The Great 50 Days

Finishing a project makes you feel good! I had the responsibility this year of coming up with, writing, and designing a 50 day devotional guide for the Easter season for our local church. I love doing this kind of thing! This is where my heart is. The title, The Great 50 Days, is a name given to the period of time starting Easter Sunday lasting until Pentecost Sunday (50 Days).

This isn’t as much of a devotional book as it is a devotional guide. A devotional book would have more reading and would have taken me way longer to complete. No, this is a devotional guide to direct a person along a certain path. Each day you are asked/directed to read a scripture, to pray in a certain way, and/or fast something. We are attempting to prepare our people’s hearts and minds for Pentecost Sunday.

Well, here’s some pics of my work.

The Guest Room

Well, today is the day the disciples and Jesus celebrated Passover. It also marks the first communion. If you follow Mark’s account (14:12-26) it seems Jesus and His disciples are celebrating an early Passover. Scholars tell us Jews would have observed Passover on Friday. Ben Witherington III suggests the idea of the disciples and Jesus sneaking into the city under the cloak of darkness to celebrate the Passover early. They would have to be somewhat quiet about things if they were doing this meal early. I was also thinking of all the commotion Jesus stirred up by entering Jerusalem and clearing the temple. The religious leaders are chomping at the bit to get at Him. So, if they are celebrating an early Passover they probably don’t want to draw a lot of attention to themselves.

It seems Jesus has set up a place, a “guest room,” (TNIV) to celebrate the Passover with His disciples. To me it seems obvious He has made some pre-arrangements for it (14:13-15). If they are trying to be sneaky about this whole thing, because they are doing it a day early, then the signal Jesus gives to the disciples; “A man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him.” makes a bit more sense. This is going to be a very special meal. Passover is a meal about freedom. It was the last meal the Israelites ate before leaving Egypt. It meant God had acted on their behalf and was rescuing them from bondage in Egypt. Their God was showing that He alone is the only true God.

While eating Jesus predicts He’s going to be betrayed by one of the disciples (14:17). Jesus had spent 3 years of His life with Judas and I’m sure He was on to his crooked ways. What’s surprising is that none of the other disciples know its Judas. Their response in verse 19, “Surely not I?” indicates they are more worried about it being themselves than someone else. Judas fooled the disciples but not Jesus.

Somewhere towards the end of the meal, Jesus asks His disciples to eat bread that symbolizes His body and drink wine that symbolizes His blood which will be “poured out for many.” They then top off this new meal by singing a hymn.


Some questions I was thinking about with this passage:

- I wonder what the disciples were thinking as they listened to their teacher talk about what each of the elements meant?

- Did they really understand that Jesus was going to die and give up His life?

- Did they think He would die a heroic death by the sword?

- What were they thinking?

- What do you think they were thinking?

Lenten Prayers

Thought I would share something near and dear to me with you today. For Lent this year I've been using the prayers offered in 3 Simple Rules by Rueben P. Job. At the end of the book they have morning prayers, afternoon prayers, and evening prayers. This has been a great guide for me in prayer. I have found that I need and benefit in my prayer time from structure. The book itslef is a great little book by the way too! A very easy read. This morning I want to share the prayer of invitation from the morning prayers. I encourage you to make it your prayer today. Prayer of Invitation Loving Teacher, come and make your home in our hearts this day. Dwell within us all day long and save us from error or foolish ways. Teach us today to do no harm, to do good, and assist us so that we may stay in loving relationship with You and our neighbor. Help us today to be an answer to another's prayer so that we may be one of Your signs of hope in the world You love. What a great prayer! I've been trying to pray it every morning and really like the part about God saving us from error or foolish ways. I need that! If you think you would benefit from a structured prayer guide this book offers some wonderful guidance.

Rob Bell's Love Wins (Part 2)

Problems

There’s a fog that has descended on our small town this morning. It seems this fog might be a good metaphor for the book I just read called Love Wins by Rob Bell. What’s normally seen clearly by many has been enveloped in a fog. There’s uncertainty all around. The big idea of this book is that God may actually give individuals who reject Him on earth a chance in hell to choose Him. God loves us and wants all people to love Him and this book explores the idea or speculation that God may extend His love to those in hell so that in the end love can win.

