Food for Thought
Below is a post from Charles Wood regarding daily Bible reading. I hope it will encourage you to send time in the Word each day.
WHY YOU’LL NEVER REGRET FEEDING ON GOD’S WORD EVERY DAY
…”let’s be brutally honest for a moment : do we really feel a need for the Bible? Between Twitter, Oprah, our accountant and Sunday morning sermons, there’s already a flood of counsel washing into our lives. What’s the Point? So why read the Bible? And why every day? Dozens of reasons could be mentioned. Here are a few of the most important: Daily Bible reading is how we calm down, tank up, get wisdom, go deep, get busy and commune with God.
1. Calm down. Each day we roll out of bed and, as C.S. Lewis put it in Mere Christianity, ‘all your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals.’ One reason we read the Bible is so that we are not subject to living the day out of haste but rather out of calm. We remember the shortness of life, the eternality of heaven and the abundance of a gospel from which no sin or failure is excluded. The promises of Scripture are like an asthmatic’s inhaler, enabling us to slow down and take a deep breath.
2. Tank up. Reading Scripture is like eating food. We have to do it regularly, it tastes good to taste buds that are alive, and it nourishes us for the day. Bible reading is stored energy, stockpiled emotional and psychological capital. We stay afloat throughout the day by making moment-by-moment withdrawals from that vast reservoir.
3. Get wisdom. By nature, we are fools. Over time we can shed folly and become wise. We will not do it on our own. And we will not do it by downloading all the cleverness of the world’s best self-help gurus into our minds. We need a word from heaven, from beyond. The Bible is the world’s great self-corrective. Each day it tweaks our lives and prompts fresh mid-course corrections. Wisdom flourishes.
4. Go deep. Daily Bible reading deepens us theologically. On the one hand, the demons are excellent theologians (James 2:19). They would ace our seminaries’ doctrine exams. So it isn’t enough to have right doctrine. But it is certainly necessary. Defective doctrine means a defective view of God, and to the degree our view of God is defective, to that degree the ceiling lowers on our potential for joy, comfort and above all enjoying the gospel of grace. One reason we read the Bible is to deepen our minds. To sharpen the contours of our vision of God. To think more accurately about all that matters most.
5. Get busy. We also read the Bible to be told what to do. It’s not the main thing we read the Bible for. But we do find ourselves stirred to take action in concrete ways. Sometimes the text commands action directly. Other times it doesn’t, but at the least, indirectly, a text will mess with us, change us a little bit, alter our outlook and thus impel us forward in some new step of practical obedience externally because we have been changed a tiny bit internally.
6. Commune With God. This is the umbrella category that includes all the rest. This is the point. Reading the Bible is a personal experience—“person-al,” one person to another. What other book do we read, conscious of the author interacting with us as we do so? Daily Bible reading requires routine and structure, but it is not mechanical—just as a body requires a bony skeleton, but it is not the skeleton that gives it life. We do with the Bible what the Psalms guide us in doing—adore God, thank him, complain to him, wrestle with him, express perplexity to him and all the rest.
“Getting Practical: So what might this actually look like? To be sure, it would be simplistic to conceive of every person’s time in Scripture as looking the same. Just as there are different but equally valid ways to exercise, so too there are different but equally valid ways to read the Bible. But what is nonnegotiable is that we must be doing so with faithful regularity in order to be healthy. I have found morning time, first thing, to be best for reading the Bible. The house is quiet. A day’s worth of activity and anxiety has not built up. My mind is as blank as it will be all day and my body is as lethargic as it will be all day, making me well suited for unhurried reflection on the text. At times in the past, I’ve tried spending time in the Word in the evening, but my mind is racing from the day’s events, and I find it extremely difficult to slow down and chew on the text in a meditative way. Coffee and Scripture first thing in the morning has become a daily ritual that I dearly love and need. Experiment with what works best for you. Reading through the Bible in a year may be a good idea, especially if you are newer to Christianity. For myself, I’ve found slower, unhurried reflection and meditation on very small portions of Scripture to be best at this stage, with four young kids in the house and a small window of time for quiet solitude each morning….” Charles Wood
Spiritual Evaluation
“Your wait time is….”
