Baby Steps

I've had a thought on my mind that I'm going to expand on Sunday. But I wanted to get it out there and let people start thinking about it. It comes from Luke 19:11-26. It's the Parable of the Ten Minas. Click the link and read the parable before you go on.

I've been thinking about how practical God is in the way that he guides us. The principle in this parable is that those who can be entrusted with a little will also be trusted with a lot. How sensible! This should ring true with any parent, project leader, administrator, business owner, or anyone else who is in a position of authority over others. When you have a task that needs to get done but the person to whom it is assigned falls through, you would never turn around and give them a BIGGER task! At the very least you would give them another task of similar size and start training them up in responsibility, follow through, diligence, etc. Someone that cannot fulfill the most menial task would be destined to fail if they were assigned something much bigger.

God works the same way. Sometimes it's financially, as on the surface of this parable. As you are a faithful steward of your resources, you will find your money going farther and, in some cases, strange blessings will come your way because you are wise, disciplined and faithful. God says that if you are wise with a little, the same principles will cause you to be wise when you have a lot. If you are foolish with a little, you would likely be foolish if you suddenly had plenty.

This parable goes deeper, though, and God treats our spirit the same way. We often want to know God's specific plan. We want to know what he has in store for us. Where to go next, what to do next, etc. Maybe you are not in a time of spiritual plenty. Maybe you want more from God. You want him to reveal himself, or for a spiritual relationship with him to just "happen." What this parable teaches is that you have to be faithful with what you've got. Are you busy? You will always be. Make time for God now. Make him a priority now. Are you financially strapped? That will likely not change too much unless you start changing your money principles now. Do you not feel like God is close? Do things to close the gap and build that relationship now. Don't wait for him to talk to you out of the clouds. Be a faithful steward of the position you are in today. When you prove that you can be trusted with a little, God will often begin to entrust much more to you.

God's purpose for your life (or at least part of it)!

Looking for God's
guidance in your life?

The more conversations I have with people the more I hear the sentiment, "I wish I knew what God's will for my life was. I wish I knew what he wanted to DO!" I would be completely dishonest if I claimed to never have these feelings because the truth is that I'm human! The fact of the matter is that many people are looking for God to give instructions about where to go and what to do. If we look to Scripture with this intent, we will tend to miss all the fantastic things God tells us about our purpose.

Ephesians 4:1-2 holds one of the many statements God gives us about what our purpose is. It says, "I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love."

That's it. Did you get that?

The life worthy of the calling is to be completely humble and gentle. The title "Christ follower" carries with it a certain expectation. God is calling us to live out his purpose. He is calling us to be his children. The life that is worthy of being considered a son to the creator of the universe is a life that is completely humble, completely gentle, completely patient, and being loving as we bear with one another in life.

The idea here is that faith is a journey. God knows (better than you do) that change takes time. He knows (better than we do) that if he gave you too much right now, today, that you'd never be able to handle it. He knows (better than we do) what his plan for us is. He has given us his plan so that we can know (better than we do now) how to get there.

We start by living for him and trying to become like him right here, where we are. Later in the chapter it says that some people will be called to different things (v. 11 & 12) but these are secondary to what every believer is called to be. We have to figure out what it means to be a believer before we can know what it looks like to be a believer that can literally follow God anywhere.

So get up! Go read God's word and start to discover his will for you. Forget about next year and start asking him to show you the next step. Don't look to the Bible to show you what a month down the road should look like, but instead start using it to show you what today should look like.

Start living out your purpose!

Re:define Ministry!

Welcome to the new blog for Re:define Ministry! Re:define is an exciting next step for the college-age and career ministry at Adventure Church. The name was not chosen arbitrarily, but instead is a meaningful statement of what we intend to do! Our goal in every element of our ministry is to re:define what ministry looks like! This blog is one facet of a ministry that seeks to fulfill the great commission, creating followers that are madly in love with Jesus Christ. Here are the ways we're going to re:define ministry:

• We believe that the church is the brotherhood of ALL BELIEVERS, and will seek unity with those that claim that Jesus Christ is the one true savior for a creation in need of saving. (1 Corinthians 12:13)
• We believe that WE ARE ALL MINISTERS! Ministry doesn't just happen on a weekly basis with one qualified paster preaching at an audience. It happens out where people are. In the workplace, in our families and in our lives, we are all called to be ministers to those around us. (1 Peter 2:9)
• We are called to be set apart from the world. We are to have standards for success, behavior and purpose that are separated from those standards held by the World. (1 Peter 1:13-15)
• Faith in Jesus is not meant to be stagnant. It is not a habit. It is not a tradition. It is given to us by God to find and fulfill our ultimate purpose as his creation. It is meant to inform our lives and teach us about his character. (Ephesians 3:16-19)
• Faith starts from within. Outward signs of goodwill and service are only as good as the inward motivation that causes them. We believe that a life of faith means taking time to let God shape your spirit inwardly. (James 3:9-12; Matthew 12:35)
• We can do nothing without the power of the Holy Spirit. God seeks after us when we are lost, beckons us to belief and saves us of his own initiative. The Spirit is his presence among us that lives in us and nudges us towards Godliness. (John 14-16, Ephesians 3:16-19)

For too long, "Ministry" has been characterized as something only a select few are "called" to do. While only some are called by Christ to make ministry a vocation, ALL are called to be a light to the world around them, shining God's character into the darkness of this world. While this blog's header might say young adults ministry, this is not an age-specific, or even life-stage-specific mission. This blog will be an attempt at motivation, hopefully empowering the reader to step aside and let the Spirit work in them. So follow, like, tweet, facebook, digg and buzz the blog. Subscribe to it yourself or pass it on to a friend and let's start a movement that re:defines ministry as we know it!

Swimming Upstream

Today I saw something that really bothered me and it opened my eyes to a bigger question. How can God use social networking to reach the lost?

Today as I was surfing on facebook I saw a friend had posted a video with some comment about the wisdom contained therein. Now the content of the video was bothersome enough to me (at least certain aspects) but what followed was a stream of comments in support of the video and, as soon as one person offered her point of view, another stream of comments blasting this critic and her Christian beliefs to pieces.

The fact that this person used to have such an extreme faith and this is now the focus of their heart shook me. The comments about God such as "IF God is ______ then count me out," bothered me because of a lack of investigation as to who God really is and what he is like. But that wasn't what really gave me pause. What struck me is how the internet has become such a divisive arena, a playground where teams are being chosen for kickball and everyone wants to be on the winning team. I am noticing that facebook, twitter, etc. are becoming places where everyone is in agreement with everyone else. The courage that being behind a keyboard gives people is our first weapon against anyone that disagrees and now, several years into the social media movement, I find that comment streams are almost always unanimously self-agreeable. Those that choose to offer up an opinion will quickly be chastised for doing so.

I could go into the way this flies in the face of the "tolerance" that our world claims to have. But I won't go there today, either.

I saw this and I was strongly tempted, even though someone had already blazed this trail, to offer my two cents, to share how my heart breaks when I see people fuel the fire of public opinion, while fewer and fewer know anything about Scripture's actual content. I could have taken any number of approaches in debunking the myths that I saw out there. Only to fall on deaf ears. I feel a bit like Solomon even as I write this. "Meaningless. All is meaningless." If this post only falls on the ears of those that agree with me and we seclude ourselves in our Christian bubble, then this post has been a failure. We've missed the point of what God has called us to do.

The real question is this: in what ways can the Christians in this world still be effective in using facebook, twitter, blogs, etc. to reach out and create disciples? How can we show the world (if not through comments in already-hostile threads) that the message Christ preached is one of freedom (Gal 5:1), love (1 cor 13), purpose (Matt 22:37-40) and relationship with our creator (Gen 2)? How can we allow ourselves to be used as Christ's body to impact his Kingdom? The answers to these questions continue to elude me everytime I boot up my computer.

In the end, I didn't post anything. But that person has been on my mind ever since. The thought that they have known Christ and left, pushing some non-Biblical theology that has a distant resemblance to God's character (much like the folks John wrote about in his letters) makes me shutter. The idea that this person has gone so far from what is true and is now rallying troops to go with her breaks my heart. This friend has been on my heart the entire day and I have been in prayer for a heart-change since seeing this. I pray for discernment in what to say if the opportunity arises. I pray that I know what a real opportunity looks like. I pray that God will give me the guts to say it when and if I do recognize that moment. I don't know what else to do but pray. I feel as if we are swimming upstream.

