READ the WORD of GOD with Bifocals!

Would you like to understand God's Word in a new and inspiring light? Do you see the Bible's as a series of seemingly disconnected stories, with little relevance to your life? Or do you see the Bible for what it really is... one grand, unfolding timeless epic—God's story from Genesis onward and “your own story”, contained within it?

Sometimes in our reading and study of the Bible we hit a plateau. We need to find within ourselves a new and energizing source of vision to see what God is speaking to us. How can you find this new energy in your study of God’s Word?

You need to stop just reading the words on the page, thinking of the stories as ancient, historical and maybe even mythical, and start absorbing them as real and timeless, as if the people lived next door to you... in the now! Absorb the thoughts and ideals – the stories God is using to speak to you, like a sponge. STOP wringing yourself out, like you do a sponge when you think its full. Let God’s Word... absorb, integrate, blend-in to the fabric of your own spirit. Think of the person you’ve reading about, the ideals, the principles, the law, the command, and make it personal. You can even rename the person “with your own name” as you read the stories, to make it even more real and personal. It’s YOU God is speaking to! Lower your guard and allow yourself to connect with His words at a deeply personal intimate level. You won’t hear actual audible words spoken, but you will begin to sense a new layer of understanding and comprehension being revealed to you as you pour yourself into the very Word of God. Here’s what I mean...

To understand the Bible, you need bifocal lenses... the top part of your lenses [macro] for distance and the bottom [micro] for closeup vision. There are two perspectives being presented in God’s Word – one macro, one micro. The micro story, is really our own story lived in relationship to the many stories of men and women interacting with God in the daily course of their lives. Not much has changed throughout human history... our story of a life lived in striving to please God today, is not much different that it was 3,000 years ago. The question for you to consider is this... are you immersed in the stories God uses to teach you, revealing his character and attributes, or are you detached and distant from the story?

The macro story is God’s story. It’s the inspired telling of his great, overarching purpose to rescue mankind from the curse of sin and restore us to righteousness. It’s a fabulously intricate story of what happens to mankind left on their own, separated from God by sin, suffering from imperfection and death and unable to care for themselves. God’s grand masterpiece, the ultimate rescue and restoration plan of the ages, the Bible, blends all the individual stories of man’s trails and tribulations together like panels in one unified mural. The Bible is the story of the God of grace—the God who speaks; the God who acts; the God who listens; the God whose love for his creation culminated in his sacrifice of Jesus, his only Son, to atone for the sins of humanity.

His overarching story should bring us to tears, often. We should be so immersed in His grand epic that we cannot help but want to see ourselves woven and meshed together with our ancient brethren who struggled to live their lives in accord with His ways and means. I use the word “brethren” here to describe our present day connection to those who trusted and believed in God thousands of years ago even though they had limited revelation of his grand epic. Believers today have it all... the grand epic of God fully revealed by his power, holiness, righteousness, faithfulness to His promises, his love for mankind, Jesus the Christ, the Cross and the Resurrection that opens the doorway to redemption, salvation and eternal life!

Put yourself squarely in the Bible’s stories. Don’t sit along side and just be a passive reader, get involved. Walk down the road to Emmaus and feel the emotions of those three men as their hearts burned for the risen Lord. Journey with Abraham and his clan as he trusted God enough to head “that way towards the unknown...” Walk with Paul on his mission travels, imagine sitting with him in a candle lit room, as Holy inspiration took hold of him and he was compelled by the Spirit to write God’s Word. Just imagine talking with him, he asking you what you think, about the principles and ideals that would become his messages to the Corinthians! The people of the Bible were real people, just like us. Their stories, both good and bad, are given to us by God in love to teach, to inspire, to edify, to encourage, to transform us. Walk with these people. Talk to them in your mind and heart. Identify with their struggles, their fears, their sins, their stubbornness and the gentle nurturing by the Spirit of God to obedient faithfulness.

When you read the Word of God with an immersive passion, placing yourself in the midst of of the stories, you will find your knowledge and understanding of the Bible growing, by leaps and bounds. You will find yourself submitting, conforming, changing, becoming what the Holy Spirit, our helper, seeks to do in all believers... to transform us into the likeness of Christ.

