Tag: bible

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Coming back to something familiar

Back in the winter our church began a church-wide small group which had as one of its theme verses Colossians 3:16. If you were a part of that study, did you notice it when you came back around to it? It’s only taken us a little over 6 months to stumble upon it again.

The segment that we memorized (can you still recall it?) was: Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. The entire verse is: Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

Here is a snippet on this verse taken from a sermon that kicked off Year in the Bible back in March, focusing on what it means for God’s word to dwell richly:

If you dwell richly in your home, how is that different from dwelling poorly? To dwell richly would mean having the best. You wouldn’t live in a closet, but in the finest room. To dwell richly wouldn’t mean to spend an afternoon there. To dwell richly would mean to abide, to live into the space, to make it your own permanently.

The word of Christ dwelling richly in us is not too different. It is too be firmly established in us, given the best of our time. Christ’s words are to be a favored guest in us, not an unwelcome visitor. Christ’s words are to be a centerpiece of our lives, like the big fish hanging over your fireplace. Christ’s words are to be given your favorite chair, the place of honor at your dinner table. To let the word dwell is not so different from truly delighting in it, like in Psalm 1. We are pleased to spend time with God in his Word. We enjoy him in it, we seek him there. We ask him to dwell with us and we never show him the door.

I hope having spent these times with God in the Bible, you are learning more and more what these passage means. I hope your experience of dwelling in God’s word continues to bear fruit, and may it lead to our being clothed in the character of Christ, which we read in the verses just before 3:16.

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The people’s failure to listen to Jeremiah

Zedekiah brought before the one who conquered Jerusalem, Nebuchadnezzar

You’d think after foreign powers have taken over Jerusalem, taking with them a great number of your own, you might then start to listen to Jeremiah. Jeremiah had been telling about the coming destruction and how it is the judgment of God. But no one listened. But Jeremiah was right.

I figured in reading through this that having shown his prophetic merit, the people would listen when in chapter 42 Jeremiah warns the remnant to remain in the land and not flee to Egypt. He says:

If you will remain in this land, then I will build you up and not pull you down; I will plant you, and not pluck you up; for I relent of the disaster that I did to you.

But after all they’ve experienced, do they listen? No. Time and time again the people do not listen to God through his prophet, and ignoring God’s word is never a wise decision.

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Increasing faith and increasing influence

In chapter 10 Paul writes “our hope is that as your faith increases, our area of influence among you may be greatly enlarged…” Here I believe he is talking about the spread and increase of the gospel in the area surrounding Corinth, hoping that the church there can help push the gospel further. But these words got my minding going off on a tangent, something that is not uncommon for me.

Perhaps it happened because of what I was reading previously in the chapter. Given that our struggles are not against the flesh, Paul writes that we should take captive every thought so that our mind will be obedient to Christ. We must not let our minds succumb to temptation, instead we need to place our minds, and by extension, our whole selves under Christ’s control.

So with this on the mind when I came to the passage about influence increasing with faith, I jumped to the fact that as our faith increases so does our understanding of the implications of the gospel in our life. The stronger the faith the more we give over to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. If in faith we take captive our thoughts to give over to obedience to Christ, surely his influence will spread throughout us.

What maybe began as a small understanding of Jesus grows and creeps into every single area of life as Christ grows in our eyes. We cannot keep relationships from his authority, we cannot go about with a belief that our job is a separate area apart from his watch, and we must understand that even our bodies are not our own. The influence of the gospel of Jesus Christ grows as our faith grows. Not that Christ is made to be Lord, but our eyes open wider to see the truth that is there, that he is already Lord, and we make our life correspond to the reality that is in him.

So while the passage may not directly be addressing Christ’s control in a person of faith, certainly if the church of Corinth is increasing in faith, so too will Paul’s ability to influence that geographic area grow, as well, for they will be giving themselves over in obedience to the rule of Jesus Christ.

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Being a cheerful giver because of the gospel

Part of 2 Corinthians is a defense that Paul makes about his ministry and actions, including a discussion on the church giving financial aid to those in need.

Paul wants them to be cheerful givers and does not want to use his authority to coerce them. Instead he tells them about what Christ has done for us.

2 Corinthians 8:9 
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.

Rather than command the church in Corinth, he tells the gospel again in the language of money. If they understand the gospel and accept it, Paul believes they will act according to it. He writes in chapter nine about a “submission that comes from your confession of the gospel of Christ.”

Tim Keller in Counterfeit Gods describes 2 Corinthians 8:9 like this:

Jesus, the God-Man, had infinite wealth, but if he had held on to it, we would have died in our spiritual poverty. That was the choice–if he stayed rich, we would die poor. If he died poor, we could become rich. Our sins would be forgiven, and we would be admitted into the family of God. Paul was not giving this church a mere ethical precept, exhorting them to stop loving money so much and become more generous. Rather, he recapitulated the gospel. (Keller, Counterfeit Gods, 67)

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A man fully consecrated to God

Ludolph Backhuysen – Paul’s Shipwreck

In 2 Corinthians we see a long list of Paul’s sufferings that have come his way during his time as a minister of the gospel. Starting in 2 Corinthians 11:24, Paul writes:

Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.

Paul was so committed to the call God had placed upon him that he continued the work even as he faced such pains. Knowing the cost did not deter him. Christ was more precious to him than anything else.

This passage about Paul reminds me of the quote that Henry Varley spoke to D.L. Moody, “the world has yet to see what God will do with a man fully consecrated to him.” That certainly was Paul’s desire–to live his life for someone else, no matter the cost. As he pursued this goal, being used by God, Paul helped to change the world. And that is just what will happen when one gives themselves fully to God.

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Knowing Our Own Faith

I’m reading a book in preparation for a book club at my church and it is a more narrative take on comparative religion. One thing that has struck me so far are the comments from the three lay people who represent different religions in regards to what they know and do not know about their own faith.

One has been through a religious school, another went to worship services frequently, and they have members of their family who could pass doctrine, practice, and tradition along. Yet these adults have a pretty basic understanding.

I’m not that far along in the book, so there is plenty of time for growth in these characters, but I just wonder what accounts for the limited understanding of one’s own faith, even when there have been years of being among the faith communities?

What we are undertaking with Year in the Bible is by no means a certain way to achieve perfect knowledge of Christianity, but it will certainly continue to be used by God to show us more about him. If we devote ourselves to God’s word, we won’t remain in the dark, rather he’ll shine his light upon us. When we prayerfully approach Scripture, we’re opening ourselves up to the teaching of the Holy Spirit and (I pray) we are learning much. We ought to be able to articulate what we believe and what we believe is there in the text, so let’s continue on in our reading. God wants us to know him, to know Jesus Christ, to understand what we are called to be and do, and to receive maturity in our faith.

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Hands of the Potter

Our first chapter of Jeremiah includes Jeremiah’s visit to the house of a potter where he learns a lesson about God.

Jeremiah 18:6b
Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.

I am reminded of this great song by Caedmon’s Call called Hand’s of the Potter, to take a listen and enjoy: