The Word and The Church

It is not the Word of God because the Church says so, but that the Word of God might be spoken, the Church came into being. The Church does not make the Word, but it is made by the Word.

~ Martin Luther ~

Helpful articles for bible students

Understanding Scripture correctly (II)

Understanding Scripture Correctly (I)

Jesus, Jesus, Jesus

We must put the evidence before us that reading, pondering, memorizing, and studying the Bible
will yield more joy in this life and the next than all the things that lure us from it.

There are many different reasons why the Bible has this joy-producing
effect. I don’t want to minimize this diversity or belittle the range of benefits that the Bible has in our lives—more than any of us realizes. But I want to stress that ultimately, in and through all its benefits, the Bible leads us to superior and lasting joy because it leads us to Christ, especially to see his glory and enjoy his fellowship. All the varied benefits are beneficial finally because they show us and bring us more of Christ to enjoy.

-- John Piper

God and words

"I sometimes marvel that God chose to risk his revelation in the ambiguities of language. If he had wanted to make sure that the truth was absolutely clear, without any possibility of misunderstanding, he should have revealed his truth by means of mathematics. Mathematics is the most precise, unambiguous language that we have. But then, of course, you can't say “I love you” in algebra."

--Eugene Peterson, in "Eat This Book", excerpts found (there's more!) here

To extend the range of our listening

The intent in reading Scripture, among people of faith, is to extend the range of our listening to the God who reveals Himself in word, to become acquainted with the ways in which He has spoken in various times and places, along the ways in which people respond when He speaks. The Xn conviction is that God speaks reality into being--creation into shape, salvation into action. It is also a Xn conviction that WE are THAT which is spoken into a creation shape and a salvation action. We are what happens when the word is spoken. So we listen in order to find out what is going on--in US. Ezra Pound's H. Selwyn Mauberly expresses the zest of this kind of reader/listener:

"Tell it to me, all of it, I guzzle with outstretched ears!"

--from Eugene Peterson's book, Working the Angles (emphasis EP's)

5 foundation principles of the knowledge about God which Christians have:

1. God has spoken to man, and the Bible is his Word, given to us to make us wise unto salvation.
2. God is Lord and King over his world; he rules all things for his own glory, displaying his perfections in all that he does, in order that men and angels may worship and adore him.
3. God is Savior, active in sovereign love through the Lord Jesus Christ to rescue believers from the guilt and power of sin, to adopt them as his children and to bless them accordingly.
   
4. God is triune; there are within the Godhead three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit; and the work of salvation is one in which all three act together, the Father purposing redemption, the Son securing it and the Spirit applying it.
   
5. Godliness means responding to God's revelation in trust and obedience, faith and worship, prayer and praise, submission and service. Life must be seen and lived in the light of God's Word. This, and nothing else, is true religion.

HERE is rest of chapter one of KNOWING GOD, by J.I. Packer

excerpt from Knowing God, chapter 1

On January 7, 1855, the minister of New Park Street Chapel, Southwark, England, opened his morning sermon as follows:

It has been said by someone that "the proper study of mankind is man." I will not oppose the idea, but I believe it is equally true that the proper study of God's elect is God; the proper study of a Christian is the Godhead. The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy, which can ever engage the attention of a child of God, is the name, the nature, the person, the work, the doings, and the existence of the great God whom he calls his Father.

There is something exceedingly improving to the mind in a contemplation of the Divinity. It is a subject so vast, that all our thoughts are lost in its immensity; so deep, that our pride is drowned in its infinity. Other subjects we can compass and grapple with; in them we feel a kind of self-content, and go our way with the thought, "Behold I am wise." But when we come to this master science, finding that our plumbline cannot sound its depth, and that our eagle eye cannot see its height, we turn away with the thought that vain man would be wise, but he is like a wild ass's colt; and with solemn exclamation, "I am but of yesterday, and know nothing." No subject of contemplation will tend more to humble the mind, than thoughts of God....

