Free to Serve

Bible Overview

On Wednesday nights recently, we've been engaged at MVBC in a conversation about the Bible. Where did it come from? Why do we believe it? And so on. For the next couple of weeks, we are thinking about how the Bible hangs together. It is one story, God's story, and the better we understand the big picture the more likely we will be to read the Bible. 

If you are in the area, I hope you can come. This is how I plan to begin:

We tend to read the Bible as a loosely connected collection of moral stories. This leads to three devastating consequences: 1) People don’t know the Bible. They have no sense of its flow or even its main thrust. 2) People don’t read the Bible. Why read something that is so confusing? Even though we have translations of the Bible in English, it is still a message embedded in ancient times. Because it is so hard for us to wrap our minds around that time we often give up. 3) People misapply the Bible. We read stories like David and Goliath and are too quick to apply the text to our personal lives and too slow to see how each event fits into the storyline of the Bible as a whole.

 

Thanksgiving Week

Thanksgiving Day is a very American holiday. As families sit around a table to inhale turkey and stuffing, our thoughts inevitably, albeit briefly, find their way to those pilgrims--strangers in a strange land who made a new start.

Thanksgiving, however, is a very Christian activity. Sprinkled throughout the Bible are exhortations to be thankful.

    -Be thankful when we gather in God's presence. "Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song." Psalm 95:2

    -Be thankful always, because of God's character. "Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever." Psalm 107:1

    -Be thankful for God's Word. "At midnight I rise to give you thanks for your righteous laws." Psalm 119:62

    -Be thankful because of God's love. "Give thanks to the God of heaven. His love endures forever." Psalm 136:26

    -Be thankful for God's provision. "When he had taken the seven loaves and given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to set before the people, and they did so." Mark 8:6

    -Be thankful that God has rescued us from bondage to sin through the work of Christ. "Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ our Lord!" Romans 7:25

    -Be thankful that God uses us to make the name of Christ known. "But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance and knowledge of him." 2 Corinthians 2:14

    -Be thankful for God's work in the life of the church and in the lives of believers. "I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers." Ephesians 1:16

    -Be thankful in tough times. "Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

    -Be thankful for the eternal, holy, powerful, authority of Christ who reigns. "Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever . . ." Revelation 4:9

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Getting to the Heart

Today it is increasingly common in Christian circles to talk about the importance of addressing the heart. The premise is important as we minister to our kids and to one another. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German pastor and theologian, noted the importance of ministering to the heart in a work he wrote in the 1930s called Spiritual Care. It is common, Bonhoeffer noted, that we will ask a question when we are in some difficulty or trial. But the truth is our question is usually hiding an issue of the heart that needs to be uncovered:

It is imperative to move from the question that breaks out of an earthly or natural stress situation to the distress of sin.

In other words, when we are troubled enough to ask a question, we are often masking a lack of faith in the Lord, a lack of trust in his providence, a lack of confidence in the gospel to meet our every need. If we only address the "question that breaks out of an earthly or natural stress" we may fail to get to the heart of the matter which is indwelling sin. Bonhoeffer continues:

This is particularly important in pastoral conversation with young people. With them most questions are but a pretext. So we shouldn't take the question put forth with dead seriousness, but of course we must take seriously the one who has asked the question. His question hides his situation. He sketches his anxiety but does not confess sin. We must move from pretext to the central issue. Suggested changes in lifestyle are not much help; only God's offer of forgiveness can come as help.

This is helpful but hard counsel. It is so much easier -- with young people and adults -- to address surface issues. It is hard to explore the knotty issues of the heart. It's like a doctor putting a band aid on a broken leg. It doesn't solve anything. Someone may come to you with a complaint, a concern, an anxiety and he may want a band aid. He may feel happier when he gets the band aid. But if his bone is broken, the placebo will wear off as soon as he puts weight on his foot.

Sin is in all of our hearts, and the wise counselor (and good friend) will lovingly and patiently let that sin be known so that God can do the work of granting forgiveness. Then joy will erupt.

Sunday Reflections

We had a great and very full day. For me it began with the first session of Knowing MVBC, our membership class. I always teach on our church covenant and its definition of the responsibilities of membership. I summarize it in three words: know, equip, and send. It's an opportunity to share a vision for a church full of people who are confident that God's Word will build his church and committed to seeing this worked out together in a community of faith. 

David Carnes was back leading our corporate worship. He and his wife, Tricia, lost their son to disease just a few weeks ago. It was a hard and trying time, but David expressed how in the darkness he came to see more clearly than ever the goodness of God. 

Before I prayed during the service, Brad Thayer announced a wonderful opportunity MVBC has to get out of debt. Generous members have agreed to match any gifts to debt reduction made above and beyond normal giving. We have the opportunity to get out of debt in just a few weeks. This is a tremendous challenge!

The sermon was in 1 Thessalonians 2:1-16. Paul's love for God and for God's people is in full force here. I actually left a good chunk of my message out of the sermon. I wanted to share how Paul knew the gospel was at work in the lives of the believers he wrote to. The answer from verses 14-16 is that he saw the church persevere in suffering. In pain and trials our dependence upon God is more obvious than any other time. I'm sure we will return to that theme soon. In the meantime, it was a joy to preach the gospel today.

After the service, lunch with friends and then a membership interview. I heard the personal testimony of a new and dear brother to me. I'm so thankful for the people the Lord is bringing here.

From the membership interview I went to the second elder nominating committee meeting. We spent over an hour reading aloud and talking about the passages in the New Testament that address elders from 1 Timothy 3, 1 Peter 5, Titus 1, and Acts 20. Great and helpful conversation. 

In the evening service I interviewed Jason Phillips, director of the Atlanta Care Center. He has a love for the Lord and a sparky personality. We learned about the Center's heart to see the gospel transform the clients with whom they interact. We want to pray that God provides the finances and the volunteers they need to invest in young moms. After a time of prayer for him and others, I closed the day with a brief meditation from Ezekiel 20:41 about how the holiness of God is on display in our church in sight of the world around us. 

It was a full and very good day. Praise God for his work in our midst!

On the Cross and the Word

I hope you've looked at the MVBC Perspective for November. In it I continue a series called, "Starting the Christian Life." If I had a limited number of times to meet with a new believer who had practical questions about how to live as a Christian, this is where I would want to spend my time. This month's focus, "Remember the Cross." Here's an excerpt:

I often meet people who don't remember when they became a Christian. I am one of those people. I remember hearing the Gospel. I remember being baptized. Sometime in between those two events, the Lord saved me. Thankfully, nowhere in Scripture am I called to remember the exact moment of my salvation! I am, however, called to remember my Savior.

Also, on Wednesday nights we are exploring the Bible. Last week we thought about revelation--the wonderful truth that God has spoken! Tonight, we consider how God's Word came to us in flesh and in the written Word. If you can't be here, do pray that our heart for God would grow as we stand in awe of his work and his Word.

Understanding the Bible

I want to reflect a bit on Proverbs but, first, a reminder that at MVBC on Wednesday night, as part of our "Equipping Matters" courses, I'll be teaching on the doctrine of revelation. This is the heart of the matter, isn't it. We are because God spoke. We know him because he revealed himself. Join us as we begin an overview of the Bible. On understanding the Bible, Don Carson wrote:

A genuinely Christian understanding of the Bible presupposes the God of the Bible, a God who makes himself known in a wide diversity of ways so that human beings may know the purpose for which they were made—to know and to love and worship God, and so delight in that relationship that God is glorified while they receive the matchless benefit of becoming all that God wants them to be. Any genuine knowledge human beings have of God depends on God’s first disclosing himself.