Don't Forget!

"When the centurion, who stood in front of Jesus, heard his cry and saw how he died, he said, "surely this man was the son of God." -Mark 15:39

Today is Good Friday, and the start to the Easter weekend. A couple reminders for all you out there.

1. We don't have class this Sunday morning. INSTEAD, we have a special service schedule (services at 9 and 11) and a breakfast in between. 
2. Next Saturday, we'll be hiking at Bernheim Forest in Bullitt County. We'll meet at the front of the park and have a picnic lunch (*Pack your own*) and then go for a hiking trek in the forest. 

Have a great Easter weekend!

In a fit of rage

There's a story in the gospels that has always made me scratch my head. It's always seemed a bit of an inconsistency and out of character for Jesus. Because of scriptural reports that Jesus never sinned (i.e. Heb 4:15), the story of Jesus overturning tables in the temple has led pastors to try all kinds of theological kung-fu. Most often, the solution that is settled upon is that Jesus overturned the tables out of righteous anger, a justified fit of rage caused by the defilement of God's temple in Jerusalem. That has never really sat right with me.

This is one of those posts where I share a little somthing I've learned in my classes, namely, that it is important to look closely at what scripture says. Look - actually look - at Mark 11:11:

¹¹ Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple courts. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve

The beginning of the chapter is Jesus' famous, "Palm Sunday" entrance into Jerusalem and the passage immediately after verse 11 is his demonstration in the temple. But what is interesting in verse 11 is that it shows Jesus assessed the situation the night before his demonstration. He looked at everything. It wasn't like he walked into the temple and his jaw dropped at the horrible acts going on. Jesus may not have been acting in a fit of rage so much as making a statement that the end of the temple sacrificial system was ending.

I am not claiming I am an authority on this, but it does seem likely to me that there is truth in this one small, easy-to-miss verse. What it tells us is that we can have confidence that he is sinless, that his ministry was intentional and purposeful. This particular story tells us that the temple is done. Trying to be "holy enough" had clearly not worked, ringing in a new promise that we can have direct access to God absolutely all the time.

Timing is Everything

Today's post is a little different because I'm not sure I've found the answer to the question, and so your thoughts are totally welcome. This goes in the "food for thought" category.

I've been studying the Gospels for school and there is a question that's been relatively unaddressed. We know a lot about Jesus' birth from Matthew and Luke, and all four gospels' focus is on his adult ministry, but we know very little about his childhood and adolescent years. Luke does include a story of a visit to the temple at the age of 12 (odd because he was still considered a boy at that point). In this visit, he showed himself to be wise and gifted at teaching, even at such a young age. Luke says that "everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers" (Luke 2:47).

I guess my question is this. Without making too many assumptions about a history we simply don't have record of, what can we take and learn from those 17 years or so between this experience and Jesus' baptism in the Jordan? He clearly had some understanding of his identity early on, and in Jewish culture, boys are considered men at 13 without an adolescent period as we know it. The only thing I can come up with is that having faith in God's timing is important. There were prophecies about the start of the Messiah's ministry, and for those to take place, John would have had to start his ministry. But I don't know if that is all there is to it. Maybe I'm trying to read into it and have already stepped too far. I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Wrigley Field - a place for purists!

This past week, Mal and I went to Chicago for her spring break. During this trip I got the awesome privilege of visiting Wrigley Field. This was no small event for me, as it's one of those things that has always been on my "bucket list." There's such a history there, and I almost immediately I found out why.

Wrigley Field is about baseball!

I've been to a lot of stadiums and a lot of sporting events over the years. Over the last decade or two, stadiums have gotten more commercialized, more busy and less and less about the team on the field. There are huge video boards, races between animated Dunkin Donuts mascots (a personal favorite for all Detroit Lions fans, mostly because it may be the best action you see when you go to one of their games), special give-aways, sponsorship signs plastering the outfield wall and every visible surface.

Wrigley Field is still about baseball. There is no giant mega-TV flashing video profiles of the players at bat, nor does each player get to choose the most current hip-hop song to play as they walk to the plate. It's about the game on the field. This atmosphere is embraced by the Cubbie faithful, who cheer and moan, almost as one, with absolutely every swing that puts a ball in play. I'm not a Cubs fan, but I was that day. I couldn't help it! It was such a pure environment that any baseball purist would love watching a game there.

