broken//stained//glass

How to Study the Bible: Five Basic Questions

Oftentimes we can approach the Scriptures with fear and trepidation.
It can feel intimidating.
It can feel boring.
It can feel outdated.
It can seem confusing.
Sometimes I feel that way, too.

I hear comments from people - sometimes on a weekly basis - such as, "I've never been to seminary...I'm lost in the Bible" or "I don't even know where to start" or "I just flip open my Bible and start reading, but I don't even know what I am supposed to be doing." With great regularity I hear this significant and foundational question: "How do I study my Bible?"

If you have asked these questions before, you are not alone.

For the past several years I have used five basic questions when I read the Bible.
I forget where I got these questions but they have been valuable tools for studying Scripture.
I think it works for me - and others - because of their simplicity.

These questions can be used by seminarians and scholars, as well as with those confused about the Bible and those who have never studied the Bible before. (A few weeks ago I taught a new believer to use these five questions when he reads his Bible).
They can be asked when reading a few verses or entire chapters.
They can be utilized in personal study times or in a Bible study, house church or faith community.

Consider using these questions as you explore the Scriptures:

(1) What is going on in the passage?
(2) What do I like about this passage?
(3) What do I not like about this passage?
(4) What does this passage teach me about the character and the nature of God? of Jesus?
(5) What can I take away from this passage and apply to my life specifically in the next seven days?

Serious obedience: Reflections from Jesus' Kingdom Manifesto

I've been reading Jesus' Kingdom Manifesto in Matthew 5-7 - most famously known as the Sermon on the Mount - in the Message.

Fresh language and expression. It sets our kingdom imaginations running. I'm challenged by Jesus' costly but worthwhile invitation to step into his way of life.

Here are some excerpts from Matthew seven:

"Don't look for shortcuts to God. The market is flooded with surefire, easygoing formulas for a successful life that can be practiced in your spare time. Don't fall for that stuff, even though crowds of people do. The way to life—to God!—is vigorous and requires total attention.

"What is required is serious obedience - doing what my Father wills."

"These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on. If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock. Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit—but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock. But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don't work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach. When a storm rolled in and the waves came up, it collapsed like a house of cards."

The Beatitudes in my own words...

Recently I was studying the Beatitudes in context of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus' Kingdom Manifesto.
It helped me when I put it in my own words.

You're blessed if you're feeling hopeless - it opens the door for you to experience God's reign.
You're blessed if you're mourning because the promise remains: you will experience comfort.
You're blessed in your meekness because your inheritance will be the earth itself!
You're blessed if you  desperately long for the right things to happen in the world - because you'll eventually experience it.
You're blessed if you're about extending mercy because you'll receive it as well.
You're blessed when you  possess heart purity - because of it you'll be able to see God in what you do.
You're blessed if you strive ot make peace in the world - you'll be identified as God's child when you do.
You're blessed if others make your life difficult as you try to do the right thing - you'll see the rule and reign of God at work.

You're blessed when others mock you, hassle you and gossip about you because of your association with me.
Be joyful of the fact, because you'll have an amazing reward awaiting for you.
This isn't new - people have harassed the prophets like this in the past.

Last house standing

"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."
-Matthew 7:24-28

That'll preach.

Repeated themes of Acts 1-5

Reading through the first five chapters of Acts recently I took note of some of the repeated themes and concepts...

-prayer
-Scripture
-the Kingdom of God
-the resurrection of Jesus
-commonality/generosity among the believers
-a call to repentance
-addition of numbers
-teaching (mostly spontaneous)
-courage and boldness

But the most repeated words/concepts were:

-Holy Spirit (a gift of)
-Witness(es)
-Jesus
-chaos (i.e. words such bewildered, amazed, awe, astonised, perplexed, wonder, questions, great fear, etc)

It makes me wonder: are these repeated words, themes and concepts in my own life? my leadership? my preaching? our faith community? If not, it most certainly should be...

I have been particularly struck by the concept of chaos and surprise in the first church, rather than order and predictability. Hmmmmm.... I am not sure what to make of it.

More on this on a future blog post...

The Way of Love

If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.

   Love never gives up.
   Love cares more for others than for self.
   Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
   Love doesn't strut,
   Doesn't have a swelled head,
   Doesn't force itself on others,
   Isn't always "me first,"
   Doesn't fly off the handle,
   Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
   Doesn't revel when others grovel,
   Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
   Puts up with anything,
   Trusts God always,
   Always looks for the best,
   Never looks back,
   But keeps going to the end.

Love never dies.