But while the subject humbles the mind, it also expands it. He who often thinks of God, will have a larger mind than the man who simply plods around this narrow globe.... The most excellent study for expanding the soul, is the science of Christ, and Him crucified, and the knowledge of the Godhead in the glorious Trinity. Nothing will so enlarge the intellect, nothing so magnify the whole soul of man, as a devout, earnest, continued investigation of the great subject of the Deity.

And, whilst humbling and expanding, this subject is eminently consolatory. Oh, there is, in contemplating Christ, a balm for every wound; in musing on the Father, there is a quietus for every grief; and in the influence of the Holy Ghost, there is a balsam for every sore. Would you lose your sorrow? Would you drown your cares? Then go, plunge yourself in the Godhead's deepest sea; be lost in his immensity; and you shall come forth as from a couch of rest, refreshed and invigorated. I know nothing which can so comfort the soul; so calm the swelling billows of sorrow and grief; so speak peace to the winds of trial, as a devout musing upon the subject of the Godhead. It is to that subject that I invite you this morning.

These words, spoken over a century ago by C. H. Spurgeon (at that time, incredibly, only twenty years old) were true then, and they are true now.

--read the whole chapter here

Look through it, not AT it

This echoes Jesus' words in John 5, to me:

“The Bible is like a telescope. If a man looks through his telescope then he sees worlds beyond; but if he looks at his telescope, then he does not see anything but that. The Bible is a thing to be looked through, to see that which is beyond, but most people only look at it; and so they see only the dead letter.”

--Phillips Brooks (author of O Little Town of Bethlehem)

Read, Mark, Learn

not a bad prayer to write in your bible and use often..

Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

--1549 Book of Common Prayer

Learning Resources

Christians who neglect the Bible simply do not mature. When Jesus quoted from Deuteronomy to the effect that human beings do not live by bread only but by God’s Word, he was asserting that the Word of God is just as
necessary for spiritual health as food is for bodily health. I am not now thinking of remote Christian tribes people into whose language
the Bible has not yet been translated, nor of illiterate people... I
am thinking rather about ourselves. Our problem is not that the Bible is unavailable to us, but that we do not take advantage of its availability. We need to read and meditate on it daily, to study it in a fellowship group and to hear it expounded during Sunday Worship. Otherwise we shall not grow. Growth into maturity in Christ depends upon a close acquaintance with, and a believing response to, the Bible.

[Source: God’s Book For God’s People, John Stott, IVP p. 76]

Understanding the Bible Correctly, part 1 and part 2

A Practical Method of Bible Study for Ordinary Christians

When I Receive Jesus... I receive HIS view of things

John Stott first exposed me to this path to receiving the Scriptures as the Word of God... it is described well here:

I am not here trying to argue for the complete trustworthiness of the Bible, only that its portrayal of the life and teaching of Jesus is historically accurate. If it is, then we can draw conclusions about who Jesus is from the information we read there. If eventually we put our faith in Jesus, then His view of the Bible will become ours. Speaking personally, I take the whole Bible to be reliable not because I can somehow prove it all to be factual. I accept it because I believe in Jesus and that was His view of the Bible. --Tim Keller, page 263 endnote 4... in The Reason For God

Ever wondered about James & Paul?

“FOR WE MAINTAIN THAT A MAN is justified by faith apart from observing the law” (Rom. 3:28). So writes the apostle Paul.

“You foolish man,” argues James, “do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? . . . You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone. . . . As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead” (James 2:14 - 26, especially vv. 20, 24, 26). The formal contradiction between Paul and James is so striking that it has called forth relentless discussion across the centuries. --Don Carson, answer is here

Fighting for Faith With God's Word

When I did that little mini-series on "The Heart"... I kept referencing a tremendous chapter by John Piper on the role of the Scriptures in keeping our Heart near to God. He recently preached a message on this topic and you can listen and/or download it here.

1 Timothy 6:12 Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

1 Corinthians 9:26So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline/pummel my body and keep it under control (make it my slave), lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

2 Timothy 4:7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

These are some of the Scriptures that encourage you and me to fight to the death... for the joy that is found only in Christ.

