Terribly Poetic

This is an article taken from Relevant Magazine which I find to sum up some of the feelings I have about the Bible. Many of these things I heard from many a church and many a speaker. The one that gets me the most is “Bible as answer book” or it could be called “Bible as Manual for Life.” This one can actually make me angry as I’ve heard it thrown around alot. It’s time to end that talk now.

Now I will post the full article as seen on Relevant Magazine written by Jason Boyett

How to read the Bible without trying to make it into something it’s not.

One of the most curious artifacts of my Bible-belted, Southern Baptist childhood was an activity called Bible Drill, in which kids in grades four through six compete on how well they know the Word of God. We’d be quizzed on our ability to quote verses, memorize references and identify passages. One of the coolest parts of the competition was a timed event where we had 10 seconds to locate a specific book of the Bible. We’d line up, facing a crowd of nervous parents, and the moderator would call out the get-your-Bibles-ready command: “Attention. Present swords. Begin!” And in a flurry, we’d scramble to locate, say, the book of Amos.

I rocked Bible Drill. And weirdly, I still find that archaic phrase “present swords” fluttering through my mind, like song lyrics without a melody.

There’s plenty of precedent for using Scripture as offensive weaponry, including the famous Armor of God passage in Ephesians 6. But we’ve taken that metaphor much further, turning the Bible into a box of ammunition. Individual verses have become our bullets in the culture war. Fighting homosexuality? Load up on Romans 1:27. Battling Hollywood filth? Chamber a round of Philippians 4:8.

The problem is that the Bible is so much more than a rulebook. Granted, parts of the Bible—Leviticus and much of Deuteronomy, for example—were sets of rules. But Jesus redefined that way of thinking and living. Later, Paul made it clear that an over-reliance on the “law” side of Scripture was like living under a curse (Galatians 3:10) or looking at life through a veil (2 Corinthians 3:14).

If the Bible can be reduced to a collection of ethical principles, how do we deal with the fact that Christians throughout the centuries have come to contradictory conclusions on what they are?

The Bible as Toolbox

You can’t walk through a bookstore these days—religious or otherwise—without seeing the Good Book made into a tool to enhance your life. Biblical steps to weight loss. Biblical steps to overcoming addictions. Biblical steps to business success. We crack open the Bible for parenting advice, marital tips and scary prophetic insight into oil prices and the Middle East.

That’s missing the point, too. Not that the Bible doesn’t have a lot of great information about living a fulfilled life. It’s useful, Timothy says, for teaching, correcting and training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16). But our tendency is to jump into a passage, yank out a principle about joy or perseverance, apply it to some out-of-context situation, then pat ourselves on the back for our dedication to the Word.

But that’s like watching a great movie so you can find an inspirational quote to tape to your fridge. Sure, it’s one way of interacting with Scripture, but there’s so much more to it than that.

The Bible as Science Book

Not long ago, I came across a statement by a creation-science lecturer who pretty much said this: If you don’t believe the world is 6,000 years old, then you don’t believe the first 11 chapters of Genesis. Therefore, you don’t believe the Bible, and your faith is in jeopardy.

Yikes. Focusing on the factual accuracy of the Bible is a wrong approach, because the core of my faith has nothing to do with whether or not the days of creation are 24-hour days. My salvation doesn’t depend on my interpretation of Genesis. It depends on whether or not I believe the Gospels, whether I believe Jesus is who He says He is. According to Paul, our faith hinges on the resurrection, not on Noah and the flood.

To get bogged down in the math and physics and biology and chronology of Scripture is to major in trivia. It misses the point.

The Bible as easy answer book

“God wrote it, I believe it, that settles it.” According to this mindset, the Bible fell from heaven one day, bound in black leather and helpfully divided into chapter and verse. With a satin bookmark.

The truth is that the Bible and its history aren’t nearly that simple. The Old and New Testaments come from a bunch of crumbling scraps in a mix of genres, written across the centuries by dozens of different scribes.

Don’t worry: I believe the Bible is God-inspired and perfect in what it communicates. But the “God wrote it, I believe it” brand of inspiration fails to account for an important kink in the process: People are idiots. While the Bible’s message may be perfect, those of us reading it are unequivocably not. It’s easy to rip verses out of their cultural and literary context so we can slap them on a bumper sticker.

The easy-answer approach makes it that much easier to misuse or abuse the Bible. A number of recent evils, from modern sexism to slavery and genocide, can be and have been backed up by carefully selected passages of Scripture. A better approach is to read the Bible with careful analysis of context, an acknowledgment of its complexity and a healthy dose of humility.