2 Timothy 3:16 says... “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” This verse tells us that God inspired all Scripture and that it is profitable to us. It is not just the parts of the Bible that deal with doctrines that are inspired, but each and every word of His grand story from Genesis to Revelation.

Be inspired. Place yourself in the big picture... to see how your day-to-day personal story intersects with God’s grand, overarching epic of everlasting redemption. Immerse yourself personally in the stories, connect with the ancient people of God and see what happens to your knowledge, your understanding, your wisdom, and your love for God. The Bible, along with the working of the Holy Spirit, has the supernatural ability to change us and make us “complete.”

Your journey of faith will come alive as you explore the divine story through the Old and New Testaments, immersing yourself in the rich characters, and discovering how the Bible reveals God’s plan for your life today. 

The Eternal benefits of Slavery... to Christ

Throughout the Bible, followers of Jesus are commanded to submit to Him as their King. They are told to obey and follow, faithfully and without hesitation. Every time Christians utter the word Lord, they are making a subtle yet profound declaration that God is their Master and that they belong to Him. In fact, the Bible describes believers as being His slaves. They have been bought with a price and now live for Christ as a people for His own possession.

But go into most churches today, even flip through most Christian literature and many Bible translations, and you won't find much reference to the ideal that Christians are in fact “slaves” of the Most High. Why would such an important principle be left out of the Christian dialogue?

Maybe over time, its simply been lost in translation. Given the stigmas associated with slavery in Western culture, translators and writers have understandably wanted to avoid any association between biblical teaching and the slave trade of the British Empire and the American Colonial era.

No one likes the idea of being characterized as a slave in the manner where one group oppresses another. It’s understandable how such imageries of the past could marginalize the use of the word “slave” and “slavery” as descriptions of our relationship to Christ. No one likes the implications of what it means to be classified as a “slave.”

While the word “slave” is offensive to many... in the context of being a follower of Christ, it is the one word that restores, illuminates and energizes our understanding of the Bible's definition of what true Christian freedom means.

What does it mean to be a Christian the way Jesus defined it... as a Slave? Think about it... we have been bought with a price, a very high price... Jesus death on the Cross. Therefore... We belong to Christ. We are His own possession... purposefully, fairly and justly acquired by His blood.

What’s the benefit of being a “Slave to Christ? Jesus frees us from the bondage of death into a royal slavery, so that we might be His eternal possession. Those who aspire to be His followers must, therefore, be willing to accept the concept of being one of His slaves. But “slavery” to the King of Kings is not a bad thing... it is a cause for extreme joy, because it frees you from the bondage of sin! Sin is a curse on your soul and if left untreated, will destroy you forever.

The way you become free from sin, is by becoming a slave to righteousness! One of the results of being a "slave" to God is being made righteous and holy: God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21).

In other words, when we are freed from bondage to sin by giving ourselves to Christ, a transaction occurs: we are changed from being sinners (i.e., slaves to sin... who occasionally mess up and do something right) into being holy ones (i.e., righteous slaves to God who occasionally mess up and do something wrong).

How can one become a slave to Christ? When you are baptized “into Christ,”—that is, when you become a slave to righteousness—you are made holy, made righteous, cleansed, forgiven, and freed from all sin (Acts 2:38). Therefore, the way you become free from sin is by baptism... immersed in water, dying to your old self–your old ways, rising to a new life, turning your life over to Christ and wholeheartedly following Him. This new freedom “in Christ”... makes you a slave to righteousness.

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery [to sin]. Galatians 5:1

The Christian's greatest privilege is to be a slave of Christ. It is true freedom! Freedom from sin and the wages it pays... eternal death. Being His slave is one of the Bible's most succinct ways of describing a life of discipleship. Our Lord’s kind of slavery sounds pretty good doesn’t it?

Are you occasionally frustrated by one of those pesky computer viruses? You should be! These days you have to worry about content you download, websites you visit, and opening email attachments from unknown senders for fear you may be introducing a virus to your computer’s hard-drive that will cause all sorts of problems with the performance of your computer.