One of the problems with this book is that its theory of love winning is based on theological speculation about certain passages in God’s word. One thing to keep in mind is that Rob believes in a hell and never really says he holds to the position he presents in this book, but he still presents it and tries really hard to back it up with scripture and reason.

I thought some of the exegesis done in this book was weak and left much to be desired. It seems Rob breaks down a Greek word that is not the correct Greek word in Matthew 25:46. He says this word can mean a period of time or a time of pruning, but the definitions given for the specific adjective used by Matthew clearly carries with it the idea of something that goes on forever or from everlasting to everlasting. This is how every translation translates this word. So, the question is did the many translators translate it wrong or did Rob translate it wrong? There is no direct evidence in scripture to support the idea of those who didn’t believe in Jesus while on earth getting a second chance in the afterlife or hell. Actually, the evidence seems to point in quite the opposite direction. 2 Peter 3:9 actually says God is patient with us so none will perish. Perish? Perish from what? This doesn’t mean none will perish, but that some will perish and God is doing everything possible to prevent that and He is “not wanting” (the word used in the NRSV) and hoping none will perish. What does that mean? Does it mean some will perish? God couldn’t say that if people didn’t really perish could He?

I have several good friends I meet with on occasion and we dream, speculate would be a better word, about certain things in God’s word and what’s to come. It’s fun and makes for great conversation. We ask things like; did angels really have sex with humans and create a superhuman race (see Gen 6)? Will God allow us to rule over planets in the life to come? How will we travel back and forth from those planets? Could Jesus have gone and died for life on other planets? Will we talk to animals in the New Jerusalem? These are things we talk and wonder about amongst ourselves. While it may make for interesting conversation, it’s not something we go out teaching to others. It’s just theory and guessing. What could we base it upon?

I feel as a pastor I have to be careful not to teach speculation, but truth. I felt as if Rob was trying to teach something based upon speculation. While the idea of everyone eventually coming to Christ is appealing, you just can’t find much scriptural evidence to back up such a thing. You get one life to live and amidst that one life you have to make a decision: will you follow Jesus or reject Him? There's no fog about it.

Any thoughts from those of you who have read the book?

Rob Bell's Love Wins

There are a plethora of good reviews on this book available. I highly recommend Ben Witherington’s reviews here. He’s da bomb when it comes to things like this. However, some of you wanted to know my thoughts on this book and so here they are (part 1 of 2).

I enjoyed reading and thinking about Love Wins by Rob Bell. There’s been so much controversy (I’m sure more is to come too!) swirling around this book that I felt a little naughty just carrying it around. I enjoyed it for several reasons. First, it left the impression on me that God has done something really big in our world through Jesus’ death and resurrection from the dead. This was one of the big positives going for this book. Do we truly understand the significance of Jesus’ death and resurrection? Individual salvation through Christ is just the beginning of what God has done through Christ for us. There is so much more! Anyways, Rob sees and presents the big picture of what God has done through Christ and it’s great to be reminded of that every once in awhile. Christus Victor!

Second reason I enjoyed reading this book is that it’s good every so often to read a book you may disagree with. I don’t do this nearly as much as I should. If you’ve ever found yourself in a debate, you know that such a challenging time can help solidify and develop your beliefs more fully. You have to really think about what you believe and lay it on the line. If you’re challenged on it, you have to think of why you were challenged on it and why such a challenge is even a challenge in the first place and how to combat such challenges. Jail ministry has really helped develop my faith and solidify what I believe for just such reasons. Those we visit in jail aren’t afraid to ask tough questions that might normally seem off limits in a Sunday School class. That has forced me to be ready in season and out of season to explain what I believe using more than just my personal experiences.

This book has caused me to think about and examine what I really believe about heaven, hell, and the afterlife. Reading it is helping me fully develop and build a foundation for my thoughts about end things (eschatology is the big theological word for this). Another good thing about reading a book like this (a friend just reminded me of this in a recent discussion) is that you find yourself searching and studying the scriptures. So, find a book you know you won’t agree every once in awhile and read it. It will bring growth to your life.

Next week I'll discuss some problems in this book.

