1. Pray the Bible. What in the world should you do if your mind wanders when you are praying? One thing is to pray through some verses of Scripture. Robert Murray M'Cheyne once said, "Turn the Bible into prayer. Thus, if you were reading the First Psalm, spread the Bible on the chair before you, and kneel and pray, 'O Lord, give me the blessedness of the man'; 'let me not stand in the counsel of the ungodly.' This is the best way of knowing the meaning of the Bible, and of learning to pray."
2. Pray your mind. Another thing to do if your mind wanders when you are praying is to pray about where your mind is wandering to (I think this counsel is in one of Paul Miller's books). If your mind is wandering to your to-do list for the day, there's probably a reason for this, and it's something you should pray about ("Lord, give me grace to trust you with what you set before me today, and help me not to be selfish about my time or self-sufficient in my heart"). I think the best bet would probably be to put these 2 things together so that our praying is at the same time biblical and honest.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Friday, April 1, 2011
How to Read the Bible
I think most of us would say that we have some room to grow when it comes to our ability to understand what we read in the Bible. Sure, we understand the essence of the message of the Bible, and we can grasp certain things with confidence from any chunk of Scripture we happen to be reading. But we are often confused by the text and we find ourselves in need of help. If this describes you, let me highly recommend a resource I came across yesterday posted on Justin Taylor's blog, Between Two Worlds. It's a compilation of the articles found in the back of the ESV Study Bible on how to read the Bible, and they have put them into a nice handy PDF. Check out the original post here where you can download the PDF. Some of the articles include "Reading the Bible Theologically" (by J.I. Packer), "Reading the Bible in Prayer and Communion with God" (by John Piper), and "Reading the Bible for Personal Application" (by David Powlison). These would be great to pass on to a friend as well, or to read together with your spouse or family, or perhaps to work through with a new believer over a series of meetings.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
March through Colossians - wrapping up
Well, if you have been a participant in our march through Colossians this past month, I do hope that it has been fruitful for you. It was somewhat of an experiment, and I can confidently say that it’s something that I’d like to do again soon with another book of the Bible, perhaps this summer. I'm thankful that we all had the opportunity to increase our knowledge of Scripture, and my hope is that it also found its way into your heart and life. I’ll be posting things here and there on this blog, and eventually I'll mention plans for doing another book of the Bible, so stay tuned! If this systematic way of reading Scripture has helped you, let me encourage you to continue in it. I’m a fan of Bible reading plans, rightly used, and I commend your use of them. It takes the guesswork out of your Bible reading and gets you into parts of Scripture you wouldn’t normally be drawn to. For a great post on resources for Bible reading, check out this link (to Justin Taylor’s blog). All 13 of Paul’s epistles (including other books in the New Testament) end on the note of grace (“Grace be with you,” 4:18). Surely this says something about the centrality of grace in Paul’s understanding of our lives as believers. Picture yourself as the apostle Paul, sitting in a room, wrapping up this letter to the church in Colossae. You write the first part of verse 18 (“I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. Remember my chains.”). What will you say next to close out the letter? What final note will you strike? For Paul, the answer was clear and consistent: the grace of almighty God at work in the lives of His people. Grace is what gives us hope and joy, because it is by grace and because of grace that we are able to have fellowship with the living God, through the person and work of Jesus. The whole reason why we are able to know and to fulfill our chief end, to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever, is because the grace of God is with us. The grace of God is with you right now, and will be with you today. So, let Paul’s final note resound in your whole being today. You have new life in Christ; grace be with you!