Similar to a computer virus that can damage the hard-drive, there's a deceptive and insidious virus that attacks our relationship with Christ... it’s pride. Even spiritually mature people can quickly succumb to the virus of pride as it roots itself deceptively and deeply into our hearts. However, there is a bit of good news... Jesus quickly detects and can quarantine this nasty spiritual virus and help us eradicate it from our mind and heart if we allow him unrestricted access to our hard-drives... our hearts.

If you own a computer and most of us do, then you’ve probably had to deal with a nasty virus. Maybe you neglected to update your virus protection software and one slipped into your computer undetected. You go to a lot of work to rid your computer of the virus and get it back to normal, but sometimes its just never quite the same. If you think about it, the stories, passages, counsel and instruction in the Bible are a lot like an anti-virus program designed to constantly scan for trouble and protect against prideful infections to our hearts. Computer viruses are nasty. Your computer is going along just fine, but there's this virus lurking in your system that you know nothing about. Everything seems fine and normal, and then, BOOM! All of sudden this virus leaps out and starts eating your files and writing over your hard-drive and rewriting registries. It can be a technological disaster for your computer.

Sin in our lives acts a lot like like a computer virus. You can be living your life following Jesus, trusting him, loving him and everything can seem fine on the surface. But there can be pockets of sin buried deep within your heart that you're not even aware of. This sin can suddenly rise up, fester into something large and foreboding and you find yourself feeling things and saying things and doing things that you can't believe you're feeling, saying, and doing. Sin can be just under the surface, often expressed in your slightly off center “viewpoints and attitudes” and can rise up and attack you just like a virus eats your computer’s hard-drive.

There's good news, though. God does not leave us defenseless in these situations. He's given us an anti-virus program... the Bible. If we will regularly scan our hearts with Scripture, submitting fully to the leading of the Holy Spirit, God will give us a warning—like those red warning letters you get on a computer when you've picked up a virus—and you can click "Destroy" or “Delete”.... or you can choose not to address the problem. The choice is always yours.

Think about it... you have in your possession the most powerful antidote to sin in the universe, freely available for your consumption... the Holy Word of God. It not only reveals our sins of pride, [pride is at the root of all sin] but it gives us the means by God's loving grace to destroy prideful sin deeply rooted in our hearts.

Through His Word the Bible, God speaks to us in plainly and the message is simple: Scan your heart with God's Word to find the sin that's there—the particularly devious and insidious sins of pride and let Him help you destroy them. In a computer, the hard-drive is the most critical component and that’s where viruses attack. In humans, it’s the heart... that’s our most critical component and where sin seeks to root itself deeply into our souls. There is much counsel in Scripture that seeks to get our attention on the matter of protecting the content of our hearts...

Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life. Prov. 4:23

Listen, my son, and be wise, and keep your heart on the right path. Prov. 23:19

But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man 'unclean.' For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. Matthew 15: 18-19

The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks. Luke 6:45

Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them. Deuteronomy 4:9

Viruses, if left unchecked, can do nasty things to your computer and prideful sin rooted in the human heart can destroy your relationship with God.

The Power and Authority of God’s Word

Is God's Word minimized and marginalized in preaching and teaching if the listener does not accept the Bible’s authority? Maybe said another way... should teachers and preachers “buffer” the Word of God to make it more universally appealing and acceptable to all people?

We must consider what we’re dealing with when using God’s Word to teach His concepts and principles. First... it’s supernatural. We make a serious mistake if we think God's Word doesn’t have authority until the hearer decides to accept its authority. The Bible says of itself... that it is sharper than any two-edged sword; that it’s ideals pierce; that it cuts to the heart; that it separates joints and marrow; that it discerns the thoughts and intents of the human heart. It does these dramatic things whether one accepts its truths or not.

The Bible is like a mirror. When you proclaim it without apology, with authority, you are holding up a mirror and piercing people through with a sword of TRUTH and they're going to have an encounter with God Himself. The encounter is embodied in the evident conflicts we have with His way verses our way and desires. That transcends cultural acceptance, cultural awareness and all the other kind of things that leaders of the Church worry about these days when trying to hold the interest of people. Don’t for a moment think God needs our help or His Word needs to be softened. The Bible is like a lion. Let it out of the cage... it will take care of itself.