Sloth

Well, I've been slothful in my blogging the last couple of weeks. Sorry to the 5 of you who read this weekly. Here's what I've been up to:

- Writing a devotional that starts on Easter Sunday and ends on Pentecost. It's called the Great 50 Days. Don't hope to find it in any bookstores, it's just for our church. It has been a great learning process and a lot of fun. The most time consuming part of it has been the page layout and organization. Too bad I can't just type the thing and send it off to an editor and have them organize it.

- There's some other discipleship things I'm putting together for something our church will be doing down the road. Exciting stuff!

- I just bought Rob Bell's new book Love Wins. Reading it now. I've had several ask me about it and I feel I cannot honestly say much without reading it. So, I ordered it and have begun reading and hope to post on it in the next couple of weeks or so.

- Preaching. Several opportunities have come up recently giving me a chance to preach. As an associate pastor I do not get to do this too often, so I'm really enjoying it.

Well, just an excuse, or update on my slothful blogging habits. Be back next week!

Lent

Yesterday was Ash Wednesday. I've blogged on what that is before in the link below if you're interested.

Ash Wednesday

I have several things I'm doing differently this year for Lent including a focused reading and re-reading (maybe even memorizing?) of Mark 11-15. Want to join me in reading this? I'm going to save the resurrection chapter (16) for Easter Sunday. After so much time and focus on Jesus' death, I figure I'll be pretty excited and anxious to get to the resurrection that it will seem extra special when I do get to read the good news of Jesus being raised from the dead.

I've also accidentally (or was it?) come across a great little prayer book to help me start times of daily prayer for Lent. The book is Three Simple Rules: A Wesleyan Way of Living by Rueben Job. In the back of the book I found prayers for morning, midday, and evening. They are very simple to follow which is good because having daily prayer times will be something new to me and my daily agenda. Why am I doing this? I want to try and practice daily prayer times like Jesus and His disciples did (see Acts 3). I'm loosely following their practice of prayer at 9am, 3pm, and 6pm. I feel I'm going to learn a lot about prayer and myself as a I take this journey of daily prayer.

So, I'm curious as to what some of your practices are for the Lenten season? Care to share?

Easy Salvation

Well, sorry to not post last week. I was in TN with family. We go there every year and rent a cabin in the smokies. Great time! I learned some awesome new board games (Carcassonne). As usual I scored several new books at some of the discount bookstores down there. It was fun. I'm talking better deals than what you find on Amazon. Well, back to Willard's book on how the spiritual disciplines work.

Chapter 3 of The Spirit of the Disciplines deals with salvation as a life and not just a point in time. Can you remember when you first received Jesus into your life? As one coming from the Wesleyan tradition I relate well to the idea of salvation as a journey.

“Salvation is a journey.”

This is what one of my Profs from IWU would say in almost every class and then ask the class to repeat out loud with him. Thanks for reinforcing that great truth Chris Bounds! More than just the journey, this chapter deals with how faith affects our bodies. What does it mean that we can experience eternal life right now? If you read Acts you will notice that there was a power moving in the Christians in the New Testament that turned them into new creations, helped them rise above sin, and have victory over evil. Are you experiencing that? If not, maybe it’s time you start exploring the spiritual disciplines.

This chapter is a precursor to the next 3 chapters that deal with the theological basis for the spiritual disciplines.

Easy Theology

Thus men will lie on their backs, talking about the fall of man, and never make an effort to get up. (Henry David Thoreau)

Did you know each and every one of us is directed by a theology? Theology is simply what we think about God. Even atheists have a theology guiding them. So, how’s your theology these days? Where’s it leading you?

Chapter 2 of The Spirit of the Disciplines is about having a theology that leads/aids us in making change. To run with the quote at the beginning, it’s about making the effort to change. We know Jesus has commissioned us to make Christlike disciples in the nations (this includes making disciples who follow Jesus and who become like Him in character), but do we know how to go about it? This is where training in the spiritual disciplines comes in. A great quote from John Wesley was used to support bringing discipline into the Christian life:

It was a common saying among the Christians of the primitive church, “The soul and the body make a man; the spirit and discipline make a Christian:” implying that none could be real Christians without the help of Christian discipline. But if this be so, is it any wonder we find so few Christians, for where is Christian discipline?

