocks...)

I was reading Phil 4:10-18 this morning and it struck me that Paul says, "Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me."

That's funny. 2 Corinthians gives us a summary picture of what Paul went through, though much of it can be corroborated in other books. He talks about difficulty in labor, imprisonment, countless beatings, and often near to death. "Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one (I think this was a legal issue and Pam thinks it was counting but we aren't sure. If you know the historicity, comment below and let us know). Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers...in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure." Just as a reminder, Paul was often proud, but proud of his God and Jesus Christ-not himself. Read 2 Cor. 11:30 (just after the list I just gave) and Paul jumps into his weaknesses and how great God is.

One last section and then we can talk. In 2 Corinthians 12, Paul talks about his "thorn in the flesh." Many people have wondered what it was and I think there is a reason we don't know. Because we can often empathize with Paul who said, "A thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. (Have you ever prayed that prayer?) But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Paul then goes on to say, "Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

Why did I start by saying that I don't think we really appreciate contentment? Because how often is our "contentment" a "I will be content as I wait 14 hours for this something I don't need." "I will be content as I wait on the Lord to provide the Ipad/Blu-ray/etc. that is something I need." I don't think we truly appreciate contentment because we are often not lacking. Here in America, we have so much. At least for me and my family, I have NEVER been to a point where a need wasn't met. I have rarely been unsure if it would be met in fact. Our journey of adoption took us as close to "our needs not being met" as I've ever been. During that time we had to wait to submit paperwork because we didn't have all the money at certain points. We agonized over knowing that every day we waited to submit our dossier was another day (or more) that we would have to wait for a referral. Yes, that was an emotional hurting that we went through, I get that. But we weren't cold. We weren't hungry. We didn't get beaten. That was a hardship for us....but hardship is subjective and that's kind of my point.

I am not an advocate of asking God for hardship so that we can learn to be content. However, like Paul, I think it would be appropriate to say, "I will boast in my weaknesses more than I normally would because then I will see Christ actively working in my life. When things do happen to me that are hard, I will be content in them because it is those moments of weakness where God, in His power, makes me strong enough to handle life."

Jesus told a parable about two houses. One was built on sand. The rains came, the floods came, and the wind beat against the house and it was flattened (This is the NPV - Nate's Paraphrasing Version). The next house was built on a rock. The rains came, the floods came, and the wind beat against the house but it stood firm. Christ is that rock....but notice that the storm is still there. We have so much here and I praise God for how he has provided for my family and my country. I just pray that as things happen to us, we don't get upset and angry, but rather, we recognize that Christ told us storms would come against our house and Paul is an example of being able to weather the storm by resting in Christ. 

Relationships with people

People are so human! So prone to make everything way more complicated than it needs to be. :o)

To start, I'll put what I had ended with this morning: I have long felt that relationships were SO important to showing/sharing the love of Christ....yet how do people like Hudson Taylor (and many, many) others then explain their behavior? Paul the apostle (I believe) preached first and established relationships second. How does that work? Do we start with a relationship and then share Jesus Christ with them, or do we start with Christ and then build a relationship? Is it contextual? So, look for a post tomorrow.

Well, it isn't tomorrow yet...but I won't be on Facebook to link this tomorrow....so I'm posting tonight. :o)

Yes it's contextual and yes both work. At least, that's my theory. Hudson Taylor believed that a soul was more important than anything else. So, I would imagine that he believed that you shared the love of Christ to whomever and whenever. However, when he went into in-land China, he settled down in each place, established churches and hospitals, and then after a few years would move on. Paul seems to have done the same. He spent time in each place (sometimes years, sometimes much less) and then he kept in communication with some of them (hence much of our New Testament that we have today). Both of these men, however, were also preaching to people who had never heard about Jesus Christ at all. So, there was no foundation of "Christian" religion that they had to work with. They had a clean slate that was ready to hear truth and, many times, accept it. (not always. Tens of thousands of Chinese Christians were killed during the Boxer Rebellion as well as thousands of missionaries as well.)

In our American culture, many have some rudimentary form of knowledge about the Gospel and what that means. However, often, that knowledge is either wrong (miss-information) or it makes them defensive (I can think of a million things that have been said or done in the name of "Christianity" that give it a bad reputation.) So, sometimes all you can do is form relationships with people and attempt to show them the love of Christ in your life and let God do the rest...or at least have a relationship to base spiritual conversations off of.

So now is when I say, "Maybe. Maybe not." What do you think? Are one of the extremes right or is a balanced mid-road of "the context and situation shapes how it is done" a better way? Let me know.