This all got me thinking, though. Have we become this way in the modern church? When we go, do we expect to be catered to with all kinds of kitschy gimmicks, flashy media and fancy hand-outs? Do we go because it's a good show, or because we love what it's all about? The freedom we have in America has given us the opportunity to cater to literally every single social preference you could ask for, many times with eye-catching advertising, bigger-and-better video screens and facilities, etc. Have we gotten too far from the truth? Would someone from another country, persecuted daily for the illegal faith that they live out with pride, recognize our churches as a place where the gospel is still the main attraction? Are the people there hanging on the edge of every word read from scripture and preached from the stage? Or are we simply passive consumers, itching for the next thing to surge our senses with stimuli?

Just food for thought.

Jesus' Prayer for us...where have we gone wrong?

God's message: consistent from the start!

1 Samuel has long been one of my favorite books in the Bible. Some of the stories are well known, like Samuel's call and David v. Goliath, while others are less renowned. One of my favorite chapters in the book is chapter 15, because it brings a New Testament kind of lesson into the Old Testament context.

Samuel is the spiritual leader of Israel at this point, and Saul the political king. The chapter begins with God giving a command to Saul, "Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys" (1Sam 15:3, italics mine). The campaign continues but we see that Saul captures the Amalekite king, Agag, sparing his life and his men plundered the livestock, keeping the goats, sheep, fattened calves and "everything that was good" (v. 9). OOPS! That doesn't sound like the total annihilation that God asked for.

Samuel's next move was to confront Saul. God told him what had happened and, when he went to talk to Saul about it, Saul replied, "but I did obey the Lord" (v. 20). Bringing back the king was a common sign of dominance over another nation and, as for the animals, he argued that the men chose the best of the livestock for sacrificial purposes. That's holy enough, right?

Samuel's response is one Saul probably didn't expect. He said, "Does the Lord delight in burnt offereings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice and to heed is better than the fat of rams" (v. 22). The principle here is simple, bold and timeless. The very idea of sacrificial systems came about as a way to purify sinful people in the sight of the Lord. If we were to surrender ourselves to his will, there would be no need for sacrifice! Even in the Old Testament, God was setting a standard of total obedience. He is God; we are not. He gets to call the shots. It's when we get to a place of thinking that we know better that we get in trouble.

God's original plan did not involve him sacrificing his Son on the cross for our sins but rather a relationship with his creation that glorified his kingdom. The only proper response for such a "once and for all" sacrifice being made is for us to daily recognize our need for that sacrifice, bask in the cleansing that it brings and strive to grow in obedience to his will.

For my next trick, I'll make the Canaanites disappear!

As we move along in our reading plan, pay close attention to what is happening right now. This is the early history of Israel, a nation with a geographical home. The majority of Joshua (thought not all) is devoted to the defeat of many of the large cities in the region and the division of the land to the twelve tribes of Israel. In the course of Judges 1, we see Judah (one of the tribes) get a pretty good start at taking over the land completely. Remember that the Israelites were supposed to demolish all the people who inhabited the land completely, something that the other tribes did not do (second half of Judges ch.1). So we see that they start to compromise that command and the result is God metaphorically saying "I told you so." They ended up compromising their beliefs and customs along with God's command. So God allows those people to be a "thorn in Israel's side," bringing unnecessary struggles and strife into the picture. This sets the stage for all the coming Old Testament History, intensifying and leading up to the exile in Babylon.

On another note, this is where we start to see some AWESOME stories! Ehud in Judges 3 and Deborah (the prophetess) in Judges 4 are both stories worthy of scenes in Hollywood blockbusters. Keep reading!

Some Galatians Backstory

The apostle Paul is probably the most famous missionary in history. After his conversion from Christian-bashing pharisee to Christian, he set out to plant churches all throughout the Roman Empire. Many of the books in the New Testament were written by him as letters to churches or individuals (Romans through Philemon). Galatians is considered to be one of the earliest of these letters and it deals a lot with the topic of "Legalism," even though that term is not specifically used. 