The spiritual disciplines aid us in offering our bodies as living sacrifices to God (Rom 12:2). Willard closes the chapter by saying, “Full participation in the life of God’s Kingdom and in the vivid companionship of Christ comes to us only through appropriate exercise in the disciplines for life in the spirit.”

Do you agree/disagree with this?

Easy Yoke

Chapter 1
Do you consider following Christ to be easy?

Chapter 1 of The Spirit of the Disciplines is called The Secret of the Easy Yoke and is about the easy yoke of following Christ. Dallas contends in this chapter that there is something easy to following Christ. Do you believe that? Jesus says in Matthew 11:30, “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Did you know He said that? Most of us, when it comes to thinking about following Jesus, imagine it involves just doing what He did. This is the popular WWJD that we see so many teens advertising across the wrists. To a certain extent we want to do this, but following Christ is so much more. Dallas says, “To live as Christ lived is to live as he did all his life.” This is a great point and maybe why so many have trouble living as Christ. Do you live every moment of your life like Christ? We think we can just behave like Him in an instant when we haven’t been behaving like Him for the rest of our lives.

I love the quote by Oswald Chambers that Dallas uses, “The Sermon on the Mount is not a set of principles to be obeyed apart from identification with Jesus Christ. The Sermon on the Mount is a statement of the life we will live when the Holy Spirit is getting his way with us.”

Dallas concludes this chapter by reminding us that we can only act like Christ if we learn to live our total lives in the way He did. “The secret of the easy yoke, then, is to learn from Christ how to live our total lives, how to invest all our time and our energies of mind and body as he did. We must learn how to follow his preparations, the disciplines for life in God’s rule that enabled him to receive his Father’s constant and effective support while doing his will.”

What do you think?

Did you survive the blizzard?

I've been doing a lot of snow shoveling the past couple of days. My neighbor has a snow blower and it looks nice, but I would rather do it the old fashioned way and burn some calories. It's a bummer when you get things cleared out and then a snow plow goes by creating a small mountain around the cars you just cleared out.

Well, enough of that. Next week I'm going to start a series of notes and reflections from Dallas Willard's book The Spirit of the Disciplines. This is a sweet book! I just started reading it this week and had to read chapters 1 and 2 twice. Some really good stuff in there. If you have read this already I would appreciate your 2 cents as I truck through this book.

Memorizing Scripture

I have been thinking a lot about Scripture memorization this week. My mom has been working through a book called 100 Bible Verses Everyone Should Know by Heart (Robert J. Morgan). She's been working on her scripture memorization skills. There was also an article in the new Christianity Today on this very topic. So, I’m curious as to your thoughts on scripture memorization. Some simple questions I would love to have you answer.

Does anyone memorize scripture anymore?

If you do…
How do you memorize scripture?
What are your secrets?
What helps you?
What advice would you offer?

If you don’t…
Why don’t you memorize scripture? Age? Memory?

Hearing God

Every once in a while I read a book that captures my attention for about a month or two. Ever come across a book like that? The Shack falls into that category for me. Then, even better, I will read a book that captures my attention for a year or two (maybe even longer?). This has been the case for Dallas Willard’s book Hearing God: Developing a Conversational Relationship with God. This has been a very meaningful book to me in that it has opened my eyes to just how conversational our God is. It has me expecting clear communication from God. As the title suggests, this book is about hearing from God. Even more, it’s about developing a conversational relationship with God where you speak to Him and He speaks to you. Do you think something like that is possible?

I’ve blogged on this book before here:
Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Today I re-visited chapter 2 (Guidelines for Hearing from God). Great chapter! A side note: this whole book would make for some great sermons. In this chapter Dallas lays out 3 guidelines to hearing from God that need to be kept at the forefront of our mind. They kind of help to keep us in check so we don’t end up acting like David Koresh or Jim Jones. Here are the guidelines in a nutshell:

3 Guidelines to Hearing from God

Guideline 1
Hearing from God is intended to draw us into a relationship with Him. This whole hearing from God thing is to be sought as part of a life that is in a relationship with His Son Jesus. This is the whole, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me” from Revelation 3:20. It’s about fellowship with Jesus. Real fellowship involves conversation. If you enter into a relationship with Jesus you will hear Him speak to you. Think about that.