Monday, March 28, 2011
March through Colossians - the home stretch
(having trouble with the editing, sorry this appears as one long, daunting paragraph!) How should we think about these greetings that we find at the end of Colossians? I mean, it’s one thing to try to understand and apply Colossians 1:13: “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son.” It is quite another to try to understand and apply Colossians 4:7a: “Tychicus will tell you all about my activities.” Here are a few thoughts to guide your reading of this last section of Colossians over the last few days of our march. -These greetings, no less than the parts of the letter that are more doctrinal, are the very words of God. Paul wrote them (or, perhaps dictated them to a scribe), but he did so as he was “carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Pet 1:21), so that these words have their ultimate origin in God. So even if their value or their applicability is not immediately obvious to us, we have to start here. They are the words of God, for His church. -These greetings remind us of the realness of the Bible. God chose to give us His self-revelation through the agency of a real person. His words did not just drop out of the sky and get collected together like a bunch of fortune cookie messages. Paul, a real person, wrote an ordinary letter (qualify “ordinary” with what I said above) to a real congregation in the city of Colossae. They would have known who Tychicus was, and Onesimus, and Aristarchus, etc. So when you read these personal greetings, think for a bit about the fact that God’s Word addresses real people in real situations with His powerful grace. -Try to picture yourself as a member of this church in Colossae hearing this letter read for the first time. That might help you read these greetings with a little more attention. -We have a kids’ CD we’ve been listening to recently that has a line in it that says, “Your Word’s got nuggets of gold.” That’s true for all the parts of God’s Word, but we should carry that perspective into the way we read these greetings. So dig for gold! Think about what these verses say about the importance of real, personal relationships in the body of Christ. Notice how Paul describes his fellow workers. Meditate on phrases like “encourage your hearts,” “they have been a comfort to me,” and “the beloved physician” (do you love your physician? :) ). Be challenged and stirred up by the example of Epaphras who was “always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God.” Continue with 4:12-13 tomorrow, then 4:14-18 Wednesday, and then one final reading of the whole book on Thursday. I’ll wrap up our march with a final post on Thursday.
Saturday, March 26, 2011
March through Colossians - 4:5-6
A couple of observations of what Paul is saying here that really challenge me:
1. "Walk in wisdom toward outsiders" assumes that we will actually be spending time with "outsiders" (non-Christians).
2. In terms of our interaction with outsiders, "walk," "making the best use of the time," "let your speech be...", and "to answer each person" assumes a whole range of interactions with non-Christians, not just a project-oriented exchange here and there.
3. On speech, the ESV Study Bible connects this "seasoned with salt" metaphor with Jesus saying we should be "the salt of the earth." "When applied to conversation, the metaphor suggests speaking in an interesting, stimulating, and wise way." Sometimes hard for me.
4. "Let your speech always be gracious." Grace is what defines us as believers, and the deeper we go in our appreciation of it and thankfulness to God for it, the more it will flow out of us towards others who need it like we do.
1. "Walk in wisdom toward outsiders" assumes that we will actually be spending time with "outsiders" (non-Christians).
2. In terms of our interaction with outsiders, "walk," "making the best use of the time," "let your speech be...", and "to answer each person" assumes a whole range of interactions with non-Christians, not just a project-oriented exchange here and there.
3. On speech, the ESV Study Bible connects this "seasoned with salt" metaphor with Jesus saying we should be "the salt of the earth." "When applied to conversation, the metaphor suggests speaking in an interesting, stimulating, and wise way." Sometimes hard for me.
4. "Let your speech always be gracious." Grace is what defines us as believers, and the deeper we go in our appreciation of it and thankfulness to God for it, the more it will flow out of us towards others who need it like we do.
Friday, March 25, 2011
March through Colossians - 4:2-4
We would all admit that prayer is an area of weakness for us. In these verses Paul urges the Colossians to pray as an expression of their new life in Christ. Listen to what he says about prayer:
-Continue steadfastly in it (in other words, "Don't give up").
-Be watchful in it (kind of like Jesus said to His disciples in the garden, "Watch and pray").
-Do it with thanksgiving ("that outward expression of gratitude to God the Father who has already freed them from a tyranny of darkness, transferred them into a kingdom in which his Son holds sway and given them a share in the inheritance of the saints in light" -O'Brien).
-Pray for the spread of the gospel (which means we pray for something/someone other than ourselves).
4:5-6 tomorrow.
-Continue steadfastly in it (in other words, "Don't give up").
-Be watchful in it (kind of like Jesus said to His disciples in the garden, "Watch and pray").
-Do it with thanksgiving ("that outward expression of gratitude to God the Father who has already freed them from a tyranny of darkness, transferred them into a kingdom in which his Son holds sway and given them a share in the inheritance of the saints in light" -O'Brien).
-Pray for the spread of the gospel (which means we pray for something/someone other than ourselves).
4:5-6 tomorrow.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
March through Colossians - whole book
There's a great book I want to recommend to you called Promises Kept: The Message of the New Testament, by Mark Dever. There is one on the Old Testament too. Mark Dever is the senior pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church right on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C., and the essence of these 2 books came from sermons he preached at his church. The sermons were "overview sermons" where he preached the main content of a Bible book in a single sermon (so, 66 sermons in all). His strategy is fascinating, and behind it lies a desire for God's people to understand (and live in light of) the whole storyline of Scripture. Seeing the forest.