What, Then, Is the Bible?

The Bible contains powerful moral authority, but it’s not just a weapon. The Bible points to a fulfilled life, but it’s not just an advice manual. The Bible tells us where we came from, but it’s not a history or biology textbook. The Bible addresses many of life’s biggest questions, but it’s by no means an easy read. To reduce the Bible to these ways of understanding is to spotlight little truths at the expense of the big Truth.

The big Truth of the Bible is Jesus. Yes, there are layers upon layers of depth and truth and revelation to be found studying Scripture, but the main story of the Bible is Jesus. The purpose of its thousands of words is to point us to God’s final Word: Jesus Christ.

This article originally appeared in RELEVANT magazine.

I’ve been reading the book Crazy Love by Francis Chan and below is my observation from the section I’ve read today. I thought this was a great place to start dialogue or writing back on here.

Jeremiah 1:4-5, “The Word of the LORD came to me, saying, ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.’”

God knew me before He made me. Again, God knew you and me before we existed.

God has been with me from the very start. Before I knew Him, before anything. It also says that God then knew what I would do before I was born too! You might just think this is written to Jeremiah, but Eph 2:10 tells us that we are created to do good works. God setup and prepared good things for us to do long before we existed. Sure I’ve heard all this before, but stop and think about how crazy it really is; that the God of the universe knew each of us before we existed and that HE prepared God thinks for us to do. I know that I have past by some of these good things before and I’m sure you have too. For me, one of the reasons I don’t do them, is because I think I won’t do a good job or that the job really should be done by someone else. Firstly, these good things are prepared for each of us and if God tells me to do it, it means it was created for me, not someone else. Secondly, we don’t need to be scared of failing. This is the same problem Jeremiah had and God told him, “Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you.” It goes on to say that God touches his mouth and gives him the words he needs. Remember that God prepared these good things and that He will also guide us to do them as He wants. It is HIS plan not ours. Now that is crazy.

It’s such a simple truth, yet I know I fail at it.

The toughest question that has come from this section of the book so far….

The greatest good on this earth is God. God’s one goal for us is Himself. The best things in life are gifts from the One who loves us (God), but we need to ask ourselves if we are in love with God or just His stuff? Do I love the things He provides me with, the feeling He gives me when I succeed at a good work He gave me or do I earnestly love God Himself? I’ll be wrestling with that for the next while. What about you?

Really terrible promotion junk sold at Christian stores. Things like “Testiments”, Christian Poker Chips, bumper stickers, etc, etc really annoy me. In fact they make me mad. On more than a few occasions I have found my way into a certain Christian bookstore in Saskatoon only to get upset and want to leave in a hurry. This so called “Christian Gear” makes me angry and sad. Is this really what its meant when is says in the Bible to “write these things on our door posts and remember them” (that’s a paraphrase not direct quote) I believe that when we buy/sell/own/whatever these things that we are using God’s name in vain. We are cheapening his name, his Word, and truth. I could go on and on about this. The straw that placed this was seeing this picture on a blog I read. And yes, that is a shot glass. Augh.

Today marks the beginning of Lent. Read more about the history of Lent here. While I didn’t grow up following the traditional Church calendar, over the past few years I have been attending an Ash Wednesday Service (which is the start of Lent) and have grown to enjoy more of these Liturgical practices of the Church. From fixed hour prayers, the Jesus Creed, to now Lent.

As I understand the season of Lent is a time to fast and pray. Many people do this by the giving up of something they do on a regular basis so as to have more time/energy/etc to give to becoming more like Christ. It is a time to draw ourselves closer to Christ. I also understand that some people give up something to connect closer with the poor. One blog writes,

Abstaining from meat traditionally also linked us to the poor, who could seldom afford meat for their meals. It can do the same today if we remember the purpose of abstinence and embrace it as a spiritual link to those whose diets are sparse and simple. That should be the goal we set for ourselves—a sparse and simple meal. Avoiding meat while eating lobster misses the whole point!

Therefore, the picture you see is the last cup of coffee I will drink till the end of the season of Lent. For those that know me they will know that this is going to be difficult. I drink a lot of coffee each day. It is something I use to get rid of headaches, to get me through the day, and to enjoy with friends. I hope to try to use the “desire” to have coffee each day, to “draw” myself closer to Christ. I also think that I must give up ALL coffee and not just “Tim’s” or “Starbucks” as I have thought of doing. I feel this would be like the “eating lobster instead of meat”, and would miss the point. Another plus, is that I hope to save the money I would use to buy coffee to donate to those in need. Perhaps buy some food to give to the Food Bank.