In the first century AD, the Christian movement was one that turned Judaism on its head. Paul and the other apostles likely did not see this as a new religion, but more a new era in Judaism. Jews in the first century had come to a place where the Law was paramount to any other issue. A look back at history showed a pattern of hard times following Israel's refusal to follow God's law, specifically in regards to circumcision, the sabbath and festivals, and food laws. The main opponents of Paul in Galatia are known as "Judaizers." They were Jewish Christians that criticized Paul for being to soft when it came to the law. Their message was one that, while Gentiles could be saved and Jesus' message applied to them as much as anyone, they must also adopt Jewish custom (food laws, circumcision, etc.) This message of rule following was obviously in contention with Paul's message of grace. This is why he wrote the letter. 

It would be easy to vilify these Judaizers for their convictions, but we need to keep a couple of things in mind.

• Jerusalem (and more specifically, the temple there) was the center of the Jewish religion. Faithful Jews would return for festivals annually (as Joseph and Mary did when Jesus stayed in the temple in Luke 2). Obviously, the farther away you got the harder that becomes and Jerusalem almost becomes a "once in a lifetime" trip for those Jews on the outskirts of Judea and Samaria.
• We call the Jews in the greater Roman Empire and outside of Judea and Samaria the "diaspora" Jews, or Jews of the dispersion. These would have been practicing Jews, but because they did not have access to the temple to make atonement sacrifices, they would have practiced an emphasis on following the Laws of the Old Testament to stay as pure as possible. 
• Christian converts (from JUDAISM) would likely have carried over some of these law-centric views, even after accepting Christ. 
• When Paul reached out to the Genitles (non Jews) in that area, he preached that the Spirit was the only thing that mattered, that we cannot live up to the law and so we must relish in the grace given by God. The Judaizers followed behind him and tried to add requirements of circumcision, etc. to these churches (see Gal 1:6-12). 
• Paul's emphasis in Gal 1:1-5, 11-12 on his calling and commission as an apostle (or in v.13-20, where he focuses on his track record and history) makes sense because he is trying to convince Judaizers that he is not watering down the gospel.
• He is also trying to convince the Galatians that he has the higher authority over those Judaizers trying to throw them into confusion. 
• It is VERY important to notice, finally, that the Judaizers were CHRISTIANS! They believed in Christ, but because of their world-view and past history, they did not fully preach an accurate message of Christ's sacrifice. We need to be careful of teachers like this. More importantly, we need to be careful that if we are claiming Christ's message of grace and love, we are not contradicting that message by being concerned with "doing enough to earn it."

Why "The Law" Is Important

If you're following the reading plan, we have just finished the section of it known as the 'Pentateuch.' These are the first five books of the Bible, the part dealing with Moses and the part Jews call the 'Torah' (lit. "Law"). These books can be really dry if it is the first time you've read them and often seem arbitrary to the modern reader. But if 2 Tim. 3:16 is to be taken seriously, then we can assume there is some importance to them. Of course a deeper look would surely reveal theological truths, etc. about these laws. One such principle is that the laws were set in place to set Israel apart from other Ancient Near Eastern cultures.

If you've been struggling with these books I'd like to propose one principle that should shed some light on the issue. In Romans 7:7, Paul says that "I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, 'Do not covet.'" In this whole chapter, Paul explains that the law was brought for us to see that we cannot live up to God's law. This is an important realization to come to if we are to fully grasp the magnitude of Jesus' sacrifice for us.

Cool Parallels between OT Sacrifice and Jesus

In the Old Testament there are a lot of rules about sacrificing, the different types of sacrificing and the rules for offering each. Hebrews 10 deals with Jesus as the final atonement sacrifice for our sins, and 1 Corinthians 5 calls Jesus our "Passover Lamb." Here are some interesting parallels that show how Jesus fits these descriptions.

