1. Have you read it?
2. What did you think?
7.13.2008
I Heart the Scriptures
I love the Bible. It is the most beautiful, wonderful, mysterious, paradoxical, crazy book I can imagine. It is God's Word - and what exactly does that mean, anyway. A bunch of guys actually wrote it and a bunch of other guys got together and decided, "This is God's word." (If you've never thought about this you're probably feeling really uncomfortable with me right now but it's all true.) This process is also a part of the beauty - God used people! to tell stories about people living their lives with (or without in some cases) God!
So, my thoughts of the evening on the Scriptures:
1. "Prooftexting" If you're not familiar with this term. Get familiar. And don't ever do this. The Bible was not written one verse at a time, so don't use it that way. And if you decide to pull a verse out by itself to use it, make sure you are very familiar with the chapters before and after so that you make it out to say what the author really meant for it to say.
2. Enjoy the story. The Bible is largely stories (and a lot of poems, etc.). Don't just read a few verses or chapters at a time. Devour the Scriptures in large quantities. Get the story. I strongly agree with Richard Foster who says that reading the Bible one an hour each week is better than reading for ten minutes each day. (Personally, I would love to read an hour each day, but I'm not that cool of a guy yet.)
The Bible is not a "manual" for living (or "instruction book" as we sometimes like to cleverly call it). It is a series of stories of God's interactions with people basically like you and me. As in real life, what happens when you begin to get to know someone? We tell each other our stores - the closer we get the more stories we tell and the more the details begin to mean to us. If you want to get to know God better, read His stories.
3. Context. Context. Context.
As you come to know the story, be sure you are always true to the Scriptures, don't try to make them true to you.
---Example 1: next time you hear a good sermon from the book of Job, remember that the best preaching material from Job is typically his friends' advice. However, God rebukes the friends at the end because their proverbial advice was all wrong.
--Example 2: Be leary of personal devotions or sermons that stray from the Scriptures or go too deep. 2000 years after the fact, I personally doubt we're really going to discover "new" revelations. Breaking down a verse or word and going really deep and complex feels risky to me - such methods allow for a preacher to create any message he/she wants right from the scriptures. If the point of a devotion or sermon is something that the author never intended and the audience never "received", be ready to ask some good questions of the speaker.
A silly example of a "scriptural" but bogus sermon is this, "Jesus was a cry baby. Matthew and Luke both say Jesus was a baby. And we all know that the shortest verse in the Bible is 'Jesus wept.' Therefore, Jesus was a cry baby." (Insert applause and "amens" from the congregation here. And take offering.)
Another potential silly sermon from something I read this week: "Money answers everything." (The Bible says so. And no I'm not telling you where, look it up for yourself. The location might make for a good comment when you find it.) Although this is in the Bible, it doesn't mean that there aren't dozens of ludicrous sermons that you could preach from this verse. So again I say, "KNOW THE STORY."
A final thought on reading the Bible and hearing sermons: ASK QUESTIONS!!! Questions help us learn. Questions also expose junk. If a preacher says junk that can't be backed up with the Scriptures, then it probably shouldn't have been said anyway. If there is a Scriptural basis for what is said, he/she will probably enjoy talking more with you about the subject anyway.
So, my thoughts of the evening on the Scriptures:
1. "Prooftexting" If you're not familiar with this term. Get familiar. And don't ever do this. The Bible was not written one verse at a time, so don't use it that way. And if you decide to pull a verse out by itself to use it, make sure you are very familiar with the chapters before and after so that you make it out to say what the author really meant for it to say.
2. Enjoy the story. The Bible is largely stories (and a lot of poems, etc.). Don't just read a few verses or chapters at a time. Devour the Scriptures in large quantities. Get the story. I strongly agree with Richard Foster who says that reading the Bible one an hour each week is better than reading for ten minutes each day. (Personally, I would love to read an hour each day, but I'm not that cool of a guy yet.)
The Bible is not a "manual" for living (or "instruction book" as we sometimes like to cleverly call it). It is a series of stories of God's interactions with people basically like you and me. As in real life, what happens when you begin to get to know someone? We tell each other our stores - the closer we get the more stories we tell and the more the details begin to mean to us. If you want to get to know God better, read His stories.
3. Context. Context. Context.
As you come to know the story, be sure you are always true to the Scriptures, don't try to make them true to you.
---Example 1: next time you hear a good sermon from the book of Job, remember that the best preaching material from Job is typically his friends' advice. However, God rebukes the friends at the end because their proverbial advice was all wrong.
--Example 2: Be leary of personal devotions or sermons that stray from the Scriptures or go too deep. 2000 years after the fact, I personally doubt we're really going to discover "new" revelations. Breaking down a verse or word and going really deep and complex feels risky to me - such methods allow for a preacher to create any message he/she wants right from the scriptures. If the point of a devotion or sermon is something that the author never intended and the audience never "received", be ready to ask some good questions of the speaker.
A silly example of a "scriptural" but bogus sermon is this, "Jesus was a cry baby. Matthew and Luke both say Jesus was a baby. And we all know that the shortest verse in the Bible is 'Jesus wept.' Therefore, Jesus was a cry baby." (Insert applause and "amens" from the congregation here. And take offering.)
Another potential silly sermon from something I read this week: "Money answers everything." (The Bible says so. And no I'm not telling you where, look it up for yourself. The location might make for a good comment when you find it.) Although this is in the Bible, it doesn't mean that there aren't dozens of ludicrous sermons that you could preach from this verse. So again I say, "KNOW THE STORY."
A final thought on reading the Bible and hearing sermons: ASK QUESTIONS!!! Questions help us learn. Questions also expose junk. If a preacher says junk that can't be backed up with the Scriptures, then it probably shouldn't have been said anyway. If there is a Scriptural basis for what is said, he/she will probably enjoy talking more with you about the subject anyway.
7.02.2008
"Emergent" ??!@#$%%$&^*
Emergent church. What is it? Good? Bad? Ugly? Give me your thoughts. (With a few responses, this could be really fun.)
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