I will try to post along the way to let you know how this goes. Stay tuned for more.

From the The Highest Form of Hope

I read through the Bible cover to cover in my graduating year of high school and twice more during my two years at Bible College. But since then sporadic (or maybe non-existent) would be the best word to describe my commitment to this discipline. It’s certainly a little guilt-inducing that I would much rather read what someone else writes about the Bible than reading it myself.

The rest of the post continues to state, very closely to what I feel is the main reason why I too, have problems reading scriptures regularly. I must admit that I have a very very sporadic method of reading scriptures. In fact, I like to bing when I do read, by that I mean reading alot in one sitting. One quote from the post which I really love is ,”Devotion is more important than doing devotions.” This is something I have held onto quite tightly as I feel passionate about my devotion to God and to pursuing the life that God has for me. While I am far from perfect and need much improvement in both my reading of scripture and my devotion to God, it is this reality that maybe helps me to avoid tackling the deep issues of the scriptures.

This issue, along with a disciplined prayer life, which I believe is doing better than this issue, are the two biggest hurdlest in my spiritual growth as a believer. However, I must add, that being in full time ministry and interacting alot with others in ministry is where the body of Christ is holding me together. It is these people in my life to dialogue about these issues with that keep me grounded in learning more about who God is, and what His plan is. I would also say that being free to share on this blog is also a way in which I grow as it encourages me to share, question and avoid that ‘fake’ Christian torch that we can become to carry if we aren’t careful.

Now I think I need to go and read some scripture.

Tonight I realized that with Wordpress I could finally import all 154 blog posts I made on my first blog hosted at blogspot.com. So while I was waiting for all the importing/exporting to take place I decided to skim through some posts and came across this one, that seemed to speak to me once again.
It’s an excerpt from a book I was reading before the birth of my daughter.

It is futile for us to live in anticipation of life always coming together.
It will come together as it does in those moments in life that just seem
‘perfect.’ It will again. And then the next day, it will be disrupted. It
may even fall apart. The hope is to live fully in the moments of laughter
and contentment- and to also be present in the moments of fear and
disappointment. We need to remember that every part of it has purpose and
meaning. We need to live as if we really believe the greater purpose for us
is transformation – to believe that sanctification takes priority over
enjoyment.

– from Becoming a Dad

So I have been having too much fun lately posting videos, wallpapers and the like that I have failed to just put up a good old standbye post. Lately I have been thinking about change. First off don’t get started thinking some big change is coming in my life, cause it isn’t. (at least not that I am aware of yet)
When one thinks of the word, change, usually it is something most of us think of as negative or we are resistant to change. Unless you are in a terrible circumstance, most of use would not like change. After all we are creatures of habit and when something gets in the way of the norm, we frown upon it or even worse resist it to the death. This can be especially true in the context of our evangelical churches. Change can be seen as the enemy. Why change something when it has worked before? Or speaking of individuals character we often think of someone open to change as weak. Its where we get terms or phrases such as, “solid as a rock”, “immovable fortress”, or “unchangeable,” however, aren’t these suppose to apply to God, or Jesus Christ, and not to us as individuals? Is not the process of becoming more Christ-like mean that we need to be constantly changing? And isn’t the Church, the bride of Christ on the same process too? I am reading Erwin McManus’ new book Wide Awake, and in his chapter called Adapt he speaks to this very idea. On conviction in our faith he has this to say, “Conviction is a popular excuse for rigidity, but faith should actually make us more pliable, not less.” Is this not the faith that Paul demonstrated when he spoke in 1 Corinthians 9, saying, “To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some.” While Paul “became all things to all men,” he did so with deep conviction. No one would ever describe Paul as someone weak, yet he sure changed and adapted much. I’m sure it wasn’t always easy for Paul to change, after all he was Jewish, and he did come from a very religious background. This was a guy who once was a top leader in persecuting followers of Jesus teachings, and was even present at the stoning of Stephen. This was his family, his background, and he changed much. But he didn’t stop changing after his conversion on the road to Damascus and that is one difference between Paul and many of western evangelicals. We are holding firm yes, but we are not adapting. Erwin also writes, “There are times when the greatest act of courage and the best evidence of character is the willingness to change.” Is it time for change? How should you and I adapt?