Where did our mission field go

An old song by Ron Hamilton has been going through my head for the last few days. One of the verses says, "Let me see my mission field, all around each day. Fill my heart with Jesus love, use me Lord, I pray!"

I also just finished a condensed biography on Hudson Taylor. When he founded China Inland Mission (an agency used to send many tens of thousands of people to China to reach in-land to the Chinese people who have never heard the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ) he reminded them that crossing an ocean didn't make you a missionary. You can add "Missionary" to your title, but it doesn't make you one. In fact, Hudson Taylor knew from a young age that God was calling him to China, but he was a missionary at home too. Whenever he had an opportunity to share the gospel he did it. Ministry it not exclusive....even if your passion from God is specific.

Lastly, there was an instance where Hudson Taylor and his group were praying for the money needed to get over twenty adults and four children from England to China. He did a "seminar" for a group. He so stunned them with his presentation of their responsibility for missions that the man who was hosting the event stood up. He told them that their program has specifically told them that there would be no collection that night, but he thought they would all be willing to give anyway so he wanted to take a collection. Hudson Taylor stood up himself and asked the host to stick to the original plan. He felt that if God laid it on their hearts to give at a later time, they could do that, but they shouldn't give spontaneously. Hudson was staying with the host family that night and they had an argument over this. The host felt that Hudson had been foolish. There monetary needs could have been met if he'd just let them take a collection. Hudson argued that if they just passed a plate and put some money in, most of them would forget the real need in China and feel that they had done their part and it was over. (By the way, the next morning this same host handed Hudson 500 crowns stating that God laid it on his heart to help and he now agreed with Hudson's decision. He also told Hudson that if they had taken a collection the night before he was planning to give 5 crowns.)

The point is that our mission field is all around us. It's our unsaved children. It's our unsaved spouses and family members. It's all the thousands of people around us who even know about the love of Jesus Christ to be able to accept or reject it. They may know some stories or they may know the media hype about Jesus (thank you Mel Gibson and Tom Hanks) but that is not the same as knowing the love of Jesus Christ. Who am I to just send money to other people to let them share this truth? Where did my mission field go.

Don't misunderstand me. People with money are used by God to support missionaries. Hudson Taylor was also supported by those people. Praise God for those of His children who help support missionaries. That is needed and a God-send for the missionaries. I'm just saying that your mission field probably doesn't involve walking more than 20 feet (unless you live somewhere with more land than us city folk!) Even if it takes more than 20 feet, it is probably still a phone call away.

Tomorrow I'll probably post about relationships in sharing the gospel. I have long felt that relationships were SO important to showing/sharing the love of Christ....yet how do people like Hudson Taylor (and many, many) others then explain their behavior? Paul the apostle (I believe) preached first and established relationships second. How does that work? Do we start with a relationship and then share Jesus Christ with them, or do we start with Christ and then build a relationship? Is it contextual? So, look for a post tomorrow.

I'd love your feedback and comments to today's post!!

Honest skepticism

I think one thing that always scared me about questioning "religion" of the Christian faith was that I was afraid that everyone WAS wrong. I was afraid it would never make sense to me. I was afraid that Karl Marx was right.

"Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of the soulless condition. It is the opium of the people....the criticism of religion disillusions man, so that he will think, act, and fashion his reality like a man who has discarded his illusions and regained his senses, so that he will move around himself as his own true Sun. Religion is the illusory Sun which revolves around a man as long as he does not revolve around himself."

Thankfully, I know that he is not right, though I know that many would argue with me. I accept that. If it was easy, everyone would do it and if it was completely clear (with no faith involved) then everyone would accept it as truth. That is not the case and I accept that too.

You'll notice my post title is "Honest skepticism." I took that from the header on Daily Bread today that came in my e-mail. The "criticism" that Marx describes, I believe, is a person who simply decides that religions are all false and not worth following. We are the center of our own universes. Boy, how messy our lives and society would be if EVERYONE thought that way. Anyway, the skepticism that I would call "honest skepticism" is a desire to know the truth and a willingness to seek it out. Read the Bible and look for answers. Isaiah 55 says that God's word that goes out of His mouth will not return to Him empty. God has a plan. Yes! I wish I knew what that plan was. I wish I knew why so many things happen, why so many difficult things come into our lives and often feel like they are destroying our lives. I don't know the answer to those things.

I do, however, trust that God is in control and that he can see so much more than me. Like, I have a single piece to a puzzle and it doesn't make sense. God, however, has the box lid to see where it is going and he has all many, many pieces that will make it a beautiful picture.