Using the Bible to Drag & Keep Your Heart Near God

Ask God to give you eyes to see the worth of Scripture and to waken in you an unyielding desire for the Word of God.

Think about this:
The Spirit binds his faith-awakening ministry to the Christ-exalting Word. Which means that when we go to the Word of Christ, we put ourselves in the path of the Spirit’s willingness to reveal Christ to us and strengthen our faith.
-- both quotes are from John Piper's chapter--The Worth of God’s Word in the Fight for Joy-- in his tremendous--and free online--book When I Don't Desire God, How to Fight for Joy

(which i am noticing--is increasingly being put on people's MUST RE-READ list by many people including CJ Mahaney & Cov't Sem prof Sean Lucas)

O Lord
Thou didst strike my heart with Thy word ... and i love Thee. -- Augustine

God pours out His love in your heart through the Holy Spirit. He makes you understand the message of grace in Jesus Christ. Intimacy? Of the highest order. Of the deepest depths. Of the most enduring happiness. Apart from God’s self-revelation in Scripture? No way.
The Spirit’s power makes the Spirit’s message a joy in the hearts of listeners.

Does this mean that our experience of God’s care is unwavering? All Scripture and all human experience tell otherwise. We waver, drift, forget. Our vision dims. We get distracted. Our hearing gets bad. But God works over the long haul. And He uses sufferings. Hardships distract, tempt, and overwhelm us. We are told repeatedly that in fact these very things provide the context in which God’s “steadfast love” becomes better known. John Newton put it this way:

“These inward trials I design, from sin and self to set thee free,
to break thy schemes for earthly joy, that thou may’st find thy all in me.”

(Romans 5:3-5; James 1; 1 Peter 1; numerous Psalms) -- David Powlison in a tremendous article entitled Intimacy With God

The MAIN BENEFIT of the Bible is Christ

We must put the evidence before us that reading, pondering, memorizing, and studying the Bible
will yield more joy in this life and the next than all the things that lure
us from it.
There are many different reasons why the Bible has this joy-producing
effect. I don’t want to minimize this diversity or belittle the range of benefits that the Bible has in our lives—more than any of us realizes. But I want to stress that ultimately, in and through all its benefits, the Bible leads us to superior and lasting joy because it leads us to Christ, especially to see his glory and enjoy his fellowship. All the varied benefits are beneficial finally because they show us and bring us more of Christ to enjoy. -- John Piper

God Has Written You a Letter

The breathtaking truth is that Holy Scripture in its entirety is the Word of God directed personally to everyone whom it reaches in order to set up, deepen and enrich a personal love relationship between the divine sender and the human recipient. --JI Packer

Birds, Our Teachers

John Stott once preached 3 sermons on what it means to follow Jesus' advice to, "Look at the birds..." (Matthew 6). You can get them from All Souls Church

anyway, eating lunch at my desk ... birds are on my mind... specifically the little ones in the nest in my garage

Y'day 6 yr old John Reid told me, "There's a nest in our garage. Right there!"
I didn't know how long they'd been there or what stage they were at--eggs or babies."
Fast fwd to this morning... while sipping coffee I read this from Jimmy Packer:
Come to the Bible hungry and expectant, conscious of daily need to hear God speak. “Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it,” says God (Psa 81:10). The open mouth is a gesture of hunger and dependence. “With open mouth I pant, because I long for thy commandments,” says the psalmist (Psa 119:131). Desire for God, springing from a sense of our need of him, is the factor that decides how much or how little impact Scripture will make upon us.

The open mouth is a gesture of hunger & dependence. The nest! I race out to raise the garage door that has been down since 9pm last nite. I look in the nest. It is not an exaggeration to say that all I saw were..... 2 mouths... opened as wide as they go. And the babies were making this noise that I am sure (though i don't claim to speak bird) was saying, "Feed me. I need your help."

Yep. Shortly I began to see a loving parent come and take care of these little ones. I walked away thinking about what I'd read in Packer and seen in my garage and praying-- "O God, make my heart like that. Would that my experience was more regularly that I would open my Bible with my mouth wide open... hoping. Expecting. From You.