Interpretation: Christians can understand the Word of God

"Spiritual understanding - that is, the discernment of the realit of God, His ways with humankind, His present will and one's own relationship to Him now and for the future- will not however reach us from the text until the veil is removed from our hearts and we are able to share the writer's own passion to knwo and please and honor God (2 Cor. 3:16; 1 Cor. 2:14). Prayer that God's Spirit may generate this passion in us and show us God in the text is needed here. (See Ps. 119:18-19, 26-27, 33-34, 73, 125, 144, 169; Eph. 1:17-19; 3:16-19.)

Each book proceeded from the same divine mind, so the teaching of the Bible's sixty-six books will be complementary and self-consistent. If we cannot yet see this, the fault is in us, not in Scripture. It is certain that Scripture nowhere contradicts Scripture; rather one passage explains another. this sound principle if interpreting Scripture by Scripture is sometimes called the analogy of Scripture or the analogy of faith."

Those two paragraphs stand out to me... 1) we need God to remove the veil in our hearts to have real spiritual understanding 2) if we can't see that Scripture is complementary adn self-consistent, it is not Scriptures fault, it is ours... How often have I blamed things on the Word instead of my lack of wisdom... Next: General Revelation

Revelation: Scripture is the Word of God

Two paragraphs out of the first section, Revelation in Part I:God Revealed As Creator stood out to me.

"Christianity is the true worship and service of teh true God, humankind's Creator and Redeemer. It is a religion that rests on revelation: nobody would know the truth about God, or be able to relate to him in a personal way, had not God first acted to make himself known. But God has so acted, and the sixty-six books of the Bible, thirty-nine written before Christ came and twenty-seven after, are together the record, interpretation, expression, and embodiment of his self-disclosure. God and godliness are the Bible's uniting themes.

What Scripture says, God says; for, in a manner comparable only to the deeper mystery of the Incarnation, the Bible is both fully human and fully divine. So all its manifold contents - histories, prophecies, poems, songs, wisdom writings, sermons, statistics, letters, and whatever else - should be received as from God, and all that Bible writers teach should be revered as God's authoritative instruction. Christians should be grateful to God for the gift of his written Word, and conscientious in basing their faith and life entirely and exclusively upon it. Otherwise, we cannot even honor or please him as he calls us to do."

Blogging Break is Over

so i've taken the summer off from blogging. some time of focus, some travel, some family, some house church, some growing, some running.

now it is time to buckle down.

i am going to be writing my thoughts on a book, chapter by chapter. j.i. packer's Concise Theology.

nothing spectacular, perhaps some big things. starting this week. it is more of a dialogue with myself on the blog. some posts will be longer than the others, but that is the beauty of that book. you can go incredibly deep. sometimes i will just reply with the Word.

So... let us begin...

the simplicity revolution

I feel that there is a revolution coming up in my life. I almost said a 'little' revolution, but revolution in and of itself can't be little. By nature, revolutions tend to be pretty big things. Lots of things have come out of revolutions. America, for one. That didn't turn out to be something that was 'little'. 

I feel like that is what is happening in my heart. A revolution. In the birth pangs of this a few months ago, I was noticing things that were changing, but I couldn't tell what direction they were going. The battles in my mind were intense. There is a line in my journal from YEARS ago that hits the nail on the head with what was going on... 'You keep telling me that it is done, that I have won, but it doesn't feel like the battle's over in my mind'. I could have gone either direction. I don't even really know what that means. But it was rough. Some days it still is.

Now it is a few months later and I am in the throes of this. And it has been difficult to really see where this is going but I do know this. It is about Jesus and it is about simplicity. How will it play out? I have no clue. But in the spirit of true revolution, it is big. And it is changing me.

the joy of fundraising

This year, my wife and I have the incredible joy of serving the Lord in Kitwe, Zambia for a few weeks in January. Like most trips, we had a large amount of funds to raise. This can be difficult most of the time, but add in an economy that is tanking and people are even more hesitant to give. It is my personal opinion that people do NOT know how even a little bit (say, $10) adds up. We often hold on to our funds, saying that money is tight, yet still find it in our budget for designer coffee, eating out, renting movies and generally overspending. We are bad with this too. It has been a struggle to give when people ask. We are trying to be better. We are praying we are better in this new year. For this trip, we are not at our goal as of yet, with the trip leaving 16 January, but we are closer than some on our team. For those who still read these sporadic musings, thanks for reading. Please pray for the continued provision of the Lord, who is the one who ultimately provides.

