Attempts at Honesty

Reflections on the interplay of the Bible and Culture

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Quantity versus Quality

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qualityMy guess is that most Christians would agree that reading Scripture is a good thing. The fact that the Bible is a perennial best seller lends credence to this.

But what is the best way to read it? Should I keep to a reading schedule or take a little bit at a time. Do I want to focus on the quantity or the quality of my reading?

There is merit to the idea that we need to take in large chunks of Scripture so that we can get a sense of flow and an overview of the entire Bible. To do this, a plan to read the entire Bible in a one year period seems like a good idea.

The downside to this approach is that too often, I get so caught up in keeping up with the schedule that I miss opportunities for understanding along the way. When I get behind, it is too tempting to hit the little “Catch Up” button in my Bible software and I end up skipping over entire chapters.

It is a little bit like a road trip. I can be so focused on getting to my destination that I don’t notice interesting places along the way.

To help me with this, I have tried a new approach. Rather than using the Bible software in my tablet, which tracks my reading progress and reminds me when I am behind schedule, I am reading out of a paper Bible. I read and I make progress through the entire Bible, but I am on no particular schedule and whether I read a few verses or a few chapters, I do not allow myself to feel pressured to read the whole Bible in a certain time frame.

This has freed me up to stop and meditate on a verse or verses which gives them time to sink into my crowded and sometimes jumbled brain. If given enough time in my brain, they can then begin to affect my will and emotions.

For example, In reading Deuteronomy 10, two verses jumped out at me and I have been stuck on them for a day or two:

“And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good?” (Deuteronomy 10:12–13, ESV)

There is a lot here:

  • I am reminded of the time when Jesus identified the two great commands in Matthew 22.
  • I am reminded that love and respect go hand-in-hand. If I do not respect the commands of God, my claim to love him must be called into question.
  • I am reminded that the commands of God are not to thwart my enjoyment of life, but to enhance it. They are not intended for my harm, but for my good.
  • I am reminded that to walk in all his ways requires effort on my part. I need to know them before I can walk in them.

My point is not to dissuade anyone from keeping to a plan. My point is to remind all of us that when Scripture is opened, it must be allowed sufficient exposure to penetrate our lives.

Whether we read a large or short portion is not the issue.

Allowing Scripture to do its work in us is the one and only issue.

C. S. Lewis on going to church

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Case for ChristianityI ran across these paragraphs this evening and thought them too good not to share.

“One of the things that surprised me when I first read the New Testament seriously was that it was always talking about a Dark Power in the universe – a mighty evil spirit who was held to be the Power behind death and disease, and sin. The difference is that Christianity thinks this Dark Power was created by God, and was good when he was created, and went wrong. Christianity agrees with Dualism that this universe is at war. But it doesn’t think this is a war between independent powers. It thinks it’s a civil war, a rebellion, and that we are living in a part of the universe occupied by the rebel.

Enemy-occupied territory – that’s what this world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us all to take part in a great campaign of sabotage. When you go to church you’re really listening in to the secret wireless from our friends: that’s why the enemy is so anxious to prevent us going. He does it by playing on our conceit and laziness and intellectual snobbery. I know someone will ask me, ‘Do you really mean, at this time of day, to re-introduce our old friend the devil – hoofs and horns and all?’ Well, what the time of day has to do with it I don’t know. And I’m not particular about the hoofs and horns. But in other respects my answer is, ‘Yes, I do.’ I don’t claim to know anything about his personal appearance. If anybody really wants to know him better I’d say to that person, ‘Don’t worry,. If you really want to, you will. Whether you’ll like it when you do is another question.'”

C. S. Lewis in The Case for Christianity.

We are part of the resistance that is thwarting the usurper and church is where we network and get our instruction for proceeding with the campaign. It’s not just a place to meet friends. It is not just a place to hear motivational speeches. It is not just a place drink coffee and chat. Church is a war room where we make plans for the next offensive. It is serious business and no wonder that our Enemy wants to keep us and others away.

Do you want to know the really good news about this?

Jesus tells us that we will win. The gates of Hell cannot withstand our efforts (Matthew 16:18).

Living in the not yet: dealing with a stony heart

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Stony HeartIn the absence of a good idea for a title and the fact that the idea is similar, I borrowed the title of an earlier post as the name for this one.

In the earlier post, I focused on the places in Scripture where the lament “how long oh Lord” expresses the longing for things to be other than they currently are.

In reading through the early chapters of Hebrews this morning, I read a verse that describes this situation. The writer of Hebrews writes this about Christ:

 “Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him.” (Hebrews 2:8, ESV)

This verse tells me that God remains in control and he has given all the world in subjection to Jesus Christ, but we do not see everything operating in subjection to Christ at this time.

It is easy to point the finger at all the trouble in the world as evidence that this verse is true. We have terrorists raining death and destruction on innocent people. We have governments with an anti-religious bias actively persecuting believers. We have disasters both natural and man-made. There is a lot we can look at as evidence that the world is not yet subjected to Christ.

But we must also look inside. If we are honest, we see the seeds of rebellion against Christ in our own hearts. We still struggle against emulating our first parents in their usurping of God’s authority. James tells us:

“What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?” (James 4:1, ESV)

So living in the not yet, we struggle with the pieces of the world (including ourselves) that are not in submission to Christ. That is the bad news.

The good news is that one day Jesus will return and set everything right, including my stony heart.

Wholesomely non-conformist

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Non-conformistMaybe it has been a problem in every age, but it is certainly a temptation in ours to look back to previous decades or centuries wishing that those conditions could be repeated now. We see religion in general and the Christian church in particular under attack in our culture. We see values that would not have been questioned as few as 50 years ago now viewed with derision.

This evening I ran across the following paragraph that speaks to this. This was written by Sinclair B. Ferguson in the introduction to The Reformed Faith by Robert Shaw.

“ . . . we must not make the mistake of either passively accepting the influences of our age, or of wishing we had been born in another era. Instead we must learn to live wholesomely non-conformist Christian lives, increasingly transformed by the renewing of our minds (as Paul puts it in Rom. 12:1-2).”

First, we need to acknowledge the fact that some of the derision Christians are under is deserved. One needs look no farther than the antics of Westboro Baptist Church to see why some view Christianity as a group of brutal and judgmental neanderthals. Those who claim the title of Christian do not always behave in accordance with the teachings and example of the one they claim to follow.

But this leads us to an amazing opportunity. If we are appropriately non-conformist we will be so to both the mutations of Christianity that we have experienced and we will be so to the surrounding culture.

We, as the true Church, have the opportunity to understand the Gospel in the context in which we find ourselves. We will have the opportunity to live out that Gospel as a light to those around us. If we do those things well, then we will have the opportunity to tell those around us about the Christ and what he really did and taught.

I love that phrase, “wholesomely non-conformist.”

That sounds a lot like Jesus.

 

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