The most common thing people would have said about the teachings of Christ, after they had listened to Him, was that He taught as one who had authority. Of course, His teachings were filled with Old Testament quotes, and He is the Word of God, so every Word that proceeds from His mouth was the unbuffered Word of God.

The disciples on the road to Emmaus said, "Did not our hearts burn within us as he walked on the road with us and expounded to us from the Scriptures all the things concerning himself?" So Jesus was a Bible teacher. He had great authority because He didn't apologize for God's Word. He didn't back down from anything that God's Word said.

Take for example a tough chunk of Scripture... Revelation chapter 6. The message makes one clear point: Repent... the wrath is coming. That's not very seeker-friendly, and might turn many folks away. But then you really don’t know the hearts of the people your teaching or preaching to. People are hungry for truth unvarnished. Truth must be openly expressed without reservation or prevarication. The apostle Paul said, "By the open statement of the truth... we commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God." Do you believe that?

Paul also said, "My preaching was not with persuasive words of human wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God." A lot of teaching today leaves people with a faith born in, of and by the wisdom of men. Teaching with authority the Word of God is not meant to glorify the messenger. Instead, we must say what God wants said and get out of the way, and let the Word hit folks in the head [right between the eyes] and the heart. No buffering... no sugar coating.. no softening the message. That’s how a teacher of God’s Word glorifies the message and the source of the message, which is, of course, God himself.

Teachers of God’s Word can and do get frustrated when trying to get the Word into the hearts of their listeners and it doesn’t happen, at least not when we would like it to. Teachers want to see results... growth, commitment, passion for God.

Two elements of authority are urgency and clarity. First Corinthians says, "If the trumpet makes an uncertain sound, who will prepare himself for battle?" Clarity brings power and authority. Urgency—this matters, decide for yourself today—that brings authority.

God’s Word is not about keeping people’s interest, or relevancy or timeliness. The Bible is capable of keeping a person’s interest and it’s universally relevant and always timeless. Teaching the Word of God is about shaping a person's view of Scripture. The Bible is spiritual life to a person. It's nourishment, it's the foundation and fuel of our faith, it's a blueprint for victory over sin. It's grace and strength. The Bible is our lifeline... literally.

So... if God’s Word cuts like a sword... pierces; cuts to the heart; separates joints and marrow; discerns the thoughts and intents of the heart, then any teacher of God’s Holy Word should never do anything to marginalize or buffer the message.

What is God doing with His Word? The Bible says that the Spirit of God was sent into the world to convict. His Word builds conviction in the hearer. What does it mean to be convicted? It means that you are overcome in your spirit with a sense of the “gap” between the life you're living and the life God wants you to live.

Scripture says that the Spirit of God was sent into the world to convict us of sin and of righteousness and of the judgment to come. Sin is the wrong in us, righteousness is its opposite in us—sin the problem, righteousness the solution—and the judgment to come is the consequence of rejecting what the Spirit convicts in you with regard to sin and righteousness.

Sin is where you are, righteousness is where you need to be, and the judgment to come is the sense that you can't continue your life in its present condition indefinitely. That's what the Spirit is trying to produce in people through the Word of God. Conviction leads to a heartfelt desire to change, to take decisive action to align yourself with God’s Will.

It's the proclamation of the Word that brings conviction, and there's nothing else that can do that. When we proclaim the authority of God's Word without apology, we give the Spirit of God something to work with.

What the Spirit of God does is grip a person’s heart with the unvarnished message. It’s TRUTH coming through loud and clear, hopefully bringing people to a decision to commit their life to Christ... to be baptized into Christ and begin experiencing the power of Godly living.

Preach and teach the Word with the authority and urgency of Christ. Maybe that’s the answer to helping fence-sitters who linger in the shadows of making their commitment to truly be in Christ.

THOUGHTS ON FAITH AND DOUBT

Faith is believing in the trustworthiness of God even when circumstances in your life appear to contradict it.