Adventures in Serving

Our house church has been serving in some different capacities as of late. We have volunteered at a retirement home and are going to be learning from our senior friends on a monthly basis.

More recently we have been taking food to some homeless people in Dayton who do not go in to the shelters when it is super cold. There is a park in town near some abandoned railroad tracks where a large population of Dayton's homeless live.

Our HC's first experience here was with our friend Will who took his youngest three kids out on Thanksgiving and passed out meals. That is a whole different story for another time, and especially appropriate if it came from Will's mouth.

Two weeks ago, Ryan, Jason, Megan and I went out in the bitter cold (it was about 17 and windy) and found our way to the park with some sandwiches, coffee, tea, string cheese and apples. We were met by 5 gentlemen, 3 of which remain outside all year round. The conversation was frigid. We were immediately welcomed to the fire, shared the food with the men, had conversation and watched as Megan, once again, was the tie that bound the group together. She has habit of doing that. It was a good experience. We got into the car frozen, but thankful none the less. God began to do something as we talked from our warm vehicle about poverty, Love, Christ and the next steps.

Last week it was warmer. Almost 20 degrees warmer. Same four people from house church. But this time there were about 20 people around the fire.

We were not prepared food-wise for that.

As we started to walk up, some of the folks started shouting at each other. We could already see the beer bottles. We decided to leave the food and clothes this week in the car and brought drinks up to the camp. This week, coffee, tea and hot chocolate. We met a lot of new folks, saw many of our friends from the previous week and it looked like the start of another good week.

Until the fight broke out.

A small group of people began fighting over who knows what. I looked at Jason and Ryan, who Amy and I consider great friends, almost like uncles to Megan, and we really had to figure out what we were going to do. Stay and serve? Or go?

Almost as soon as it started the fight was over. The trouble makers decided to leave the camp. A few of the men from the previous week made a point to come over and tell me that nothing would be allowed to happen to Megan. I didn't have to worry there, Ry and J are great uncles and would do anything to protect Meg, as would I. But we didn't have to worry about that. We decided to bring up the food and got to know the new folks. Many names, many faces, many stories. Everybody believes in Christ. Everyone is quick with a story and if they don't have a story, watch out! they may break into song!

Jason busted out the harmonica, Ryan beat-boxed, Megan and I played peek-a-boo with anyone who wanted. It was a good time.

We started week two in a hard way but ended up better than week one. Again, more conversations about the poor, about their richness, about community, about true Life... God has been stretching us as a house church and forcing us out of our comfort zone, but I think we are learning more about Him each week as we pour out.

Fred, Chet and the adventure at the retirement home

Recently, our house church decided to start visiting folks at a retirement home. We had a connection with Jason's grandma who works at one and we went for the first time three weeks ago.

It was different. There were 5 of us (six if you count Megan walking around banging on the bird cage) and about 10 or so people from the retirement home. Just talked and shared for a bit. Some were responsive. Some were lucid. Others were just glad to follow Megan around the room with their eyes, not saying anything. That was week one.

We went back last night for our second visit. A new gentleman, Chet, was there. We had met his wife Dottie the week before and she was by his side. Chet was in and out of sleep, burst into spontaneous laughter a few times but when he looked at you, boy, it was piercing. Found out he was a former school superintendent. A football coach. Has a stadium named after him. Still has a firm handshake. Good sense of humor. He thinks Ryan is better looking than Jason. We know because he told Jason that. I had met Chet and Dottie forever ago at my parents church. Didn't know them then, but it was neat to reconnect. They won't even remember we were there. Dotties memory is going quickly. She literally will ask you where you went to school five times in a ten minute conversation. But they will thank you for coming, and mean it when they say it.

Fred was there the first week but didn't make it down this past week. He forgot. So we visited him. Fred is a Christian. It is evident in his speech, in the wisdom that flows out of his mouth. His constant desire to do 'what my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ WANTS me to do' is always on his lips. The four young guys and Fred fellowshipped last night for about thirty minutes. He shared, we shared and begged for more of his experience. "I am here to learn from your experience", he would say. The line that stuck out to me the most last night, "Quietly, diligently listen to what the Lord is calling you to do and do it." He advocated listening to the Lord, always asking Him how to do what we are doing and if God's way is different than your way, well... your way is trash. It was a sweet sweet time.

We will continue to pray and seek His direction for our involvement with this place, but so far it has been worth it. As I continue to reflect on the past few weeks both in House Church and the retirement home I intend to share more thoughts. Until that time...