Reasons 5-8

I want to finish up my post on the 8 reasons to read your Bible, as shared by our pastor.

My original post is here.

5.  So I can get the most out of life. (Josh 1:8)
This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

Sounds like a verse that Joel Osteen would quote. It is not that I do not believe God's promises, it is our interpretation of them I struggle with. Instead of Joel, how would John the Baptist interpret this verse? Remember him? The one about whom Jesus said, "Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he." (Mt 11:11) This man was the ultimate prophet, yet he was imprisoned and his life sold for a lap dance. I think it is a matter of perspective. I think that John did get the most out of life. I just think that most people would not interpret this statement in that manner. I have heard my pastor preach, and I don't think he would either.

6.  So I can know what is true. (Acts 17:11)
Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.

There is no greater tool for truth than God's word. If only we didn't let our preconceptions get in the way so often.

7.  So I can be close to God and learn from Him.(Heb 10:22)
let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

I love this verse, but not sure how this snippet of a much larger section is appropriate here. Read the entire paragraph! He is talking about a life style here, not just 10-20 minutes of reading and a journal entry on the "zinger" verse. He is talking about the confidence we can now have because of what Christ has done for us, and how that confidence should change us and the way we treat others. Perhaps more appropriate would be Deut. 5:6 "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might." which conveys the very essence of our faith. Yet I remember a man who knew this verse and quoted it to Jesus and was then told that he was close to the kingdom of God. I find that one of the saddest verses in the Bible, because while we were told that he was close, we never know if he made it. I want to be more than close.

8.  So I will have hope. (Rom 15:4)
For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

Read the entire paragraph here. It is not that reading the Scriptures shouldn't give us hope, it is just that the hope should not end on us, but rather it has the purpose of changing us so that we might glorify God by how we live and treat others.

So I will end with this...Read your Bible, whether it be on a plan or not. A lover of God should want to know all that he or she can about the object of their love. In fact, if all you do is attend church, tithe, and even do read your Bible, but do it in a sense that you are fulfilling your obligation to God, then I think you need to question your love for Him and maybe even question your salvation. (You won't hear that coming out of our pulpit on a Sunday.) Selah.

I have really done this, and still do it!

We had been in limbo for a while, searching for a place to worship. We either had issues with doctrine or theology or both. So we tried worshipping a home, but felt something was missing.

We decided to go back where we had previously worshipped, even though we felt the preaching sucks. Really, I can't think of a politically correct word for what I hear. Like recently, two of points were that 1) We should trust the promiser and not his promises; and 2) We should focus on the relationship and not the results.

But why would I trust a promiser who does not keep his promises? Why does God make promises and swear by Himself? I need to trust His promises, not as I understand them, but as He gives them. God is completely faithful. And to tell me not to trust in His promises belittles Him.

And why have a relationship and not consider the results? Unless we go in with selfish motives and then of course we will be unhappy. One of the greatest things about a true relationship with God is the result of the changed life I have as a result. That is why I seek a relationship, because I know God is good and I trust in Him.

So what have I done to resolve my dilemma? I use my i-pod during services to listen to preachers that uplift God rather than try to sell some god to me that needs to have someone give excuses for his imperfections. Really. And the preacher has seen me with them in. And no one says a word about it. Now, I must have had them a little loud a couple of weeks ago, because the little old lady in the row in front of me looked back at me a few times, but no one has said a word in the 4 weeks we have been back. Because if you ignore the elephant in the room, it isn't there, is it?

Why go back if it is that bad? Because we have made some connections there that will likely fade if we leave, and we don't feel that we should have to give them up. Strong, gospel centered connections.

Maybe someday they will talk to me. Maybe someday I will have an opportunity to say something that will change them. I am going to leave that in God's hands. I am not seeking to create controversy, but you really can't have a controversy if one party refuses to participate. I just want to worship.

Maybe I do need to turn up the volume a bit more though.

That's been my experience...

I was listening to a Matt Chandler sermon. If you are not familiar with Matt, he has a less that positive view of most of what is done in the name of evangelicalism.

In this particular sermon, he mentions how many churches are about confirmation. We confirm that what the minister says is good and right, and he confirms us through his distortion of the word. Has Matt been to my church?

I did not confirm the minister, but I questioned what he said or at least how he said it. Did he really say that good deeds plus the gospel = Jesus follower? Yup, and I have the outline to prove it. Now I am not opposed to good deeds. But they are not in needed in addition to the gospel, are they? Are they not rather a response to the gospel. I guess what bothers me most is the fine line that is walked. I cannot say that he is wrong. In some ways he is right. Faith without works is dead. But taken in context, that is not how I see him meaning it. Not when you take all of the other statements and see a bigger picture.

I can't confirm that message. But he won't either. I find it sad.

That can't be what that means...

I was listening to the sermon from Sunday. The preacher said that "doing the right things for the right reasons requires purity." He went on to connect Jesus telling the Rich Young Ruler that he must "follow the commandments" to Jesus calling us to be pure, and that Jesus was saying "if (we) want to be good, then (we must) live a life free of disobedience and sin."

Dang, I was really hoping for a shot at going to heaven, but I know that I am not pure.

But maybe Jesus telling him to follow the commandments was not a call to purity, but to show him his impurity. Jesus had previously stated that "No one is good except God alone." And this man was no exception. But the man thought he was.

He responded to Jesus by saying that he had kept all these commandments since his youth. But he also knew that this was not enough. In Luke's version of this encounter, the man wants to know what he still lacks.

Jesus then tells him to sell all he has and follow him. Wow. So what is Jesus saying here? Is he replacing the legalism of the OT law with monastic poverty? Or is he saying take all that you depended on in the past, your purity, your wealth, your ways of thinking of these things, and throw them out and put yourself in my care. Follow me. Love me. See the Father through me. I am the way, truth and life.

I think that would be how Paul would interpret this encounter.

Philippians 3:7-9

⁷But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ ⁹and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—

Okay, I feel better now.