Guideline 2
Hearing from God in ways that individuals in the Old Testament and New Testament did is possible in our lives. We must have faith that God can and still does speak to us in similar ways. Willard encourages us to, “pray for faith and the experiences that would enable us to believe that such things could happen to us.”

Guideline 3
Hearing from God doesn’t automatically make us right with Him or right. Just because God speaks to us it doesn’t mean we are special. There is a certain amount of humility involved in our relationship with God. Also, because we have a fallen nature we may misinterpret God’s voice and what it is He’s asking us to do.

What do you think about these guidelines for hearing from God?

Time with God

I have been studying Mark 1:35-39 in anticipation of preaching on it. I got sick the night I was supposed to preach so never had that chance. Now I have a sermon in by back pocket ready to go. So, I thought I would share a bit of what I've been learning in this passage here. Actually this is just a look at verse 35.

Verse 35
The scripture tells us it is very early in the morning, in fact it is still dark out. Jesus wakes up and goes off by Himself to a solitary (lonely) place to pray.

This is at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry that Mark mentions this in his Gospel. Why? I think he wants us to know Jesus’ commitment to time with God and prayer. This is a key characteristic of Jesus – One who spends time with God and who prays. Listen to what these other scriptures say about Jesus:
- Matthew 14:23 – Jesus goes off alone to spend time with God and pray.
- Luke 5:16 – He withdrew often to lonely places to spend time with God and pray.
- Mark 8:6 – Prayer before feeding the 4,000.
- Matthew 26:36 – Spending time with God and praying at Gethsemane.
- John 17 – Prayer for disciples and us.

Time with God and prayer are key components of Jesus’ life. This is why He can speak as if He knows what God the Father is up to because He does. Time with God and prayer are evidence of a relationship.

Questions
- If someone were to evaluate your life would you be described as a person who spends time with God and who prays?
- How important is it for you to spend time with God each day?
- How important is prayer to you and to your day?
- Does your family see you spending time with God
- Do they see you as a prayer warrior?
- Do they know that you spend time with God and in prayer?
- Do they come to you and ask you for advice on how to spend time with God and how to pray?

Application
Here’s my advice if you want to become a person who spends time with God and prays: Practice it! Mark off a time during the day or week in your calendar when you will do it (even if it’s only 5 minutes!). Ask someone to hold you accountable to times with God and prayer. Start a time with God and/or prayer journal where you write down your experiences and/or prayers and how God answers them. To not practice it would be like wanting to ride a bike all your life and not ever getting on one.

Any thoughts to add?

helpful Bible study technique

Here is something I’m planning on really committing to this year.

I’m using the NLT Study Bible to aid me in my read through of the entire Bible. I’m not so much reading the NLT Bible as I am reading their book introductions for each book (then I read the Scripture out of my TNIV). This is a fantastic study Bible (NLTSB) and a secret weapon for me as a preacher and teacher of God’s Word. There is so much good and useful information presented in an easy-to-read format. Pairing this with the easy-to-read translation of the NLT has made for the perfect match. Anyways, I’m taking what I learn from the intros in the NLTSB and rewriting them as a book profile in my TNIV. It’s nothing long, but just a quick snapshot of the basics (who, what, where, when, why) for each book of the Bible.

For example, here is the profile (including an outline) I created for 1 Kings (I write this at the top right corner of my TNIV). This is what it looks like in my Bible (should have put a pic here).

Profile:
Celebrates Solomon’s reign as king. Also warns of preoccupation with luxury, fame, self, and security. 1 Kings concerned with Israel’s spiritual condition and the covenant they have with the Lord. Date: After 586 BC (1 Kings covers the period of 973 BC to 853 BC).

Outline:
1-11 Solomon’s reign as King
12-16:4 Early Divided Kingdom
16:3-22 Israel’s 3rd Dynasty

The reason I like creating a profile and outline for each books is that it helps me learn it. I have to create an introduction and outline and put it in my own words and I remember it better. This is making good use of all the information packed into the NLTSB. I’m hoping as I read through the entire Bible this year to make my own introductions for each book and write them down.

Any thoughts on this method?
Do you do anything like this to help you study the Bible?

The new year is coming!