It is possible that when you call a business, you might hear a computerized message which informs you of how long you must wait for a customer representative. Often when we hear that message we have to face how impatient we are. Recently I read an article that contained words of wisdom regrading the virtue of patience. The author of the article is Charles Wood. I am grateful for such godly and wise counsel.
Pastor Chris
1. Waiting Reveals Our True Motives: Waiting has a way of bringing out the best and worst in people. People who don’t have good motives won’t wait long because they’re not interested in the commitment it takes to see something through. They’re too interested in short-term gains or success.
2. Waiting Builds Patience In Our Lives: Patience in waiting for small things leads to having patience in the bigger things. Our problem is our perspective is usually wrong. We tend to think the bigger things in life are finances and possessions, while God thinks influencing and changing people is more important.
3. Waiting Builds Anticipation: Why do children get so excited around Christmas? Because the wait has produced anticipation. We tend to appreciate things the longer we have to wait for them. Because of having to wait so long, we tend to cherish and take care of it more than others might. People tend to treasure the things they have to wait for.
4. Waiting Transforms Our Character: Waiting has a way of rubbing off the rough edges of our lives. Few sermons talk about Moses having to wait in the desert 40 years before God came to him. God used this time of waiting to transform his character.
5. Waiting Builds Intimacy With and Dependency Upon God: Think of Noah, Abraham, Moses, Joseph, Jesus, Paul, etc. Waiting during the difficult times developed their relationship with God. Some of the most intimate relationships we have in our lives are because a friend stood in the trenches with us during the heat of the battle. I’ve always believed God is just as interested in the journey as he is the destination. If not, all the biblical accounts would only include the feel good parts and not the good, the bad and the ugly of the times of waiting. We may not always understand why we have to wait, but the good news is that God never asks to wait without Him.
We discussed this in our small group Sunday evening as some in the group are going through serious times of waiting. They added several more reasons:
6. God Knows That We Are Not Yet Ready for What We Want: we may need more maturity, a different setting, some step of action on our part, etc., before we are really ready for any action on His part.
7. He Just Shows Us Who Is In Control: we know that intellectually, but we sometimes tend to wander into His area. Waiting may well be His “push-back.”
8. There Is A Web of Humanity Involved: It is possible that other people and circumstances are involved in that for which we wait. We are waiting because there are those other things that must be cared for first before our request can be granted.
9. There Is the Possibility That We Are Not Ready For What We Are Waiting For: There is nothing more tragic that watching someone get an almost immediate answer to prayer and then squander what has been granted on trivialities or minutia.
10. God May Be Making Us Wait So We Can See Why What We Wanted Would Not Have Been Good For Us To Have At The Time We Were Asking: some of the things I have had to wait for have become matters of indifference during my time of waiting. Had He given them to me just when I asked for them, I would have squandered them in the sense that I really didn’t need them or even want them, something that I could only learn through the time of Waiting.”
Mother’s Day
We thank the Lord for godly women, who are called “mom”. A mother’s willingness to sacrifice her live is a true display of the love of God in Christ. The link below is a clever way to remind us of a mom’s sacrificial life. Enjoy the laugh, the tear and I hope you have a blessed mother’s day.
Pastor Chris
The Road to Jerusalem
The road to Jerusalem that was used by the Jews to celebrate the Passover was well worn by the time Jesus navigated that trail for the final time in His life. Since the Passover was an annual feast celebrated by the Jews, we may assume that Jesus could have walked that road approximately 20x before His final journey on it. The Gospels specifically mention 3 or 4 Passovers that Jesus may have experienced before His final celebration of the Passover with His disciples in the upper room.