Lastly, Marx DOES have a point that religion can be a means of drugging people who don't want to think about life but rather want to just accept that someone else is in control. Some of you may very well think that of me and that's OK. My clarification would that there is a difference between a religion (practices, rituals, traditions, etc.) and a relationship with Jesus Christ.

If you question the worth of religion because all the "stuff" that we do doesn't make sense - welcome aboard. I have grown up Baptist and lots of the stuff that is done doesn't make sense at all. It's the relationship with Jesus Christ that pulled me in though. Not the rest of it. Not the religious practices aspects. Now, some of those are important. Christ, in the New Testament, commands and encourages us to do some things...but that isn't the same as all the traditions that we've picked up over 2,000 plus years.

OK. I expect people on both sides of the fence to disagree with me. I accept that. If you have a dissenting comment though, just keep it tactful for everyone who might read this and I'll try to reply at some point.

May you know the truth of God's love for you.

Introductions

Good evening (or afternoon, or evening...depending on when you read this and where you are at the time).

I hope to have short-CONCISE posts once in a while to just share what I'm thinking, but I wanted to start with a little background for me today....and it isn't short....or concise.

Here is my background from a spiritual perspective.

I grew up in a conservative Christian/Baptist home. Like many in my generation, I went through a period of crisis when I moved away from home. I wanted to question religion, the Bible, all of it....but I was terrified. To question what had been the foundation for my entire existence seemed truly scary. That, and I ran in similar circles to the ones I'd grown up in and I wanted to please people. So, I made a new profession of faith and kept up my acting like nothing was wrong.

It was in my mid-twenties that I finally admitted that I was truly agnostic. Just so we all know, an agnostic is: "a person who holds that the existence of the ultimate cause, as God, and the essential nature of things are unknown and unknowable, or that human knowledge is limited to experience" (Dictionary. reference.com - agnostic). Now, I am not an English major so I didn't think in those terms but that is the jist of what I was dealing with and I finally stumbled onto the term "agnostic" and I felt a peace. No, not peace. I felt content that I could now define my frustrations, but no peace at all.

By this point I had gotten married and was involved at my local church. In case you aren't sure, that means that a crisis of faith is awkward and you feel like you can't tell anyone. What will they do? What will they think? How will they treat me? Will my "world" fall apart? I had no answers. So, I asked the only person I could think of and that was my pastor. Now, any skeptic out there is going to say, "Sure, ask the pastor. He's going to tell you what you want to hear and push you right back to where you were." Nice try, but wrong. In fact, my pastor looked at me and said, "Nate, I have no idea what you are going through. I don't understand your questions personally because I've never had the same doubts you have. But, we can talk, we can read a book and discuss it, whatever I can do to help, you let me know." That's right. He let me drive. (That's scary.)

So, I met with my pastor off and on for a few months. We read a book about faith. That book didn't help at all except to pin-point my problem. I didn't have an issue with faith. I understand that faith, on a simple and human level, is something we exercise daily. What I didn't have faith in was that the Bible was not just historical in parts, but in the whole. It wasn't a collection of historical documents sprinkled with spiritual hype to drug the masses. Believe me, this issue is settled in my life, but not in my reasoning.

I came to a point where I wanted to quit. I wanted to leave the church, leave my wife, leave it all behind and....what? Do what with myself? Go wallow in a hole and pretend the problem wasn't there? I couldn't do that. I wanted answers too much. I wanted to finish my "quest" to find either an answer or that there were no answers about God.

Sorry, this is long already and that wasn't my goal. I'm sure I'll put more pieces in as I go. However, to wrap it up, God has given me peace. I found a moment where I simply prayed, "God. I am going to trust that you exist and you are who the Bible says you are for one week and we'll go from there." Silly sounding, isn't it? Go ahead, admit it, I'm not offended. I'd also be lying if I told you that I have no doubts, no questions whatsoever. No, what I have is peace, more answers than I had before, more questions than I had before, and a belief in a God who loved me enough to send His son to die for me while I still hated Him. God, knowing that I was going to get hooked on addictions in my life, knowing that I would be a poor husband for years and a struggling father too, still loved me enough to send Christ to die for me (and you, by the way) and I can't let that go. Even if I don't understand it all, a never ending debt like that is too great for me to ignore. It is too great for me to be unthankful.

So, whether you have had your own struggles and found answers. Whether you have had your own struggles and are searching for answers. Whether you have never really had struggles because your "faith of a child" has followed you into adult-hood. Praise God that He loves you and He is pursuing you. I don't mean that everyone who reads this will become a Christian. I can't promise that everything will work out for you. I can't even promise you it's all going to work out for me. :o) What I can promise is that God pursues us because He loves us.

Happy Tuesday!