Christmas has come and gone! Can you believe it? Wow, that was fast. Seems like it was just yesterday (more like 2 months ago!) that I was telling my daughter people would be putting up Christmas lights soon. Despite some stomach flu I had a great Christmas. How about you? All I wanted for Christmas this year was just some time with family and rest.

Well, New Year’s Day is coming. Any goals to set for this next year? I’ll be working on mine today. I think it’s good to set goals. Gives you something to aim at and it can be a humbling and fun experience to look back and see how you did. One of my goals last year was to read the Bible through from Genesis to Revelation. I did not achieve that one. I’m still reading (in 1 Kings), just that things are going a little slower than expected. One of my goals for next year is to finish reading through the Bible.

Well, I would love to hear some of your New Year’s goals and maybe how you did last year. Care to share?

Merry Christmas!!!

The Catholic Mary

Finished the 3-week series on Mary last night. It was interesting to talk and discuss what the Catholic Church teaches about Mary. I pulled all this material from Scot McKnight's book The Real Mary. Thought the book was an easy read and very helpful in laying out what Catholics really think about Mary. So, we will start with some similarities bewteen Catholics and Protestants.

Similarities
- Would believe with us Protestants in the supernatural conception of Jesus
- Would believe with us Protestants that Mary is the mother of God

Differences
- Believe Mary was sinless (still had to grow and mature, just never chose to sin, sinless because God enabled her to be)
o We, in the Wesleyan camp, believe a person can live above sin and not choose to sin, we believe that such a life is only possible because God enables it.
o This could be a good stepping stone to talking about Christian Perfection, or entire sanctification.

- Perpetual virgin (so did Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Wesley)
o Arose around the time when the commitment to celibacy was thought of as noblest form of the spiritual life.

- Immaculate Conception – Mary, the moment she was born, was made sinless by God.
o In our view of sinlessness we would disagree because we believe heavily in choice in regards to these matters.

- Glorious Assumption – Mary taken to heaven with God. The stories tell that she died in the presence of others and was placed in a tomb, when they checked on her, she was gone. Believe this because they say Mary was not affected by Original Sin (aging, death, decay, etc.)

- The Mediatrix – Catholics pray to Mary by asking her to intercede for them.
o From incident in John where Mary intercedes on the behalf of others for her Son to make wine.
o Catholics do not look at Mary as an idol (though we may think they do).
o Believe so strongly in the fact that there is life after death that their prayers are heard by saints in heaven.

That is a summary of Catholic teaching on Mary. Any thoughts?

Mary's Servant Attitude

I've been learning a lot lately about Mary (mother of Jesus). Of course teaching a series on her forces learning. But, there's one verse, from her story as a teenager, that has been particulary challenging. It's Luke 1:38 (just the beginning portion). It's her response to the angel after he announces she will give birth to the Messiah.

It reads,

I am the Lord's servant.

Questions to ponder

- Can you say this to Jesus today and really mean it?

- What does it mean to say something like this?

- What doesn't it mean?

- What kind of life would one have to live to say this and mean it?

Could the real Mary please stand up?

I began a 3-week series with our adults last night on Mary. Advent is a great time to look at her story and hope-filled life. Along with Scripture, I’m using The Real Mary by Scot McKnight for fodder. Great book! Scot is a great New Testament scholar and friend to the church.

In this book Scot presents to us evangelicals a Mary we appreciate and learn from. To be honest, when I think of Mary I think of a young woman kneeling beside a baby. It’s the classic nativity scene Mary. This book has caused me to look again and dive into the scripture to see the real Mary.

This book does a great job of laying out the historical context to Mary’s story along with the overall mindset of those in the First Century. You’ll get a great amount of easy-to-read exegesis on passages pertaining to Mary in this book.

One thing unique to this book (at least I thought it was) is the emphasis on Mary’s role as Jesus’ teacher. Of course she was His mom, but have we given much thought to the fact that Jesus was fully human and had to learn in the same way we learn? His mom played a key role in his upbringing and training in the Old Testament stories. If you doubt Mary knew much about the Old Testament compare her song in Luke 1:46-55 to Hannah’s song in 1 Samuel. Mary had a huge influence on Jesus and His teachings.

Well, I’ve still a couple chapters left in this book and will post more about Mary next week. If you have any thought would love to hear them.