BibleDriven

A little more on the “Deeper” studies …

A while back, we had out on our church sign this simple but deeply crucial invitation: “Come find your place in God’s story.” That is, in the plainest way, the heart of the Bible’s truth and call.

See, there is a story—there really is a “way things are,” history is full of meaning, your life in history is momentous in the most far-reaching ways—and that story is God’s, the God of the Christian Scriptures.

There is no way to live as you should, to live in a way “pleasing to the Lord” that meets the end of your existence, apart from finding your place in God’s story; and there’s no way to “find your place” in God’s story if you don’t know God’s story, as he’s told it to us in his Word.

So, the purpose of this series during our Wednesday evening study time is to put “the big story” in place—to help you know what you believe and why you believe it in a way that works itself out in greater wonder, greater worship, and greater good works than we’ve known before as we love and serve our great God!

Let me encourage you to make the commitment—re-order, re-prioritize, re-think, revise your whole schedule, if necessary—to fill your seat in this study and find your place in God’s story!

“We have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.” (Colossians 1.9-10)

“Deeper” Bible Study on Wednesdays

Our Wednesday evening Bible studies this year will be geared to a pretty ambitious goal—to read the whole Bible through over the course of the year and to develop a basic working knowledge and understanding of the story of God (and our part in it) revealed in the whole Bible.  I’ll post m ore info here in the next day

or two about the schedule and what

the class will be like.

But go ahead, if you haven’t already, and get started on a plan to read the whole Bible over

the course of 2012.

You can find a selection of reading calendars HERE! To quote Jim Hamilton: “there it is, throbbing on your desk, the living word of God”!

2012 Recommended Reading

The 2012 Recommended Reading List is up, and this year is focused on the Gospel— its content,

its counterfe

its, its beauty, and its outworking in our lives.

Check it out … and start the new year reading!

2011 Recommended Reading

The 2011 Recommended Reading List is up … check it out. Thanks to Ken Stockdell for these fine suggestions this year.

Also, you might start keeping track of his blog, Let My People Read, at letmypeopleread.org. Good stuff from his seminary studies and reflections will be there this year.

Now, may the “… grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you and with all people everywhere who have been called by God through him, through whom be glory, honor, power, majesty, and eternal dominion to him, from everlasting to everlasting.

Amen.” (1 Clement 65.2)

We have Met the Idols … and They are Us!

A remark by Joshua Harris got me thinking about this.

He recently said, “Idolatry is the overflow of the heart that is not satisfied in God alone.” I wondered what that might look like in practice.

In our place and time, how does this idolatry express itself

? Of course, there are all the obvious sorts of culprits (“the usual suspects”)— money, sex, power, etc.

But as I thought about it another, more subtle and disturbing possibil

ity came to mind.

What if the obvious things aren’t really the idols? What if they’re just means for worshiping the idols? What if the idols are closer to hom

e? What if we are the idols we worship

? What if the prevailing sin of our time and place is self-deification?

Christ the Sum and Centre

“Christ Jesus the Lord, is the sum and centre of all divine revealed truth; neither is any thing to be preached unto men, as an object of their faith, or necessary element of their salvation, which does not, in some way

or other, either meet in him, or refer unto him.

All truths, especially divine, are of a noble and precious nature; and, therefore, whatsoever mysteries of his counsel God has been pleased in his Word to reveal,

the church is bound in her ministry to declare unto men.

And St. Paul professes his faithfulness therein, ‘I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God’ (Acts 20.27): but yet all this counsel (which elsewhere he calls the testimony of God) he gathers together into one conclusion, ‘I determined not to know any thing amongst you’ (1 Corinthians 2.1-2), that is, in my preaching unto you to make discovery of any other knowledge, as matter of consequence or faith, but only of Jesus Christ and him crucified (2 Corinthians 4.5). And therefore preaching of the Word, is called preaching of Christ,—and ministers of the Word, ministers of Christ (1 Corinthians 4.1-2; 2 Corinthians 3.6, 14),—and learning of the Word, learning of Christ (Ephesians 4.20); because our faith, our works, and our worship (which are the three essential elements of a Christian, the whole duty of man, the whole will of God,) have all their foundation, growth, end, and virtue, only in and from Christ crucified.”

—Edward Reynolds (1599-1676)
An Explication of the Hundred and Tenth Psalm

Michael Spencer (1956-2010)

Michael Spencer (1956-2010), a.k.a. the Internet Monk (and my friend), passed from here (at his home in Oneida, KY) into the presence of the Lord yesterday (Monday, 05 April), with his family at his side.