I hope that the opportunities we've had to read the whole book of Colossians in one sitting have helped you to see the forest so that you can better understand the trees.
Here's a great excerpt from Dever's book:
"I cannot remember when I first thought of preaching sermons like this. It may have been when I was discipling a recent Muslim convert and asked him to teach me the book of Hebrews in three meetings (I thought he would learn it better by teaching me). At each meeting, I would read a sentence or two from Hebrews and ask him where the verse fit into the book's argument. I did not so much care if he could tell me chapter and verse references; I was more concerned about whether he understood the overall flow of the book, and how any one idea from the book fit into that flow.
"As we worked through Hebrews this way, I found that an overview was beneficial not just for my friend but also for me as a pastor. When I preach a passage like Ephesians 2, do I approach the chapter in context? That is, am I using chapter 2 in the same way Paul uses chapter 2 within his larger argument as it unfolds in Ephesians?
"The Hebrews overview also got me to thinking about my congregation. I want the members of my church to become so familiar with the books of the Bible that they know how to turn there as easily as they turn to popular Christian books. So when the members of the church struggle with conflict, I will encourage them to read the book on conflict resolution by Ken Sande, but I also want them to have been trained by an overview sermon to immediately ask themselves, 'I wonder what James says about this situation?' When members want to learn about the Christian life, let them read C.S. Lewis and J.I. Packer; but let them also think to read 1 Peter and 1 John! When people struggle with discouragement, by all means read Ed Welch on depression; but also read Revelation! When people worry they are slipping into legalism, I hope they know to reach for Martin Luther or C.J. Mahaney on the cross-centered life; but I also hope they know to reach for Galatians. I am even happy for the congregtation to read Dever on the church, but I would prefer for them to know Paul's argument in 1 Corinthians."
By the way, in his chapter titles he summarizes each Bible book with a word or phrase. The one for Colossians is...(can you guess? What would you say?) "New Life."
So when you feel weighed down and fogged by anything bad, especially your own sin, you could do worse than to take 10 minutes to read the book of Colossians and be refreshed and reoriented by the new life you have in Christ.
I hope that the opportunities we've had to read the whole book of Colossians in one sitting have helped you to see the forest so that you can better understand the trees.
Here's a great excerpt from Dever's book:
"I cannot remember when I first thought of preaching sermons like this. It may have been when I was discipling a recent Muslim convert and asked him to teach me the book of Hebrews in three meetings (I thought he would learn it better by teaching me). At each meeting, I would read a sentence or two from Hebrews and ask him where the verse fit into the book's argument. I did not so much care if he could tell me chapter and verse references; I was more concerned about whether he understood the overall flow of the book, and how any one idea from the book fit into that flow.
"As we worked through Hebrews this way, I found that an overview was beneficial not just for my friend but also for me as a pastor. When I preach a passage like Ephesians 2, do I approach the chapter in context? That is, am I using chapter 2 in the same way Paul uses chapter 2 within his larger argument as it unfolds in Ephesians?
"The Hebrews overview also got me to thinking about my congregation. I want the members of my church to become so familiar with the books of the Bible that they know how to turn there as easily as they turn to popular Christian books. So when the members of the church struggle with conflict, I will encourage them to read the book on conflict resolution by Ken Sande, but I also want them to have been trained by an overview sermon to immediately ask themselves, 'I wonder what James says about this situation?' When members want to learn about the Christian life, let them read C.S. Lewis and J.I. Packer; but let them also think to read 1 Peter and 1 John! When people struggle with discouragement, by all means read Ed Welch on depression; but also read Revelation! When people worry they are slipping into legalism, I hope they know to reach for Martin Luther or C.J. Mahaney on the cross-centered life; but I also hope they know to reach for Galatians. I am even happy for the congregtation to read Dever on the church, but I would prefer for them to know Paul's argument in 1 Corinthians."
By the way, in his chapter titles he summarizes each Bible book with a word or phrase. The one for Colossians is...(can you guess? What would you say?) "New Life."
So when you feel weighed down and fogged by anything bad, especially your own sin, you could do worse than to take 10 minutes to read the book of Colossians and be refreshed and reoriented by the new life you have in Christ.
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