Consider this question... is yours a life of faith diversified by doubt?  Or, is yours a life of doubt...diversified by faith?  In other words, do you basically walk by faith...or by sight... needing confirmation before you can trust? (2 Corinthians 5:7).  Do you generally put your trust in God's word, wait and then act?  Or do you charge ahead... doing your own thing and asking God to bless it?

Do you have a stellar, nearly perfect faith? I doubt it. No human does. You see, the Christian life is an experience intertwined with faith AND doubt. It’s not a life lived with faith OR doubt, its a struggle of both forces working within us.  Biblical faith is not necessarily the absence of doubt, but the ability to act on our beliefs despite the doubt that nags at us. 

Doubt is not the same as unbelief. Doubt is uncertainty. It’s that murky area between belief and unbelief where nothing is decided and nothing is committed to. That’s why doubt is so damaging. It sidelines you. It holds you back from being your very best. Every time I doubt it holds me back, and every time you doubt it hold you back.

That’s what doubt does to you. It keeps relationships on hold, it keeps careers on hold, it keeps ministry on hold, and if you’re not careful, it will keep your Christian walk on hold — indefinitely. If you don’t deal with your doubts they’ll imprison you and prevent you from doing what God wants you to do with your life.

Some of you might be feeling this way about you Christian life. Some of you might be saying, “Since I became a follower of Jesus Christ, my life has become more difficult. I’ve got more problems now, not less. And God doesn’t seem to hear my prayers... at least I see no evidence of answering. Did I make a mistake becoming a Christian?”

Many times your doubts are just your problems taunting you: “If Christianity is really true, why am I having such troubles? If Jesus is real, why am I in the midst of a crisis? If God really loves me, why am I sick? Or why are you broke... why am I unemployed, and why am I... on and on and on and on.”   We need to ask ourselves: “Are my doubts just a reaction to an unpleasant situation?” That is usually the case, but we think our Faith should neutralize all of life’s problems.

If you’re struggling with doubts, you need to look into the source of those doubts.  Maybe your doubts are caused by unrealistic expectations.  Are you having doubts because you’ve got problems?   God never promised you wouldn’t have problems. Are you having doubts because you’re not getting the results you want?  God never promised you would always get perfect results. Are you having doubts because some people don’t appreciate you? God never promised that everyone in the world would appreciate or even like you. Take a look at your doubts and look at them with a little bit of skepticism.  Chances are, there’s less to them than meets your eye.

Faith is the ability to act on your belief in spite of your doubt. The Bible teaches that we cannot please God without faith (Hebrews 11:6).  And Jesus queried whether or not there would actually be any real faith left on the earth upon His return (Luke 18:8).  He knew that the forces of “doubt” would be a powerful force in our daily living for God.

Faith is the belief that God is good all the time in spite of apparent contradictions encountered in life. Biblical faith is not the blind leading the blind or vain superstition in things we can’t know or comprehend.  God has revealed himself to us in marvelous ways, all sufficient to build a sustainable faith in all He has said He will do... His promises to those faithful to Him.

You have to learn to detach yourself emotionally from your doubts. Forget, for a moment, that you have problems. Forget, for a moment, that you have unfulfilled expectations.  Then look objectively at the evidence all around you.

If you have doubts about whether or not the Bible is the Word of God, investigate the evidence. Ask a mature Christian to help you.

If you have doubts that Jesus was the Son of God, and that he actually rose from the dead, investigate the evidence. Ask a mature Christian to help you.

If you have doubts that God has the power to change lives today, investigate the evidence. Ask a mature Christian to help you see what God is doing in the world.

Christian faith is a "willingness" to believe, which means you put your trust in God, based on the sufficiency of the evidence we see all around us (Hebrews 11:1).  The man says, "I do believe; help my unbelief" (see Mark 9:24), and God honors his request. 

No one said it would be easy... certainly not God. God never asks us to be perfect in our faith... just trust Him and be willing.

Allow yourself to deal with your doubt. Decide today to not be held back any longer by your doubts, but believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and that all things are possible through HIM.