• The passover lamb is to be "without defect" (Ex. 12:5). Jesus never sinned (Heb 4:15)
• Exodus 12:11 says they are to eat the Passover meal with their "cloak tucked into their belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand." These things symbolized being prepared to move, leave or travel. After Jesus' resurrection, he told us to go to the ends of the earth. We were challenged to go out, to spread the good news. More importantly, though, the next scene in exodus was the Israelites actually leaving captivity, being set free. Once we accept Christ as our Passover sacrifice, we need to be prepared to leave captivity and move to freedom from sin.
• Exodus 12:13 says "The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt." This is where we get the understanding that Jesus' blood acts the same way as the blood of the passover lamb. We allow it to mark us and God's judgment will pass over us. 
• Exodus 12:46 says they are to partake of the passover sacrifice but "not break any of the bones." John 19:32-33 says that, although it was customary to break bones when taking men off the cross, none of Jesus' bones were broken.
• Jesus came to Jerusalem and was crucified at Passover (Luke 22:15).
• The once-a-year atonement sacrifice (Yom Kippur) made by the High Priest was the only time he was to enter the "most holy place" in the temple. The High Priest was to make two sacrifices. One of a bull for his own sins. "He is to take some of the bull's blood and with his finger sprinkle it on the front of the atonement cover (of the ark of the covenant)." (Lev. 16:14). This made him clean to come before the Lord. Then he was to sacrifice a goat for the sins of the people and, "take its blood behind the curtain and do with it as he did with the bull's blood" (Lev. 16:15). Hebrews 10:19 says that "we have confidence to enter the Most Holy place by the blood of Jesus."
• The last part of the Atonement sacrifice is that a second goat was brought to be the scapegoat. This goat would have all the sins of Israel laid on its head, and would carry them off into the desert. The sacrifice cleansed the people, the scapegoat removed the sin from the people. Jesus is our scapegoat! On the cross, he "took away" the world's sins (Rom 11:27, Heb. 9:28, 1Jn 3:5)

These are not prophecies fulfilled but rather ways in which God designed Jesus' sacrifice to represent rituals that first-century Jews would understand. Those that "got it" would become the first early Christians, understanding that the sacrifice made in Jesus' crucifixion stood as the final blood sacrifice for the atonement of our sins and our deliverence from God's judgment.

Reading Plan: Bridging the gap between Abraham to Exodus

If you are following our reading plan, I am certain that it feels like it's jumping around quite a bit. Here's a summary of what's been going on:

Jacob wrestling with the angel of God

• Abraham was the first of the "patriarchs," or fathers of the Israelite nation.
• Job is believed by many scholars to be an early account of interaction with God. This likely would've come in the patriarchal age. It is placed where it is because from a literary standpoint, the majority of the book is considered poetical literature, so it is placed with the other poetical books (psalms, proverbs, etc.)
• BACK TO the patriarchs. Abraham's grandson, JACOB, would become the father of the nation Israel. After wrestling with God/an angel (Gen 32), Jacob is renamed ISRAEL. 
• Jacob had 11 SONS. These are where we get the tribes of Israel. The sons were: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Isaachar, Zebulun, Gad, Asher, Dan, Naphtali, Joseph and Benjamin.
• When you see names that are related to these, they are referring to the tribes. Examples are Reubenites, LEVITES, Gadites, Danites and Benjamites.
• These are only 11. Joseph had two sons and they are known as "HALF-TRIBES." These are Manasseh and Ephraim. Joseph is NOT considered one of the tribes of Israel, but his two sons are.
• Jacob (Israel's) whole family numbered about 70 men, and they were driven to Egypt from Canaan because of a famine. 
• JOSEPH was already there, had found favor with the Pharaoh and got the family awarded a plot of land up near the northern part of the Sinai peninsula. 
• We pick up Exodus seeing that the Israelites had reproduced (a lot) and a new Pharoah did not know of the agreements made with Joseph, nor did he like the sheer number of Israelites in his land, so he forced them into slave labor to prevent any threat to his power.

Job 38-42 - Sarcasm, Dragons and Blessings

Here are some things that came out as I was reading Job 38-42 today as part of our reading plan. First of all, I should recap the book for anyone that hasn't read it. Job takes place pretty early in Biblical history, before God has revealed himself to his chosen nation, Israel, meaning less may be known about his character at this point. The first couple chapters of the book introduce Job and his predicament. Chapters 3-37 are a dialogue of Job and his three friends discussing God and how these things could possibly of happened. At various times, Job questions why he was born, why God would allow these things, etc. He never curses God. His friends, however, encourage Job to turn his back on a God that has seemingly done nothing but bad things for him. After a brief set of speeches from a bystander, Elihu (32-37), we come to God's response in chapter 38. You should be up to speed.