I first got to know Michael when I was at Southern Seminary, and always enjoyed stimulating conversations with him over some good coffee in the Founders Cafe. We may not always have seen eye to eye on every theological jot and tittle, but Michael was articulate, insightful, always charitable even when challenging, and not so much opinionated as having strong convictions. He had studied hard.

He knew what he believed and why he believed it. And he was passionate for truth.

Here’s a bit from his bio:

Michael started Internet Monk right after the November 2000 elections, and has been blogging ever since. Internet Monk is consistently rated in the top twenty Christian blogs in the world. It was recently voted the number 6 blog at ChurchRelevance.com and is rated the #11 blog in the Christian blogosphere. His work has been noted on blogs around the world and published in newspapers and magazines, such as The Christian Science Monitor and Modern Reformation.

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He was featured in the September 21, 2006 edition of Time Magazine for his blogging on Joel Osteen and was chosen as a featured blogger by

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the Dallas Morning News. He has been cited and linked by The Drudge Report, CNN, Glenn Beck, CBN, GetReligion, Out of Ur, Christianity Today, BBC Africa, Yahoo News, Andrew Sullivan, Daily Kos, Rod Dreher, National Review Online and Real Clear Politics, among many others. His analysis of evangelicalism has made him a frequent guest on podcasts and radio programs such as The God Whisperers, Truth Talk and Frank Pastore.

In 2008 Michael was awarded a sabbatical grant from the Louisville Institute to pursue his interest in “Contemplation and Balance in Life and Ministry.” He has been a seminar presenter and panel moderator at Cornerstone ’08 and ’09. He is a regular guest at Steve Brown, etc. and has appeared at The Frank Pastore Show and The Catholic Guy Radio program. He has been interviewed on numerous radio programs and magazines.

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He also podcasts the popular Internet Monk Radio podcast.

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Michael’s first book, still untitled, will be published by Waterbrook Press in the fall of 2010. [I think the working title now is Mere Churchianity.]

Yesterday, Michael left here, and we mourn with his dear family and ponder our loss. The Lord’s ways aren’t our ways, but his ways are perfect. Today, Michael is alive and well, because Christ the Lord—in whom he trusted and whom he loved—died for our sins, and was buried, and was raised on the third day and lives forevermore and is able to save to the uttermost all who come to God by him. Sweet shall be your memory, my brother, till we meet again.

2010 Recommended Reading

The 2010 Recommended Reading List is now posted on the “Reading Lists” page. The theme this year revolves around “the fellowship of the gospel” in the context of “life together” in the local church.

Happy reading!

The Act of Reading

This is from a post I did some time ago over on “Let My People Read.”

One of the books through which I’ve been reading (and working) recently is Susan Bauer’s The Well-Educated Mind. It’s a practical and encouraging guide to a classical self-education through reading the great books of literature. Near the beginning, in a chapter on “The Act of Reading,” she responds to a common objection that often serves as a rationale (however unjustifiable) for not even attempting to read serious books. The objection is: But I read so slowly; it will take me forever to get through those lists of Great Books!

Her answer is “spot on”:

Reading is a life-long process. There’s no hurry, no semester schedule, no end-of-term panic, no final exam. The idea that fast reading is good reading is a twentieth-century weed, springing out of the stony farmland cultivated by the computer manufacturers.

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As Kirkpatrick Sale has eloquently pointed out, every technology has its own internal ethical system. Steam technology made size a virtue.

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In the computerized world, faster is better, and speed is the highest virtue of all. When there is a flood of knowledge to be assimilated. the conduits had better flow fast.

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But the pursuit of knowledge is centered around a different ethic.

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The serious reader is not attempting to assimilate a huge quantity of information as quickly as possible, but to understand a few many-sided and elusive ideas. The speed ethic shouldn’t be transplanted into an endeavor that is governed by very different ideals.

I say again, “Amen to that!” So why not start today to nourish the life of the mind for the love of God

?

“A manner worthy of the calling …”

“I call you my brothers, and count it my privilege and joy to serve with you.

And to you and this common cause in which we stand I give my life.

I will go anywhere with you, and face anything, to the end of finishing the mission we’ve been given—faithfully, fully, courageously, and honorably, so help me God.”

As I listened to these words—from my Platoon Sergeant to her soldiers—I longed for them to be

the words and

the heart found in our churches. Alas, that it’s so rare.

Let’s commit ourselves altogether again to “walk in a manner worthy of [fitting, proper, of comparable value to] the calling” to which we’ve been called (Ephesians 4.1).

“The culmination of all things is near.

So be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of prayer.

Above all keep your love for one another fervent, because love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without complaining.

Just as each one has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of the varied grace of God. Whoever speaks, let it be with God’s words. Whoever serves, do so with the strength that God supplies, so that in everyth

ing God will be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen” (1 Peter 4.7-11, NET).