Over the span of Jesus’ life, when He celebrated the Passover, I wonder how He sang the Psalms that were traditional song by the pilgrims traveling to Jerusalem to celebrate it? Did His voice convey the joy of the Lord as the pilgrims would reflect upon God’s great deliverance of the nation? Did His voice hint at the depth God went to provide for that deliverance? Beyond the journey to Jerusalem, once Jesus arrived at the Temple, I further wonder what He was thinking during the actual Passover celebration as the lambs were sacrificed, the blood applied to the alter, the priest singing and praise God and the people giving thanks?
The road we travel to celebrate Easter is a similar road as the one Jesus traveled to celebrate the Passover. May our journey on the road to celebrate Easter be filled with joy as we contemplate our great salvation in Christ and all the spiritual blessings we posses through Him. May we also reflect upon, during our celebration of Chris’t resurrection from the grave, the depth of God’s love as He provided for us the perfect lamb, whose blood has cleansed us from all our sin. Finally, may our celebration of Easter lead us into a deeper devotion of Christ that would manifest itself in a passionate service for Christ.
Abiding in Him,
Pastor Chris
The Cries of Jesus
As we approach the celebration of Christ’s resurrection, I have been thinking about the life of our Lord while He walked on this earth. Specifically, I have been thinking about those times in His life when He cried. Several such instances come to my mind.
First, though the text does not comment on Jesus crying at His birth, I have never heard of a baby who did not cry at birth. The sweet, innocent cry of new life. In the simplicity of that cry of Jesus I hear the depth of God’s love for us. His beloved Son would adorn Himself with our flesh so that He could love us with an everlasting love. How sweet the sound of that cry when baby Jesus entered this world.
The next cry of Jesus I hear is when Jesus was in the temple celebrating the Feast of Booths (sometimes called “Tabernacles”) or Succoth in Hebrew. This feast celebrated the harvest of grapes and olives as well as the end of the harvest season in general. The feast, which lasted seven days, was a time of great celebration. “Postexilic observances included the lighting of giant menorahs in the temple courtyard, all-night dancing to flutes by torchlight, dawn processions ending with libations of water and wine at the bronze altar…”.* The water libations were offered with prayer for future rains, so that their physical needs would continue to be met. Jesus’ cry at that particular part of the celebration turned an appeal to God to a cry from God’s Son that He alone can satisfy the spiritual thirst of man. It must have been a cry many would not have forgotten. In the midst of joyous celebration, His voice rose above all others to offer lasting satisfaction. I wonder if their celebration continued after He spoke…..
Another cry I hear from Jesus was when He wept over Jerusalem just prior to His crucifixion. He came to the nation Israel as their promised Messiah, but the nation turned away in unbelief. Jesus’ heart was broken. The city of God would have to wait in desolation until that day when the Jewish people turn in repentance to receive their Messiah. And so, they still wait today…..
The final cry I hear from Jesus was at Calvary. He was being sacrificed for our sins on the cross and with His final breath of life He simply said….”It is finished”. In that final cry, theology intersected history and the world was changed forever. The empty tomb of Jesus reminds us of His grace, our hope and the mission to sow the precious seed of the Gospel in this world.
As I contemplate those various cries of Jesus, I react to them in a number of ways. My first reaction is one of humility. I am humbled that through the incarnation, God would provide for my salvation. My next reaction is that I am grateful that Jesus does satisfy my soul. The restless yearn when I was without Christ has been replaced with a satisfaction that can only come from Christ. Another reaction is compassion for those who do not know Christ. May my life reflect the grace in the Gospel as I have opportunities to share the Gospel of Jesus. Finally may I not only understand God’s plan for the ages, but may my life realize that plan as I live with Him and among His people.
As you prepare to celebrate Easter, I hope you too will take some time to reflect upon the life of Jesus. May that reflection remind you how He has radically and relentlessly changed your life.