Chapter 38-39
If anyone ever wondered where sarcasm came from, know that we were made in God's image! These two chapters are God's ancient way of saying, "Who do you think you are, little man?" The imagery in these chapters is AWESOME! It describes storehouses for hail and snow, setting the limits to the oceans, etc. God is using some pretty thick sarcasm (38:21 - "Surely you know, for you were already born! You have lived so many years!") to bring Job to a point where he understands his position compared to God. (40:4 - "I am unworthy, how can I reply to you? I put my hand over my mouth.")

Chapters 40-41
Behemoth (40:15-24) - Is likely the Hippopotomus.
Leviathin (ch. 41) - Probably referring to the crocodile, but what is interesting to me here is all the language about breathing fire (vv. 18-21) and scales that are hard as rock and totally impenetrable (vv. 15-17, 22-30). Could this be Biblical evidence of the existence of dragons? Or perhaps this is just using imagery of mythical dragons? After all, we can write stories about dragons despite the fact that they don't exist. Just a thought.

Chapter 42
In the final chapter, two important things stick out to me.

1. God despises it when people speak incorrectly of his character and his name. 42:7 says, "After the Lord had said these things to Hob, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, 'I am angry with you and your two friends beause you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.'" This tells the modern reader that if we are going to pontificate on the character and will of God, we better take great care to make sure that we are not distorting his word.
2. God rewards a repentant heart. Job had no pretention of deserving any reward from God. He repented because that was the right response to God's greatness and his smallness. We don't voice these expectations out loud very often, but in our hearts it is not uncommon to bargain with God and expect certain things. "I will repent if I know you'll bless me my way in the end." The correct thing is to recognize our position and repent simply because God is God. He will reward that in a uniquely individual way every time.

Reading Plan

Here is a copy of the Reading plan, if anyone needs it!
Chronological_80day

Love Wins!

I have been reading Luke the last couple of days and somethings stuck out to me that is incredibly pertinent to the discussion we had in class on conflict. We are to be firm and unwavering in what we believe, but gracious and gentle with those that wrong us. Read this passage from Luke 6. In it, Jesus describes the way we ought to treat the difficult relationships in our life.

 ²⁷ “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, ²⁸ bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. ²⁹ If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. ³⁰ Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. ³¹ Do to others as you would have them do to you.   ³² “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. ³³ And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. ³⁴ And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. ³⁵ But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. ³⁶ Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

This can be a really tough teaching. Just a couple of verses above this, Jesus says exactly why these things are true. 6:24 says, "Woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your reward" (You may want to read verses 17-26 for context here). We need to remember what our intended goal is in life and constantly examine the relationships and actions in our own lives. In our own lives, have we already received our reward? Or are we living boldly, knowing that a reward beyond anything we could possess on this earth is in store for us?

The Benefits of Bible Study

There is a lot to be said in scripture about the benefits of studying God's Word. The author of Hebrews calls scripture "living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword," and in Paul's letter to the Ephesians the Word of God is the single offensive weapon listed in the "armor of God" section in chapter 6. Jesus quoted scripture to ward of Satan's temptations in the desert and then even more to rebuke pharisees who were too wrapped up in their own supposed righteousness. This post's purpose, though, is not to dissect what the Bible says about study. My purpose in writing this is to share what God has done in my life through regular reading of His Word.

In January 2010, our church started a 90-day reading plan through the New Testament. Here are some things I discovered about following through with a plan like this:

• I got better! By reading every day I got used to the language in the Bible. I got faster at reading and more efficient at absorbing the material. I got better at looking at seemingly obscure histories and finding something useful to my life today. Just like with anything, practice makes perfect!
• I started to understand God in a more complete way. There is still much to learn, but with every day that I read, I felt like my understanding of God grew because I was reading His revealed word as opposed to someone's opinion on His word. 
• I started to recognize the things that put space between myself and God. Our relationship with God is fragile on our end, not on His. As we do things that are ultimately sinful, they drive us away from God. I began to see these things and to desire to rely on God and his will.
• I felt the difference on the days I skipped. Yes, I skipped days. I sometimes had to come back later and catch up, but the lesson here is that those days felt different. Like going a day without talking to your closest friend, these days just began to feel empty, off-balance and incomplete.

I always set an alarm and did my reading in the morning. What started as a chore and a hindrance to my sleep schedule quickly became the biggest blessing in my day and something I willingly and joyfully jumped out of bed for. Jesus said "I came so that you may have life and have it to the full." When we challenge him to prove it, he won't disappoint!