We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!

But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.

When Google Earth meets the Scriptures

It was bound to happen...

If you're a teacher of the Bible - or an avid student of it - there is a great resource tool I stumbled across recently that is put by Google (Google had done it once again).

It's called Bible Maps.
It allows you to type in any book and chapter in the Bible and uses Google earth to locate that Biblical place on the globe today.

It is still in Beta form, but its absolutely fascinating.
It has already enhanced my teaching preparation.
Check it out here.

Disregarding Scripture

The weirdest thing happened last week.

I just bought a new Teaching Bible - a brand new bible that I plan on using just when I preach and teach.
It was hard to part with my old Bible because it had years of notes written in the margin and certain key words circled or underlined to aid my teaching.

I was doing teaching preparation in my brand new bible and started to turn to 1 Corinthians 15.
As I was turning there, I realized I went too far - ended up in Ephesians.
And I backtracked too far and ended up in Acts.
Then I started to get frustrated as I clumsily fumbled through the pages of the New Testament.
Aren't I a little more familiar with my Bible than this? I thought. This is ridiculous.
And, even though I was by myself, I started to feel a flush of embarrassment because here I am, a pastor, and I can't find a rather significant and large letter in the New Testament.
At this time, I was getting frustrated at myself. Really frustrated.

Until I noticed something I had never seen before: I flipped through the end of Acts...and then noticed that the next page jumped to...2 Corinthians chapter 4?

What?!?!

No wonder I struggled to find 1 Corinthians 15. The entire books of Romans, 1 Corinthians and the first three chapters of 2 Corinthians were missing from my brand new teaching Bible. It just jumped from page 1034 to page 1067.

Good thing I was just doing teaching prep in my office by myself.
Can you imagine standing up in front of a group of people teaching and saying, "Turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 15 and let me read from it...well, give me a minute here...hold on...um... Well, look at that...isn't that the weirdest thing...I don't think I have that...in my Bible..."
Yeah, that would go over really well.
Nobody would believe me.
They would just think I'm an uneducated pastor who can't find 1 Corinthians in his own Bible and was making up some lame excuse.
How embarrassing.

As I realized the issue with my new teaching Bible my mind was racing, asking all sorts of questions about biblical inerrancy and the theology of the authority of Scripture...and then I realized that it was probably just some absent-minded minimum wage employee at the printer who probably fell asleep on the job or pushed the wrong button or something. It's kind of a big deal, I thought, to forget 30 plus pages out of  God's good book...I hope he didn't lose his job.

I wondered if someone's salvation would be thwarted because of this guy at the printer who wasn't doing his job. Then I started thinking about predestination and free will in regards to someone's salvation being thwarted because of an incomplete Bible because of a mistake by some employee at the printer - but then I was thinking so hard that my brain started smoking...so I stopped thinking about it.  

I've contacted the publishing company and they are in the process of replacing my old, incomplete Bible with a new, complete canon very shortly.

As funny as the entire ordeal was, it really made me think: don't we do that with our Bibles from time to time?
We stay away from the scary, confusing, hard to understand passages of Scripture that don't fit into our theology and just disregard certain parts altogether.
It may not be 1 Corinthians, but maybe Leviticus or parts of the Psalms or that freaky book of Revelation that make us blush or whatever --- fill in the blank. We sort of create a subconscious canon inside of the canon.

I've thought often of doing a teaching series called "The Bible We Don't Read: Studying the Un-highlighted Parts of Scripture."

It makes me wonder: if we're honest enough to admit it, what parts of Scripture do we disregard because its just too confusing/uncomfortable/difficult/scary?

Messing with our theology

My seminary professor said something several weeks ago that I can't stop thinking about:

"Nothing has messed with my theology more than reading my Bible."

Romans 12 is messing with me...

Recently, I was listening to a CD and heard someone reading the familiar words of Romans 12 in a fresh unfamiliar language. I am not sure what the translation was, but it struck me to the core. The Holy Spirit used this fresh language to help the words jump off the page and into my mind for the day.
I had to stop the CD, rewind it and listen to these phrases again. (I've bolded some of the language that was riveting).

"...have profound respect for each other...(v. 10b)

"...work for the Lord with untiring effort and with great earnestness of spirit..." (v. 11).

"...bless those who persecute you. Never curse them. Bless them." (v, 14).

"...Treat everyone with equal kindness...Never be condescending." (v. 16).

"Make real friends with the poor..." (v. 16).

Each one of these phrases could be pondered for weeks.
I'm grateful that Scripture has successfully messed with me.