Abiding in Him,
Pastor Chris
* Eerdmans Bible Dictionary
The Cost of the Cross
The cost of following Christ is great through out the world. Believers live with the real threat that they might be beaten or killed for identifying with Christ. We in America face increased opposition to our faith, but not out rite physical hostility to it. We sense in America that our views are dismissed, but we are not in fear of our physical safety.
Below is a link to an article that recounts an attack on Christians who gathered to worship Christ on a Sunday. Their worship was interrupted by gunfire and death. Please pray for these and other believers around the world who pay the cost of the cross. Pray as well for us (BBC specifically and American Christians generally)that our lives would have enough faith the pay the cost of the cross.
“All You Need is Love…”
The smash hit “All You Need is Love” was first recorded in 1967 on the Beatles album “Magical Mystery Tour”. It was written by John Lennon as a simple, yet powerful way to unite people who were diverse in background and culture. Love is all you need, he thought. Unfortunately for Lennon, he did not understand that catchy slogans can never transform the human heart. Humanity may be able to be manipulated by such tactics, but it can never be fundamentally transformed by those tactics.
Only the Gospel can change the human heart. Jesus said that He is the way, the truth and the life….. Through His death and resurrection, salvation is available for humanity. When we come to Jesus by faith through grace we are fundamentally changed. As the Apostle Paul would later write, we are a new creature created in Christ Jesus. The evidence of this new life is obvious by the defining characteristic of it. Love
This love however is not merely a part of a catchy phrase or a token adjective used to superficially gloss over our differences. Instead, this love which we are to evidence was defined by our God, when He gave His only Son to and for us. Jesus not only provided us with a definition for love, but He embodied that definition for all to see. Soon we will be celebrating Easter once again. I pray it will be our reminder as Christians that all we really do need is love.
Pastor Chris
“In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son
to be the propitiation for our sins.
Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”
Moral Courage
According to Wikipedia, moral courage is the ability to act rightly in the face of popular opposition, shame, scandal or discouragement. As a Christian living in the world, but not of the world, that definition resonates within me. In a recent post in Slice of Infinity, Stuart McAllister echoed the moral courage Christians need today.
“To be a follower of Christ demands independent and courageous thinking and acting. It is often to go against the flow, to stand in an opposing manner, to resist what is the wisdom of the crowd. Paul’s reminder of the basis upon which God chooses should disabuse us of our self-elevation. For God’s choosing is not based on our credentials or qualifications but solely and centrally on Christ’s. Hence, as Francis Schaeffer used to say, “There are no little people” in God’s eyes. We are all sinners saved by and dependent on grace. Thus, we must constantly lay hold of what has been done for us and learn to rest in God’s provision, wisdom, and care. We can also rejoice that even today God deliberately, with full knowledge, and real intention, chooses the unlikely, the outcast, and the least, overturning titles of power, success, and wisdom in a world with very different scales.”
To Be or Not to Be: The issue of membership in a local church
Weekly I receive emails from a man who has been in ministry for over 50 years. Those writings have been a source of encouragement, admonishment and learning in my Christian and ministry life. Sometimes in those writings he cites or shares material from other sources. Recently he shared some thoughts written by some one else on the topic of Church Membership. May your faith be stimulated and stretched as you read his thought provoking post.
Larry Huffhand and I don’t agree on quite a few things (although I am quite sure we agree far more than we disagree), but we both are convinced that disagreement shouldn’t affect such things as friendship, respect, and even citation.
“What does it mean when the Bible says in Acts 2: ‘then they that gladly received his word were baptized and the same day there were added unto them about 3000 souls.’ What does that mean? Why did the Apostle Paul go around establishing churches? Why did he instruct Titus to stay in Crete and ‘ordain elders’ in all the churches? What does church discipline imply? These and other questions go right to the heart of Church Membership. And if Church Membership is so important, what should be the procedure of bringing people into the membership of a local church?