Thanks to Dan King over at DoYouthinkIT’LLfly? for this great post.You just plug your website into this new program called Wordle. It turns any document or website into a word image pulling out the most used words. And the image here is what came out for Terribly Poetic. I find it interesting to see what I write about the most here. Let me know what you think? And I would love to see what other people create for there site. You can feel free to comment with your picture on this post or just send a link to your image. You’ll wanna click read more below to see the image in a larger version.

I have recently been finishing off 4 or 5 books I have been working through lately. In fact, this week I counted 4 books that I had read 3 quarters of. So the first one to finish was Revolution by George Barna. This proved to be a much better book than I had anticipated. I would recommend this book to those of you who are a bit disillusioned with the small “c” church, and long to see the Church active. The part I really like was the part at the end of the book called, “Affirmations of a Revoluntionary.” I don’t think I need to say more, just read it, think about it, and decide if you are inline with it.

I am a Revolutionary in the service of God Almighty. My life is not my own; I exist as a free person but have voluntarily become a slave to God. My role on earth is to live as a Revolutionary, committed to love, holiness, and advancing God’s Kingdom. My life is not about me and my natural desires; it is all about knowing, loving, and serving God with all my heart, mind, strength, and soul. Therefore, I acknowledge the following:
>I am a sinner; broken by my disobedience but restored by Jesus Christ in order to participate in good works that please God. I am not perfect; but Jesus Christ makes me righteous in God’s eyes, and the Holy Spirit leads me towards greater holiness.
>God created me for His purposes. My desire as a Revolutionary is to fulfill those ends, and those ends alone. When I get out of bed each day, I do so for one purpose: to love, obey, and serve God and His people.
>Every breath I take is a declaration of war against Satan and a commitment to opposing him.
>God does not need me to fight His fight, but He invites me to allow Him to fight through me. It is my privilege to serve Him in that manner. I anticipate and will gladly endure various hardships as I serve God; for this is the price of participation in winning the spiritual war.
>I do not need to save the world; Jesus Christ has already done that. I cannot transform the world, but I can allow God to use me to transform some part of it.
>My commitment to the Revolution of faith is sealed by my complete surrender to God’s ways and His will. I will gratefully do what He asks of me simple because He loves me enough to ask. I gain my security, success, and significance through m surrender to Him.
>I am not called attend or join a church. I am called to be the Church.
>Worship is not an event I attend or a process I observe; it is the lifestyle I lead.
>I do not give away 10 percent of my resources. I surrender 100 percent.
>God has given me natural abilities and supernatural abilities, all intended to advance His Kingdom. I will deploy those abilities for that purpose.
>The proof of my status as a Revolutionary is the love I show to God and people.
>There is strength in relationships; I am bound at a heart and soul level to other Revolutionaries, and I will bless believers whenever I have the chance.
>To achieve victory in the spiritual war in which we are immersed, there is nothing I must accomplish; I must simply follow Christ with everything I have.
>There is no greater calling than to know and serve God.
>The world is desperately seeking meaning and purpose. I will respond to that need with the Good News and meaningful service.
>Absolute moral and spiritual truth exists, is knowable, and is intended for my life; it is accessible through the Bible.
>I want nothing more than to hear God say to me, “Well done, My good and faithful servant.”

Thank You, Lord God, for loving me, for saving me, for refining me, for blessing me, and for including me in the work of Your Kingdom. My life is Yours to use as You please. I love You.

First of all, I am sorry that I missed a few days of the journal, but as it turns out, Road Trips can be very busy and exhausting. That’s my excuse and I’m stickin to it. Anyways…. Since day one we have traveled to Turner Valley, AB where we spent a couple days visiting and getting one day without travel. The break in driving turned out to be a great rest on our busy schedule. Then we travelled into the Rockies to Cranbrook. We had a very good visit with some faithful supporters and felt blessed by being in their home. Libby really loved being there and they treated her like another granddaughter. This trip has been so good for visits like this one. We felt so encouraged were reminded how God is looking out for us in our ministry and along our trip.
God has also been showing us his beauty throughout the trip as we drive through the various mountain passes. I have been left in awe as I drive along the winding roads as we drove through the Crowsnest pass and especially as we drove through the heights of the Kootenay Pass. I would love to post some photos of our family as we drove through these beautiful roads, however, both passes Libby and Dawn slept for the majority. Therefore I post this picture of Dawn and Libby standing next to the World’s Largest Truck in Sparwood, BC. You can visit the gallery here

Update: It is actually Day 7 now as I had some issues getting internet till today. We are now in Abbotsford safe and sound and are planning to relax over the weekend with family after the many days on the road.